Review of Priory stove
Fabulous Stove
I was lucky enough to get a ex-display Priory stove for a good price. I have an old non insulated Edwardian detached house that is often cold in winter I have very high gas central heating bills as a result. Last year I brought a Serbian 6kw stove that I was not that impressed with (was disappointed). Where was being so hot that I had to open a window? which the installers said would happen if I put in a stove over 6kW they advised a 5kW model. Well with so much online about the poor quality overseas imports I thought I had bought a bad stove (I'll come back to this later). So this year I was going to install a 12kW in another room (as the real flame gas one was too expensive and hadn't been fitted correctly)...But the consequences of installing a too higher kW stove was cautioned by my HETAS engineer and so I got an 8kw English made steel Priory stove. It is fitted without a flue liner by my HETAS registered installer in my class 1 chimney. I poured on the smokeless coal and let it rip. For the 1st 45 minutes I was disappointed, 'I thought that 6 inch flue was too big' and then when I reduced the air flow to lower the flame and whoosh the heat was magnificent. Door wide open, window open, the stairs and hallway were warm and later that night I found the benefit of not having a steel flue. The chimney breast in the room above was really warm and the tiles on the hearth were surprisingly warm also. I shall never flue them again as the other fire never warmed up the room above. About 8kgs of smokeless fuel lasted from 2pm until late into the night (I'd gone to bed and it was still belting out heat). The glass stayed clear with the secondary air inlet open all the way and it's a beautiful stove to sit an look at in the evening with it's large viewing glass.
Just a note about the Serbian import after being disappointed with the stove I had the HETAS engineer who came to quote for the other installation to look at it to give me pointers with it burning away in the background. The consensus was that it was a badly designed stove, baffle in correct position check, stove fan check, Flue liner check, good draw check. So a bad import...wrong as I read through the manual (which was very poorly written and mis-diagrammed) I came across one piddling line that said a "fill to a depth of 15cms of coal". Surely it wasn't that easy, again advice from installer saying that's too much coal. But looking at it again the fire box is tall not long so in the middle of July I took the last of my fuel lit that bane of my life fire and let it rip with 15cms of fuel measured with a tape. Had to open all the windows and after a year of faffing with the darn thing I got 6kw of pure heat from about 8-10kgs of fuel it was still hot in the morning. Instead of steadily feeding the fire which I had done before shoving it all in and just leaving it alone warmed the room and more. Not the chimney breast as this one had a flue liner but definitely the room and hall with the draw pulling the cold air from the kitchen serving hatch as well. So not much of a review but a tale of stoves and benefits of reading a manual cover to cover. On a side note my HETAS engineer has an import the Tiger and is very happy with it I'm happy now with both my steel stoves imported and a named brand.Stove expert replied: A chimney should be lined if the property is of an older style say over 50 years, if it is not in good order or if it is larger internally than 9" diam or 12" square. It is important to keep the flue gases warm so you get a good lift up the chimney and away from the stove, and by reducing the size, using a liner, will aid this process. it also means the removal of gases are more efficient and prevents condensation forming as the flue gases go into a larger space than the initial flue pipe. On an older chimney the motar may not be in good condition, (this can be difficult to ascertain), and can lead to soot leakage / staining of the surrounding materials and possibly gas leakage.
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