We have had our multi-fuel squirrel for 15 years and it continues to give great service. It heats the room (it''s cold here in the Scottish Highlands) and also the water and a radiator! However
for environmental reasons I would like to avoid using coal and the stove is much less successful when burning wood only. Has anyone any helpful suggestions?
Stove expert replied:
Use only dry seasoned wood with a moisture content of less than 20%. There are some woods that give better results and a few of these are: Ash, Beech, Hawthorn, Rowan, Thorn, Yew
We have owned our Squirrel for app 18years, and apart from a regular application of blacking and some fire cement on the cracks in the bricks it just keeps going on. It's so warm that there
is often no need to use any other heat in our three bedroomed bungalow. Even when we managed to burn a hole through the baffle, through leaving it on too high, it was relatively cheap and very easy to fit. I'm just about to fit a new riddler which has finally burned through for the same reason. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this excellent item, and would definately buy another.
Our Morso Cleanheat Squirrel must rate as the best thing we have ever bought for our house. We had it installed 17 years ago and it replaced an open coal fire... what a difference! Instead of
smoke, soot and dust coming into the room and our heat up the chimney we had a superb perfectly controllable stove and have never looked back. The only thing we have replaced on the stove is the glass, plus regular blackening from time to time.You do need to look after it - don't let it go into ''superheat'' (it tells you about this in the instructions) and use a thermostat on the fire for accurate temperature control.We look forward every autumn to being able to light this wonderful cosy fire, just a few smokeless bricks and a couple of logs last all evening and take the chill off the whole house (3 bed semi). We have experienced other fires in rented cottages and have a different stove in our house in France but this stove is the best! The heat you get from such a small stove is amazing and the controllability using the two air intakes is something to behold. You can literally control the dance pattern of the flames once you know what you are doing. Our top tip is to root the flue out of the back leaving the top flat to allow you to heat up takeaway pizza on some strong foil. We have even cooked welsh cakes on it!We expect this stove to last us our lifetime, it is so well built.
Stove expert replied:
Great review and very versatile heating food on the top.
I notice that your high-rated reviews are from people who have had their stove for a comparatively short time. You wait! Ours is 16 years old and experiencing major problems: cracked collar
brackets, burst back-boiler and hairline cracks in the body. I have looked after and nurtured this stove, with regular servicing and maintenance. It's beginning to look as though we're heading for a new stove soon. But which one? I don't want to go through this again in the next decade or so.
Stove expert replied:
16 years is a reasonable length of time to have a stove and obviously the stoves longevity depends on how it is used, length of burning time, fuel, flue draw and quality of build etc. If these problems have manifested themselves of late the stove has given you reasonable service.
Put one of these in when I built our house which then morphed into a successful B&B.. The guests just love our "wee stove", and we love it when they are gone!! It's now in 15 years and in need
of some TLC.. Baffle plate about burned out.. (overheated now and again) but seems that getting parts is not a problem. So here goes for another 15 years. Thanks folks.
My first memory of this stove is when I was a child, that stove is still in use in our family holiday house and needs nothing doing to it.Bought one for our house around ten years ago, absolutely
amazing. Unlike some of the cheep ones from china, this has a really tight seal meaning I can shut down with good dry softwood and it will burn for ten hours, 12 with hardwood. At this time of year the Squirrel never goes out, burns day and night. Over the ten years I have replaced the baffle plate once, suspect that night burn with coal caused it to warp and crack. £30 for a replacement. This stove is well worth the money, your buying a stove for life when you buy one of these!
Stove expert replied:
Smokeless fuel is recommended on a close appliance and not household coal which burns with long flames and subjects the internal components to higher than normal working temperatures. Great review.
After much internet trawling and checking out lots of reviews this stove was the out and out 5kw stove to have. Looks stunning and made of an high grade cast iron which retains heat very well
. I have had it for 5 years now and I have realised that smokeless coal is the way forward. I use 1 scuttle a day and have both vents slightly open. I add 8 pieces of coal at 8pm and for sure at 8am it is still glowing red only requiring a shake and a coal top up to get the heat back up again. Absolute no brainer , would buy again for sure. Like I have said its all in the set up when burning, very easy to keep it running all through the winter. :-)
Stove expert replied:
Great comments, very efficient fuel usage but do please give short periods of fast burn regularly as it is not good for the flue system to be slumbering 24/7.
Did all the prep work myself and got a HETAS guy to do the final fit, just this afternoon.
Fired up in less the a minute.
Now the dog has just left the room as it is too hot. Brilliant buy.
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.
We had a Squirrel in our old house and when we moved installing a new one was the 1st project to be completed. We like its chunky look, simple controls and its ability to heat our 5x4 metre
lounge easily. It burns wood or coal equally well and will easily stay in over night with a bank of homefire ovals, I have recently been using wood briquettes which emit very good heat - one word of warning though they do get so hot that a flue thermometer is an essential indicator that you are not burning so hot as to damage your stove! Overall we are very pleased with the stove and would happily recommend it to anyone! We are in the process of installing a Charnwood Cove 2b into an extension so it will be interesting to see how they compare.
Stove expert replied:
Looking forward to the review of the next installation, it will be good to hear the comparisons.
I had looked at many other stoves and had been planning on purchasing one for quite some time, the Chinese models were poorly finished and the door catches struck me as rather flimsy. I saw
the Squirrel on a 'for sale ' website and bought it , as it had only ever been used with turf (peat) it was in nearly new condition.The sitting room where it is installed is a 'cold 'room as it only gets the sun in the early morning and has a concrete floor.The stove does a fantastic job of heating unlike the open fireplace which consumed a huge quantity of fuel. One great advantage is that you can light it early go out for a few hours and it is still alight and the room is warm and cosy. The old saying is true 'you get what you pay for' These are fantastic and well worth the initial outlay.....get one you will not regret it !!!!
Stove expert replied:
Known fact that most heat on an open fire goes up the chimney, a closed appliance gives you lots of heat even if the stove is quite small.
