Firebelly FB2 stove Hot

THE WORST THING I HAVE EVER BOUGHT. HAD IT 3 YEARS HAD IT RE-FITTED TWICE AND STILL IT'S NO GOOD. GOING TO HAVE IT REMOVED AS THE MESS THAT IT MAKES IS NOT WORTH IT. WHEN YOU OPEN THE DOOR TO PUT MORE LOGS IN THE ROOM FILLS WITH SMOKE, HAD THE CHIMNEY MADE HIGHER BUT STILL NO BETTER. THE AIR WASH DOES NOT WORK. FOR EVER CLEANING THE GLASS MY HOUSE WILL HAVE TO BE RE-DECORATED. THE OPEN FIRE WAS CLEANER BURNING THAN THIS FIRE BELLY. WISH I HAD SEEN SOME OF THE REVIEWS BEFORE I BOUGHT IT WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS FIRE.

Stove Expert Replied: A sad tale for this customer.

I've had an FB2 for 3 years and it was installed with a stainless external flue by HETAS engineers and Firebelly resellers.

As a log burner, it's ok, but that's about all. Put enough logs in and it will blaze away happily. The "airwash" system works occasionally, but if the logs are damp, the glass blackens quickly.

Last year I bought the multifuel kit and a few bags of coal.

I've used that twice. Why? Because it just doesn't work.

This evening I tried again and despite numerous fire lighters, kindling etc., the coal wouldn't light.

In the end in desperation, I tried a propane torch and almost an entire gas cannister later and still the coals go out, even with the door wide open.

This is a huge disappointment and a very expensive one - the flue cost as much as the fire and the draw seems adequate enough, but looking through the previous comments, I'm sure somebody will say it's not.

I'd say that it was a good couple of grand gone up in smoke. If only...


Stove expert says: have you contacted the supplier, installer, or Firebelly to try to rectify the problems? That is probably a good starting point. Perhaps get them to test the flue draw and see how good it is as a starting point.

I have had my Firebelly FB2 stove a little over a year now and it’s installed in my holiday home 700m up in the Austrian mountains. I chose a FB2 because I wanted a stove that would produce a lot of heat quickly as the house is surrounded by snow for up to five months of the year and can be freezing to walk into after a two or three week absence.
The stove is connected to a straight insulated double skinned chimney of approx. 6m in length and I find it easy enough to light using firelighters and dry sticks, but it will produce a lot of smoke and blacken the glass until the fire has produced enough heat to induce a draught up the chimney. The air-wash system will then clean the glass of soot and the stove will produce a lot of heat as it is rated at 12kw. It is this figure that you should bear in mind when choosing one of these stoves as that is a lot of heat to put into a room and although the burn rate is controllable the minimum output achievable while still keeping the glass clean and the chimney draught working I would guess to be about 6kw.This also accounts for the lack of overnight burn as the amount of wood required to keep the stove burning at this rate overnight is more the firebox can hold.
I rate the construction of the stove as good (3.5-4 out of 5) with a few niggles such as the lower air control, I found that I have to spray it with WD40 (when the fire is out) to keep it moving freely, and the stove must be installed on a flat surface for the door to open freely, uneven bricks/tiles will not do. The stove also has a tendency to drop ash out of the door when you open it.
Overall I am pleased with the stove, it looks good and produces a lot of heat (by burning a lot of wood which must be dry) but please bear in mind that it will be produce too much heat for a lot of rooms unless it is fitted with a boiler to distribute the heat around the house via radiators.

We've had our FB2 for 4 years now and it still looks as good as the day we had it put in.
Easy to light and it's '0-60' time is very good, i.e. from lighting to good output is only a few minutes.
Easy to keep clean and de-ash due to the lack of crevices for ash to get into, although I run on old ash for several burns before it needs clearing out.
It got us through 3 days of power cuts 2 winters ago and for that I will always love it!

Minor niggles - yes the controls can be jerky and sometimes the allen bolt that secures the door handle can work loose - for that reason I use the correct size allen key to operate the controls so that it is always handy.
Also the amount of heat into the room could be higher, but I think our chimney is too well flued and a lot of heat escapes up that.
If you don't set the controls correctly (i.e. leave full airwash on and bottom flue open), then it will burn through an average sized log in minutes.

Other than that it has been great and looks good when working or not.
Would recommend to anyone

Stove Expert Replied: You may be able to get a locking nut to secure the door handle and this would stop this annoying problem. If the stove appears to be working hard and the amount of heat produced is poor it may be that your chimney has to high a draw and will need some control on to calm it down. May be worth investigating this also.

