Charnwood Cove 3 stove

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Most Recent Review

• Cove 3: so happy - it's fantastic.

  Andrew 11 years ago

  After doing some serious homework before purchasing our first stove (over a 12 month period) we decided finally to go with the Cove 3. I tried and failed to find a review of the Cove 3 anywhere
  - everyone seems to go for the 2.Our house is not large - and we were originally worried it would be too much. We had a gas fired stove previously, rated about 6kW, but it was pretty ineffectual in real winter. Apart from that we had wall storage heaters which drink the electric. My idea was to get the loft really well lagged first (last year) and then go for a wood burner. We had to have a tree topped off last winter, so I cut and split the wood and stored in a dry store outside all year (we have mainly sycamore.)Well, we had the thing installed 2 weeks ago. It's in the corner of our living room, which is open plan to our kitchen - approx 6.5 x 7 m total. Although this is much smaller than recommended for a C3, I wanted to be able to leave the door to the entrance hall open, so that heat could rise upstairs into the cold-sink above, retained by the new lagging. I've clad the stove flue where it goes through my son's bedroom above, but left gaps in the cladding and a space at the top to allow it act as a radiator (but safe.) After a couple weeks of experimentation, we're finding it's magic - my sons room is lovely and warm (he's a 5 year old with athsma so ideal) but the living room is not unbearably sweaty - I light the fire in the upside down fashion, i.e. big logs at the bottom, kindling and paper at the top, and it gets hot very quickly - very little smoke from the flue throughout (this was my biggest concern, with problem neighbours twitching their curtains.) I didnt have a cowl put on top, but left the flue open (cavity sealed tho, obviously.) this was to punch the smoke as high as poss, and so far its doing the trick.Since I can bring home as many pallets (untanelised timber) from work as I can fit in my car boot, I'm burning a mix - prob 60% pallet wood so far. I've got ash drying but not going to touch it until next year. I dont remove the pallet nails - takes ages. I've found this not to be an issue - the ash I bag up when totally cold and so long as you take care with the nails in it there's no prob. They fall through to the pan readily when the grate is riddled.We had ours delivered in brown - the flue was sprayed once fitted to match. looks great. A flat bottomed kettle will boil in 10mins, and we have cooked chilli and stews on the top sheet.Overall, Im delighted - always wanted a real fire, and the Cove 3 has exceeded my expectations. I believe you get what you pay for, and this thing is high quality. Only thing left to get is an electrostatic fan to help push the warm air upstairs, but to be honest, we prefer a cooler bedroom with a thick duvet!
  ...[ read more ]

  Stove expert replied: Would recommend a rain cap on the chimney to prevent rain from getting in otherwise a very satisfactory out come from installing this stove.

  Overall rating:

  4.5 flames

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Most Popular Review

• Charnwood Cove 3 Stove

  Peter Johnson 11 years ago

  We recently replaced our 6KW Austroflamm stove because it was broken and would only burn wood on a high output, which meant we were going through logs at an exponential rate. We thought by replacing
  our existing stove with a 12Kw output stove it would deliver more heat! how far from the truth could we be with the Charnwood Cove 3 We have a large open plan split level kitchen, dining and living room area. The living room area has a vaulted ceiling. Due to the size of the room, we decided to buy a larger output stove. During our investigation into which stove to buy, we came across the Charnwood Cove range and after much deliberation, made the decision to buy the Cove 3 due to it's 12Kw output that extends to 16kw when required. We were also led to believe that the Cove 3 would burn for 10 hours, what a disappointment this has turned out to be as well.The Cove 3 was finally installed December 2012 after many issues with suppplying the Cove 3 stove, which was promised by the retailer / intsaller and let down by Charnwood themselves. So this was not a great start as your can imagine. Since having the Cove 3, it has delivered very short on what it actually states it does and again promised by the retailer and Charnwood. I am not sure if this is an issue which emanated by the installer or the Charnwood build quality, however we are very unhappy with the Charnwood Cove 3. The reasons for our disappointment and dissatisfaction are as follows:- The glass remains constantly blacked out despite using 2-3 year old seasoned wood which is stored indoors to be dry- The smoke escapes out whilst the door is closed when you first light the stove, which fills up the room.- Smoke escapes out of the stove when you leave the door open despite placing the wood at the back of the stove, so you cant burn logs with an open door- Despite being a 12Kw output stove that extends to 16Kw, it delivers less heat than our prior stove which was a 6Kw stove. My wife had the stove on two days ago from 9am and untill 6:30pm and the room was still not warm. what a dissapointment!- door handle is not fixed, hence on occassions my wife has issuse opening and closing the door. This is not really an issue, just have to remember how to attached the door handle as it doubles up as a handle for the ash plan.In our previous house, we had three wood burners, Stovax, Stockton and Clearview, all of which we had very good experiences, especially with the Clearview. We under went a thorough investigation and analysis of all the stoves in the market and we were drawn to the Charnwood Cove 3. We have requested that the supplier / installer of the Cove 3 to revisit our house to remedy the situation by troubleshooting and resolving the issues we have experienced following their intsallation of the Cove 3. We hope this will either resolve our issues or lead us to plan B, which will be the replacement of the stove with a different stove manufacturer. I will update you in the coming weeks of the final outcome.
  ...[ read more ]

  Stove expert replied: It does sound as if the flue draw / design may be at fault and once this has been revisted may well improve the performance of the stove.

  Overall rating:

  2.5 flames

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