Review of Esse Ironheart cooking range
A Monster (with hunger to match)
We bought an Ironheart after much deliberation to heat our freezing cold and damp weekend cottage. A friend had one but never had much heat (back boiler version) out of it. We opted for the off the shelf version and installed it 3 years ago and have never looked back. It has transformed our freezing dining room into the heart of the house where long cold nights can be spent staring into the flames waiting for the optimum time to put another log on. A few months later we put in the wood burning yet and yet more heat (but more wood burnt) erupted. Since then its become an addiction and its on almost all year round except on the warmest summer days as its such fun to use. Its easy to cook on but you have to time your cooking and know how to control it.
Drawbacks - in essence this is a wood burner/cooker not a "aga" cooker so it emits more heat and keeps less in - so for us as weekenders its perfect. I am not sure I would want to "live with it" permanently as it will (if you let it) eventually consume vast amounts of wood which is not cheap or easy to collect. But as we are in the country in a forest with almost unlimited access to free or cheap wood that is not an issue. It burns wood quite quickly so you have nuture it (fun for a holiday) not all the time. But in the wet it can be a bit of a chore constantly carting wheelbarrows of wood in from the shed - while looking at your ever dwindling pile of carefully seasoned wood. It wont burn anything but the best by the way. Heaven knows what you would need for a year. Truck Loads. This year because of the freezing weather we opted for smokless fuel and thats been a revelation. Raging but steady heat which stays in all night and is ready to use with a bit of a poke in the morning. Drawbacks of that are more gritty ash (yuck) which we have to dispose of. and a bucket of coal is not as nice to look at as a pile of rustic logs - but in this weather who cares? As for cost I reckon coal is a lot cheaper to burn than wood. A £7.00 25 kilo bag will last 2 days. I dont pay for wood as we have our own free supply but I gather you can burn a lot more money than that in two days. Coal ash emptying a bit fiddley and a chore too. If you want a "proper cooker" (but with no window) two ovens and less heat out put then the Esse may not be quite right (a solid fuel aga may better or a rayburn) but if you want a duel use cooker and fun to use heater/woodburner then the Ironheart is perfect.Stove expert replied: Esse make range cookers which provide similar qualities to Agas and Rayburns.
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