When lighting smoke pours out of the doors and vents. Once going it is OK but every time the door is opened smoke pours out into the room. Also whenever the door is opened ash spills out.

The glass blackens up very quickly.

Altogether pretty disappointed

Stove Expert Replied: If you are getting smoke back into the room when the flue is warm I would suggest getting the installer back to check this out. Ensure that you are only burning dry seasoned fuel as otherwise the glass will become black quickly. To clean, use a cloth dipped in wood ash or vinegar as this will help to remove the deposits.

Fire Belly F2 with back boiler, I have been so pleased it kept us warm with 3 radiators going and the Hot water,in a 3 bed 3 story house, through winter 2009 - 2010 which was hard frost and snow. I love the look of the fire Belly so was worried when I bought it, that it would just be for show. and it has proved its not just for show, I also have had no problem lighting it.

We purchased our Firebelly FB2 and log box for our home in France. It is now the talking point of our home whenever we have visitors. The Fire looks and works brilliant. I have read the reviews below and do not understand the comments.
We are very happy with the build quality and finish of the stove. We had the Metallic Blue colour with Matching flue. The heat it gives off is amazing and we find it very easy to use and control. We bought the whole package from Firebelly including the Insulated Flue which they colour matched and I would have no problems in recommending them to anyone. My only regret is we did not spend a bit more and order the FB2 boiler model.

I am extremely glad i didn't take to heart the comments on this page as it would have put me off buying my beautiful stove.
I went for the FB2 in shimmering rose and i am so glad i did. It fits perfectly with my room decor and looks amazing.
I'm not a seasoned stove user - in fact this is my first ever woodburning stove but it is very easy to use and even i can light it with no problems!
I am very much looking forward to a cosy winter in front of my new addition

Bought this stove for its contemporary and "high kw output", but after having this stove installed for a year i now feel compelled to write this review.

The stove is made from tin is lightweight we have to keep the door slightly ajar to keep fire lighting at all and thats with the multifuel kit and seasoned wood, turf and coal iv tried it all. It does NOT burn overnight its hardly burns at all would get more heat from a match burning the room.

Apart from its looks its a complete disaster for heat or removing ashes and doesnt keep glass clean, very disappointing as there arent cheap.AVOID.

Stove expert says: some of the problems here will be to do with poor chimney draw as opposed to the stove itself. An efficient modern stove will tend to need a stronger chimney draw to work well as it is heavily baffled so as to give more heat to the room. This often means you have to line and insulate the chimney (a good idea anyway for a number of reasons) to get a good enough draw. Modern stoves are not really designed to burn overnight either as this is an inefficient way of burning and can reduce the life of the stove and chimney.

Great looking stove and it does produce a lot of heat. Air wash is okay but I also have a Morso which never gets dirty glass so not perfect.

My biggest complained is the fact that its near impossible to overnight when only burning wood. With the multi fuel kit fitted and good quality smokeless fuel in it will happily overnight but then I find I am replacing the roof board every few months, the side and back board lasts longer but not more than a season. And scooping out the ash form under the fire is less than ideal, again the practicality of a proper multi fuel stove with separate ash door is far batter.

So back to burning wood it is, and its very efficient, though not good enough to last all night.

I burn very dry 5 years seasoned hard wood we have 2 stoves in the house and the Morso is by far much easier to live with. I love the firebelly for its looks and large fire but would not recommend it for someone how like me wants a continuose running stove, its just cant handle hard work

Stove expert says: modern stoves are not usually designed to burn well overnight. Overnight burning is an inefficient way to burn and will produce a lot of deposits in the firebox and your chimney which can reduce their lifespan.

We bought a Firebelly FB2 with back boiler direct from the factory in Halifax (which is recommended cos I got a good discount and they threw in two tins of touch up paint and a 1m length of flue for nothing).

Our house doesn’t have a chimney breast so the flue exits the stove vertically and goes through the wall to the outside the up to ridge height via two 45 degree bends – the outside flue is a Selkirk twin wall stainless flue – expensive but very very good, and easy to install.

Lighting the stove couldn’t be easier, and I’m surprised at the comments above about lighting problems. It’s so easy to light that we don’t use the secondary air control at all, we just fully open the primary air on top of the stove, and light it with a single match. Then close the door and it roars into life. Use plenty of newspaper, and dry sticks and it never needs more than a single match.

The airwash system works very well, unless damp or unseasoned wood is used, or if the secondary air is left open. Following the manufacturer’s guideline of burning wood that is beginning to split is good – bags of logs bought at petrol stations are very rarely good enough, most of em have only been chopped down a few weeks before they’re sold. But if dry wood is used, then the glass stays clean.

