Review of Stovax Riva Studio 500 Stove
Looks good.... But
This is for a Riva Studio 1 Inset (Cassette) fireplace.
For a bit of context I have had the fire for just over a year now. The chimney is an internal chimney and has a new 6" SS liner fitted with anti downdraft cowl on top. It looks amazing, but the first issue, and one I have read about many a time is smoke pouring out. This only happens when I open the door to refill and stinks the whole room out! Yes I have tried all the tricks, open a window, open door slowly, open primary & secondary vents for a minute and all variations of the above, all to no avail. I have read that to achieve their eco ratings the baffle design is restrictive so as to force re-burning of the gasses etc. while that is all well and good, the smoke can''t get out quick enough, hence pours out when the door is opened. The upper steel baffles have a tab that hangs down so the smoke has to go around this to get to the chimney, removed those tabs and problem solved. Happy days. Second issue is the heat. The brochure would have you believe that a smooth plastered wall is possible! Not a cat in proverbials chance, the wall directly above will get extremely hot, I mean 150°c hot. We have used vitcas heat boards and skimmed with vitcas plaster, all cracked and heat damaged. When we purchased the fire we didn''t get the fan kit, big mistake, the heat just can''t get out. As Studio 1 is end of line, you can''t get the fan kits. Unlike the newer studio air versions. So one 200mm noctua PC fan later (mounted under so won''t melt) along with pulling the whole fire out and now the hot air is pushed out into the room. Another issue is a fundamental design flaw. The edge plate to finish the wall up to is fitted onto the outer case. The plate has a flange that extends up behind the wall boards. As that conducts heat up behind the boards, the boards have cracked because of the heat. By removing the middle section you remove anything to conduct heat up and behind the wall boards and the decorative ''edge plus'' trim that fits on to it.