woodrascal

In response to the OP's original question - the Clearview Vision 500 is rated at 71.6% efficiency.

Are they still doing that in Scotland? They stopped issuing permits down here in Wales several years ago.

That's the thing with second hand Clearviews Kev, they do seem to hold their value well. Several Vision 500's have been going on Ebay recently for £800 and upwards.

The above link sends me to a webdomain purchase page...

Clearview don't quote the efficiency on the Vision 500, which may suggest it's not as high as the competition... I'm sure the Burley is supposed to be the most efficient stove in the world - Charnwoods have a high efficiency rating too. However, I think efficiency rating alone does not always equate to "the best stove" We have several stoves and the highest rated, efficiency wise, is certainly not the best...

Where can you get them for that price?

The steel sheet makes up the front of the rocket bell - it gets to well over 200 degrees C after a few minutes. On the top I have a cast iron flue diverter that gets hot, but it's not totally flat so I've never tried boiling a kettle on it. It's easy to remove for maintainance, but very heavy... The flue outlet from this bell goes into another brick bell, rather like a mini Russian masonry heater and then exits in a vertical flue to an insulated exterior SS system on the roof. There's no cob bench or similar connected to the system.

Hi Steve - I built a 6" J tube rocket for my barn workshop using firebrick, vermiculite and high alumina cement. Instead of a steel barrel I made a hybrid firebrick bell with a flat steel plate to act as a radiator for quick heat up. Works well in my cold, slate floored old barn...

There are lots of other decent quality UK and European stove brands to consider including in no particular order, Clearview, Charnwood, Dunsley, Contura, Chesneys, Jotul, Scan....

Just to confirm - are you saying that you can dry hardwood down to a saleable firewood moisture content in a few weeks?

Exactly right Woodworks - It's the % M/C at point of sale that is important. Without a point of reference, 'kiln dried' is as misleading as 'seasoned'...

Burning a mixture of Oak, Ash and Sitka at the moment. The Oak has been cut to 10" lengths and split and air dried for 2 years. It burns very easily, very hot and leaves a great bed of embers. I don't tend to use it on its own. It works really well in the range cooker and the outdoor brick oven - superb for roasting meat and making pizzas.

There are quite a few cowboys out and about who advertise themselves as 'Chimney Sweeps'. They don't understand the differences between sweeping an old masonry flue and a stainless liner. I've had friends who have had SS liners wrecked by 'sweeps' who have used large masonry brushes in 5" liners. Metal feruled rods can also damage SS liners. The best sweeps we ever used were not affiliated to any organisation - I found out by recommendation that they just new how to do the job. I do all of ours now. Bought some correct diameter liner brushes and some decent rods.

So it looks like this FC permit ban isn't nationwide - despite what I've been told over here in Wales... All rather strange:confused1:

Stopped it in Wales several years ago. I spoke to the FC chap and he said it was an 'H&S' issue. You could trip over some logs and injure yourself It's all a bit odd... they haven't closed down footpaths or banned mountain bikes from the same woodland - but of course they would never trip over a log...... would they!!!!????

Larch or very dry Sitka

Quite a few on here own or recommend Morso stoves. Here's a quote from the Morso brochure - "You can do both yourself and the environment a big favour by following these recommendations: ...Don't leave the stove burning overnight. Leaving your stove burning overnight is bad for your wallet and the environment."

I really think it depends on what type of stove you use. Some of ours work very well using the top down method - they tend to be the ones with bigger, deeper fireboxes. Try the same method in a different stove and it just doesn't work as well...

Very nice job - lots of space to get the air round the logs.

A mix of very dry birch, oak, larch and sycamore in the stoves and some hardwood briquettes in the cooker.

The log trains (operated by Colas Rail) run principally from Carlisle (loaded at the old Kingmoor Yard) Ribblehead and Kinsteignton. They were also loaded at Exeter after the storms earlier this year. They occasionally run from other places such as South Wales (Baglan Bay I think) and all of the logs are destined for the Kronospan factory at Chirk. Shotton Paper havn't received logs by rail for years and Crianlarich hasn't been used as a rail loading point for a long time.

I've heard that from a couple of sweeps too, there are some pretty poor quality liners around - however some sweeps still try to use a standard masonary chimney brush in a SS liner. This is a great way of totally knackering even a decent liner... Make sure they use the right brush for the flue they're sweeping.

This quote is from another forum - Burning driftwood can produce polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), also known as the misnomer "dioxins", which are carcinogenic. For this reason burning driftwood is not recommended. The formation of PCDDs is well documented when organic compounds are combusted in the presence of chlorine, which is present in driftwood as a result of soaking in seawater. The salt will permeate wood right the way through and when it burns, if any part of the burning wood exceeds 800 C or thereabouts (perfectly possible), then the salt will melt. Molten salt, when burned will happily release free chlorine, and as the rest of the wood is essentially organic hydrocarbon, then the conditions for production of PCDDs is met. Not to mention the possible adverse affect on the stove and/or flue. Seawater will soak right into wood....it won't just 'wash off'. By all means burn driftwood on an outdoor fire or beach barbecue, but not in an enclosed stove where combustion temperatures are much higher and the released hot chlorinated gas can react with iron or steel as well as producing carcinogenic compounds.

As County 4 x 4 has said GOOD Briquettes are a very good fuel that suit a lot of stove users with limited storage space. The problem is that there are lots of people making and selling badly made briquettes - they're using the wrong kit and the wrong feedstock. You need to find a team making a good product and stick with them. I suppose the analogy of GOOD v BAD briquettes is like comparing 18 months dry Beech with freshly cut Sitka...

How do they transport the chip?