WhatStove?

Review of Clearview vision 500 stove

Clear view of the fire in slow motion

Timothy Takemoto 10 years ago

I love the way one can watch the fire burn in what seems like slow motion, without ever (once in months) needing to clean the glass.

It is easy to light, heats up fast and warms the three main rooms in our house. The chimney does not get sooted up (though ours is straight-up, Selkirk and lagged).

It takes big logs and will burn seasoned tree trunks without splitting if you can get them in. Once it gets hot, there is so much air that anything that fits in will burn even if there is little left burning in the fire.

The handle which just screws in is a bit rudimentary and it gets a bit hot - gloves go on when opening the door.

The griddling rod on the bottom left is tough to move but that may be unavoidable.

The baffle plate above the fire seemed to be pretty deformed after two seasons using wood but we are still using it at the end of our third season. They cost 53UKP from one online supplier, and I can imagine having to change it after one or two seasons if using a lot of hotter coal/coke fuel.

We broke one pane of glass by shutting the door on a log too long and bought a new pane from a supplier in Scotland shipped to Japan for about 50UKP I think. It seems to work fine, though I think that is 1mm smaller than the real thing. Checking now I see that the real thing would be about the same price!

The bricks are still fine after 3 seasons.

I wish it had a more Nordic minimalist modern styling but it is pretty modern, and I am too busy watching the flames - a bit like something out of the TV series Supernatural.

Here is ours

http://youtu.be/s3PsDDYa41s?t=2m18s

Rather than the "airwash" technology, I think perhaps that the *especially* 'clear view' of the fire *may* be more of a function of the fact that Clearview stoves have a double-glazed front glass, packed with some tape of the same type that I think seals the door. I wonder what would happen if one doubled the glazing on a cheaper stove (assuming that one could grip two layers of glass in place). I have no idea. Just an idea.

All in all though, we love it.

Stove expert replied: Logs ideally should be no more than 100mm in diam to give the best burning efficiency, I would suggest not filling the firebox to the top as this can lead to failure of the baffle and if you load with large logs can cause problems with shutting the door etc and breaking the glass.

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 4.1)
Ease of use 5 flames (avg 4.5)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.5)
Firebox size 5 flames (avg 4.5)
How well does the airwash work 5 flames (avg 4.5)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4.5)
Handle operation 4 flames (avg 3.9)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 4.3)
What is your overall satisfaction? 5 flames (avg 4.4)