WhatStove?

Review of The Salisbury

Really happy with our Salisbury

7 years ago

I'm a chronic worrier about big purchases, so you can imagine the sleepless nights I've had choosing a stove for our new house, especially since it's something my wife and I have been hankering after for years. We don't have money to spare (much less burn) so I was anxious not to get this wrong. The more I researched, the further I seemed to get away from consensus. Websites like this one are excellent, but so many of the reviews seem to be more about bad experiences with drafts, flues and timber than with the actual stoves themselves. Eventually, it was conversations with our stove installer and some excellent local salesmen that led me to the Chesney Salisbury. We have a well insulated though quite large room, and didn't need a large stove. We were advised to get a 5KW, but settled on a 4.6 (the model is the Salisbury 4) as it strikes me as a bit daft to get something so hot that we''d be opening windows and peeling off layers of clothing once it got going -and there's a saving of a couple of hundred quid over the 5. I note that the Chesney range includes quite a variety of sizes and outputs, so I guess you'd be covered for any type of room anyway. Price wise, it's about mid market. Not as cheap as some we've seen, but certainly not overpriced. What it is, though, is a really solid bit of construction and design. Everything is robust and the handle and lever are beautifully smooth to operate. Our house is 1930s and we didn't want to get something that looked as if it came out of a Charles Dickens drama (which ruled out Clearview, which was the other make we'd been recommended), neither did we want some achingly cool piece of Scandi designer kit. Chesney's designers have a really lovely sense of economy and proportion. This is a clean and elegant looking stove, that fits equally well in a period or modern home. At risk of sounding obvious, it looks like a stove, properly so, without being faffy or overly ornate. Since we bought it, I keep seeing Chesneys in interiors magazines, so perhaps we're accidentally on trend. Back to my anxieties. I worried about installation, but this proved a very easy fit. I worried about how easy it would be to light, but it's sooo simple: If the flue's cold, we chuck in a few balls of newspaper first to warm it up, to stop downdraft. Lob in a single firelighter with a few sticks of kindling, let them get to a good flame, then pop a log on and you''re away. There is only one lever to operate. Out for a fast burn or to get started, halfway in to drop the flame down once it's under way, all the way in to let it die down. That's it. You'll be up to optimum temperature within the hour. The glass cleans itself. We've been burning logs most evenings for a couple of weeks now and haven't yet needed to clean out the ash. You just leave a bed of it in the bottom for the next time you light up. the level seems to stay constant. We've been getting through 3 to 4 logs an evening. The first couple of burns are a bit wiffy, as the paint cures or dries or whatever it does, but that's quickly gone. No clouds of smoke, no nasty smells, no irritating hissing noises. Beautiful flame patterns. Love this stove. Love it. As first timers, we could have got it so wrong, but we really seem to have lucked out. They even threw in, and this is important, a gorgeous pair of black suede Chesney branded fire resistant gauntlets as a bonus. I enjoy wearing them possibly a bit too much. They make me feel like a domestic Darth Vader.

Stove expert replied: Pleased to hear your are happy with the stove and the quality, design and operation are what is said on the literature. Now enjoy and relax!

Overall rating:

5 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4.3)
Value for money 4 flames (avg 3.1)
Ease of use 5 flames (avg 3.9)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.4)
Firebox size 4 flames (avg 3.5)
How well does the airwash work 5 flames (avg 3.9)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4)
Handle operation 5 flames (avg 2.4)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 2.6)
What is your overall satisfaction? 5 flames (avg 3.3)