WhatStove?

Review of Rayburn Heatranger 216SFW

POOR PERFORMER

Philip McDonald 9 years ago

I had previously owned a quite good Rayburn pressure jet which would have had an excellent review if the pressure jets were not such a pain !

When we moved to France and as we owned large areas of forest surrounding our farm we thought there was no other option than to buy a Rayburn wood burner, most especially as we could get 50% of the purchase and installation costs back because of an EU directive/incentive.

How wrong we were! Despite the Rayburn being professionally installed and despite us only ever burning fully seasoned wood, very dry wood, this range was disappointing throughout our 10 years of owning it!!!!

Despite having a tall chimney we still had to sweep it about every 6 weeks to keep the draw at the optimum level. We had to clean the flues every week and the dust this device created had to be seen to be believed.

As for the running costs. OK we got our wood for free, but having said that, we were burning 25 cubic meters of seasoned hard wood per annum which in real terms was equivalent to €1230 per annum. In comparison the truly excellent ESSE oil burning range we have now replaced the Rayburn with is only burning €750 of oil per annum added to which I now don't have to spend several weeks each and every year felling and splitting timber and having to clean the Rayburn almost every single week.

As an aside, one of my friends who is an exceptionally highly qualified engineer & scientist was recently in the market for an environmentally friendly range and, knowing our experiences with the Rayburn Heatranger has ended up buying an ESSE exactly the same as ours!

Overall rating:

2 flames

Build Quality 1 flames (avg 3.7)
Quality of finish 4 flames (avg 4.7)
Value for money 2 flames (avg 3.7)
Ease of use 1 flames (avg 3.7)
Ease of lighting 2 flames (avg 4)
Firebox size 2 flames (avg 3.3)
How well does the airwash work 2 flames (avg 4)
Controllability 2 flames (avg 3.7)
Handle operation 4 flames (avg 4)
How likely are you to buy it again? 1 flames (avg 3.3)
What is your overall satisfaction? 1 flames (avg 3.7)