WhatStove?

Review of Burley Hollywell 9105 stove

Punching well above its weight

Daniel Sutcliffe 6 years ago

For a small stove this thing really throws some heat out, I've been looking for a replacement stove for a while and I've been deliberating whether or not to go multifuel or wood only I finally decided to go down the wood only route purely due to the fact that I get all my wood for free and I only used to burn smokeless coal over the Christmas period so it was kind of a no brainer really. In terms of the heat output I was initially concerned that 5kw output would be too small for the room but this things heat output is on a par with my old stove which was rated at 8-11kw. The fuel economy is excellent, it burns very little fuel to get a lot of heat. You only need to put two or three logs on every hour and half or so which is a good thing because when you've just spent a lot of money on a stove you don't want to spend more time stoking it than enjoying it! My advice to anyone thinking of buying this stove is go for it but make sure you have a good chimney draft first i.e. fit a flexible liner or put it on a twin wall flue system otherwise it won't perform at it's best and you will be disappointed. Make sure that you burn good quality wood at around 10% moisture or less and avoid buying any wet wood they sell on garage forecourts because that stuff is all water. As a stove installer and chimney sweep by trade the wood they sell in net bags on garage forecourts is what causes more problems than anything else. The last time I filled up at the garage, I put my moisture meter on the logs in the bag, just for a laugh, and it went off the scale and that's over 45%! So do bare this in mind next time you fill up and think ooh I'll just grab a bag of logs while I'm here.

Stove expert replied: As with any stove the installation is key to a stoves performance, the flue draw should match that stated by the stove manufacturer regardless of whether a twin walled system or liner is being used. Fuel is the next key factor and a moisture content of less than 20% is recommended on any wood that you use, using a higher moisture content means that you have to burn off the moisture first (wasting valuable energy) before any heat will be produced. The moisture can lead to chimney problems, discolored glass and residues within the fire chamber and lack of heat. Great comments for this stove regarding output.

Overall rating:

5 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4.3)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4.2)
Value for money 5 flames (avg 4.2)
Ease of use 5 flames (avg 4.4)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.3)
Firebox size 4 flames (avg 4.3)
How well does the airwash work 4 flames (avg 3.8)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4.1)
Handle operation 5 flames (avg 4.3)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 3.9)
What is your overall satisfaction? 5 flames (avg 4)