Gas Stoves and Oil Stoves

Whatever fuel you burn, the most efficient way to burn it is in a true closed appliance, a stove. So if the fuel is expensive, it makes sense to make the best possible use of it.

If at the same time you want a beautiful centerpiece to your room: traditional, classic or contemporary, then you want a stove!

Most stove manufacturers have gas appliances in their ranges. The manufacturers links will give you access to many examples. Oil, is however a bit more specialist.

Try 'Euroheat', 'Don', and 'Ouzledale' for the best examples. A bit further down we give you a few hints and tips to help choose your gas heating stove.

Gas Stoves

Firstly, decide on flueing!

• Even those stoves described as 'Flueless' ('Burley', 'Esse') have some fairly stringent criteria to be met regarding flues.

Don’t be caught out!

• BEFORE you go shopping, examine the existing flue .
  Ask the Gas Board or a Corgi engineer to define it for you. You don’t want to fall in love with the fire you can’t have!

No flue?

• Decide where in the room would be the optimum position for your gas stove. This will often dictate the type of flueing required.
• In most cases a BALANCED FLUE will require the stove to be against an outside wall (For a good exception see “Gazco”)
• CLASS TWO GAS FLUE is usually only five or six inches in diameter and can easily be concealed in a run through the house.
• POWER FLUE systems open up a vast array of possible sites for a stove or fire, but bear in mind that you are making a gas appliance, electrically dependent. It won’t work in a power cut!

Oil Stoves

Unfortunately, customers too often regard Oil as just another fuel, without considering the unique properties of the medium.

The first oil stoves developed for the domestic market were remarkably efficient devices, giving huge outputs for miserly consumption. There are still examples of these sold, although rarely in the U.K! Why? Because the burners burn with a blue flame!

We (clever people that we are!) decided to fly in the face of all the high school physics we were taught, and convinced ourselves that the psychological effect of looking at a lazy yellow flame was more warming than an efficient blue one! This is also the case with Gas stoves. If you are interested in true efficiency, we can still source some 'Blue flame' appliances, if asked.

Efficiency

So we start to build oil stoves for a public that demands we are inefficient! Now we wrap our burner in cast iron or steel, that has to be warmed up before the room receives any heat! (Inevitably, steel warms up faster, so bear this in mind as you look at appliances.)

Oil stoves don’t take kindly to being turned off and on too often, either. (Ask an AGA owner...) The best usage is probably to turn your stove on in October and off in March. There are reasons for this that we really need to talk about before your purchase if you aren’t going to be disappointed or surprised!

Work out your needs

Use our links to browse manufacturers websites then contact us for the best advice on the stove that would suit you. It will help if you have already done some homework. Use site calculators to arrive at an output requirement, (For an easy to use calculator, see “Villager” or “Ouzledale” ), and find a look that you like. (Black? Enamel? Tall? Short?).

We have access to all the stoves in the British market, so PLEASE don’t ask us to send ALL the brochures! Knowledge is no substitute for Experience!

Phone, email or write, and we will help all we can!

Warning about DIY stove installation

Stove Experience is proud of its competitive pricing policy, however, we firmly believe that “You gets what you pays for.” If you want to pay the full amount of your stove in advance, have 100 plus kilo’s of cast iron or steel delivered to your doorstep, not to your fireplace, and be told that “The instructions are in the box” - don’t call us!

If you are even thinking of buying a stove on the internet, please see our Internet Policy