WhatStove?

Review of Dunsley Highlander 5 stove

Another happy customer

Pete Peteblakemore@hotmail.com 7 years ago

Like most log burner owners I spent a very long time researching my weapon of choice. I was originally going to go for the Morso Badger that my brother owns (and is happy with), but aside from the eye watering price I found that the controls weren't as intuitive as the ones on the Dunsley. My wife also didn't like the look of it as much as the Dunsley, so the Morso quickly became a non-option.

Back to the Dunsley, I couldn't be happier with it. Mine is the ''high leg'' version, which actually isn't that high, just standard looking really.

It's a very solid looking and feeling stove, and weighing in at about 80kg took two of us (me and a pal) to carry it in, red faced from the car. The construction is a mix of cast iron and steel. That worried me at first as I'd read that cast iron is ''better'', but the Dunsley mixes the two well. The door and grate are cast iron, whereas the body of the unit is a very thick steel construction. The benefits are two fold - the cast iron parts wear less than steel would (the grate being exposed to a lot of heat needs to be hard wearing), and the steel parts are extra thick for durability, but also heat up quicker than cast iron does so the heat gets into the room quicker.

Mine is the Dunsley Highlander 5 Enviroburn, to give it the proper name. The Dunsley Highlander 5 doesn't actually exist anymore - the Enviroburn is exactly the same as the original, but has holes in the back wall to let in a bit more air. This has a couple of benefits - it means that unburnt gasses will now be burned off, producing less smoke (and making the stove suitable for smoke control areas), and also means your flue gets clogged up much less, because there's less unburnt stuff going up there. Win win. You can however easily blank the holes off with an included blanking plate (attached to the back of the stove). After calling Dunsley to discuss why you'd want to do that though I decided to leave mine as it came. I'm glad I did because it makes the fire all the more nicer to look at as the jets of air come through the holes on the back wall and swirl the flames around. Lovely.

Cleaning and emptying is a a breeze. As it's a multifuel stove the grate can be opened or shut depending on the type of fuel you're burning. The ash pan is located neatly underneath the grate and is very easy to remove. Another stove we looked at was the Jotul F100, which is a wood only stove and does not have a separate ash tray. I don't think cleaning that stove would be as easy as with the Dunsley.

Operating the stove is very straight forward. Compared to the Morso which has just one air control lever, the Dunsley has 2. One for primary air intake (bottom), and one for secondary air intake/airwash (top). Each has a very simple slide mechanism located on the front of the stove, and is very effective and easy to control. The air controls can be fettled with minutely, and you'll soon get used to how yours ''likes'' to be run.

As it's a 5kW stove it doesn't need a separate air supply, which was a nice bonus.

So all in all a very nice stove. It's robust enough that I expect it to last a good couple of decades. Incidentally parts aren't expensive either. With the price of a replacement glass window at about £30-£40 online it won't be too costly to repair if anything does go wrong.

The only potential negative - although it doesn't bother us - is the sounds the stove can make. Because it's of steel construction it will tick a bit more than a cast iron stove does as it's heating up and cooling down. Some people like that though and I think it adds to the character of the stove. When the air vents are fully open the top ones can whistle a little bit, but that soon goes when you close them down when the stove is up to temperature. For us the sounds are a positive. I guess if you were looking for a completely silent stove you wouldn't be considering a log burner anyway.

The handle is also not detachable. Some stoves like the Morso have detachable handles so you don't burn your hand. At first we used the included tool to open the handle, but found that to rub on the surrounding paint work and worried that it'd eventually rub off. We quickly found though that however we open the door

we'd need gloves for whatever came next! So now we've done away with tools entirely and just operate the handle with a glove on, ready to reload/prod/whatever.

Hope that helps!

Stove expert replied: Well explained comments for this stove which seems very pleasing to the customer.

Overall rating:

5 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4.8)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4.8)
Value for money 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Ease of use 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.7)
Firebox size 4 flames (avg 4.2)
How well does the airwash work 5 flames (avg 4.1)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4.5)
Handle operation 4 flames (avg 4)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 4.6)
What is your overall satisfaction? 5 flames (avg 4.6)