How to choose the right wood burning stove

Getting the heat output right

This is the part people most often get wrong. A stove that is too powerful for the room gets run shut down or with the door cracked, which burns dirty and dirties the glass. A stove that is too small never quite heats the space. Measure the room, allow roughly 1kW per 14 cubic metres for a typical home, and adjust for how well insulated and draughty it is.

Wood-burning or multi-fuel

A dedicated wood-burning stove is often preferred for a cleaner, more efficient burn. A multi-fuel stove can burn both wood and approved smokeless fuels, which suits some homes and heating habits. We will talk you through which suits you and how you plan to use the room.

DEFRA exempt and smoke control areas

Many towns and cities, including much of Leeds and York, are smoke control areas. In those, you need a DEFRA-exempt stove to burn wood legally. A DEFRA-exempt appliance is also cleaner-burning, so it is a sensible choice even where it is not required.

Style, size and efficiency

Once the output and fuel are settled, the rest is about fit and finish: a size and shape that suits the opening or the space, a style that works with the room, and an efficient, Ecodesign-ready stove that gets the most heat from the wood. We bring samples and options to the survey so you can see them in your own home.

The survey questions that choose the stove for you

By the end of a good survey, the shortlist has usually chosen itself. How do you use the room, evenings only or all day? Is the stove the main heat or the treat? What is the chimney situation, lined, unlined or absent? Where will the wood live, and what length logs can you get locally? Do you want the option of smokeless fuel? Each answer removes half the catalogue, which is exactly what it should do.

That is why we do not sell from a showroom floor: the room chooses the stove, and we have to be in the room to hear it.

Cast iron or steel?

Both make excellent stoves, and the difference is character as much as engineering. Cast iron warms up more slowly, holds its heat longer after the fire dies, and carries traditional detailing beautifully, which is why our ACR cast range suits period rooms so well. Steel heats up faster, styles cleaner and more contemporary, and suits the modern end of our range like the Fire FX Atlas columns.

Neither is better; they are different answers to different rooms. The honest question is which behaviour and which look suits how you live.

The features genuinely worth having

Four earn their keep. Airwash keeps the glass clear so you actually see the fire you paid for. Ecodesign compliance means the stove burns cleanly and efficiently, and it is standard across everything we fit. A direct external air connection matters in airtight modern homes, letting the stove breathe without ventilation grilles in the room. And a sensible maximum log length, 40cm takes a standard cut, saves you years of sawing logs in half.

Features rarely worth chasing: headline kW figures bigger than your room needs, and gadgetry that complicates a machine whose beauty is its simplicity.

Common questions