The back boiler has been plumbed to four radiators upstairs, and also to the hot water tank via an ingenious device by solar coil (www.solarcoil.co.uk) which is a simple heating coil that replaces the electric immersion heater in a standard hot water tank. We’ve had a long sustained period of cold weather this winter (Dec 2009 – Feb 2010), yet by leaving the living room door open into the hall, and because of the radiators upstairs, the Firebelly has heated our four bedroom detached house, and also provided hot water for a big steaming bath. The gas central heating doesn’t come on at all when the fire is on.

Bad points – the tool for controlling the stove is dreadful – nothing more than a bent piece of steel, and it can scratch the paint on the stove if not used carefully. A shame really. Also, the secondary air control is very jerky, it’s like changing gear in an old tractor! We don’t need to use the secondary air, even for lighting, which is just as well, cos it’s not the best.


In general, the stove is excellent, it heats our whole house in the cold winters and the back boiler is well worth the expense and the extra effort of installation as it also heats other areas of the house via the radiators. I would recommend it to anyone, it gets very hot, it works really well, it stays clean and it’s British. (and no I don’t work for Firebelly, or know anyone who does).

If only had been able to read the review entitled "Very Disappointing" before purchasing my FB2.

My experience is exactly the same. Difficult to light, nearly impossible to keep burning, Air wash none existent (you have to open the door to see if its still burning), generates little heat, fills the room with smoke when opening the door to add more wood and ash builds up on top of the unit which has been ejected out of the top vent.

In the "Very Disappointing" review the expert suggests that this is probably the result of a poor chimmney and/or inadequate ventilation. My FB2 is not in a chimney but connected directly to an insulated Flue less than 10m long albeit with two 30 degree bends in it. The top of the flue is above the height of the roof ridge.

As for ventilation, I had the double doors to the room wide open to try and clear the smoke so I think there was adequate ventilation!

For whatever reason my flue does not appear to generate enough draw for the FB2 to function properly and I suggest potential buyers beware of this potential problem before buying.

Stove expert says: a Firebelly is a very heavily baffled stove and this is at least probably part of the reason for the difficulty which this owner is having. Perhaps a good rule would be to make sure that the installer does a flue draught test on a couple of different days and makes sure that this is in line with the Pa rating required for a Firebelly. I will dig out the rating and post it here.

We bought a firebelly at the same time as two Stovax Gazco Rivas. The Rivas are fantastic - easy to get going and incredibly hot, and do not produce smoke. The firebelly, in contrast, does not get going quickly (or at all - it sometimes just peters out) and often smokes the room out so that we have to open all the windows to air the room (which defeats the object somewhat). The room now smells as if an old smoker lives there. Admittedly, once it is fully going, it does get very hot (but nowhere near as hot as the Rivas, and nowhere near as quickly, despite a higher rating). I would definitely not buy another one of these. If I could afford it, I would get rid of the one I had and replace it with something else. Overall, very disappointing.

By the way, I have no connection whatsover with Riva and am not seeking to promote them in any way. I only mention them to show the comparison with another make and other makes may well be equally as good (I have heard good things about Morso, for example, but I have never used one (Firebelly and Gazco are the only 2 woodburners I have ever had).

Stove expert says: with a heavily baffled, efficient stove like a Firebelly you do need a good draw on the chimney to make it work. This sounds like a classic case of bad draw to me - ie poor chimney. Lining and insulating the chimney might help, raising the height a little and ensuring that there is sufficient ventilation air to the room.

We've had an FB2 for a year now. We have a 10m chimney that is very straight. The recommended single pipe to 6m ceiling and then insulated pipe through a chimney, loft and the roof itself. There are two 30 degree bends in the loft. The stove is freestanding on the optional log box. During the first winter, we burned mainly scrap wood, some of which was very very old. A bit of oak too, but mainly old scrap. We didn't try burning overnight, but there were occasions when it happened anyway.

Likes

We love the looks of the stove and it was a big help that it comes in some many colours. Our home has some huge old beams and we were able to get a complementary colour that does not detract from them. With the log box, the stove is positioned at "TV viewing height", making it a real centerpiece. I strongly recommend getting one for this stove. It also means less bending over to insert wood, the advantage claimed by top-loading stoves.

The airwash works for us and the glass stays mostly clean. Its very easy to wipe what little buildup you get. The window is massive and provides a fantastic view of the flames.

Burns clean, but we do have a very favourable chimney setup.

No problems with lighting or smoke in room, unless I've made a pigs ear of building the fire.

Throws out heat forwards, not backwards or sideways. Requires less clearance than a cast iron stove.

