Franco belge Savoy Elegance - MKII Hot

The stove looks nice with a large viewing window and gives off decent heat but it cannot be closed down enough. Once up to temperature both vents are closed and never need to be adjusted again when refuelling which is convenient however it goes through far too much wood. I have checked the door and casting seals for leaks with no signs of problems. We do have a very tall chimney stack but I would expect a modern stove to be have a close-able firebox. If the fire needed to be shut down for any reason we couldn't.

Have now ordered a flue damper in an effort to make it more controllable as at the moment I can get about 2 hours max of useful heat from a load, and left for a further hour the fire will be out. An overnight burn is out of the question.

If I can increase the control ability with the damper I will be very pleased with the stove. I just feel that I shouldn't need to do this on a modern non-defra stove.

Stove Expert Replied: Do let us know if this corrects the draw issue.

Overall excellent stove. I have had other makes of stoves with problems to do with the airwash system and build quality but none of these problems with my new Savoy. It looks beautiful. The heat output is fantastic and the airwash works perfectly.
My one problem is that the chimney draw seems to be so strong that even when I close both top and bottom vent sliders fully to the right the fire still seems to burn too fast thus giving reduced fuel efficiency and rapid log burn time. I am surprised that I cannot seem to close down the air inlets as much as I should be able to. With previous stoves I have been able to close the stove right down so that the air intake is so low that it will extinguish after a while. I wish to be able to better control the stove and burn my stove more slowly. Is this a common problem and can I fix it? Many thanks.

Stove Expert Replied: Check the door seals are effective, you could fit a damper or flue stabilizer to gain more control if seals are effective.

I've owned the stove for 3 months. In those 3 months I have used it frequently and with great relish.

However: 3 months in the upper fire brick on the baffle has broken into 3 pieces (its too thin I think)

Its still under warranty, but I'm not expecting the replacement parts to last long as the stove its self is flawed at a design level

The door has fallen off (the lower pivot bolt is only 4mm thick and the thing has sheared) The drop broke the glass of course

The air wash vent adjust has always been sticky

The door when it was on scraped all the enamel along the base of the door jam

Stove Expert Replied: Disappointing feedback of this stove which seems to be very problematic after such a short period. Have you contacted supplier over sheared door bolt as this should be covered by the warranty and any damage caused from this I would hope should be looked at sympathetically.

We installed the stive 3 months ago. We have burnt seasoned hardwood in it.

The stove is smart and tidy and has a great window that allows you to see the fire. It produces a lot of heat and has made a big difference to our front room. Sadly the fire brick has cracked at the back and has has cracked in the ceiling. The vent controls at the top have jammed and the bolt has come off. Our suppliers say that it is still in waranty, so hopefully the stuff will be replaced. We have been careful placing wood in the stove. For £850 these elemental problems should not have happened.

The stove makes loud clicking noises. I have put these down to the expansion and contaction of the metal. Even with the vents turned down - when we could - a lot of smoke gets out of the stove and into the atmospehere of the room on re-fueling.

These long standing problems are regretable because the stove otherwise is very good.

Stove expert says: the smoke coming out is probably more down to chimney than the stove. I would hope that the other problems are sorted by the supplier.

We installed our Savoy Mk II in August 2010. Within a few weeks we were experiencing problems with the back and top fire bricks cracking. At that time, Franco Belge were aware of the problem and supplied consumers with a modified baffle plate and new fire brick (the original baffle was only of thin steel construction).

Within three months, the top casting had cracked around the opening for the spigot and Franco Belge supplied a replacement. Now, in November 2011, the replacement top casting has an identical crack and I am in consultation with my supplier as to how best to resolve the problem.

My conclusion with this stove is that it is a small stove with a high 8kw output and if you run it up to 8kw capacity you risk cracking the top casting. For information, we only burn two year old seasoned hardwood and the stove is lit every evening in winter for about four hours, we have a stainless steel flue liner which is insulated with vermiculite and the stove has a good draw.

I would advise people owning a Mk II to inspect their top casting as they are only hairline cracks. It is more noticeable with the internal baffle removed and looking up at the casting from the inside.

As you can see from my ratings, the stove does have its good points, but I do feel there is an issue with the top casting on the Mk I and Mk II, as also highlighted by previous reviews.

