Review of Little Wenlock stove
All the heat goes up the chimney
I have lived with multi-fuel fires for the last 20 years so I know fires well. I chose this for my move to a mid-terrace Victorian house which I thought would be very easy to heat with a fire, after living in a draughty timber-framed farmhouse in the country.
I have had it installed for 3 weeks now, and I've yet to feel it really heats the room, let alone further into the house. I've had to run the central heating as well tho' had hoped to minimise that once the fire was in. So what is going wrong? Basically, I think all the heat is going up the chimney. The stove takes a long while to heat up, and has to be on full throttle, and when it is turned to lower settings, it basically runs down and I have to crank it up again. The only way to feel heat from it is to open the door, which is the same as running an open fire, and negates any fuel efficiency. Has the installer put it in wrong? The flue is attached to the top, not the back as I'd have liked, as that would have brought the stove more into the room. I've bought a heat-activated fan to sit on top to push the heat out, which helps, but basically I feel I'm piling good wood on to watch it burn and heat the sky above my house, with very little effect on the room. It's not at all what I'd hoped, and I wonder if someone who was not used to fires would be satisfied - simply because they didn't know any better? It's a very expensive toy, but not at all functional as a heater.Stove expert replied: If you feel that the stove is working hard but not producing much heat it may be that you have an over-drawing flue that needs some control on it to allow the heat produced to stay in the stove and then radiate into the room. Dampers can be added to the flue or a stablilzer which offers you more control. It might be worth exploring this further.