Door handle stays cool.

Dislikes

Controls are crap. The slider at the bottom is very heavy and jerky and the metal stick you move both the bottom and top controls with looks and feels very poor. We often leave the bottom closed on ours as a result. It still lights okay though. Note that the controls have been changed on the new model.

The top air control is a large slot you can see through. It only happened once in over five months burning, but a spitting fire can throw a burning ember through it when its open fully. Again, I think it has changed with the new model. Airflow through the top intake can be audible when its open fully.

Build quality is fair and could be a bit more robust.

No ashbox, but woodheat.org says they're over-rated anyway.

Instructions are poor. No indication of top firebrick orientation, in case you take it out when shifting the stove during installation. I think the temp guide in the instructions is also incorrect and is simply received wisdom for (probably cast iron) stoves. The instructions claim the stove works best at 125 to 250C but I think you'd need a real inferno going to get the top over 150C due to the firebox being shielded. You'd need logs right up to an "open the door and they'll roll out" height. You can boil a kettle on it, but it takes a long time and then only just.

Overall

I think the FB2 isn't the best-made stove out there, but I still love it because it looks wonderful, both when its on and during the rest of the year when it isn't. In spite of their shortcomings, Firebelly have stumbled upon a firebox design that is simple and works well, and they have put it in a stove that looks great in an interior that doesn't have to be country chic or have plaster moldings on the ceiling. If the Firebelly company gets more experience and can tweak the design and maybe beef up the build quality, they could have a really great stove. As it is, its still pretty good and definitely looks the business. If you're indifferent about the look of your stove though, maybe there are better options for you out there.

We love our firebelly. It is a lovely design and with a large glass panel perfect for watching the flames. We only really find that the glass gets sooty if we accidently put on a damp/unseasoned log, so as long as you are burning good logs it self cleans. We have to be careful when lighting ours because our flue has a couple of twists in it, therefore it takes a while to draw well, sometimes its tricky to light without getting some smoke back in the room but mostly if you stick to the rules of laying the fire at the back of the firebox, its fine (and it's most probably the fault of our funny flue). If we ever leave it overnight, although it is still warm, it has usually burnt its self out by the morning. We have had our Firebelly for 3 years now and I would definitely recommend it.

Lit the fire for the first time while installer was in the house. Within 10 minutes the big glass panel cracked. We got a replacement eventually from the company and realised how flimsy the glass retainers are and also the fact that the rope seals are fitted with nothing more than a couple of flexible steel strips with teeth on. The rope has continued to fall off until such times as we had a registered installer use heat resistant silicone to hold it in place. The technical support people didn't seem to know a great deal when we rang them. A lovely modern looking stove but a failure in so many departments I would suggest something else.

Stove expert says: When you first light a stove it is possible for the glass to crack. The stove has been transported which can vibrate and jolt the stove a little, the glass may already have a small hairline crack or nick on the edge, and the glass is usually held by fixing clips and screws. It is possible to over tighten the fixings. When you light the stove the glass expands less rapidly than the metal of the door, and is put under intense heat itself. If it is going to crack that is probably the time that it will. So the glass cracking on first firing should not necessarily reflect badly on the stove.
This is not to say that the other topics brought up by this reviewer are not valid.

This is a great looking and very practical stove - I have been using mine for two years now and never cease to be surprised at the efficiency of the burn.

I recently built a strawbale and timber house with wooden flooring, and wanted something as close to an open fire as possible, but with the ease of installation, efficiency and safety of an enclosed wood-burner. The huge glass door on the FB2 was the perfect compromise. It affords an unobstructed view of the fire, while leaving me free of any concerns about spitting.
One or two slight caveats as follows:
You really do have to use good dry logs. Any dampness in the fuel leads to blackening of the glass (which comes away easily with caustic soda).
It may be my poor technique, but I do seem to get a fair bit of smoke into the room when I have the door open for lighting. When it's burning well, of course, there isn't any smoke.
Initially the blackening was significantly worse, and keeping it going was a bit of an effort. I raised this with Firebelly, and they sent, free of charge, a set of "low-draught" firebricks which they had just developed. They made an enormous difference.
I've never tried to keep it going through the night. It's so easy to light, and the house retains heat so well that I've never seen the need. It's a big 5-bedroom house with a very large open-plan ground floor, and the FB2 heats it easily. I have a thermometer at the far end of the ground-floor, about 14 metres from the stove, and when it has been far below zero outside (we're in chilly eastern Scotland), the FB2 holds the temperature indoors hovering around 20 degrees.
The Selkirk flue installation was a doddle, and was completed easily with no assistance in a day, including stripping and re-slating part of the roof.
Not the cheapest stove / flue combination around (but by no means the dearest either), but I'd happily recommend it to anyone.
We have no TV in the house, and a couple of days after first lighting our new stove, one of our children commented dreamily, gazing into the flames, "This house was so boring before we had the fire". Says it all, really!

