The Squirrel 1412 is a lovely little 5Kw stove. We picked the squirrel design and got it from one of the major online shops saving a few hundred quid off the RRP. Free 2 man delivery was included
, as its 100Kg with packaging and was delivered to the room of our choice.Our HETAS engineer did a great job, removing old brickwork and re plastering, laying granite hearth. We got the chimney lined too, which costs more than the stove but worth it for safety reasons. We got this all done in January, but do your Hetas engineer a favour and get it installed in Summer - going up on the roof in winter can't be fun. Our engineer was a hero.The stove performs superbly, and takes a good hour to get up to temperature as its cast iron. This means it keeps its heat longer after the last log has died down. The handle does get hot, burning hot, so always use the safety gloves (one was provided with the stove by Morso but I'd recommend you wear a pair).We find that once you've got the kindling going for 10 minutes, that adding a heat brick or heat log helps to create a nice layer of hot ash. Then adding your logs creates a great fire. We got a bag of kiln dried logs and this creates a clean burn with only a little occasional soot build up on the glass which is easily cleaned off.Emptying the ash pan is trivial - this really is an easy stove to live with and is small and compact. If we had the space, we'd get a larger stove but we didn't have the room. This stove heats up the living and dining room (open plan) and we turn the central heating off when its lit. It gets really toasty and we love it.Overall, its a luxury and with the granite and chimney lined, the installation cost was a lot. You can do the whole job cheaper if you don't need the chimney lined, or go for a slate hearth for example. However, the Morso Squirrel 1412 is a great little wood burner.
Compact stove sits recessed into our fireplace (as per illustration) so does not intrude into the room (and also hides the rather twee squirrel design!) Provides good supply of heat and visual
interest of flames through the glass door. The glass tends to soot over but this is easily cleaned with vinegar and scourer. Has prompted most of our visitors to exclaim "we must get one!". After our first winter we are happier with it and have used it more than we expected.
I had wanted a stove for years but kept putting it off. I eventually bit the bullet in November 2012 because of the rising cost of my gas bill. I chose a Morso 1412 because I liked the look
of the stove, knew it would be a quality product and the size would be perfect for my two up, two down terraced house.I had a few teething problems at the beginning because I was getting the air flow wrong. There are two air controls. The top one is the secondary and the bottom is the primary. They should both be open fully (anti-clockwise)when lighting your stove. When starting with a cold stove I burn newspaper for a few minutes to warm the chimney up. I then put four 3" pieces of 'Blazers' fire logs at the bottom of the grate. No bigger because they expand significantly. Light four firelighters on top and put on roughly ten pieces of kindling wood. I then leave it do it's thing and get on with other stuff. Once the desired temperature is reached I turn off the primary air and turn the secondary air control four times clockwise.I then put a few pieces of wood on top. This gives you a controlled fire with fantastic heat that will last for hours. If I go out I leave it burning and when I come in sometimes four hours later, to a lovely warm house, I still have glowing embers, so I rake them a bit, open the air controls and add some wood. Within a few minutes I have a fire going again.I think a thermometer is essential. It lets you know when your stove is burning at the correct and most efficient temperature and stops you turning the air down before it is hot enough. This was what I was doing wrong at the beginning.To say I love my stove is an understatement. I know it is expensive to buy and install but since I have had my Morso I haven't had my central heating on once. It heats my whole house. I have it in my living room but my big kitchen and bedrooms are 22 degrees and with the glow of the fire I don't even have any lights on in my living room, so I am also saving on electric. The cats also love it and lie in front of it. In the warmer months when I didn't have it on they use to sit in front of it and give me dirty looks.I have it set inside the chimney breast as in the illustration. I was thinking of getting a fan that is supposed to distribute the air more but I am very happy as it is so may not bother.I also have a companion set, i.e. poker, tongs, shovel and brush that have come in very handy. It isn't just for decoration.I have only burned wood but it is a multi-fuel stove. I never burn painted or treated wood. I also got a Morso moisture meter that tests the dryness or otherwise of wood. Simple to use and very effective. It stops you burning wood that is too wet and creating tar.An amazing, well built, quality stove that is worth every penny and the handle never gets hot.
