The single shaped door on the Stovax Stockton 7 Inset Convector stove gives a good view of the fire. There is an optional low canopy available for this stove which gives a more traditional appearance to the stove.
With the air wash lever closed, mark a vertical pencil line on the stove body in line with the left hand side of the lever. Secondary air and air wash open. Primary air shut.Make sure ash in
the bed is 2cm below the bottom of the secondary air vent plate and the top gap in the front of the grate is clear. Glass is clean and might as well have emptied the ash pan.Use scrunched up paper with kindling on top positioned front to back and a couple of logs on top positioned across the stove. Light the paper and push door closed until the draught starts to fan the fire and leave it like that for a couple of minutes. Once the fire has really got going you can close in the air wash lever straight to where the right hand side of the lever is in line with the pencil mark. The stove can operate like this for some time but the lever can be moved until the pencil line is in the middle of the lever. There''s not much adjustment left after this as the air wash is nearly closed but you can experiment as all stoves are different.I have an Apollo oven thermometer stood on the top of the stove and you need to get it least to a quarter to. That''s an important place as it corresponds to the stove giving out about 1kW of heat and should cancel out the affect of the cold air coming through the five inch diameter hole in your wall put there to ventilate the stove. The stove will carry on warming up until the thermometer reads five to, that corresponds to about 2 kW of output. The actual temperature at the top of the stove will be about 200 centigrade at this point, I've had mine up to 210C. Before refuelling, watch for the temperature falling and then open the air wash fully to get the fire bright before adding logs. You can lose the heat at any point if you're not careful. I have two of those mechanical fans on top of the stove as well. They used to be about £100 but I've found them at only £15.99 so worth shopping around. Make sure the wires don't touch anything at the back and melt! Once any new logs have got going you can reduce airwash as before. There is only one setting and that's with the pencil mark in the middle of the lever. Anywhere else wastes heat. If you want the stove to burn for a long time, you have to put thicker logs in. Pity the airwash lever is the hottest part of the stove as it needs micro-adjustments!! Hope this helps.
I originally wanted a freestanding stove but couldn't so the Stockton 7 Inset was a compromise but I have to say I am very pleased with it.
It was quite expensive compared to Stovax freestanding
stoves hence why I have marked the value for money down. I have also found that the glass blackens very easily even though I am burning below 20% moisture content wood and have the smoke control kit fitted which restricts the closure of the airwash (you can only close it halfway). I have quite strong chimney draw which might be the cause of this.
On the positive side (and there are a lot of positive things about this stove):-
It is really easy to get a fire started.
The controls work well and I can control the burn easily even with the smoke control kit fitted.
The stove is very solid and well constructed.
The smoke control kit is very reasonable compared to some other manufactures.
Heat output appears to be good, even test burns for 30 to 40 minutes were raising the room temperature by two or three degrees. The stove was very well insulated in the recess so this will help with the heat output.
The firebox size is good for an inset stove.
Even though this stove was a compromise I am very pleased with it and would certainly recommend it.
Stove expert replied:
Insulating an insert stove well will make all the difference to the heat generated. Good review.
I weakened and bought a heat fan from a local store at £22.99. Free postage, they charge for picking it up!I thought the temperature wouldn't be enough but saw that it worked from 110C, so
got one. Sure enough, it started to spin at 96C the first time. The second time, it was 116C. If you give it a nudge above 95C, it''ll keep going. Don't know if it's very effective. The stove though, doesn't give out 7kw. The whole house would be hot if it did. I reckon about 2kw at the very best, with the stove top at nearly 200C.Kept it going a couple of days when it was really cold. Not enough power to heat the whole House. The chimney breast and hearth get warm, so it's giving some lasting heat to the fabric of the building and the brickwork outside, behind the stove gets up to 18C.
Stove expert replied:
As there appears to be considerable heat in the surrounding materials was this installed as per the manufacturers instructions? Inset stoves often require insulating around the inset box so that the generated heat radiates from the stove front and not from the sides.
I don''t know is it says anywhere about which way to lay logs in a stove but with this model, it pays to lay logs across the stove with the thickest at the front. This must slow the burn and
get the most heat out of the wood. Certainly worth a try but not as easy as just putting it in front to back.
Stove expert replied:
In most stoves the wood burns best when placed side to side rather than back to front.
To get the best out of this stove, buy a cheap Apollo oven thermometer and sit it on top of the stove. You should be aiming to get a reading approaching 200f. The metal temperature will actually
be near 200c but it is something to aim for. Open the airwash fully and put a pencil marks vertically on the stove above the right hand edge of the lever. This marks half open if you line the left edge of the lever with the pencil line. Get the fire going well and then move the level to half open and leave it there. Watch the temperature rising and start to level off, you won''t get 200f every time but the watch for the temperature starting to fall. Anytime after that you can refuel but you can keep the temperature high, even if the fire appears to be dying. Refuel as normal, turn airwash to full and again, when the flame is going again, turn it down to half.
Having the airwash fully open must let all the heat go up the chimney and having much lower than half will give a dirty glass.
I also have a cheap extract fan blowing into the bottom of the stove to give better heat capture. It also increases the heat as seen at the oven thermometer.
