Review of Stovax Huntington 40 stove
My experience is not a good one
I am afraid my experience of this stove is not a good one.
After seven winter's use it now has a crack running right across the top plate and smaller cracks front to back. Also the glass is now cracked. To be fair, Stovax have offered me a brand new stove (arrange installation myself) at a very low price but I am not interested. There is no way that this stove has saved me any money, even though I get most of my wood for free. Every year there was always money to spend. The first year the clean burn tube needed replacing. Apparently I had operated the stove too hot. Also, most of the firebricks were cracked. Stovax sent replacements for all of these free of charge but I had to arrange fitting myself. The tube is supposed to keep the glass clean. It has no effect that I can see. The glass is always dirty. The next year we noticed the stove not working properly at all. The 6" blanking plate on the back of the stove had fallen off due to a cracked bar that holds it in place, leaving a 6" hole in the back of the stove. Every year at least two firebricks are cracked and should be replaced. Removing the firebricks - WHAT A PAIN - you are supposed to use your left hand to raise the left-hand half of the top two firebricks, then with the right hand lift and lower away from you and remove the right-hand brick. Each firebrick feels like it weighs a ton and I haven't got three hands! I have had to show four different sweeps how to do this because they have not seen this stove before. All have agreed with me what a bad design it is and I have ended up removing and replacing the bricks for them. How could my wife cope with this stove if she was on her own? This summer the stove is, hopefully, being replaced with a Clearview Vision 500 which is steel, not cast (will not crack) and the firebricks are Vermiculite and very light.Stove expert replied: If you are operating a stove at too high a temperature damage will be caused to either cast iron or steel stoves, perhaps get a flue thermostat to insure that the operating temperature is within recommended limit. Vermiculite liners will require replacing and can also crack during use so again maintenance will be required on a regular basis.
- Be the first to comment
- 345 You and 257 others