WhatStove?

Review of Morso Squirrel Standard stove

Very pleased

Tom Davies 13 years ago

For many years in my kitchen/dining room I've had a free standing Aga Rembrandt open fireplace. It's a great unit for what it is, but I became increasingly curious to try out a closed stove to see if the seemingly wild claims about their superior efficiency and output were true.

I've always loved the ambience of open fires, and always lived in houses that have them, but have never experienced living with a stove. I was unsure how the ambience would compare to my open fire, and didn't want to drop £2k on a new stove plus installation for something I only wanted to trial. So, I got a second hand Squirrel on ebay, with minor damage, for £165, repaired and installed it myself, at a cost of another £100 or so.

The fireplace was rated at around 3.5Kw and and 37% efficiency, the Squirrel at 4.5kWm and 75% or so. So I should be able to get slightly more heat from about half the amount of fuel.

I'd say that this is about right - I'm using far less fuel, and getting more heat from the unit than I did from the Rembrandt. Claims of stoves being 7 or 8 times as efficient as open fires are wildly misleading and are bound to lead to disappointment: 2/3 times as effective would be about right.

It seems that you don't get as intense a radiant heat from a stove as you do from an open fire, but you get a more gentle, gradual and consistent heat from it.

The squirrel looks great in our fireplace recess, and the retro chunky industrial sort of look suits the room perfectly. My only complaint with the aesthetics would be that the fire window could do with being bigger.

The stove is very easy to light, and my (unlined) chimney draws very well indeed. Been burning a mixture of dry wood and smokeless coal and can keep the stove in for 14 hours a day on a relatively small amount of fuel.

I find the stove does need a fair amount of adjustment for an optimal burn - when refuelling, the controls need adjusting to allow the wood to catch, then they need adjusting again after 10 mins or so.

I enjoy the controllability though, and it allows a high degree of temperature regulation - this weekend for example I kept the stove at around 120C (according to the flue pipe thermometer), which was sufficient to keep the house warm and prevent the central heating from coming on. On a colder day, I'd need to run the stove hotter (but consume fuel faster).

I've learnt that the final hour before going to bed requires no refuelling - I just open the vents fully to fiercely burn away all the ash and embers that have built up over the day. Not tried overnight burning, and don't think I will.

So the stove has passed its trial - I'm going to keep it, and maybe line my chimney in the summer. The extra heat, controllability, convenience, efficiency and tidiness are well worth the slight decrease in ambience. This unit seems like a well built workhorse.

The only issue that the stove has created is that the humidity of the house drops significantly when the unit has been on for a few hours - down below 30%, which is rather low , so I need to look at ways to introduce some humidity into the air (not a problem I ever thought I'd have!)

Stove expert replied: nMorso have a known good quality in the industry. As stated a good workhorse. Control is easy and heat generated for the stove size very good. Airwash works well and as with all stoves the quality of fuel makes all the difference.

Overall rating:

4 flames

Build Quality 5 flames (avg 4.9)
Quality of finish 4 flames (avg 4.7)
Value for money 5 flames (avg 4.8)
Ease of use 3 flames (avg 4.5)
Ease of lighting 5 flames (avg 4.7)
Firebox size 4 flames (avg 4.4)
How well does the airwash work 4 flames (avg 4.1)
Controllability 3 flames (avg 4.4)
Handle operation 4 flames (avg 4.7)
How likely are you to buy it again? 5 flames (avg 4.7)
What is your overall satisfaction? 4 flames (avg 4.7)