The build quality of the FB2 is superb. We also have the double-sided glass version. The heat output is fantastic, even my sister and sister-in-law who are the coldest people on earth, get too hot in our house. The controlability is also great as the two top slides instantly switch the heat to either side of the unit. The massive downside is the glass getting sooted up. For me the aesthetics of seeing the fire burning were the over-riding decision for spending more on this item. I used to be in a routine of cleaning it once a month and getting it spotless. This is now a chore, and with three little ones to look after our time is quickly used up. Instead I eventually sit down and stare at the sooted up glass, wishing it was clean. We have found that if you spray and leave Mr Muscle oven cleaner it does just wipe off, but it's an incredibly messy job as you can imagine mixing any ash with liquid.

Overall we do love it, we'd just assumed that the glass would stay a lot cleaner than it does.

We installed the Firebelly FB2 to give a bit of character to a rather bland modern living room and to be a secondary and back up form of heating. (In case we ever forgot to buy oil or had a power cut). It can heat a large part of the house when necessary (and it's a very large house). In fact we rarely put more than three logs on at once because my husband complains it is far too hot.
The stove looks extremely handsome in the room although our son quickly discovered that you should never leave anything on top of it when he left a coaster there.... We had to pay a rather large amount for some paint to re-do the top.

We find the glass stays very clear - I follow the instructions to the letter; always make the fire towards the back of the stove, wipe the glass each day with newspaper and never let the wood smoulder. The fire is not designed to be left smouldering all night, that is made clear in the instructions - the airwash system needs to burn hot.
It lights extremely easily, one match and walk away, but you do have to keep the little gully at the front of the firebricks clear of ash. If lit too far forward, at first smoke comes out through the top of the door - my son discovered this one too! Moral, don't allow twenty somethings to play with your stove.

I'm delighted with it, it was expensive but it's a great centre piece for the room. I'd definitely recommend the firebelly for ease of use and efficiency of heating. A little ash spills from the front when you clean it out and set a new fire, but I don't mind this at all.

I bought this stove about 18 months ago and I am more than pleased with it's performance. It was very simple to fit with the flange kit I ordered with it. The controls of the stove are a little tricky to master at first but once you get the hang of it, it offers no problems. Be warned, this is a big, wood hungry stove and can get through a lot a lot of fuel. I've not managed to shut it down overnight so I can relight it in the morning. I have not had any problems whatsoever with keeping the glass clean using hardwood of varying levels of dryness. The airflow system seems to work fine. A little bit of discolouring can appear at the corners of the glass after heavy use but a quick wipe with some newspaper and it cleans up no problem.



I would definately buy another one but only if I have a room big enough to accept it!!

We purchased the double sided fire for our new extension. After studying the technical information and speaking with the manufacturers we decided this was the fire for us. The stove itself fits well in the overall finish of our new extension.

However it is only 3 months old and looks years old the glass does not stay clear, the airwash system are two vents on top of the fire and sparks will fire out therefore not recommended to be light when not in the house. it is messy spilling ash and soot out when the door is opened and smokey. It does give off good heat but does not live up to its recommendation for its other features.

Our Firebelly is the double sided version. This has two glass areas, although only one is a door. It has two airwash baffles and a revised firebrick layout which forms a downward facing  "V".

The revised firebricks tend to direct any smoke out the door when opened.  There may be a flue problem but the flue is  4.5 metres, vertical and with no bends, the outlet 50cms above the ridge. The draw seems generally very good.

Concerning the smoking up of the glass, we are using predominantly dry softwood, this is virtually kiln dried, having been stored in a dry house for 15years. It has been supplemented with ash and sometimes elm with no change in sooting up of glass. It is disappointing, it was expensive and the performance is significantly less than our Clearview which suffers none of these problems and is excellent.

All the guidelines were followed when installed and an airvent as part of the building regulations. 

We saw the firebelly on a TV drama a few weeks after installing and this was also blackened up so looks like this may be a flaw in the design. 

We purchased this stove over a year ago after speaking with there technical team in depth about our new property. We were delighted with the level of customer service that we recieved. It was well above our expectations.

We have now had the unit for a year or so and we are very pleased with the unit. The FB2 is very hot and heats our whole house.

I would be happy to recommend Firebelly to anybody looking to purchase a new stove