I bought this stove at the same time as a Harmony 43. I love the 43, the 13 is in comparision "alright". Compared to other smaller stoves that would be direct competitors, the 13 stacks up well
. Both the 43 and the 13 light easily and the 13 comes up to temperature within 30 mins. The controls are easy to use and effective and the heat output reasonable. However, I find its smaller size (compared to its big brother) irritating for log loading and I have not yet managed to keep it lit overnight, (effortless on the 43). It needs feeding more often, consumes proportionately more logs and requires more "housekeeping" generally than the 43. Having said that, compared to Stovax, Hunter, Morso and other brands I have used previously (and been happy with), the 43 and 13 are almost "space age" with their Plenum Chamber controlability and appear, overall, superior to anything else I have experienced.
We have had ours for 10 months now and I can't imagine life without it now. I had concerns after seeing reviews (not just those here) mentioning the glass going white after a couple of weeks
, the airflow being difficult to manage etc. I don't know what I was worried about. As much as I love the summer I was disappointed not to be able to light the stove in the warmer days.It takes a little time to get in the habit, or out of it, of not fiddling with it but we got there in the end. We have a quote now; "the fire knows best, step away". It chucks out more than enough heat to heat the room and if we want to stretch it a little more we leave the living room door open and the entire ground floor has the cold spots knocked off it very quickly.We were slightly indulgent and bought the remote control too. It's fantastic. A bit expensive and not particularly sturdy but very useful. The thermostat is the main feature; opening or closing the air depending on the temperature of the room.The one thing they need to think about it having a display on the remote to let you know how open or closed it is. If you want to over-ride the automatic setting you have to guess how open or closed it is. It makes the most awful noise if you try to open or close it beyond its limits. We only ever burn wood and won't be trying any sort of coal. We only have to empty the very small ash pan every 3 days such is its burning efficiency. The glass does get a bit black when you first light the fire especially if the kindling is a bit wet but it either burns off as the fire heats up or a quick rub with a bit of damp newspaper dipped in wood ash and its as clean as the day it arrived.We have the matt black. I don't believe the satin black version was available to us or maybe its only the bigger models but keeping it clean is easy. A quick wipe down when its cold and you're done.Keeping it burning overnight too us about a week to get right. Now we get it spot on every time. Patience along with trial and error got us there. Ours has been a huge hit with everyone that has seen it, so much so that the neighbours are having a Harmony 23 put in in 2 weeks. We moved into this house about 12 months ago and intentionally only removed one of the gas fireplaces just in case things didn't work out as hoped with the stove. However, the 2nd gas fireplace's days are numbered now.
Stove expert replied:
Great review and how true, give it time to understand the stove and how it works best. Do not fight it but work with it to get the best out of it. Only ever use dry seasoned wood and the glass should stay clear.
Paid rather more for this stove as wanted a stove that didn't need replacement parts ...best decision ever. It transformed our home and seems to give out far more heat than it says, which is
a boon when you want to avoid air bricks. It looks great, is simple and quick to light, and is very efficient with fuel. Stays in all night with ease and sometimes all the next day if I forget it, but best of all, when we accidentally broke the glass, the after sales in the repairs dept was the icing on the cake. Brilliant company, brilliant stove...I wouldn't buy any other make.
Just about to take delivery of our second stove from Nestors, In the old house we had the Stanford 23. Amazing stove, Installed back in 2007 and still as good as the day it was put in.... In
fact it was the stove that sold the house ! Moved to a bungalow so going for the S13 this time and expect not one problem. Any issues with the glass spoken about going "sooty or cloudy" is down to not operating it correctly. Amazing stoves and yes they are not cheap "you get what you pay for" QUALITY...
Having had this stove for 5 years now, I thought I'd contribute to this great website.This is the only stove I have ever owned but have been amazed how good this little stove is. Being a heating
engineer I installed it myself along with the 6 inch liner insulated with vermiculite. The key to this stove is getting a nice glowing bed of ash established in the firebox,done by using thin kindling, slightly bigger log splittings and then the main logs. The stove having a smallish firebox works better with 2 or 3 shorter logs around 9 inches rather than one large one. It has been used from around autumn to spring mostly in the evenings during the week and all day at the weekends if we are at home. The stove will stays in overnight if there is plenty of glowing ash in the fire box but we don't usually bother with this as its so easy to light. I mainly burn wood but occasionally burn smokeless coal during the Christmas holidays when we have family staying (the only time we keep it burning overnight) as others have said the riddling grate sometimes jams but the poker can be used to give it a riddle. The best part about the stove from my point of view is the controllability,if used properly achieving clean combustion the glass stays clean as a whistle.From a build quality point of view it is also spot on, in 5 years of use I have never had to replace any parts on it, the door still closes and seals like it has just left the factory.I wholeheartedly recommend this stove to anyone, just make absolutely sure your wood is good quality and well seasoned and you will have many trouble free years of service!
Stove expert replied:
Small logs work better in stoves and should not exceed 4" diam. Great review.
fitted one of these in our conservatory last autumn-it's north-facing and even though it has a radiator in, has never been usable in winter-in fact, we called it the morgue, and tended to use
it as a super-sized fridge! The little Harmony has made an unbelievable difference through this winter, so much so, in fact, that we frequently light it now first thing in the morning, just for the pleasure of having breakfast and enjoying the view AND also being toasty warm! The stove is then closed down, and will happily radiate heat with no further attention for the rest of the day. Very controllable, very economical to run - only two points to watch. Firstly, probably because we have a very high external flue, it's much easier to use firelighters to light with, and it is also important to make sure that there is airflow through the grate when lighting the stove- either a quick riddle or a stir with a poker does the trick. It works equally well with wood or solid fuel, and we tend to use a mixture of both.
Stove expert replied:
Exterior flue systems cool quickly and hence can be problematic to light the stove once cooled. If you can heat slightly first it will make things easier (but using a firelighter is no great problem in this case it seems).
I've had this stove for 5 years now ,and every time I look at it this cold weather I think it's the best thing I ever spent money on. As the other s say ,the riddling can be a bit of a pain ,
and to dismantle it for cleaning can be too: but for ease of use and economy with fuel it's great . The living room door has to remain open to get the heat out of the room . I reckon it saves me about £500 a year against gas CH ,which is on only 2 hours a day compared to the 16 it used to be . I burn anthracite when no one is in and logs or pallets when sitting near it (not that you can sit too near) . I would recommend it to anyone. Only one fault-it doesn't heat the water.
Stove Expert Relied: A successful outcome to heating your home and cutting down on energy bills! When ready to change perhaps go for a stove that can heat your water for further energy saving. Thanks for great feed back.
I had the older Harmony 5 stove which was good but the controlability and heat output of this newer version is fantastic. I note it says it is a steels stove but I can tell you it is cast iron
, the efficiency is much more than stated at 83.4%net/75.9%gross and I can believe it. The glass never blackens and I can burn both wood and maxibrite on it over night and it is still lit the next morning. When lit you would think it was a gas stove it is so controlable. The controls are easy to work and so easy to swap from wood to smokeless coal and back by just moving one lever to direct the air to the right place. Would recommend this stove.
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.
