Review of Clearview Pioneer 400 stove
'No Regrets'
This is our first wood burning stove and we installed it in the lounge of our three bedroom dormer bungalow during the summer of 2010. Coming to the end of a winter that has included the coldest December on record we have no regrets. Our reason to install it was based simply on the fact that the price of gas and electricity will continue to soar and that there is no security in the supply of gas.\n\nInitially after a visit to a local dealer we were looking at a different manufacturer’s product, that dealer also recommended a stove with a greater heat output on the basis that it’s always better to have too much heat rather than to little. But having found this web site and seeing the other stove operating in another show room, we decided that it wasn’t for us.\n\nAfter reading the Clearview reviews here we visited the Ludlow showroom in Feb 2010. Had a home visit from one of their approved installers who gave very good advice and suggested that a Pioneer 400 would be more than sufficient for our needs, without making the lounge so unbearably hot that you could not sit in the room! That clinched the deal for us and we placed our order for a Pioneer 400.\n\nInitially I built a wood store and by the end of April had filled it with cut and split wood, to season for the winter. During the summer I installed the stove which was an easy DIY job with the extensive instructions and information that Clearview supply. Their staff are also very helpful either during telephones calls or personal visits.\n\nDuring the winter we have been burning the wood that I had cut and split by April and we have become acquainted with a carpenter who brings us bags of his off cuts, hard and soft wood, chip board and MDF. It all burns really well! By April 2011 we will have burnt a total of about ten cubic meters of wood. During December I don’t think the stove went out at all. It easily heats the lounge and the bedroom upstairs where the radiators are now turned off in both rooms. There is also a significant reduction in the use of the central heating for the rest of the house.\n\nI naïvely, never realised that it would be such an efficient and effective means of heating the house and my only regret besides not having fitted one sooner is that I didn’t buy a Clearview with a boiler and connect it in to the heating and hot water system. There’s always tomorrow! \n\n\nThe stove is very well made and of excellent quality, attention to detail with the adjustable door hinges and handle show what a well thought out product this is. Although expensive I would say that it was worth it. Much better than spending half the amount on a stove that didn't work as well.\n\n \nThe stove is very easy to use and light, never requiring more than one match to light it. Burning overnight is the only area that I have marked down and as others have said the fire box is not really large enough to be still blazing away the next morning. However filling at 11pm and turning the air slide down; will mean that there are some embers at 7am the next morning, which is easily fired up again.\n\nAlthough we don’t live in a smokeless area the stove makes much less smoke when compared to that of a neighbour, whose stove is much older and of a different make. The air wash system really works and we go for weeks without cleaning the glass. The hypnotic view of it burning is never obscured.\n\nBefore we installed the stove it would have been a difficult question to answer, what is the best thing that we have ever done to this house? Since then, it’s a no brainer it has transformed our home. Thank you Clearview.\n\n
Stove expert replied: DIY installations should be accompanied by a sign off by the local Building Control Department or use a Hetas Engineer. In this instance customer seems happy with the results, I hope he has installed a CO2 alarm which is requirement!