Stove expert replied:
Great review and I agree that a thermometer is a good addition for any stove user. Sounds very cosy!
We moved aboard our boat in August & she came fitted with this model of Morso. I am not sure what people are burning but we have it in 24/7 now mostly on smokeless; with the odd wood. We also
have a fan and our 52foot boat is toasty. In fact, we open the bow doors into the cover because otherwise it'd be too hot! the only downside is the grate has split & I can't seem to source a replacement?
Stove expert replied:
http://www.stovespares.co.uk Spares can be ordered on line this is just one site that the goods can be purchased through.
A darn good investment, heating two adjoining rooms downstairs and one bedroom above. Burns wood and solid fuel well, solid fuel being the longer lasting. To get the best heat you have to fill
the box well. Never had the rooms so warm and cosy. If the old 1412 ever packs up. Will get another. States on pack, when received, 5Kw ?. Good Ash Can superb, keeps things clean around the stove.
Brilliant little stove, really easy to light and one split lasts about an hour and twenty mins. Don't know about the overnight burn I haven't tried yet but it stays hot for ages after its died
down. Absolutely love it, wish I'd brought it years ago!
Stove expert replied:
Great review for this Morso stove, great heat and customer very happy which is great!
Our first stove so excuse my ignorance. Takes a good couple of hours to get running hot and during this time you do need to keep your eye on it so no nipping back to bed on a winters morning
. Once it is hot then it is a dream. Doesn't warm the house so don't imagine that you will be turning all the radiators off, but does take the chill off. Goes through a surprising amount of fuel. I think we rather over-imagined what benefits there would be in having a stove -the thing itself is beautifully well made.
Stove expert replied:
This is difficult to comment on as it is not clear if anyone assisted in the choice of stove who has experience and could advise on what to expect. This stove only produces 6kW's so it is not surprising that it is not heating the whole house. The fuel used may well be reduced depending on what type is currently being burnt and this should be explored to insure that value for money is being made. Cast iron stoves do take longer to heat up and radiate their heat but they maintain their heat longer when the firebox gets low, this should have been explained prior to purchase. Perhaps try a smokeless fuel to see if the performance improves.
Our requirements were to heat a large sitting/dining room, preferably without going above 5kw and having to fit a brick air vent. We wanted to use our chimney and the stove had to fit the fireplace
using a back entry point to the flue rather than the top. We searched far and wide and narrowed the field down to Morso and Clearview. Both manufacturers came highly recommended but there was more support in favour of Morso including from nearby neighbours. We liked the Morso viewing window and not having the castellated log guard, the simple lines and the squirrel imprint on the sides. We were concerned that the stove appeared small for the size of room but the fitters we spoke to, the reports and reviews we read said this wouldn't be a problem. We decided on Morso. Lights very easily, gives off plenty of heat. We haven't a mantlepiece and so we have bought a Valiant eco fan (silent but with black blades)to circulate the heat, lowering the temperature of the mirror above! We've not run the stove overnight (hence the rating of 3) like Tom. What we can say is that we are very pleased with the results and would recommend the stove to others.
Stove expert replied:
Using the fan to dissipate the heat is a great idea but do check that the mirror does not get too hot - can be a problem with anything that is fitted above a stove.
