The Franco Belge Lorraine stove has a distinctive door with radiating sun rays running across the glass panel. It is fitted with either a multifuel grate or a woodburning grate.
We''ve had one of these in our sitting room for nigh on 20 years, running on well seasoned hardwood, but we hardly ever light it these days because the output is so disappointing. It''s also
a pain to light, and to keep in. It either smoulders away, or goes off like a furnace - it''s extremely difficult to regulate the draught. Compared to the Jotul No1 in our dining room (which is a fantastic piece of kit) the FB has been a huge disappointment. It seems to give off very little radiated heat from the sides (the double-skinned construction is surely to blame here) and much of the heat seems to disappear up the chimney! It looks lovely - the pattern on the casting is very fine - but unfortunately it just doesn''t do its job very well.
Stove expert replied:
Have you had the flue draw checked, as it seems to go from poor to working very hard. Is the chimney lined? Having more than one flue system in a property can mean that one stove is fine and the other not so. Does the stove perform differently in different weather conditions (if so this is also indicative of a flue draw issue). It may not be the stove at fault but the installation! I would recommend getting a Hetas installer into check this for you.
I bought this stove second hand. It has been discontinued and replaced with the Camargue. Its an 11-12kw stove and belts out a massive heat when it's properly fuelled. Parts are still readily
available from several places and I replaced the ropes, firebricks and a few other parts that had warped over time. The only problem that I have had is with the flue baffle. From the latest plans from Franco Belge the flue baffle has been changed from the original design to give a higher return on the top of the plate. The original design was flat and gave a gap of approximately an inch between the baffle and the heat shield on the inside of the top plate. However with the new design, that gap was reduced to about 5mm. The problem with that was that the gap would fill with soot and gradually close over 2-3weeks. To remedy it, I took the baffle out and ground off 1cm so the gap is wider and since then the draw has been great. The fire burns hot and clean and is like having a completely different fire.Would I recommend buying this fire? If you are buying second hand and are happy with carrying out few tweaks then yes. If not then it is one to avoid.Interestingly, the flue baffle that I have been left with is very similar to the one on the Camargue!
Stove expert replied:
The changes to the baffle make the new models better. See later reviews.
