wood burning stoves

[Dave&Olive]

hi need advice on where to buy France or Uk  and what make.I want one that does actually work, throws out some form of heat and not oh that looks nice as we freeze in the corner of the room.

        We went to a local shop in the uk today selling Villager stoves the price was £746 with vat for there type A. 9kw. (30,000 bth ) dogs whasits fire. We also found out that they have supplier in France so contacted them to ask a price €1080 with taxes so not worth the bother of fetching one over .Have now just got hold of a Machine Mart catalogue and there top output Franklin 64,000 btu fire is  £340  now  are there any better ones out there. next time we come out it will be for good so don't want some to say you should have got one in the uk. and on the other foot they are a waste of time you should have got one of   ***** make in France.

                  God don`t I waffle

                        Dave

[Dog]

I bought a 9.5KW French wood burner which is strange but works fine, a Jotul 9KW from a Vide Grenier for 100 Euros which is also great.

The Trocs have secondhand wood burners from a quick look most just need a good clean and new seals, Auchan also has woodburners for sale on the for sale wanted board. The local newspaper has secondhand wood burners.

Just get one quickly before winter is over!

[Dave&Olive]

well that was short and quick ta . bit more room in the van and one less job over here.

 tried this on bable fish :-    

 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe

     and the fish opened his mouth and spake nothing.

                 Dave

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote]hi need advice on where to buy France or Uk and what make.I want one that does actually work, throws out some form of heat and not oh that looks nice as we freeze in the corner of the room. ...[/quote]

"...Have now just got hold of a Machine Mart catalogue and there top output Franklin 64,000 btu fire is  £340  now  are there any better ones out there...."

Dave,

If you're anywhere near a Machine Mart I'd go and have a look at them. As far as I can recall, they seemed a pretty mixed bunch. some quite solid and cast and others tinny and made in China with very poor finishing. The pricing v kW output seemed oddly non-linear as well, but you might find what you need, also they have some quite good sales from time to time.

(picked up a 2HP router at just over half price!)

 P

[Dave&Olive]

Thanks for the advice, you ask a question then the answer hits you in the face , just have a look at this web site

         http://www.stovefinders.com/p-stovesales.html

        after all the searching typical

                  Dave

[Sbesley]

Dave,

Having spent last weekend installing one in my house in Normandy, the memory of standing on the roof, holding on to the chimney with one hand and trying to haul the liner up with the other is still vivid!

I am convinced having encountered a few other makes that the best is Villager. I've had one in my house in the UK for the past 10 years and it has been excellent. It will keep in overnight if loaded up, and while not 'fancy', certainly looks the part in a rural property.

I've just bought a Villager 'AL' for which I paid £635, most suppliers are open to a bit a haggling I find ;-) They do also come up on Ebay, a couple of Villager 'A's in the last month went for around £350. Trouble was they were the other side of the country and both had needed a little spent on them. That said there's not much that can go wrong with them. Of course unless you are replacing a previous installation you'll also need to budget for some liner and a few other bits and pieces.

Stephen.

[hoverfrog]

we replaced a very old Jotul with a brand new Harmony, and to be honest it was a waste of money! The jotul burnt anything (from trees to old fischer-price) but the Harmony only does wood, and doesn't knock out anything like the amount of heat

The salesman was warbling on about 'excess heat' - to which we laughed and replied that there is no such thing in this house, and we were right on that count as we find it better to light the open fire in the other room (big tudor chimney) than to try and get the Harmony going. YMMV of course!

[zeb]

If anyone is interested there's a Bosky for sale on www.ebay.co.uk today. Will cook, heat room and run central heating. Friends in France brought one over and it's brill.

http://search.ebay.co.uk/bosky_W0QQsoloctogZ9

regards.........helen

PS......and being Scandinavian Jotul woodburners are the best and available in France!!

[GRT17]

There was a lot of discussion on here a while ago about stoves but I can't remember whether it was before or after the new look forum came in, might be worth doing an archive search.

Gill

[ClaraQ]

Hi Dave

We bought the Franklin woodburner from Machine Mart and brought it over last year.  It has been a godsend!  Our living room is large and has high ceilings, but this stove gets it lovely and warm AND stays in all night.  Highly recommended, especially for the price.  At the time, the only one we could find in France that could throw out the same amount of heat was around 850 euros.

