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Review of Morso Squirrel Cleanheat stove

Morso 1430

Chris G 11 years ago

I required a 4-5KW stove for my home office and looked at many models. I was looking for an alternative to the Morso Squirrel as I wanted a different looking stove, something more striking and perhaps taller but... I kept coming back to the Morso 1430.

I already run another Morso stove (S10-40) so knew that Morso build quality was good. In the end I followed the trend and purchased the Squirrel 1430.

I am glad I studied the market but can also say that you should trust the reviews on this stove and save yourself some research time.

So the 1430 is in my home office measuring 4m x 4m and it is on from 8am to 18:00 5 days a week. It sits in an open fireplace and has 125mm of single skin black stove pipe running up thru' a debris plate before connecting to 150mm of 904/904 Firefexmaster flue chimney liner.

The stove was straightforward to install. Make sure you remove the internal piece of wood that holds the baffle plate during shipping.

The Hetas engineer who installed this with me was all done in half a day.

With regards to lighting the stove then 5 /6 screwed sheets of newspaper, kindling stacked on top as in the instruction manual, both the primary and secondary air vents fully open and the door slightly ajar.

I found that with this stove compared to my s10-40 that you do have to build the fire up a little more gently otherwise it can 'hang' on occasion.

The way I do this is to put a bit more kindling on after the first lot has nearly burnt and then add a smaller than usual log.

After this now that the stove is at a good temperature and drawing well you can add the usual size 250mm logs and I lay them front to back, sometimes two side by side.

I have recently started using Taybrite smokeless ovals with the logs and this has proved another great side to this multifuel stove. I add about 6 ovals about 30 minutes after lighting and they become an ember bed that simply burns for hours. The use of these ovals has certainly limited the log use and I can honestly say that I now only burn about 8-10 logs in a 10 hour period.

I think the instructions and guidance for use of the air controls could be better and it can take some experimenting before you find a setting that works best for your situation. Here are my general everyday settings once the fire is going. The spinning air control on the actual door is capable of two complete revolutions and I find that around 3/4 of a single turn to open is ideal. I have tried various settings with the lever under the ash pan lip too but often leave it fully open or move 25% back to the left (closing).

Other points are that the ash pan is a good size and I empty once every 5 days, the riddle lever works well and I only use it first thing in the morning to move some of the ash to the pan. You can buy longer legs for around £80 if you want to elevate the stove which I considered but it looks great with the ones that come as standard. The door does soot a little but the newspaper or wet kitchen roll dipped in ash soon clears it off. I can open the door without the glove but have noticed that the lever can be quite hot at the end of the day.

Pretty chuffed with my purchase and am enjoying the benefit. Best thing in my office.

Stove expert replied: Nice environment to work in. Good review.

Overall rating:

5 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4.8)
Quality of finish 5 flames (avg 4.7)
Value for money 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Ease of use 5 flames (avg 4.8)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.8)
Firebox size 4 flames (avg 4.4)
How well does the airwash work 4 flames (avg 4.1)
Controllability 5 flames (avg 4.6)
Handle operation 5 flames (avg 4.6)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 4.8)
What is your overall satisfaction? 5 flames (avg 4.8)