I am forever changing my fire bricks because of cracking. New ones never seem to last more than a month before cracks appear Is this a normal problem?
Stove expert replied:
Cracking firebricks do not need replacing if they stay in one piece and protect the stove metal, only change if they leave exposed metal. Take care when refuelling the stove and knocking them can cause cracks though.
After the usual WEEKS! of research, I stumbled across Parkray Compact. We think it is great. Stylish, neat, not too deep but wider firebox than its competitors of this size at 13". The styling
is lovely - simple and modern, and fits well in our small sitting room. It is very quick and easy to get started and really kicks out the heat! It burns hotter and for longer if you use a mixture of coal and wood. We haven't tried over night burining so are not sure how well it scores here really. On reflection, happy to have saved £500 by not buying a Clearview, which is the most popular stove in our area and twice the money.
We had a Parkray 5 installed in December by a professional stove supplier and we love it , ! However we also had a chimney liner installed at the same time , we never had a problem with our
old wood burner , it just needed updating. since having the liner installed , every time we open the Parkray 5 door to reload , fumes / smoke bellow out into the room , we obviously have the damper open before we open the Parkray door .we've even tried opening our windows in case there isn't enough draught .....the company that installed it can see no reason why this should be happening and were frankly unhelpful......might it be worth taking out the top fire brick to enable the smoke to access the chimney direct , as with the brick in place the smoke is pushed towards the glass....any ideas please ?
Stove expert replied:
There may not be enough free air in the room, if the house is well insulated. What height is the flue system (ideally 4.5mtrs is best). Have you another chimney in the property? What fuel are you using and if wood, is it dry, well seasoned and with a moisture content of less than 20%? Is there an anti-down draught cowl on the top of the liner? I would not remove any of the internal parts as they are there for a reason,. This is likely to be to do with the installation and requires further investigation so that refueling is not a problem for you.
It works well in our bungalow. 6 inch flue liner makes it draw well. To well if I get the air flow wrong. I burn chopped up pallets, cheap coal, pine wood, smokeless coals. Actually burnt a
chopped up wooden shed. Saved about £600 on gas last year. Average temp 21deg. C. Leave all internal doors open heats the whole place. Air control needs looking at. don't screw up tight the air wash knob it opens up the vent when shut.20mm metal plastic pipe insert , split slid over riddle boss shuts off uncontrolled air gap. To be swept annually plus 2 powder extinguishers,  insurance insist.
I previously had a wood burner that worked very well and so when I moved to my new house one of the first things I did was to have a wood burner installed. I chose a parkway consort 5 and am
very disappointed with the performance of this burner. The only thing that it does well is producing charcoal. I can have all all the air sources open, plus the door open slightly and the fire still doesn't draw. This surely can't be right? If there is something that can be done to improve the fire's performance I would be very grateful to know.
Stove expert replied:
Is this stove installed into a lined flue? Although low output please make sure there is enough free air to enable combustion to occur. The height of the flue system may need checking as outside forces affect the way a stove performs.
This is our second woodburning/multifuel stove. The first one served us well for years at our previous house - so much so that my wife and I were lulled into the assumption that all such stoves
are probably well-designed and problem free. I am giving my impressions after using the Parkway Consort Compact 5 for two weeks. I will state first the positive features of the Consort Compact 5. First, it is indeed compact, whilst still having a good sized firebox. It looks nice, its overall shape being quite elegant. There is a good view of the flames. It generates plenty of heat, particularly when burning kiln dried logs (the typical logs sold at petrol stations etc seem not to burn well as they are too damp), which actually generate much more heat than coal-based smokeless fuel. Thus it is attractive and performs its basic function of burning logs etc.Does its 'airwash' work? Most of the modern stoves seem to advertise this sort of function. I expect it probably helps, but I find that really the glass needs cleaning every time to keep it clear. The stove is 'riddled' via an external knob on the side. A lever is attached to this knob and moved backwards and forwards, with the door closed (to prevent dust escaping into the room), so that the grate is shaken to allow the ash to fall into the pan. However, to say that the process of attaching the riddling tool to the side knob is very awkward. The problem is to do with the necessity for very precise positioning of the prongs of the oddly angled lever with the orientation of the knob. Also, rather disconcertingly, the first time I riddled the stove (in what I presumed to be a normal manner), the whole grate disintegrated! The grate is actually made up of a series of separate metal pieces that lie alongside each other and mesh together. It took me quite a while, and burned fingers, to figure out how they fitted back together. Another function of the riddling mechanism is to open and close the grate. In one position the holes where the grate components mesh together are closed (better for burning wood) and in another position they are open (better for smokeless fuel). The instruction manual says the lever (used for riddling) should be pushed up and away, which restricts the flow of air, whilst it is pulled back the other way for lighting and also for burning smokeless coal. As I found, if the lever is pushed too far (which seems easy to do) the grate may disintegrate. The instruction is also puzzling to me, since both positions of the lever (pushed forward or pulled back) seem to result in an open grate, whereas the closed grate position seems somewhere between these - and it is very difficult to judge where this is when the fire is lit, although you get some idea from the variation in intensity of the flames as the position is gently moved. Paint seems to wear off the stove very easily. As soon as the lever was applied to the side knob, the black finish was transformed to a grey steel colour. The door handle is quite stiff and difficult. The instructions say that the riddling lever can be used on the door when it is hot - and indeed the handle is shaped so that the lever can be applied. This action does work quite well - but I have avoided doing this routinely because it rubs the paint off. Even with ordinary use by hand, or grasping it with newspaper when hot, the paint on the handle shows some signs of rubbing off after a couple of weeks. Overall, my feeling about this stove is that whilst quite nice it is somewhat disappointing.
Stove expert replied:
Try putting WD40 on the inside of the handle when the stove is out to loosen it. If using wood do make sure it is dry and seasoned and operate the stove on short periods of fast burn to burn off any tar residues that are produced when the stove is slumbering.
