We had this fire installed just over a year ago and it has been brilliant. Although we have the multi-fuel option, we only burn kiln dried wood. Given the width of the stove it is easy to
get large logs into the fire box. The air inlets are easy to use and control the burn of the fire, which makes getting it going from cold very easy indeed. Once it’s up and running and the metal has heated through, the heat output from the fire is very good burning good quality wood. It is possible to pile wood on at night and wake up to the fire still going in the morning. It has also been easy to clean as the burn is so efficient leaving next hardly any carbon residue on the glass. I would recommend this stove.
I installed this stove June last year after removing an existing 70's style fireplace. I needed a low output stove but with the width and height to fit a small inglenook. The stove fits the
space nicely and it's width allows decent sized lengths of wood to be used. The stove is nominally around 5kw but will produce nearer 7kw if fuelled with properly dry timber. The multifuel grate works well with smokeless cobbles and the fire can be kept in all night using this fuel. On the down side the stove emitted a loud and irritating expansion knock from first installation. After consulting with an independent engineer the source of the knock was found to be the turbo bar which runs along the rear of the stove casing. Slackening the bolts holding the turbo bar to the casing was found to eliminate the knock very effectively. It is questionable as to whether this is a satisfactory remedy in terms of safety and the fitting of gasket material between the casing and the turbo bar might be a better fix. Manufacturer sent out engineer to inspect stove but no help was offered to fix the expansion knock issue. The stove works well as a heat source.
I have owned my woodburner for over a year and now feel qualified to give an informed opinion.It functions no better than any other wood burner. They are after all just iron boxes (one of the
cheapest metals about) with an exhaust hole. Don't believe the marketing gumf that these burner companies bang on about - efficiency ratios nonsense a case in point. A 50 year old burner off the internet for £50 does exactly the same job.The worst thing about this and the other Parkray design is the poor ability to keep logs in the burner. Buy this and you will soon find out that burning logs fall out of the burner every time you open the door. Parkray will tell you that you shouldn't over stack and then promptly offer to sell you a special part to stop the logs falling out - for an additional £80!!! There is no way this thing puts out enough heat without 'over stacking'.For perspective, I use the woodburner every day during cooler months. I am fortunate enough to own my own woodland so I cut, split and season my own logs. I use logs with a moisture content of no higher than 15%.