Clara

[Leshirondelles]

Hi,

If I was you I would avoid the Machine Mart stoves. We had one during our renovation and although fine for the purpose of keeping us warm during that period they are not to be recommended for long term use. Most are manufactured in China, they degrade pretty quickly and are not the best quality of manufacture. We bought our main stove in England ( a Irish Waterford ) because it was less expensive there (being an import) - we're talking around £1200. The remainder of our stoves we have bought in France - an excellent Supra which we bought for around £350 at Mr. Bricolage, and a modern version of an old standup Deville design which we bought for £300 as bankrupt stock. Best time to buy a stove in France is anytime from mid September onwards - the prices are generally good during this period. If you want some more wood burning links then visit www.golimousin.net - a renovation in the Limousin with lots of other info as well.

 

Good Luck

[Iceni]

We have a Villager flat A - wood burner with two rings on the top. It is in the apartment and in the winter not only keeps us warm but I cook on it. So far this winter we have used 220€ worth of wood (still have some left) and last night John was sitting round it in shirt sleeves while it was -4 at least out side, this in a 40/45 sq mtr room. We will be installing a log burner with back boiler in the main barn this year.

Our friends who have cheap French wood burners have problems keeping them in, those who have bought expensive ones also have suburb burners - I think you get what you pay for. Inset burners seem to be an expensive way to provide ash for the veggie garden but that could again be down to price and make.

We bought our Villager in France from an LF member who not only imports them but installs them (well I think he still does this, URL below if you are interested).

http://www.lesflamands.com/villager.html We don't get a commission . Hope that this helps.

[Mikey]

Iceni,

if you install one with back boiler you will see your consumption  of wood triple at least. if you have free wood then go for it otherwise i wouldn't bother, we've  gone from using 3 cord to about 10 since we fitted one with back boiler, and thats with just 6 rads and hot water on it, plust once connected to rads etc the stove will give off less heat to the room.

 

we have a villager with back boiler , can't remember the btu rating and we have an aarrow 90.000 btu output

[Iceni]

[quote]Iceni, if you install one with back boiler you will see your consumption of wood triple at least. if you have free wood then go for it otherwise i wouldn't bother, we've gone from using 3 cord to a...[/quote]

Thanks for this Mikey

Did you buy one with an integral wrap around back boiler or a clip on one added later?

You have acutally answered a question we had and we will still go with the log burner, though perhaps not to heat the water and run rads.

Wood is not free for us but available locally (less than 2 km) and we can go and collect if we are in urgent need.

[James]

Hello,

We had a villager stove when they came out. We first had one in 1991 and found it excellent. We liked the sloping canopy and the curves. We moved from the stone cottage after 3 years to another house. We are still in contact with the new owners to this day and after awhile they fitted their own woodburner as their parents own a well known stove company. They said the villager is still in use to this day and looks great in their friends fireplace.

We have a cottage in Normandy and are planning to move over and take a villager over with us. We like the option of a solid fuel grate to burn coal and also the option of adding a 30,000Btu clip in back boiler, which will run the radiators. As you know they are 14-16Kw and look really countryfied with the double opening doors and shaped canopy.

Also like the flue damper/ general design.

We decided not to have the factory fitted boiler as it may burn out after many years. With the clip in boiler we can replace it and have a stove for even longer.

Regards James.

[Mikey]

the villager we have has the integral saddle boiler and the aarrow has the interal rap around boiler.

we used the villager for 3 yrs without being plumbed in while we stayed in one of our gites while i was restoring our main house, intending to plumb it into the main house when we moved in.

the output from it in the gite was amazing, but once it was plumbed in to the main house about 80% of its heat went to the rads and left little for the room it was in.

 

i then got the aarrow which is far more powerfull and that solved the problem exept the wood consumption goes up greatly.

james, the villager is a great stove but i really would not advise anyone to use them or any other woodburner with back boiler, they are too expensive to run, and as for running it with coal it will cost a fortune, coal is more expensive in france than the uk.

i'm giving up with mine and will be fitting an oil range cooker for the central heating.

where we are in brittany a cord of logs cost from £100 to £130 and as i'm using between 10 to 12 a yr plus the wood i get free from local saw mill, its expensive and thats with just 6 rads, when the house is finnished I'll have 25 rads and use a lot more wood. 

[Stuart79]

Hi,

We got our villagers from www.renovatorsupply.com We also got our flue and bits and pieces from them. We too looked at the villager stockist in France, and it was cheaper to buy in the uk and then take them out ourselves, though they did offer to deliver it to France.