Stove Expert Replied: Franco Belge have made changes to overcome this fault but this does not help existing customers. It is a shame as it is a good looking stove that is reasonably priced.

We love the warmth, big window, super air wash and ease of use but....

It was installed by a (so called) Hetas engineer and we have had several problems:

1) We have continually had smoke smell problems on refuelling. We have subsequently had a liner installed and vermiculite insulation added for insulation.
2) The back firebrick cracked and Franco Belge sent a modernised replacement but now that has cracked in 3 places. We are waiting for another replacement from FB but have no confidence that that one will not break
3) The stove started making load clicking noises and this was followed by the glass cracking from bottom to the top. Have ordered a new glass (from a cheaper supplier) for £55
4) Meanwhile the glass is cracking again and the window is about to disintegrate.

All this and the stove is only 7 months old!

Not a happy chappy and neither is the stove fitter as I have withheld £200 but he says he can do no more?

All comments welcome because everyone appears totally happy with their FB stove or others makes with no smoke/smell problems, no firebrick problems and certainly no loud clicking noises. I have ignored the glass problem as this could possibly of been a log falling on the glass etc.

Gary Cah

Stove Expert Replied:
The loud clicking noise, where is it coming from? If the airwash, check that it has been welded fully in place. Yous say that the glass may be down to a log falling on it, could the liners be down to refuelling energetically?

After much humming and haaing, I decided to buy the Franco Belge savoy Elegance Mk2 & have it installed by a Heetas installer.


It is well made and finished well.It has a good sized window enabling a good view of the fire.It is competitively priced as I got mine for £850 delivered which was great.The airwash works well but the glass still requires cleaning about every 3days or so, but then I like the glass to be chrystal clear and this depends on how you run it and how dry the wood is.

There is a definate art to learning how to run a stove.The controls are very sensitive and it takes a little while to learn the optimum setting for your property/fuel.I have found burning home fire ovals(anthracite I think) to form the base with logs going on top the best, as when just burning logs ,the ash from the logs just fell through the griddle leaving no hot bed for fresh logs.

I have found the same problems as others with logs sometimes shifting and falling against the glass, so when you open the door hot embers fall onto the hearth.I asked my supplier about the higher retainer people on this site talk of and he hadnt heard of it.

My firebrick cracked at the back and top after about 8 weeks of use.I requested a replacement, to be told by my supplier that they werent covered parts under the warranty, but a cut and paste from this forums letters resulted in a replacement, which arrived....broken in 2.I requested a further replacement and this arrived with one piece intact the other .....broken in 2.
Its a good stove but let down by this problem.

Stove Expert Replied: Liners / bricks are not covered under warranty neither is the glass. Fuel quality and seasoning so important to insure that glass stays clean and heat produced effectively.

We acquired our first stove 3 years ago when we bought and refurbished our current house. We were a little naive and purchased what we thought was a bargain stove (£300.00 from Ebay), which we later realised was a Chinese import.

Needless to say the quality was poor and the stove was inefficient with rubbish heat output. We soon realised that what we initially beleived to be a low cost purchase turned out to be a classic case of false economy.

Present Day - Our first informed purchase, a Franco Belge Savoy Elegance MKII. What a stove!!! It is difficult to express in words the difference it makes when you invest a bit of money. In the case of stoves, you definitely get what you pay for.

Our room is a big room with high ceilings and it is absolutely roasting now. Luckily we can bank it down a little using the vents. Control is not an issue with this stove.

The Airwash means that the glass remains completely clear. We admitterdly are using well seasoned wood and have not noticed any blackening of the window at all.

The view of the fire is amazing with such a big window and the flames dance around in a wonderful fashion.

Only had the stove a couple of days and am that impressed, I wanted to write a review about it. Al round top class stove.

Stove Expert Replied: Customer satisfaction on a good product, good heat generated and using seasoned wood keeping glass clean. Great.

We live in a smoke control area in York so decided to buy the Savoy Elegance Defra approved model and have it professionally installed by a HETAS engineer.

