Review of Dru 78 stove
A cast iron success
I have the 78WD model so this review only applies to the woodburner. I worked in a stove shop for over a decade selling and installing all makes of stove but never came across this. I know there are some exceptional sheet metal stoves out there but there is something about cast iron I have always prefered. Stoves like this are made up of dozens of individually cast parts which all neatly fit together, the initial outlay for the manufacturer is huge and this is a quality cast iron stove and value for money. Some research led me to believe it was cast at the Dovre foundry in Norway. Further searching suggested that internally it resembled the Dovre 760CB (not the newer 760wd). Actually its identical, same parts. It appears Dru, under license I presume have just designed a new more modern rounded outer shell for that stove. This was finally confirmed when it arrived with an outside airkit which I ordered made by Dovre for the 760cb with their instructions.
I bought this 3 years ago for £1500 a ridiculous price for a Morso, Jotul (Dovre) standard of cast iron stove with an 11kw output. Its brilliant at burning wood, looks beautiful run on tertiary and some secondary air once the firebox is hot, window stays clean (burning seasoned wood!). The side loading door is so useful, no more ash and smoke into the room opening a huge front door to load. Takes 600mm lengths of timber. Internals all easily removable and I love the Jotul style top-plate for access....it''s weight keeps it in place!. I guess its not the simplest stove I''ve ever used, you need to learn how to get the best out of it. The flue-gases have an efficient but convoluted path to exit and the 3 back air entry ports arent big making cracking open the front door for a couple of minutes (as the instuctions suggest) required to help get it going. After that the front door remains shut throughout. An awesome woodburning stove easily worth twice the price.