Alycidon

PM me if you want me to talk you through it, I am a stove retailer. Your stove supplier should also be able to advise but don't bank on that if you have used a web based company. 11kw sounds a lot for a conservatory, use Poujoulat TI flue system, its the best. This time of year is the absolute peak busiest time install wise, most good installers are now booking work for Feb. My installer has teams working 6 and 7 day weeks at present. No reason why you cant do it yourself but you must get it signed off as safe to use by a building inspector prior to first use. Its advisable to get the inspector on side before you commence work. You will certainly need an air vent as you are over 5.0kw, a Ryton or Black Hole 125mm vent will be fine. Some stoves have the facility to connect direct to a vent providing the wall behind it is an outside wall or there is an underground air supply. A much neater solution but more costly. A

If there is a terciery air baffle in the back of the firebox these are fully open all the while. This will be a row of holes across the rear firebrick. If there is a terciery system in place you wont be able to close it down as they are not adjustable. Look at it as a safety device to prevent you polluting the atmosphere and tarring up your flue. If there is no terciery system air is getting in somewhere it should not, a lighted candle held near the stove is a good indicator when the flame gets pulled toward the stove. A A

Yep. Most people under 35 have little experience with fire. I had one lady plonk a 6 inch square bit of Oak onto the kindling EMBERS !!, then complained the stove would not work. I now issue chapter and verse in writing with all new stoves, still I get complaints that my stove wont burn their 50% MC wood. A

Would not mind it but am unable to collect, I am between Rugby and Npton. Tom87 who is close to me might be interested, he has a timber trailer but its a long way on a tractor. Ironic as I have come back from MK with an empty IFW trailer twice this week, such is life. A

If I was a copper I would love to put that over a weigh bridge !!. A

What vehicle exactly, suspect a Fastrack may be exempt but 4x4s all need Tachos if designed laden train weight is over 3.5 tonnes and used for Hire/reward purposes. IE delivering goods you have sold. I use a Disco and latterly a SWB Defender, both need tachos. I have it in writing from DVLA that driver CPC is not needed for the above motors as their unladen weight is below 3.5 tonnes. I have laboured the point with them that the unladen train weight will be 3.3 tonnes and they have repeated that no cpc is needed when on Hire and Reward. ie delivering logs. A

I have read the thread, white noise has had his say, Big J has responded. I think thats enough said in forum, if necessary pm phone numbers and discuss. Mods IMHO its time this one was locked. A

I have sold Villagers for about 2 years, sold plenty of their stoves but never sold a single canopy. Major downside of canopy is that you cant use an Ecofan so your heat stops up at ceiling level. I also sell Ironhearts, the solid fuel versions have an output of 9.7kw to the room, basically a large stove with no side insulation and a built in oven. You will need a big room or a cold one to house that one. Poor insulation 1kw will heat 12 cu m, average insulation 14 cu m. A

As long as its dry all wood will burn and generate heat, some do it better than others. Personally I burn all the crap I get, so half rotten birch, pine etc. Decent stuff I sell. A

If it was a top end stove with a 40 year service life then it would be worth looking at, and it might just be one although the original poster did not think so. Otherwise in these litigious times its not worth the risk of getting sued if it lets go. Where there is blame etc !!. A

If you want I will give you the reasons why in some chimneys a liner is essential, in others important and in others not needed. PM me and I will send you my phone number, dont have enough life to type it. Installing a flue liner if the chimney appears to be sound is not a legal requirement but in most cases it helps improve the draw. A

Most if not all Hetas installers would not touch that stove. They are now legally obliged to carry out checks to ascertain that the stove is suitable for what it is intended for and is safe to use. A CE plate on a new stove (now also a legal requirement) proves that the stove manufacturer has had the stove independently tested. The stove is by the guys admission likely to be a cheap Chinese import, the life of these is usually around 7 years, to have had one do 25 years is remarkable. If a Hetas registered installer installed it, signed it off and it failed and as a result someone was killed through carbon monoxide poisoning then he would be liable. Hetas advise strongly walking away from such jobs. The best way forward is to get someone to install it providing it has no obvious issues and get a building inspector in to sign it off. If you want advice on the building regs PM me and I will post you a link. A

