Bought our model, with back boiler, a couple of years ago. We have piggy-backed it, using a Dunsley-Baker neutraliser (simple, but pricey for what it is), and some extra pumps, with our gas
boiler so that when there is a demand for heat (from rads or hot water tank) it takes over when it is lit. If it is lit and the heat demand goes off (or there's a power cut!), the excess heat is dumped ("thermosyphoned") to a 1.5kw rad in the loft, else the water boils (scary!). The Yorkie has a thermostatically-controlled air control, which restricts the air intake when the water in the back boiler approaches its set temperature. Dunsley have a range of possible plumbing and wiring schematics on their website but I visited the factory in Holmfirth before purchase and spoke to the Managing Director who looked over my custom schematics and was very helpful. I'm not a professional installer but, if you can join pipes and manage basic wiring, it's not beyond the remit of the competent DIYer.The back boiler can heat all the rads in our moderately-sized house (although the ramp-up is a little slow), puts out up to 5kw directly into our small living room (phew!) and can heat a tank of hot water in about 1.5 hours. Lots of space on the top for cooking on too - Dunsley also supply a griddle pan as an optional extra too. We had chestnuts on ours last night - yum!It's a big lad of a stove but it still fits into the inglenook cut into the chimney breast of our small 3-bed former council house with all the necessary clearances (just!). The chimney is lined with a flexible stainless steel flue liner. How durable this will be with a 17kw solid fuel appliance only time will tell! We feed it scrap timber and broken up pallets and since installation (and also of solar HW heating panels) we have knocked 90% 0ff of our gas bill. I haven't fed it any logs yet but, after pursuing my chainsaw certificate, it's a plan for the future! The ash pan only needs emptying about once per week.The stove is very cleanburning, once hot enough, but doesn't slumber down well with a lot of fuel in and so isn't really appropriate for overnight burning as (a) it will get smokey and (b) would be a waste of fuel, with most of the heat going to your heat dump! If you loaded it last thing with your CH on, and only a few rads, I doubt there would be any fuel/fire left in the morning.My only real gripe with it is that, possibly as a result of burning very dry scrap timber, the front fuel retainer bar can get too hot and can start to bend inwards due to differential expansion. I go through a new one roughly once every year. I suspect that this wouldn't happen with logs, though.All said and done, this is an absolutely cracking piece of kit, solid, innovative and British made. I wholeheartedly recommend it!
The technical information given on various websites is just Wrong. Most say that you cannot have a 12mm hearth. This statement is incorrect. On looking at the manufacturers installation instructions
the hearth temperature only reaches 25 Deg C when the room temperature is 19.9 Deg C. Therefore under the Building Regulations (less than 100DegC) a 12mm hearth is sufficient. On contacting Dunsley they have confirmed that a 12mm hearth is suitable (however they do advise using a thicker hearth suitable to support the weight of the stove 198kg plus 22kg of water). However a full constructional hearth is not required. Note: when looking for a appliance it is best to get a copy of the installation instructions and check every detail before purchasing.
Stove expert replied:
Please note that you should always follow the manufacturers guidance and as they advise a thicker one should be used this is what should be provided, they advise die to the weight of the stove and should your 12mm hearth fail there would be no redress.
Ours is 9 years old now and still going strong. Can be a fiddle to get going strongly but once you find your method stick with it, all vents open and door slightly open a must.Never had a complaint
from a neighbour about smells or smoke which I was worried about. Cleanburn is good whilst vents are fully open but as you reduce air you can get a build up if there is any moisture in your fuel. Also don't use too much newspaper for the same reason. Not the cheapest but built to last and it paid for itself within 3 yrs according to my gas bills.any faults?I broke the clear front but it was my fault, £50 to replaceInside rivet on the door works its way up and always seems to pop out when its burning for some reason which can be a challenge to put back in hot :)metal baffle at the top is warping but no issues in usefire brick at the back is starting to wear at the bottomI need to replace the rope seal when I get round to ita little tip, if your rope comes away and you don't have any glue use a thick flour and water paste and it will bake it rock hard, lasts about 6 months
Hi thereI bought this stove after 12 months of research. And speaking to owners and reading reviews. We run 8 rads and domestic hot water. ( shower with 3bar grunfos pump ) On over night for
daytime water. On when we are home for H/W and Heating. We can not recommend this stove high enough its fantastic. We run with only reclaimed wood. No heating bills. Bring on the winter.
had our dunsley yorkshire stove installed 3years ago works beautifully loads of heat loads of hot water best fuel is definitely homefire stays in all night no problem,best fuel for outright
heat is premium columbian coal!!! our radiators are singing!
We have had this stove for over 2 years now and it's a real workhorse in our house. The back boiler is plumbed into our heating system that includes GSHP and solar thermal and heat store.
I would estimate that half or more of our heat and hot water in our house comes from the stove and it goes hard most days during the winter. It is a good stove and will last. It is efficient and can be run hard.I do have problems getting it to run overnight, even if I shut down all the vents to the lowest setting at 10pm and fill it up with hardwood it is normally dead by the morning (7 - 8am), any suggestions here would be appreciated.The firebox might be a wee bit bigger too as I would like to be able to cut logs to a larger size but I guess this would make it a larger stove in both physical size and heat output. It can be a bit slower to get going than another stove that we have but I think this is just the way that the air is drawn out the back down the bottom causes this. Overall though we are very happy with it and as I said it's not just a feature in our house, it's a workhorse that earns it's keep.
