Build quality is very good and doesn''t feel like the stove is going to fail on flimsy parts. handles and controls feel solid.
Efficient stove for sure although I had to remove the limiter plate
to allow me to turn down to level where the stove was not overheating the room when using very dry wood. This limiter to prevent particulates in built up areas but as we live in the country...
one thing that really lets it down for me is the amount of smoke that plumes out when you open the door. in a smallish house this is pretty intoxicating. it''s ok if you let the wood burn down first but sometimes you have to open the door mid burn for some reason (another log before popping out/giving it a prod or pushing a fallen log back from the glass) and then it really pours out which can be very noxious, it''s annoying. This is due to the design of the baffle which is set very far forward to allow maximum us of the flame before it disappears up the chimney for maximum efficiency and to burn particulates before they go outside. But the payoff is instead of particulates going outside they go inside the room!
So if you have a big house and smoke will disperse, great, if a small house I wouldn''t.
Never had this issue with a clearview, always sucked straight up and out. And sometimes it is just nice to sit with the door open for a minute and appeciate the cosy heat of the embers.
So good stove, but you have to learn to live with it.
I saw the Farringdon during a tour of Arada's factory. A prototype version was sitting in their testing laboratory, and as soon as I saw the flame, I fell in love with this stove.In true Arada
style, the manual could be improved, but it is a very easy stove to install (even giving you a 5" flue outlet, and a 6" outlet so you can choose which you would like to use).Where the manual let it down is one of the accessories delivered with it: Fire Sock. It took me a little while to find it in the manual, and the only place it is mentioned is in the parts list as the 'Baffle Insulation' - without installing this essential part, the stove will be much more difficult to control.I have taken advantage of the direct air connection to the outside world, and have a 5" flue straight up at a height of 7 meters.With this, the stove is easy to get started (I recommend leaving the door ajar for the first 10 minutes), and once it is up and running, the combustion air can be controlled very easily producing a beautiful almost orangey blue flame. The flames then curl themselves around the tertiary air bars before exiting via the flue, this gives a mesmerising flame picture, as well as keeping the large viewing glass window very clean indeed.With a nominal 8kW to room, this stove is not built for a 'snug', but will not struggle to heat a good size living/dining room, or large living area.It's looks means that it is well suited to both traditional fire places, and also a modern free standing look.The build quality of the stove is excellent, with 5 or 6 mm welded steel. The handle is multi functional (does both the door and the grate riddling), and I believe in time Arada are releasing different styles of handle too. Currently the handle that comes with it is of a good simple design though, so you probably will not want to change it... and if in the mean time you do not like it, you can always take it off of the stove when not in use.As advertised by Arada, the Farringdon has the added advantage that not only is it a DEFRA smoke exempt area approved stove, but it also exceeds new emissions regulations that are being introduced throughout the EU by 2022.This is a superb stove, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a room that can house it.
Stove expert replied:
Great review of one of the latest stoves to be released by Arada.
A year ago we switched from a small 5kW Arada Arrow wood burner to an Arada Farringdon Medium Eco'' so as to have a wider door to look into the fire. However we''ve just returned it for a refund
, due to bad smoke spillage when opening the door to refuel. Yet the installer measured a healthy 28 pascal of draw on our 6.5m high flue that we upgraded to 150mm. We''ve put our old Arada back in place temporarily & it works very well without smoke spillage. It roars when being lit, as it always has done.So to have a burner with wider front door, we''ve bought a pre 2022 Arada 5 kW widescreen instead, due to be fitted next week. It''s quoted as 79% efficient, whereas the Farringdon is only 74%!So quite what the 2022 standard is trying to achieve I''m not sure. The Farringdon has almost no exhaust output in the centre at the top due to excessive baffling, hence the smoke spillage. I wouldn't risk a 2022 standard one again.