The trouble with it is, left unattended, the temperature of the metal will only be 70c instead of 200c. You think it''s running at its best but it''s 130deg below what it could be and it will be using the same amount of wood! Sorry to mix centigrade and Fahrenheit but I''ve measured the metal temperature on top of the stove with a infrared thermometer gun but to get a continuous reading, I have to use the oven thermometer and it''s easier to say 200c on the digital and 200f on the analogue because the analogue is measuring the air temperature.
You could experiment some more but these instructions are as simple as I can make them. I do get some useful heat out of the stove now. Just remember that a roaring flame is possibly the last thing you want to see and that a fully open airwash is letting the heat escape!
Stove expert replied:
A stove thermometer is the best solution to insure that you are using the stove efficiently, it has the markings to guide you for the correct operating temperatures. This is a problem though when an inset stove is being used, seems the customer has found his own alternative.
I just love my newly installed Stockton 7.It brings a warmth and ambience to the living room which,in the winter months was uninviting and very cold. It takes the chill off the room very quickly
and is so easy to get the fire going.
Now when there is only me in the house I can light the fire and save on heating.
This really is worth every penny spent and I can enjoy it for many years to come.
This stove is pathetic. I have done an experiment with a thermometer. Temperature of (what is supposed to be a small) room rose from 14C to 17.5C after 4 hours of vigorous burning. Like other
posts regarding this model, the stove/wood burns vigorously but poor heating of the room. Chimney breast was filled with vermiculite at the time of installation. It appears that if you buy and install this stove you can look forward to years of (re)insulation and a nice cold room.
I have had this stove for about 5 years now. I have tried everything to get to get it to work like other stoves I have seen working.I have made sure the chimney it set up correctly and spent
£1000 of a liner even though I was told it was not really needed.I have had the chimney cleaned and a number of stove specialists check it out, each who tell me something different.My wood is very well seasoned. Some kept indoors and dry for well over a year.I have refitted the glass robe and door rope 3 times and done it well I have to say.Stovax are poor when it comes to customer support. Even though I have been a 'nice guy'.The stove continues to eat up logs, there is minimal air control and the glass always gets browned up unless I have the stove on full burn.Therefore, this stove is very poor value, the manufacture delivers poor service as do their outlets I have found.
Stove expert replied:
Have you an airbrick in the room? Perhaps there is not enough draw !! What height is the chimney and was the liner insulated to keep the gases warm?
Have not been happy with this stove from the beginning and have found customer support very poor. Fitting company went out of business. Have just had liner fitted with MAD cowl but still not
getting what was expected from the stove. Am very disappointed.
Decided to have a stove fitted to make it safer and stop the carpet from being burned. Was told that the inset was the only one that would fit and went ahead with it just over a year ago.
Worked out a lot more expensive than I thought. Once completed I followed the instructions but found that the stove didn't give out any heat at all and that was with a cushion covering the new 5 inch diameter hole in the wall (I've already got a eight inch square one for the oil boiler). I spoke to Stovax and the supplier and I was weighing wood as I burned it to get a feel for how much heat I was burning and getting. In theory I should be getting a unit of heat for less than 3p when my oil costs 7p. With having the stove burning as fast as I could, it hardley warmed the lounge at all and it's supposed to be 7kW.Eventually I realised that there was no insulation around the stove and I had the supplier come and have a look at it. After he believed me the installer returned and filled the cavity with vermiculite (I removed all the rubble). This has improved matters a bit but I don't think that the stove is much more efficient than the open fire as it takes hours to increase the lounge temperature by one degree centigrade. The installer said it would be sufficient to heat the lounge and the conservatory. I thought that I would be leaving the lounge door open to heat the rest of the house but I certainly can't get the lounge up to 21C with the doors shut. I've burned a 'loose ton' of wood on the fire (measured during my efficiency tests to be less than 400 kg) and more besides and am disappointed to find that it doesn't appear to have saved me any oil at all. What surprises me is that when you open the door to put more fuel in, the heat will burn your face off but there is little heat with the door closed. Where is all the heat going? I've burned 10 kg of wood and failed to heat the room and that should be giving me 30 kW of heat. That would be 3 kW/hr over ten hours, which should be plenty. If I run a 3 kW fan heater for an hour you'd have to have all the doors and windows open. With the cost of wood, assuming it is efficient, it would cost 11p/unit and if the efficiency is what I think, you'd be better off with on peak electricity. Then there is all the messing, which I do find theraputic but not when I think I'm wasting my time. Don't know what's wrong with, even with an electric fan blowing underneath it, the heat output is low and yet up close it is really hot. Tried all sorts and found the upper baffle was the wrong way round, put that right but didn't make much difference. Leave the door cracked open to cause a real draught and get it really burning. The air coming out of the vents gets hot enough to burn your hand and the top is that hot anyway but the air is only coming out slowly, that's why I have the fan. Perhaps there's not enough vermiculte!
Stove expert replied:
Has the chimney been lined? If the stove is working hard and not producing much heat then quite possibly the heat is going up the chimney or into the void that has been filled (may not be filled enough though). Further investigation recommended.
