Review of Esse Ironheart cooking range
Esse Ironheart reviewed after 8 years use.
We had an Esse Ironheart installed in 2011 to replace a horrible Rayburn that came with the house in France.
It''s used mainly to heat the kitchen in our old stone house, occasionally to cook with. We have our own patch of woodland, so process our own wood as and when it falls down or needs felling. We burn spruce, douglas fir, northern pine, larch, birch, cypress, chestnut and a bit of oak now and again when we can buy some cheap. Experience teaches us that it needs cleaning out regularly, not just the flue, but the body of the stove is as important. The firebox top,around the damper housing, under the hotplate, the oven top, sides, back and underneath - twice a year, with an industrial vacuum cleaner. I suspect that many of the problems experienced with the Ironheart reported on this website are due to not cleaning them out properly or often enough. I just lit ours 4 hours ago, firing it with some 5 year seasoned spruce, it hasn''t fouled the glass yet! There are four controls on an Esse Ironheart, you need to learn what they do and what effect they have before complaining that the stove is no good! The system for parts supply is a bit hit and miss, the Esse dealer in France that fitted ours was useless, didn''t stock anything, didn''t know what fitted what stove and then went bust. Parts supplied from the Esse factory is better but as an engineer with a small machine shop here, I can make most of what I need. The problem of firing it with a cold flue can be a problem. We burn a small dish of burning alcohol ( meths) in the firebox to warm the flue before lighting the kindling, this stops it smoking the place out.Stove expert replied: Good feedback from years of experience, maintaining and cleaning are so important on any stove to get he best from them.
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