Clearview Woodburner

[682gold]

I've got a villager BL woodburner that has given us good service but we are thinking of changing it for a clearview vision 500,

Main reasons being control on overnight burning and better looking stove,

just wondered if anyone has had any experience of either, cheers

 

Sorry should of been posted in OFF TOPIC

Edited May 3, 2012 by 682gold

[Arklyte]

We have had a Clearview Pioneer for nearly 3 years now, its fantastic, very easy to control and looks great. Havent tried to keep it going all night with wood as its not so big and the logs we had were quite large but when we tried coal it was fine but we have been told not to mix and just use one or t'other so its wood from now on, but we are very happy with our Clearview and its easy to clean too.

[682gold]

Any reason as to why not mix wood & coal? Clearview spec says it's multifuel but is it best to avoid doing so?

[RedRobin]

Any reason as to why not mix wood & coal? Clearview spec says it's multifuel but is it best to avoid doing so?

 

 

Wood burns on its own ash, where as Coal has to have air flow through the grate .

Yes you can mix the 2 in a burner, but to get the most out of each type of fuel its far better to burn one or the other .

 

Have a Stoves multifuel fitted here ( 1st house was Villager Flatmate )

I burn on average 8 ~ 10 months of the year

[DSPUK]

Had a Cleaview 750 at old house - best woodburners out but expensive - there again you pay for best.

 

If you buy it you won't regret it.

 

Dave

[Jolly]

if you want to get rid of the old one let me know we have an open fire but i have always wanted a wood burner

[Alycidon]

Wood burns on its own ash, where as Coal has to have air flow through the grate .

Yes you can mix the 2 in a burner, but to get the most out of each type of fuel its far better to burn one or the other .

 

Agreed, when mixing wood and smokeless fuel.

 

 

Please Do NOT burn ordinary house coal in a stove, its dirty and dangerous in low oxygen situations, that why it says on the bags NOT FOR USE IN A STOVE or FOR USE ON OPEN APPLIANCES ONLY. Use wood logs, man made smokeless fuel or anthracite which is natural smokeless coal.

 

Clearview, good stoves, british made, but in my opinion (and I sell stoves for a living) they are overpriced for what they are, pick up any glossy house mag and you will find a Clearview add, someone has to pay for that and that someone is the end user. I sell mainly Morso and Esse, excellent stoves and far more sensible money due to lower advertising costs.

 

A

Edited May 3, 2012 by Alycidon

[682gold]

Thanks for all the replies, i agree clearview are abit pricey but any house i've worked in that has had one, the glass stays so clean and they look very good quality plus i live near to where they are made so good for aftersales and a mate of mine wants a secondhand villager :good:

[HDAV]

I never could get the hang of the clearing bit mum has one and so does my aunt both 10 years old+ and before they were fashionable, aunts came direct from the factory and mums replaced an esse dragon that had warped! The esse was cheap second hand and been tarted up, only issue is the clear view is much smaller in the hearth

[njc110381]

We bought a Clearview 500 at the beginning of last winter to upgrade from our small Stovax unit. I have to say I can't think of a single bad point about it (apart from the cost!). It burns overnight with ease, barely ever soots the glass even when running low and is extremely easy to control.

 

Some time ago I loaded it up before bed, forgot it in the morning so went to relight it when I got home. It still had embers and fired straight up with a handfull of kindling and another log. Time without attention..... 19 hours!

 

Here's a picture of ours that I've just taken. I lit it at about lunch time and have run it so there's barely any flame on a mixture of softwood and hard until now (9 hours). In this time the glass would have smoked over in our old stove but not this one - it's still as clear as ever. The dark patches in the picture are just dark areas in the stove because of the lack of flame, the glass is clear with just a small amount of ash on it. I haven't cleaned it for a month and it's been on nearly every day...

 

 

Edit... In fact the ash on the glass looks worse in the picture than it does from where I'm sitting. I think it's the reflection of the flash because in a softly lit room I can barely see it at all.

Edited May 3, 2012 by njc110381

[markm]

I have a solution 400 (smokeless approved model). I can do a night to morning with hardwoods/smokeless coal with a little kindling to get it going. The glass never gets really dirty even when closed right down, when you open it up the air wash system burns any tar etc off the glass.