Stove expert replied:
Over night burn for woodburning stoves can be difficult and is not recommended due to the deposits that are created on a slow burn setting which woukd need to be used, if it is a multifuel stove then try using smokeless fuels for over-night and then wood for the day time.
WE BOUGHT DUNSLEY YORKS BOILER STOVE 2 YRS AGO, GOODBYE GAS, HELLO LOGS, LOVE WINTER NIGHTS -10 OUTSIDE AND ITS FAB IN OUR HOUSE. IT WILL EVEN SLUMBER OVERNIGHT WITH STOVEHEAT COBBLES. HOT WATER
WHEN EVER WE NEED IT! MR BEAGLE LOVES IT, LAYS NEAR IT, UNTIL HE NEARLY STARTS TO SMOULDER!! WIFE SAYS BEST THING WEVE BOUGHT IN 32 YRS I AGREE.
Brilliant piece of kit, built like a tank. Had to dismantle it to get it in but doing so is easy, as is rebuilding it. Easy to light, once you realise that the door has to be open a crack at
first, produces lots of heat. It has a hot plate on top so you can make tea in a power cut.It has a grid at the front to stop things falling out, which does slightly restrict the size of lumps of wood it will take from huge to merely large.I have never tried to keep it in over night so haven't put a response for that- except the review site insists that I do.
I have been using the Dunsley Yorkshire boiler stove for a year now, and generally we are very pleased with it. At the time of purchase, the Yokshire was the only boiler stove on the market
permitted for use in smoke control areas, and I believe this is still the case. This was really the main factor in purchasing this stove over others.The stove is configured to heat a 300ltr thermal store through an ESBE load unit. There are many options for configuring a boiler stove, and after a lot of research, I decided a thermal store system such as this would be most appropriate. Through the thermal store, the stove provides domestic hot water and heating to six radiators.After some extortionate quotes (£5000 just for the labour!) from HETAS registered installers, I decided to carry out the installation works myself. Having given the concept a lot of research, I got the impression that even the HETAS plumbers were not particularly sure what was required and priced in a lot of uncertainty. It took a lot of work to provide a suitable base for the thermal store in the loft, install the 28mm copper piping, correctly size the heat link radiator, specify the correct load unit etc. Now the job is done, it all seems worth it, but I would suggest it is a lot of work and should only be considered if you are convinced you are equipped with the technical and practical knowledge to carry out the job properly. Having finished the works last autumn, we are very happy with the performance of the stove. The build is very solid and reliable and the controls are simple and effective. The air baffle works very well, and I am able to restrict the air supply even in very windy conditions. We purchased the wood burner only model, and found the fixed grate to be difficult to use, so upgraded to the multi fuel grate which we find much better.Using the optional external air kit, air is ducted into the stove from beneath a ventilated suspended floor. Not only does this remove drafts caused by the draw of the stove, it also provides additional ventilation to the void beneath the floor, thus reducing the risk of damp problems.Unlike other boiler stoves, the Yorkshire is able to regulate the temperature of water in the back boiler by regulating the air flow into the fire box. We also have a thermostat located on the flue to turn the circulation pump on/off so as to optimise the efficiency of the system. Through controls such as these, we are able to run the stove in at its optimum.Minus points would be, one; the styling isn’t to every bodies taste. I find the appearance of other Dunsley stoves, or offerings by Clearview and Morso to a name a few, far kinder on the eye. This is a shame considering Dunsley have a unique sales point in the Yorkshire. The second point would be that I do find the glazing can tar up when the stove is running on the ducted air inlet. The stove runs most effeceintly when the air flow is restricted, but annoyingly this is when it can tar up the most. However, I may have found a possible fix to this in the form of double glazing. Having recently inspected a double glazed Clearview stove, I noted that there is nothing special about the double glazing; just two sections of glass spaced apart by fire rope. Clearview offer a special profile of fire rope to do this. I am yet to install the new glass, but hopefully this will help reduce the taring problems. On the whole we are very happy with the Dunsley Yorkshire Boiler stove, but I would suggest that this is very dependent on how the system is configured. I have found the ESBE load unit to be a very worthwhile addition to the system. As boiler stoves are not particularly common, a lot of research is required and I wouldn’t necessarily rely on ‘the professionals’ to provide the right advice. I would also give a lot of consideration as to how appropriate a boiler stove is over a dry stove. Whilst it is very satisfying to run wood fired radiators and hotwater, it can involve a lot more time and expense to install when compared to a dry stove.
Stove expert replied:
Specialist Heating Engineers should not be disregarded, many will give expert advice and support. As this customer has installed it himself he should get Building Control to sign this installation off whereas a Hetas Engineer can sign it off, important as your house insurance will require this certification.
The Dunsley Yorkshire is the only stove I've used. It works very well, and will heat seven radiators. But it is a fully manual system; if you were to come back in the evenings in winter you
would have limited time to warm your home sufficiently. I have had my stove for 2 years, and recently the air supply, which is external, (I used a drainpipe and duct tape to connect to the foil hose)stopped working. The reason for this was that the stove had become blocked with tar deposits. Using the curved handle part of Henry vacuum I got under the top of the stove through the hatch, and also used a stick to clear the airways within the combustion chamber, along with the vacuum. That got the stove back to perfect operation from no air at all.
Stove expert replied:
Always carry out a monthly check to insure air ways are completely free this will avoid the problem as above. Using good quality fuel which is dry and seasoned is important as is short periods of fast burn to prevent tar build up.
