WhatStove?

Review of Stratford TF 50 stove

Stratford TF50 Surprisingly powerful!

Rupert Warner 14 years ago

We installed this in November 08. We live in a 2 bed semi cottage with 8 rads. We have linked the burner to our oil central heating allowing us to run 1 or the other. In 07 we used about 1300 litres of oil to heat our water and house, and that was a mild winter!\nThis year we have been warmer and used only about 300L, a huge saving! We used the oil to heat the rads initially during the coldest weather, ie -5 to -10c and found that burning wood thereafter we could keep the rads warm and the house at about 19c. During milder times, say down to -1 ish wood alone can warm the rads quite happily. Similarly, burning solid fuel produced enough heat to heat the rads from scratch meaning we could avoid the oil totally. Overall we have found that it can heat more rads than advertised, and keeps 6 rooms comfortably warm, even in very cold weather.\n Obviously the type of wood burned has some effect. We used ash in the coldest weather but now it is milder we are using willow and softwoods which generate sufficient heat.\nThe dial air flow controller works very well and the fire reacts very quickly and is very controllable. The fire seems to burn very cleanly, as after 3 months of use for about 14 hours per day, burning wood 90% of the time, when I swept the liner only about 4 tablespoons of soot came down!\n We have another Aarrow stove that is about 10 years old and still looks good as new, hopefully this 1 will last as well. Very plaesed with it and would recomend to anyone.

Overall rating:

4.5 flames

Build Quality 4 flames (avg 3.7)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4)
Value for money 5 flames (avg 4.1)
Ease of use 4 flames (avg 3.9)
Ease of lighting 4 flames (avg 4.1)
Firebox size 3 flames (avg 3.6)
How well does the airwash work 5 flames (avg 3.5)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4)
Handle operation 5 flames (avg 3.9)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 4)
What is your overall satisfaction? 4 flames (avg 4)