We live in an older type house with original floorboards. After suffering many
years of horrendous heating bills and being frozen despite the central heating being on full, the Savoy Elegance woodburner is an absolute joy. It is easy to light and gives out so much heat we don't bother using the central heating except for hot water. Our lounge and open plan dining room/kitchen have been totally transformed into a lovely warm environment and no more paying exorbitant heating bills.

Stove Expert Replied: Great to hear you are so pleased with your purchase and the heat it is producing. Thank you for the feed back.

A very solidly constructed stove that gives out loads of heat and is very controllable. Ours has the modified firebrick that is now standard on all these stoves so we have had no issues with cracking and we also opted for the extra retainer that keeps the fuel in without restricting the view of the fire. The stove has transformed our living room bringing it alive and providing a clean and very efficient heat source; moreover the flame pattern is wonderful providing a continually changing picture. We had the stove professionally installed and the company (Green man Stoves) did a very professional and competitively priced job. All in all one of the better purchases we have made.

this is one of our better buys as we are very happy with our stove .
we have had no problems with our stove what so ever and it has been admired by friends and family alike and some have gone and bought one as well

We did a lot of research and narrowed it down to the Savoy Defra approved model
Proffesionally installed, must say it is a joy, not experienced any problems, actually like the low fuel retainer as it allows the whole view of the fire and makes it easier to stock the fire with larger logs if when you you stock the fire close the top air off open the door only slightly for a second to suck in the cold air and then open door slowly the ash stays in the fire box, opening the door quickly with the top air wash on drags some out its true .
comparing this to some of the other fires around it is very clean burning with a clear glass, logs last a lot longer and burn hotter, burning big chunks of OAK and ASH and get a lot more fire and flame and heat per log out of this Franco Belge compared to previous fires, like the simplicity and ease of the door handle and the air intake handles, can go wrong with this at the prices they are too, lay back and enjoy the fire while it dances for you.
Wood burners become part of the family. Superb !!

We are having the same problems as other people on this site. The front of the fire box was too low, but our installer contacted the manufacturer and the sent a further bar that sits on the top of the existing bar to increases the height. This does solve the problem.

Also the back fire brick has cracked and been replaced twice in 3 months. Again, the manufacturer was contacted and they are apparently aware of the problem, and are looking to rectify it. We have been told that once this is sorted, a replacement brick will be supplied. Contact your installer to get the problem sorted, as the manufacturer appears to be looking to solve.

Apart from these problems, great stove, lovely burning pattern, brilliant heat output, with large viewing window.

back and top firebrick cracked after 3 weeks use franco belge are aware of a fault and are changing the baffle plate to cast iron. iphoned the importer who told me that the installer should replace the faulty items at franco belge expense. otherwise i am happy with the product.

We had ours professionally installed having never owned a woodburner before as we were replacing our LPG model. The heat output is excellent, we have a 32 foot room with very large windows, single storey, this is the first winter we have been able to only wear T-shirts in the living room as the fire is so hot!

Only downside is that when you have been burning logs all day, after about 4 hours when you re-load the fire the ash and hot cinders fall out of the fire all over the place and bounce onto the carpet - not funny. I notice another reviewer has said the same - bad design they need to increase the height of the fuel retainer to stop this happening as it is dangerous.

Glass stay fairly clear if you burn dry wood, however, if slightly moist you do get a build up but it is easily cleaned with household wipes.

Also we only used the fire a number of times and the back wall fire brick developed a large crack from top to bottom, then a great chunk fell off the corner. The installer initially refused to replace and said that these things can occur and it is wear and tear - after a few times I dont think so. They did duly replace FOC. However, after a month the replacement has developed a fine hairline crack up it again. The installers say that this happens and it should not affect the operation, however, reading another review on this site of a different model of Franco Belge they too had this same problem. My stove is still only around 8 months old, so I would say this is poor.

However, overall apart from these two faults it offers exceptional heat and I would recommend especially if you live in a large exceptionally cold, single storey barn conversion with solid stone walls - just would like to be able to buy a replacement taller fuel retainer - wonder if Franco Belge would consider making this?

good stove for the money. looks very good
lights well, burns well, wood and smokeless fuel and kicks out plenty of heat
downsides
handle does get very hot
when door opens a small amount of ash tends to be sucked out onto the hearth so a bit messy
low front to firebox so need to be careful nothing falls out!