Review of Stovax Stockton 5 stove
Pretty pleased
This is my first stove so I can't say how it compares with others. However, I find it easy to light (have only tried wood so far) and it gets hot quickly. The firebox is small so there are few options on how to build a fire other than simply put logs from left to right. To my surprise the airwash, which I thought had the sole function of keeping the glass clean, is actually the main control once in operation. The vent on the door is closed once the fire is under way, and the bottom vent is run by common sense as the manual doesn't say how to use it. The manual is also desperately repetitive and badly written.
However my main niggles concern the controls. The most used control is the airwash, but this lever is recessed and the multifunction handle won't reach in the gap. Hence you have to prod it back and forth with a poker - tricky to do with precision and hardly graceful. The air control underneath operates with a simple sliding bar but it is tucked so far underneath you have you put your head virtually on the floor to see if it's open or not. It would be very easy to make the bar longer so you can see it more easily. Stovax have put much attention into the riddling grate, with levers and pivots and a knob - but the mechanical advantage is very poor and in my view it's not needed. All that effort to operate something of little use, yet no thought to the operation of the airwash! And finally! Like most people I'm right handed. The door opens to the right, which means you put logs on with your left hand. It would be much easier to use if I could open the door with my left hand and use my right hand for the more dexterous job of placing logs through the rather small aperture. Stovax - why do you not offer a left/right door option, like fridges? So the stove seems to be basically fine, but the controls haven't been thought through very well.