Regards

Stuart

 

 

[Mikey]

I second that stuart, i got my aarrow stove from them. the rrp for the aarrow is £1500, i got it for £1250 inc delivery to france from renovator, it left their warehouse on the friday and i got it on the following tuesday.

[Dave&Olive]

Phew thanks another 2+ page reply to our question this site continuse to amaze me.

            Will now bring out nothing with me after reading replies and look for one when we are out there. The long house has got central heating be it a massive oil/wood burning thing suppying 4 rads and hot water but the house is that long needed some form off heat for the other 2 ends.

         so thanks again

             Dave

ps the wife wants to drive in france just going to put a posting on other forum, how can I do this to the French people!!! can you get deported for having a wife who thinks left is right,you do not know...............

 

          

[James]

Hello Mikey,

I realize that the stove may well be expensive to run but the problem with our very small cottage is a place to fit the oil fired boiler. Our cottage is 18Ft square downstairs and the same upstairs.

The oil boiler would have to go in the open plan living room/kitchen and the cheap oil boilers that I have seen are a bright red so wouldnt look very nice on view. Even if they do balanced flued boilers we would still have the same problem for space. So we thought about installing a villager in the fireplace and saving valuable floor space. We even thought about installing a oil boiler in a cupboard with the neccasary ventilation.

Our cottage is very well insulated and would require 4 radiators, with total output of about 22,000Btu's.

We will be fitting a single panel radiator in the living room as well to counteract the heat going to the back boiler. I used to install gas central heating but gave up corgi membership.

We may just see how warm the place is without radiators. Regards James.

[Mikey]

james, if the cottage is that small you really wouldn't need any rads, when we had the villager in our gite which is open plan down stairs 40m2 on each floor it heated both floors without being plumbed in. also we had it running 24/7 on the minimum setting  the furthest end of the room was 28c, and upstairs was never cold. I have friends with similar size houses and they just heat with logburner the downstairs and as you know the heat rises. whith a property that size you will probly only use about 2 corde of wood

 

out of interest what area are you in.

 

[James]

Thanks for your post Mikey.

Nice to hear that it will be warm with just the stove. We were thinking about installing central heating as my grandparents feel the cold terribly and come from a gas centrally heated house that is on most of the time during the winter. We will be just south of Villedieu. Regards James.

[Jsey]

I had my Godin Colonial fitted in Sept. and am more than happy with it, at 839 euros just above middle price but very solidly built rated 10 kw but seems much more, has 2 glass doors which I can have open without the house filling with smoke.

 

James, have you thought of building a small attached outhouse for the boiler with maybe gas as an alternative to oil, I have an 1100 ltr. gas tank and use about 5% per month running 6 large old cast iron rads and all hot water, think the last time I checked gas was .53e per litre.

Maybe of use  http//:www.chaffoteaux-maury.fr:  

 

[James]

Hello Jsey,

Yes I had thought about building an attached outbuilding but thought it only added a lot more hassle with having to use frost protection on the boiler. Ie for the boiler to fire up when it got down to 5 degress when we didnt have the heating on at night to stop the boiler from freezing up.

Insulating the outbuilding as well and also wiring up an internal programmer in the house to turn the heating on so as not to have to go outside when you want to turn it on.

A LPG balanced flued wall mounted boiler would be Ok but we have heard many people on living France say that they are expensive to run heating from. I also dont want to be in a rental contract for the gas tank.

What we are going to do is see how we get on with the villager stove.

There is a company in the UK that does wall mounted balanced flued oil boilers,I cant think of their name off hand.

Just out of interest does any French manufacturer do any oil boiler thats wall mounted? Because that would save valuable floor space and might be another option if needed. I would buy in France if we find the villager isnt enough.

Many thanks James.

[moos]

I'd endorse the Villager stove - the A model with flat top already mentioned. We brought ours out from the UK about 8 years ago, and are happy with it. You can easily cook on it too, and French neighbours are quite impressed with it. Another crucial thing is that it will easily accept 50cm logs. We did remove the rear firebricks and plumb in a stainless steel back boiler which feeds three upstairs radiators, but not very efficiently. You really have to turn two of them off to warm up one room! So not sure if that was a good idea or not. An oil boiler would I'm sure be better, but then I'm told you have to put the tank somewhere away from the house and they are pretty unsightly things. Any thoughts on that?