WhatStove?

Review of Charnwood Island I stove

Charnwood Island 1

Ian Allan 12 years ago

Being a NACS Chimney Sweep and HETAS installer here in Scotland we work with different stoves on a daily basis. The Charnwood Island 1 has always impressed me with its build quality, durability, ease of servicing and the positive comments from customers. It’s not the cheapest stove in the 5kw range but I feel the extra cost is justified with the quality of build and performance. \nLighting the stove is very simple using one firelighter, kindling and some small soft wood logs with one of the doors left open for a few minutes and the air control open fully the fire is up and running within 5mins. After closing the door we leave the air control fully open until the stove is up to temp approximately 20min then close it down 90% which allows the fire to settle to a good flame pattern with the gases burning off with a floating type flame. Once established we load with hardwood logs to give a longer burn, say three 10” logs will give a burn of around an hour and a half with air vent open to 10% with a superb heat thrown out from the stove. Overnight burning with wood has so far eluded me but a shovel full of smokeless fuel and closing the air vent down ensures a red hot base of ovals, even after 8 hrs ready for the first log in the morning. Peat is another fuel I have used giving a very good heat and burning longer than logs. To experiment I used soft wood with moisture of 40% to see how the stove would cope, black glass, very little heat output and an almost instant start to tar glazing of the liner so always try and burn wood with 20% or less moisture content.\nCharnwood say the stove will take up to 14” logs but I feel 10” logs sit better in the firebox. I don’t intend to use house coal in the stove. \nWe have the stove installed in our living room and with the room door left open the stove heat is warming upstairs as well to the extent we don’t require the central heating to be on I will add here how this goes if we have another severe winter.\nAll in all this is a superb stove, expensive but for the quality of build, heat output and looks its well worth saving for.\n\n

Stove expert replied: I second that - always burn wood with less than 20% moisture. More than that and you not only tar up your glass, you also tar up your chimney or liner which is a recipe for a chimney fire.

Overall rating:

5 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Value for money 5 flames (avg 4.2)
Ease of use 5 flames (avg 4.7)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Firebox size 4 flames (avg 4.1)
How well does the airwash work 5 flames (avg 4.3)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4.3)
Handle operation 5 flames (avg 4.6)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 4.4)
What is your overall satisfaction? 5 flames (avg 4.3)