We've had a Brunel 1A for about 18 years, using it every evening from mid-September through to about mid-April. It's in a an old fireplace in a large room (40 x 15 feet) but makes a good job
of warming it up as long as the doors are closed. That's more than I would have expected from such a small stove but it was the largest that would fit into the opening without significant building work. Like other reviewers have reported, the top plate on the stove cracked after a couple of years and the enamel started flaking off. I think that it is more than likely my fault for over firing it, which is easy to do, so my prime recommendation would be to buy a stove pipe thermometer. When I fitted mine, I found that I had been mostly burning too cool (hence the sooty window) or too hot. Since fitting that, I have burned far less wood and found that I was getting more heat overall, although you do need to fiddle with the controls to keep it in the sweet spot. When burned like this, the glass stays clean (using seasoned wood) except for the bottom 2 inches which gets soot, and the rest does mist up after about a week with fine ash deposits. These come off easily with a wet kitchen towel - no chemicals needed. Over the 18 years the only maintenance has been to replace the ropes around the doors and around the baffle box at the back (once for each). Be warned, getting the baffle out is like solving one of those metal puzzles you used to see as a kid, except that this thing is HEAVY! The only other sign of wear is that the firebricks are starting to erode and one has cracked but, given the number of tons of logs they've burnt, they don't owe me anything. With the cracks, I did worry about fumes, so I have a strategically placed CO detector, but it's never given a cheep, and I never smell smoke, so I am suitably reassured. We have a good pull on the chimney so the negative pressure should keep everything where it should be.So, in summary, this is a good little stove but buy a stack pipe thermometer to get the best out of it, especially if you choose one with an enamel finish.Rating: Dropped one star because of the misting of the glass and possible issues with the enamel finish.
We have had the stove for 6 years and it has worked well. However, the first Brunel we bought leaked and caused fumes to vent into the room. To Stovax's credit they did replace the stove. Our
stove has a cast finish and has been easy to maintain but due to a wet summer house refurbishment it now needs a lick of paint. We live in an old draughty house and as a result we have over fired the stove resulting in burn through of the baffle plate & fire bricks, this cause the exhaust gap to close resulting in a greatly reduced efficiency. a bit of angle grinding and we got another year out of the baffle plate but eventually it has burnt through, the replacement plate cost £60 and the stove shop chucked a free bit of Mica board our way to replace the fire bricks & window cord. In general we find the stove easy to control but the key is to make sure your wood / smokeless fuel is dry.top tip - if you spot a constant black spot on the glass, check the sealing chord around the glass as it may have become dislodged causing additional air flow into the stove.Due to the small size it does get a bit tiresome getting all the logs to the right length and it can be a pig to light from cold. If so, pre warm the flue with a hair dryer and the stove will light first time, every time.Over the years we have perfected keeping the stove in over night, dead easy with smokeless but with wood it takes a little more practice. Just make sure you have some dry small wood to put on in the morning and 8 times out of 10 it will relight.If I’m honest I would not buy this stove again, but it has been a good work horse over the years and will finally be demoted to the shed for it's retirement in a few years time.It's good, but not that good....
We had this model in our last house for about four years. And have just fitted the same model in the house we have just moved to. So we must have been sufficiently impressed with it. I burn
well seasoned hardwood. First thing to say. If you intend to use your stove as a primary heat source as opposed to occasional feel good factor, it will not be cheap to run, unless you have a steady supply of free quality logs. The Brunel 1A is very well made and looks good. Whilst it runs better hot, care must be taken not to have it too hotI did and it buckled the baffle plate and cracked the fireboad liner.Conclusions. Well made stove. Good looking traditional style. Spares readily available. Expensive, but still good value. No problems in recommending it to anyone looking for a small stove.
We bought this two weeks ago to replace a horrible Chinese stove. We also have a Clearview Pioneer 400 and have previous had both Little Wenlocks and Parkray.It's a beautifully made stove which
is delivered in very impressive packaging with good instructions for both installation and use. I had no problems fitting the feet or changing it over from back flue to top, and its compact size makes it easy to nudge into alignment with an existing flue pipe.It's fitted in the builder's opening in a room 4m x 3.5m which is against two external solid walls of an old cottage and on two very wet windy nights recently with outside temperatures below 5 degrees produced more than enough heat.Burns wood and smokeless fuel (Maxibrite) equally well (which is more than our Pioneer does) and is remarkably controllable. The firebox is small, but you don't really expect a big firebox in a small stove, do you?I rated overnight burning at 3 simply because there's no option for "don't know because I'd never try to keep a multifuel stove going overnight". Quality of finish (5) is based on the matt black one. We'd never buy an enamelled stove of any make! In short, it's brilliant and well worth the money.
