Review of Harmony 13 stove
A Curates Egg
Bit of a mixed bag this one. Overall a reasonable stove but there are downsides to it, most of which are covered by other reviews. I have had this stove for 3 years burning wood each evening Autumn and Spring and continuously in Winter using Anthracite nuts and have found it easy to keep in overnight slumbering at tickover. The downsides to the stove are that it is rated at a lower output for solid fuel as opposed to wood (5KW for wood and only 3.5 KW output for solid fuel the latter of which I have found inadequate.) The riddling system is poor. The circular design only clears ash from the centre of the stove leaving ash to accumulate at the sides thus further reducing efficiency and output. The only way around this is to inset the supplied poker when the firebed is low and rake the ash toward the centre - creating dust galore particularly with manufactured fuels such as maxibrite.
The riddling grate itself tends to jam, probably due to expansion when heated and for this reason I would not consider any stove that has a similar type of mechanism when burning solid fuels. The airwash is poor. The "glass" soon turns milky and it is difficult to see what is happening in the firebed behind it. The stove itself is complex and difficult to work on. last summer I had to relace the rope around the ash door. Getting the door off and back was a nightmare. Heaven knows how you would replace the air control apparatus! Technical back-up advice from Euroheat is good however which is a positive. To sum up: is it worth the high price? in my view, no, as it fails as a multifuel appliance. It is far too complex for what is basically a simple task and sadly I shall be parting with mine sometime in the Spring.