Charnwood Inset boiler stove - My experience....

misterheg

We had a new stove installed a couple of months ago and I wanted to share this experience with others, who might be thinking of doing the same thing....

What we had before:
An open fire (a bit larger than the average) with a back boiler. The house is a bungalow, with about 9 rads. 80% of the heat went straight up the chimney.

Now:
The house and the rads are still the same . The stove is a Charnwood SLX45 Inset stove with built-in back boiler. Is it good? Hell yeah! The numbers have now turned, 80% of the heat now goes into the room/rads. Some pointers:

- Charnwood (as a brand) certainly isn't the cheapest, far from it but the quality is excellent. I would compare this to a German built car where many others out there are Made In China...
- Once you've chosen your Charnwood, I would suggest you to go with an installer as recommended by the shop you buy it from, this made the whole process for us very simple as the relationship was already there.
- Even though we had a back boiler in the open fire, new copper pipes had to be put down in the floor and it was fairly messy. The chaps arrived on the Monday morning at 8am and the work was finished on the Thursday, round lunch time. Suggest you have this installed in the warmer months as no heating will be available during the install.
- Live under no illusion, the stove with the back boiler is hungry (we use about 80% of the fuel we used to compared to the open fire). As we have a free supply of firewood, we use that, BUT, it is essential to put some coal on there once it's up and running, otherwise it will take a very long time to get it upto heat.
- We also had a flue liner installed at the same time and something to watch out for is that the draw can sometimes be too good even though you have zeroed all the levers. Ask your installer to include a possible chimney damper.

Hope this helps some of you, key is to find a main dealer and go with a reputable installer, we had a great experience thanks to this.

Just ask if you have any questions re this install, I won't be able to give you all the ins and outs re the technical side (i.e. what should go where....)

Good luck!

Calahonda52

How many CO sensors were fitted and where?

misterheg

Hi Calahonda52

One, in the room where the stove is located. A vent was also installed (drilled) in the same room as per regulations.

moonshadow

Excellent review.

Calahonda52

misterheg wrote: »

Hi Calahonda52

One, in the room where the stove is located. A vent was also installed (drilled) in the same room as per regulations.

Where is the room is the CO sensor fitted?
Does chimney pass through any bedrooms?
Is attic converted?

misterheg

Hi again Calahonda52

Where is the room is the CO sensor fitted? 3m from the stove
Does chimney pass through any bedrooms? No
Is attic converted? No

Calahonda52

Re
Where is the room is the CO sensor fitted? 3m from the stove
Thanks, at what height form floor?
ps Charnwood: great choice, can u pm me where you bought it as I have two and need some spares, might be cheaper than direct from Charnwood now that they have @dealers@ here
Thanks

misterheg

Hi again and again Calahonda52

Hehe, not sure where you're going with this...7 feet from the floor :-)

Prices are very much the same wherever you get your Charnwood from, have a look at their website and contact the closest retailer to you.

Best of luck!

Calahonda52

Much obliged re the height, its just I have seen different setups lately and there seems to be no agreed standards with installers.
Over and out!

Wearb

Each manufacturer of co alarms have their own siting instructions and should be followed. Having said that, co mixes very well with air with very little tendency to stratisfication. Therefore if no manufacturer instructions available, place it out of draughts and away from dead air areas such as corners.