In this video get an overview of the Stovax County wood burning and multi-fuel stove range from The Tortoise - an independent reviewer of stoves and fires. See how easy the Ecodesign County is to light and control, how clean it is, how long it burns, and final thoughts.
This is the Stovax County and for me, it’s like coming home. This stove is how they used to be. As I mentioned in the first impressions, this stove felt familiar, reliable, even old school, with some modern twists and boy, was I right.
Okay, let’s light this old school beast. That isn’t a camera. This is the five and it’s not a huge stove, so I’ve used some smaller pieces of wood, but it is a really well-behaved stove with lighting. Um, you get away with quite a lot with this thing.
Firelighter at the very top, and we’ve got royal blue matches today, which is obviously very exciting, it’s a new color. So, lit fire and at this point, obviously, remove the camera, and then, uh, we push the door just ajar. This vent all the way over to the left, this vent also to the left, and this one pulled all the way out. That was quick as lightning to get up to temperature. Now, these controls do get hot, but luckily you do get some gloves. So at this point, I would close the lower air, particularly if you’re burning just wood. Um, I also have found that for a good cruising speed and I’m not struggling with cleanness, I close the lower tertiary air, and then I bring this right down to closed and just nudge it back. I think this is the most important air to keep open because it’s what keeps those rolling flames and that clean glass.
Oh, you do also have to shut the door. It was doing things regardless, it was still control. I was like it’s a little bit like fiery. Yeah, that that was why.
They make a few versions of this stove. They do a 3-kilowatt, this five, a five widescreen, and an 8-kilowatt as well. They are incredibly toughly built, basic, simple but hard. They’ve got a 5-year warranty which I cannot imagine you will ever need to use. I mean, I literally think this will outlive my grandchildren. They don’t even exist yet. It’s got a 5-inch outlet. You can get it in this wood version, which is basically like an empty box, or you can get a full grate and riddling grate and ash pan for coal use. Um, if it wasn’t clear already, these stoves are focused on function, reliability, and hard work.
This stove runs at just under 80% efficiency, and it has all the modern approvals, Ecodesign, DEFRA approval, which I think’s really impressive because the stove is not primarily focused on this. Sure, it can run clean on the glass. I’ve even run it overnight, and you can get it to stay clean on the glass, but you do need to know what you’re trying to achieve when you approach it. This, this you know how modern cars have like the lane keeping assist and there’s cruise control, every year the machines take control more and more, and this stove is not like that. It’s returning control to you, so you have a lot of control over this stove, which is really encouraging, really useful, but it also means you can get stuff wrong. Um, so yes, you can make this thing go all black on the glass with relative ease. You can also open up this upper air vent that washes down the glass, and it cleans that muck off really, really effectively, uh, particularly if you’re burning dry fuel. But because you are so in the driving seat, as I say, you’ve got to approach this stove with a plan in mind. Am I going for long burn times and less clean, or am I wanting to have this hot and fiery and very clean for the evening?
This stove is a hark back to the stoves of old. You may be able to tell that I really like that, but it’s not all picturesque nostalgia. Um, you get a pair of gloves, which covers both hands, and you’ve got a tool which will riddle the grate if you’ve got a multifuel version but also you can open the door and knock vents around as well, but there are lots of vents and, uh, they’re small, they get hot, and they are a little bit fiddly. They are, however, very effective. Everything does exactly what you want straight away, and this stove is also very forgiving from a spillage point of view. Like the stoves of old, if you’re used to stoves and you want more of what you know, or you want tough and think that modern stuff is just another way of saying more annoying and won’t last as long, then you’re going to get on really, really well with this. And as I say, the control is fantastic.
We test fuel economy by getting the stove up to operating temperature and burning a single net of logs on it and just trying to maintain just in operating temperature to see how long we can extend it. For this stove, for me, was like going back in time. I grew up with stoves like this. I was an expert instantly. The first time I tried this, I got 13 hours, which is obviously a fantastic score but also a testament to the old ways as well. It’s also economic to buy. It would take an absolute lunatic to ever break it. For me, this is an economic tank. For anybody who knows cars, you’ll have probably heard of the Toyota Hilux and its history of strength, reliability so much so that it became sort of fashionably nicknamed invincible, and then later models of that car started having Invincible in the name. That is the closest comparison I can find to this stove. Stovax has taken the very best out of an old manufacturer, Yeoman, and somehow kept the dream alive whilst also ticking all the modern boxes. This stove has no understanding at all in engineered obsolescence. It’s not the cleanest, the handles are a little bit fiddly, and there’s lots of controls, but if you’re a proper stove user, then none of that matters. This stove is shouting from the rooftops that there’s no point in 5% cleaner if you’re using 20% more fuel or if your stove only lasts 10 years. This stove is a fantastic piece of familiar and simple engineering that will outlive us all. It’s not for everyone, but if you want function, toughness, if you’ve had stoves before, or if you’re the sort of person that would rather keep their old car than be given a Tesla, then you and I have something in common, and you’re going to get on really well with this stove.
This is like, this is so familiar to me, this is like an old school stove. I love it. It’s well, it’s interesting because I think when you get stuff that’s less refined like this, I think that they are wasting more heat up the chimney. I don’t think that they are technically as good, so because you’ve got more waste heat going up the chimney, it’s easier to get it in operating temperature and keep it there. Um, so you do manipulate the figures a little bit. Um, yeah, I see, which is tricky, but yeah, but I think you have to take a broader view that when you’re dealing with something that’s less clever and is bought by customers that are less focused on the sort of cutting edge of technology, these people are reliable, slow people. They’re Tortoise, do you know what I mean? They’re the people that just, I don’t mean slow people rudely, I mean they, they bought stove they can be there for 40 years and this will last 40 years. Yeah, and there is nothing greener than that. There’s no point in going, oh yeah, yeah but it’s wasted 3% up the chimney extra. Who gives a stuff! During those 40 years, the next person’s had six stoves. There’s no comparison. You can’t even begin to compare, it’s just, yeah there’s something special about the old ways, um, yeah, there maybe it’s just cuz I grew up with them.
I think a lot of people, you know, a lot of people do struggle to sort of make that change if they’ve got a pre-Ecodesign stove. Yeah, it’s quite a struggle for them often, you know, they complain of smoke in the room and yeah, I mean it, and lighting is difficult, you know, yeah, lighting is more difficult and the smoke in the room is because you’ve got to allow the stove to burn down. This is more forgiving because I can open it right now and you know it’s got relatively new fuel on it and I have zero spillage and that’s smokey fuel right because I’ve only got one piece so it should be creating lots of smoke but I’ve got no problem, yeah.
County Wood & Multi-Fuel Stoves
County 3
County 5
County 5 Wide
County 8
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