WhatStove?

Review of Clearview vision 500 stove

Flue or fuel issue or both?

Hong Lin 9 years ago

Happy New Year, everyone!

This my first post but I really need some help now. After months of researching including reading through half of the posts in this forum, we finally picked Clearview Vision 500 and it was installed on the 16th of Dec. we started using it exactly two weeks ago. It is on nearly 12-14 hours everyday and so far it has eaten up nearly a whole Toyota truck load of logs from a local supplier recommended by the installer, in addition of four bags of kiln dried birch from home bargain. The local supplier said their logs are mixer of soft and hard wood although I can't really tell. They said the logs were seasoned at least 12 months which again I am not too sure. I bought a moisture reading thing which did give reading of around 20 although some logs are actually more than 30 but I guess different types of logs may need different length of time of seasoning.

During operating, the lighting is easy enough but the thermometer reading takes forever to go up. It constantly stays between 100-150c, unless we piled up with all kiln dried birch. The following is what I normally do, please let me know whether I did something wrong or whether something is wrong with the system:

Light the stove with some newspaper and a handful kindling, with two home bargain logs. Temperature goes to about 50c then I close the first air flow (clearview customer service told me turn off the spin wheel down when it reaches 100f which is about 40-50c). In about half an hour temperature can rise to 100c but the two logs usually are quite burned- turning into grey kind of colour, then I add another two logs in. I normally open the spin wheel to let the new logs catch fire properly before closing the first air flow, and half closing the second. The logs will burn and the temperature will gradually rise to 150c maximum and that's it. (Clearview customer service said they could bring temperature to 200c within 20min with one log, with addition of one log per hour to maintain the temperature).

We have tried to load 4-5 home bargain logs (the firebox was nearly full) and temperature could get to more than 300c but even with both air flow nearly closed, it won't keep (the second air flow normally need open about 1 or 2cm , otherwise the fire will kind of go out and temperature will drop, even if the logs are not fully burned). Within 2-3 hour or less, all logs were burned to small clump of charcoal / ashes and there is no way the stove could still be warm after overnight burn, something would assure me that the whole system has no fault.

We have been thinking the possibility of over draw of the flue as when it's windy, we could clearly hear the wind howling whenever we opened the door, hence could all heat has gone up the chimney? The chimney was lined and insulated, the flue is at the top with no bend. It has smoke control device installed. The airwash is effective.

To summarise, the issues are 1) takes much longer and many more logs to raise the temperature 2) temperature drops when both air flow closed 3) logs burn far too fast compared with other users on this forum and 4) do we need a flue damper or change to crown top chimney pot?

Please could anyone advise? Many thanks

Overall rating:

3.5 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Value for money 3 flames (avg 4.1)
Ease of use 3 flames (avg 4.5)
Ease of lighting 3 flames (avg 4.5)
Firebox size 5 flames (avg 4.5)
How well does the airwash work 5 flames (avg 4.5)
Controllability 1 flames (avg 4.5)
Handle operation 4 flames (avg 3.9)
How likely are you to buy it again? 3 flames (avg 4.3)
What is your overall satisfaction? 3 flames (avg 4.4)