Stove expert replied:
great review, and as experienced a balanced one.
When we first had our Brunel stove 5 yrs ago we loved it - it was used continuously throughout the winter months and kept the downstairs back of a very drafty Victorian brick house lovely and
cosy... so why the low mark. Well, this was actually the second Brunel stove we have had. The first one was in blue enamel but within a couple of years the enamel had crazed all over the stove and started to peel, plus there was a problem with the controls on the stove, even when the vents were closed the fire would flare... but to their credit Stovax did replace it with a new one without any problems. However the present stove which is also enamel started presenting problems two years ago - a small line in the enamel appeared on the top of the stove but since the stove was operating well and it didn't look too bad, we decided to order some enamel paint from Stovax in the summer and patch it up which we did.. However, present day, the paint we put on the line has come off, a very large patch of enamel has come away where the original line was, there are now bubbles of air under the enamel all over the stove which threaten to break out... and imagine our surprise to find the other week that the actual cast iron on the top of the stove where all the enamel came away now supports a 2.5cm crack on it...
Because this stove is out of warranty Stovax is under no obligation to do anything... but to our mind we will never again buy from Stovax - their fires are not cheap, we had paid extra for the enamel - which has given us so many problem, but for a cast iron stove to crack after only five years... well what does that say of the product? All we can say is beware... it may be the luck of the draw, but if you are unlucky like us, you can and will be seriously angry and out of pocket!
Stove expert replied:
Very sad story, cast iron can crack but this is likely to be through over heating of an appliance (not always though!). A costly experience!
Original Brunel 1. Winter burning phurnacite - Autumn & Spring Wood, or peat briquettes. Tip take the ash pan out after emptying the ashes, and only put it in to take the ashes, this stops the
ash falling onto the floor, and seems to give a more even burn at the sides - on phurnacite my fire has not been out for about 3 weeks. Phurnacite ashes empty daily (1&1/2 pans). Tip 2 Take out the riddler rod and seal the hole with silicone, makes the fire more controllable, get a poker to replace riddler with a small "end" on it!
Stove expert replied:
Sounds strange to remove riddler as the point of it is to make removing ash easier, but if it works for you!!
It is adorable, a bit like a family pet. It says it has an airwash system but depends on wood type as to how quick the glass gets dirty. I am surprised at the size of log I can fit in, it's
a bit like a tardis, which means you can put one big chunk which keeps it going and the wood pile lasts forever. The control is very sensitive and you can create fantastic swirling effects. Gratins cook well if left on top in a shallow cast iron pan. Justlove it. A tip on cleaning glass, wet some scrunched up newspaper, dip in the cold ashes, scrub glass (when cold) and clean off with dry clean newspaper, cheaper and safer than the acid cleaner sold.
Great value for money and chucks out a lot of heat for its size. Easy to get spare parts, looks good and we loved it so much we dragged it to our new house and will probably now spend a fortune
Not the cheapest but a good value for money well engineered product that does exactly what it says it'll do. Beware poor copies and choose a company that know what they are designing.
I really struggled with this fire and have subsequently removed it and replaced it with a Jotul 602.
I found that when burning wood the firebox was far too small and would burn a complete load
in about two hours - even with the airvents closed. I could never, ever, get the fire to stay in overnight. Also the firebox is very shallow so when you open the doors burning embers or even complete burning logs would fall out of the stove - often had to put the carpet out!!! The fire box is also not very wide - and so you can't get a decent length of log onto the fire either.
It worked better with coal - but even then it's not that great.
It would be nice to be able to open the ash door without having to open the main door.
The glass does stay nice and clean. If it gets dirty - through burning with closed air vents don't bother cleaning it with glass cleaner - just give the fire a good roar and it cleans itself - you can actually watch particles of soot being sucked off the glass !!
Not keen on the handle design - to keep the door sealed against the rope properly means that it's very tight to unlatch.
I'm sorry to give this fire such a slating but the jotul 602 is far superior - loads from one end - nothing falls out, bigger firebox in the same amount of space (if you put the chimney on top). It also has a built in hotplate. The only downside is that it's wood only - but then I found coal dust gets everywhere anyway, so I tend to just burn wood.