Talk to Rory at Arada Technical, if necessary you can buy parts online direct from them. It would cost the same as buying from a Villager dealer but plus carriage. Arada are the Villager parent group. It sounds like rust may be the issue here, things have have been smoke tight for years don't suddenly fall to bits unless rust is at play. Water running down the chimney is the issue, that is easily limited by a cowl on the chimney pot. I have seen stoves like that totally destroyed after only 5 or 6 years in service. Measure the height, width and depth of the stove, its probably either models A, B or C. The baffle plate sitting on the top of the firebricks usually sits on a ledge above the door opening and perches on the top of the rear firebricks. Again if it wont move it suggested its rusted to the sides of the stove, that plate should come out to allow the flue to be swept. To get it out remove the side and rear firebricks then you should have room to get it out. When you come to reassemble vacuum out all the remaining ash, otherwise it gets into all the corners etc and makes it almost impossible to get bricks etc into place correctly. But examine the rear of the stove before ordering any parts as I fear it may have a terminal illness. A

I just burn it with the stove wide open. The 17AH is still going well, had a 185 yard crow with it a few weeks ago. A

I sell exactly that, ie a bounced expanded 1 cube bag as 1.2 cube. I level fill, bounce then add another 50 logs which is about .2 cube to again level fill. A

Scots pine is the only wood that burns like that, surface glistens about 4 mins after it goes in, burns like hell and clags up the glass. A

Latvians with wheeelbarrows !!. get that lot shifted pretty fast. A

Evening all. We had to fell a massive Horse Chestnut in Sept, it got diseased and died over 2 years. Shame as we counted 200 rings on its 8 foot diameter trunk. Anyway I have got the branches billeted ready to go through the processor, they are out in the open close to where the tree was felled. Looking at them today I noticed that several have moulds growing out of them. I intend to process it into bags then store under cover, dont have room undercover at present. The fungus, will it drop off, get worse or what, should I have processed it straight away. Thanks for the advice. A

At the moment that distance limit is 50kms, so its only expanding the radius of operations. Note that when taking equipment to site teh driver MUST ( to comply) be involved in the use of the equipment, he cant drop and go, thats a tacho requirement. Transport of goods for hire/reward (so profit, ie logs) still needs a tacho if the max train weight is over 3500kg. So Landrover and decent sized IFW trailer delivering logs to end user then tacho needed. A

The driest kiln dried I have ever come across is in the Morso warehouse. They buy in the summer when MCs following kilning will not rise, then its kept in a heated warehouse until despatch. Surface MCs when I last checked a year or so ago were well into single figures. A

Husky strongly advise that, when my 560xp seized after 20 hours they blamed the 'poor quality' red Sthil oil I had been using. A

Output will depend on the log length you are cutting. Shorter log = slower production rate. I do 1 cube an hour overall with my smaller machine cutting at 240mm but this includes half an hour setting up and an hour clearing up afterwards. A

Its always the woman of the house that has the last word, she works on how it looks. The stove from Champion I have seen has no glass, so not to nice to look at. My most popular stove this winter is the Aarrow Ecoburn Plus 5, why ?. because it has a huge glass for its size. I really cant see any woman allowing that to be the centre point of her lounge. Always get your lady onside with the purchase or sooner or later she will ensure that it will bite you in the backside. A

I bag it and use most of it as kindling myself. Most people wont buy it as kinding as they expect a bag of sticks not chips, bark etc. A

An open fire depending on the design is usually between 20% and 30% efficient when running. At 6am when its not running it pulls heat from your central heating system up the chimney so the overall efficiency is very very low. Some rate it as a negative figure. A stove must be at least 65% efficient to achieve the legally required CE rating. However there are three ways of measuring a stoves efficiency, these depend on the moisture level of the wood used on test, in a nutshell the lower the MC level the higher the efficiency. Some manufacturers such as Morso are very conservative with their published efficiency ratings so don't take to much notice of stove efficiency figures, they should all be at 65% or more although I am aware of one or two that do fall below that. All will produce at least 4 times the amount of heat from the same amount of wood burnt. There are new regs coming in around 2018 time that will uprate the minimum energy efficiency required, while this will not effect stoves already installed older designs with lower efficiency are likely to be withdrawn. Parts will therefore become harder to obtain once the stove gets older, Morso excepted. Some stoves can be fitted with direct air vents, this brings air direct into the stove from outside the room. So installing a stove is a very good idea, most of my customers ( I retail stoves ) say its the best thing they have EVER bought. Just make sure you feed it DRY wood, maximum moisture level 18%. There are currently schemes through energy companies like British Gas to uprate your properties heat insulation, typically you will be required to pay around 20% of the cost. As far as I am aware there are no grants for disabled persons for the installation of stoves. A