[joe1978]

Pioneer 400P owner here (which is basically a pioneer on stilts) !

Love mine. It's been in 3 years now and I've had no problems at all. The glass stays really clean burning pretty much anything but the wettest of wood.

The coal/anthracite + wood thing... As smokeless burns it gives off sulphur compounds, even well seasoned wood can contain 20% water which needs evaporated. Water + sulphur = not good, especially if you're using twin wall steel flues like I am.

 

Joe

[njc110381]

That's a good explaination of the wood and coal mix issue. I'm sure sulphuric acid isn't going to do any metal any favours whether it's the stove or the flue liner!

 

After that picture last night I lobbed on four short 6"ish round logs from front to back, left the setting as it was (about 1/4 open) and went to bed. This morning I was greeted with a 3" thick bed of embers. I lobbed on some more wood and opened the vents up for two to three minutes and it's back to looking like it was never allowed to die down now.

 

One thing I would buy is a flue thermometer. It gives you a good clue as to what's going on inside the stove and allows you to run it at ideal temperature most of the time. They can go on the stove but the flue just above it reacts faster because it's thinner so gives a better reading. Anything can be forced to overnight burn but this Clearview seems to be able to do it without tarring up the chimney through being run too cool.

Edited May 4, 2012 by njc110381

[Kes]

When doing the house we bought a BBBBIGGG stovax clearview stove. Multifuel and can be used with the doors open as an open fire. Perhaps the 1500 model? Has bi folding doors both sides.

The glass does get smoke marked and is best cleaned with a stanley knife decorating scraper (for window paint) and then given a rub over with a wet cloth dabbed in the woodash - works a treat. The stove is excellent, closed or open and takes humungous sized logs. Its fully controllable but cost over a £1100 with chimney etc. On a cold night the temp in the room is 80+ and a bit stifling unless you open the doors of the room and heat the whole house !

I never mix fuel as logs produce more than enough heat. However it eats logs like an old boozer drinks beer. Al4x saya he gets through about 10 tons of logs per year - if you are paying, thats about £750 quids worth so go for a sensibly sized stove (not too big) and run it carefully. Or if your wood is free, toast your tootsies !

[njc110381]

We just had our combined energy bill through and our new stove has saved us about £50 per month over winter. If we bought the logs we would probably break even, it certainly wouldn't save money though. I burn mainly rubbish that I've charged my customers to take away - fence posts and rails, big shrubs and any trees we cut down no matter what they are! It all burns as long as it's dried out well and hasn't been painted.

[Zulu]

Just sorted out next seasons logs for drying out , out of pic are are the remnants of a tree that came down on sons house a month ago after a blizzard .

 

 

Julian

[toads]

Hi All, I have been reading this because we have just had a Clearview Vision 500 put in about two weeks ago and it is brilliant.As has been said already I am having to open doors to allow heat upstairs!.It stays on over night if I want,and isnt too greedy for wood.It was more expensive but"she" wanted that mocel when we first went to look at them (out of all others).I am sure you will be happy with one.ATB toads

[DSPUK]

682 Gold

 

I see you are in Shropshire - if you are close to Telford - Taf's sell their off cut's as logs - These are the long trees you see on timber wagons all stacked sideways (pine) - They go through a machine to cut them horizontally and each half is cut to length - it's the half moon offcut's they sell- anything from 2-10" in length - When they started it was £5 ton but now it's £30 - if you have a big trailer or pickup it's worth going - I have already done a couple of trips - You need to stack it under cover with plenty of air round it and it only takes a few months to be perfectly dry - Once dry it burns clean and hot and it's cheap heat if you have to buy logs - I normally stack it on my trailer to get as much on as I can - 350kg - but last trip was raining so we threw it on and only got 240kg -If your trailer is big enough they load it with bucket -- If we have to go to Telford for any reason we try and do a log trip in with it. I have 5 log stores dotted around garden and some under plastic.

 

Dave

[Jolly]

The wife decided she definitely needs a wood burner so if anyone has a cheap second hand one pleas let me know xxx

[682gold]

Once again thanks for replies. went down to Clearviews Ludlow showroom and i have to say very impressed with the quality and control of the stoves to the degree that it's just waiting for "she who must be obeyed" to choose green or black and i think we will be ordering one in the next week