Review of Broseley eVolution 26 boiler stove
Broseley Evolution 26 - Nightmare to clean - horrible to load - but what a stove if you can put up with its drawbacks
We have had the stove for about 7 years now and it serves to heat our water and radiators once it''s up to temperature. It''s a great stove if you can put up with its drawbacks.
1) It''s a pain to clean. Cleaning is paramount. Our local chimney sweep gave up on us because of the difficulty of servicing the Broseley - taking the side panel off and getting access through the small side hatch is a time consuming process but one that should be done (we''ve found) twice a year to keep the flue clear. Debris falls down the flue straight onto the top baffle and the flue can become restricted very quickly. We resorted to buying our own chimney flue cleaning rods which attach to my cordless drill and I must say they do a better job than our local sweep ever did. So now I just clean the unit myself twice a year - takes me an hour or two but it''s well worth it. It''s not like normal woodburners - and we''ve had 7 in our time. The flue creates more soot due to the lower exit temperatures of the smoke from the unit. I was shocked by how quickly soot builds up on the top baffle (pretty poor design from Broseley but it is what it is). I can''t recommend cleaning the unit frequently. We have a Chesney Alpine as well and I clean that once a year - and there is twice as much soot from the Broseley than the Chesney - even cleaning twice as often. 2) Smoke into the room when re-loading. This is a common issue that most people experience - us too. I believe the issue with the stove is that the flue never gets really hot - we have a stove temp gauge and we struggle to get the flue above 150 C which is what you need for a decent draw. The water cooled effect of the stove keeps the unit pretty cool during operation - unless of course you''re not passing water through it in which case you can ignore my comments. When loading the unit do the following - open the door about a cm. You''ll notice the rush of air fans the embers and causes the fire to burn a little quicker. Let the fire stabilise - takes about 30 secs and then open the door really slowly. The smoke will go up the flue if you''re patient and don''t rush opening the door - it''s the vacuum effect when people open the door quickly that causes smoke to billow into the room - then people panic and shut the door - only to be back to square one. So my top tips are - make sure the unit is really clean in the area on top of the top baffle (directly under the flue) and practice opening the door slowly with that initial 30 second wait with the door open about a cm. Would I buy another one - no. But I''ve got one and I make the most of it.Stove expert replied: Some really useful comments here Anthony - thank you - especially opening the door slowly to allow the chimney to get used to the higher flow of air. Does it improve if you open a window? If so you might want extra room ventilation. I think that fitting a load unit might help you with your chimney. Like the thermostatic cartridge in a car heating system it loops the water within the stove until it comes up to temperature. That gets the stove up to operating tem faster and keeps it there. The added bonus is that when hot water does leave the stove to go out to your hot water cylinder and heating system is that it is always above a set temperature - which means you can have a shower much sooner. That also raises the flue temp faster, and results in a higher fire chamber temp = more efficient combustion = less deposits.
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