Review of Little Wenlock stove
2 months of Little Wenlock
I was determined to have the living room snug, ready for our new baby's arrival! I have fitted quite a few burners in the past but this was the first where I had to use a HETAS engineer, luckily his experience and mine agreed and the installation is what we wanted. The stove is probably the smallest I have had anything to do with, but I have experienced mismatched oversized burners in the past where you feel quite ill from the temperature of the room. This stove is altogether a more gentle heat source. The first few lightups soon made me remember that each stove has its own techniques! Once it clicked that ALL the air from the primary source comes up through the grate, then a bare grate each startup made an easy light every time. This is different to dedicated woodburners laying your fire on a bed of ash. Then I needed to realise that a cast stove with firebricks, and a small grate, will take a little longer to come up to its steady output than a bigger steel construction fire. Probably 40 mins. No problem once you know. Finally my latest discovery is that short cut logs laid "end to glass", produces a vastly improved output against the more obvious "across" the grate orientation. There is much more radiant heat through the glass, the airwash is better (not perfect!) Bottom air closed and top air reduced against cross laid fires. The firebox seems to happily hold more wood this way and refueling is dramatically reduced.
We are only a couple of months in, hopefully this old dog will continue to learn new tricks!Stove expert replied: Nice review with customer trying different ways to improve performance.
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