After trialling an old Morso 1410 in my kitchen/diner/living room last year I decided to take the plunge and get a new 1412 installed. I built up the hearth myself, and had a HETAS engineer
install a 904/316 flue liner. I insulated the first metre above the register plate, but intentionally left the rest of the flue liner un-insulated.The chimney is internal to the building so doesn't get cold, and by not insulating the liner the chimney stack warms up nicely, acting as a low level storage heater in the bedroom above the stove.The Morso Squirrel 1412 is very well made, nice to look at, and performs its job perfectly with no fuss. I mainly burn wood, but also burn smokeless fuel from time to time.When fed well seasoned wood the stove lights very easily. I run it very hard for the first 30 mins of a fire to get the body temperature of the stove up, and feed it plenty of wood to get a good charcoal bed built up. After this, I tend to feed new logs on every 60-90 mins, but with a good charcoal bed, the stove will stay in for hours.A bucket of smokeless fuel will last all day, though some brands do cause a misty haze to develop on the glass (which is easily removed).Overnight burning is trivial with smokeless fuel - one load will last up to 14 hours when burnt slowly. It's also easy enough with wood, provided you know how. You need good dry hardwood, (softwood is great for normal burning, but not for overnight burning). An hour before bedtime, put a full load of wood on your stove, as much as it will reasonably take. Let it burn down normally, until it is just glowing charcoal. At this point, shut both spinners off fully and go to bed. The hot charcoal will burn slowly for up to 8 hours or so. In the morning, put a few dry logs on and open both vents. Within a few minutes, they'll have caught.When doing this, it's important to wait until the charge of wood has burnt down to charcoal before shutting off the spinners, otherwise you'll get smoke, soot on the door, and gunk in the flue. The stove easily heats the room it's in, and most of the house too. It is lit every day, sometimes kept in overnight on cold nights, sometimes kept in for days on end. The central heating was hardly needed this winter, and my monthly dual-fuel bill is now down to £30. My wood is all free. If I were paying market rates for delivered logs, it'd work out very expensive, so keep this in mind if you think a stove will save you money. Mine will pay for itself within about 7 years as long as I am able to maintain my wood supply.Overall, I couldn't be happier with it. I boil water on the top of it, and cook stews. Putting a cast iron casserole dish on the top of a stove damped down for an overnight burn gives you a wonderful ultra slow cooked stew.
Stove expert replied:
Insure that you give any stove two short periods of fast burn in every 24hours (15 - 20 mins max draw) this will help to keep the flue clear but make sure that the flue gets swept at least once for smokeless fuels and twice for wood in every season.
After reading many reviews on this site we chose and installed our Morso 1412 in the autumn of 2010. It resides in a room 16 x 12 feet, which has a huge bay, a cold North facing wall and the
other two sides are next to an unheated large hall. In other words a VERY cold room only inhabited by our huskies!!
Things have changed now, as the room is beautifully warm and cosy. The Morso has seen us through one of the coldest winters in recent times; it lights easily, is sparing in it’s consumption of wood and heats the room thoroughly but gently. We usually burn two split (kiln dried) logs of Ash or Beech an hour in the evenings.
All parts appear to be robust and the Morso has the type of looks that suits most decors. Opening the lounge door allows the heat to drift through the house and warm the bedrooms upstairs. I would say that it takes about 45 mins to really get going but then its iron construction means that we enjoy an extra hour plus of heat from it at the end of the night without adding any more fuel.
As for the huskies….well they consider it an evil thing and have fled to the porch.
Stove expert replied:
Great review of the Morso stove, even dogs can get too hot it seems!! Well built stoves that do exactly what they say they will do.
I live in a smokeless zone and I looked at many other Defra approved stoves, narrowing the eventual choice down to 5 or 6. In the end I made my choice based on the excellent reviews this stove
has received, build quality and the reputation of the manufacturer.
The reviews were not wrong.
Lighting the stove is very easy and takes no more that a couple of minutes.
When there's a good glowing bed, I tend to add 3 well-seasoned split logs and they catch within 2 or 3 minutes. So far I've only burnt wood, oak, ash and leylandii. The stove throws out a wonderful amount of heat, and the flame pattern is quite hypnotic.
This may not be the cheapest stove available, but speaking to friends with different makes that have had various niggles, this is definitely one of the best. I'm glad I didn't go for any of the other options, this stove should last me out, I'm now definitely a Morso fan and delighted with my choice.
Stove expert replied:
Morso has years of satisfied customers to reinforce its strong place in the stove market. Great review and another satisfied customer to add to their already extensive list.
