Review of Dovre 250 stove
First class choice after all the homework!
Like many people who are considering installing a stove for the first time I was somewhat lost as to where to begin in comparing the features I desired, with the availability of a stove on the market to actually meet these. I hope that my review of this stove will assist others in their decision to go the stove route, as I literally spent tens of hours in narrowing my choice down to this little beauty (of which we now have 2 installed in each of our separate lounge and dining rooms). I made my decision based partly on the comments on this site hence why I felt it important to add a review.\n\nThe Stoves I opted for were the Dovre 250 multifuel with short legs and optional smoke control kits.\n\nBoth of our rooms are approx 5mx4mx3m in size and we have limited size fireplace openings (these stoves just squeezed into our chimney openings leaving the required space surrounding them to the inside of the chimney breast). \n\nI have had gas coal "effect" fires installed in smaller rooms in my previous property with a rating of 5kw and was always disappointed with the poor level of heat I actually got from these so was initially a little sceptical about "only" having a 5kw rating on this stove. \nI have to say that these stoves are great at belting the heat straight out into the rooms and make them nice and toasty within a short space of time - they are far more efficient than any gas fire could be in my opinion. There is also the added benefit that you can keep a 2 litre camping kettle on top of the stove throughout the evening to make a few cups of tea / coffee without having to boil kettle!\n\nWe have turned off the heating to our downstairs and rely on lighting our stoves to keep warm. Whilst time will tell, I am not convinced that we will be able to heat the entire house from the two stoves on the coldest of evenings, as our house has an above average number of bedrooms. The boiler may not yet be completely redundant but I do feel that we will save money through a combination of a) sourcing logs from a competitively priced farm and b) ensuring our friends will pass any logs to us should they have tree surgery works undertaken, as our gas bill has been extortionate over last two winters.\n\nIn essence, my desires when choosing a stove were:\n- Reasonable cost\n- Top quality cast iron construction \n- Multifuel\n- Airwash\n- Large as poss. viewing window\n- Ability to accept realistic sized logs (to 30cms)\n- DEFRA Smoke Exempt (with optional smoke control kit)\n\nThis was the only stove to meet all of these requirements hence my decision to "take a chance". \nMY WIFE AND I ARE TOTALLY DELIGHTED WITH OUR CHOICE. THESE STOVES HAVE EXCEEDED OUR EXPECTATIONS. \n\nFrom an operating point of view, I find that if I set a roaring fire to get the flue to a good temperature thus maximising the draw, the controlability with the dial and slider improves dramatically, to a point where you can have the stove either roaring or slumbering after half an hour or so. The draw achieved and controllability is especially pleasing as one of my chimneys has had the stack historically reduced and I have had to have a 600mm pot fitted to get near the necessary height. \nI have had no issues with the movement of the knobs or slide controls.\n \nI set the fire with a layer of screwed up paper balls, kindling on top of this (the better the quality, the easier the lighting) and finally a small log. As I put the next log on, I will usually add 2/3 homefire coal briquettes also (hence benefit of multifuel) as I find these aid me in keeping the heat up and seem to reduce the number of logs I need to keep adding through the evening. I use hardwood logs sourced from a local farm and season these in my self constructed log store (much better value than ready built). \n\nThe ash pan works well, catching most of the ash and there is a knob you pull out to disturb the grate above so that the ash falls through to ash pan. Relatively little ash is produced compared to the quantity of log burnt. I have made a basic cover to transport the ash pan from stove. This avoids the problem of ash being dropped from the ashpan as you transport through the house to outside (and you don't need to buy an expensive, unnecessary and awkward to store metal box to put ash pan in when you transport it).\n \nI from personal choice also went for a 25 year guarantee 904/904 liner as I intend to stay in my house for many years and as long as you sweep twice a year and stick to quality fuel, then this should last for at least that period. \n\nI use a mixture of paper with vinegar, a glass cleaner and also a scraper (the type you use to scrap dried paint from glass) to remove any marks from the glass window. The scraper especially works well and with care you don't damage the glass.\n\nAs for overnight burning I don't feel that any small stove will successfully do this but if I add a few briquettes just as I go to bed, I find that these are usually warm enough in the morning to relight a log quite easily.\n\nIn essence I have to concur with many of the comments for this stove on the site and strongly recommend.\n
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