Review of Firebelly FB2 stove
Doublesided Firebelly FB2
We purchased the double sided fire for our new extension. After studying the technical information and speaking with the manufacturers we decided this was the fire for us. The stove itself fits well in the overall finish of our new extension.
However it is only 3 months old and looks years old the glass does not stay clear, the airwash system are two vents on top of the fire and sparks will fire out therefore not recommended to be light when not in the house. it is messy spilling ash and soot out when the door is opened and smokey. It does give off good heat but does not live up to its recommendation for its other features.Our Firebelly is the double sided version. This has two glass areas, although only one is a door. It has two airwash baffles and a revised firebrick layout which forms a downward facing "V".
The revised firebricks tend to direct any smoke out the door when opened. There may be a flue problem but the flue is 4.5 metres, vertical and with no bends, the outlet 50cms above the ridge. The draw seems generally very good. Concerning the smoking up of the glass, we are using predominantly dry softwood, this is virtually kiln dried, having been stored in a dry house for 15years. It has been supplemented with ash and sometimes elm with no change in sooting up of glass. It is disappointing, it was expensive and the performance is significantly less than our Clearview which suffers none of these problems and is excellent.All the guidelines were followed when installed and an airvent as part of the building regulations.
We saw the firebelly on a TV drama a few weeks after installing and this was also blackened up so looks like this may be a flaw in the design.