In this video, The Tortoise, an independent reviewer of stoves and fires, provides an overview of the Stovax Riva2 wood burning and multi-fuel inset fire range. Discover how easy the Ecodesign Riva2 is to light and control, its cleanliness, burn duration, and final thoughts.
This is the Stovax Riva2. Now, Riva is like Perspex is to clear glass, or Michelin to tires, Jacuzzi to hot tubs. Your analogies get worse. I meant, you know what I mean. It’s like the Riva name is a big enough name when you’re talking about inset stoves. Everyone knows what you mean when you say Riva.
Yes, the Riva range comes in four different sizes. It starts off with the British standard opening 40, uh Riva2 40. They then do this 50, a 55, 66, and these are obviously just getting wider and wider. This one is the 50, and I think this one is the pick of the bunch because we’ve still got a 22 inch standard height, so it fits into standard sizes. It’s still got a 5 inch, uh flu, and so it’s approved, very easy to install, and it’s rated at 5KW but gives you this more landscape view.
Okay, let’s light it. As always, we begin with some logs in the bottom. Notice my hands, they obviously look really good. We will put a fire lighter in there somewhere. Okay, push our door to just on the latch. Obvious, see our vent fully open, and let’s not forget this vent. Okay, all up to temperature, actually, it was pretty quick, it was about a quarter of an hour. We, I have spent some time getting my thermometer position to the point where I was happy I was getting accurate readings, but yeah, all up to temperature in about quarter of an hour, so actually very nice and simple. And I do like this boost function where I can open that up and suddenly I get this jet stream up from below, makes lighting very very quick and easy actually. So, I’m going to give this, I think, for lighting, this is a 9 out of 10, particularly for an inset stove. Look at that jet stream, calm it down, all good.
They’re all designed or focused more towards wood burning, but the 40, the smallest, does have the ability of burning uh smokeless fuel as well. They’re all DEFRA approved, uh which is very relevant if you’re wanting to fit that 5 inch flue, obviously, they’re um Ecodesign as well, uh speaking of Ecodesign 2022, this range actually won the Build It Awards for 2022 as well. The heat coming off that put a log on there, this is the stove’s party piece. Click that down, new fuel boost function, get that properly lit up to temperature instantly, yeah that’s quick isn’t it, yeah really quick, and then click it back, reign it back under control, fantastic. That’s good isn’t it, because like when you’re loading a stove you’ve got to like open the vents you’ve then got to like yeah wait for minutes you going to sit down then you got to get back up yes and turn it back down again yeah no you can just boost it bang right up to temperature then set it right back where you want to go.
This stove comes with a very cool ash pan design, um also comes with some nice gloves, um but I quite like this, um this little setup uh, and we’ve got this ash pan underneath which is great and obviously our fantastic boost feature. I did have a problem with this where the catch locked in place and then this was just flopped down and I couldn’t close it, um and interestingly I was glad this happened because I want to discover issues that might potentially happen but more than that um we adjusted this uh to fix the issue and actually it was really easy I wanted to discover where this was like a complete nightmare but what I learned through this was that catch has been used on the Riva range for over 20 years, obviously, it’s done that because it’s proved reliable so historically it’s not really an issue I must have just been really unlucky, um but the fact that that happened, it was an easy solve, and I continue to enjoy the fact that that drops down and this looks really smart and nicely finished just became part of the story.
Obviously we’ve already mentioned the Boost feature that’s obviously the primary air so that’s air coming up through the base of the stove, we’ve then got our secondary air which is controlling air down the glass and through the back um for high efficiency and clean burning and obviously a clean glass um it also comes as standard with direct air so that air rather than being drawn from the room can be directly fed from outside so you don’t get any drafts uh in the room which is obviously convenient and the fact that it comes with it as standard is really useful the other thing they do and this will probably be only relevant to sort of more modern properties but this convection box where all the heat is sort of you got cold air being brought in at the bottom and hot air being blasted out the top it’s doing it very well you can actually pipe air from that convection chamber to other rooms in the house now that will take a little bit of creativity but it’s a fantastic function where you can drive this heat to other spaces in the house essentially after you’ve done the work for free all that heat just appears out of nowhere.
Also you can get it I’ve obviously got it with this three-sided frame because I’ve got it right down on the floor but if you want it raised up on the wall they do a four-sided frame uh so it’s framed all the way around. This is the very sort of thin style frame but they do a wider one as well um so that makes it nice and easy. Final point it comes with a 5-year warranty.
Okay well for starters it has a A energy rating and an efficiency rating of 77.4% so we’ve got two ticks there and to be fair generally it does just run clean we’ve had it running uh all morning and it’s spotless so no problems there. I’ve got a little shot here of what it looked like after two weeks of burning playing around with it shutting it down misbehaving with it so yeah it runs nice and clean.
The other thing I noticed was the fire bricks now obviously they’ve got this very interesting design and what I’ve discovered after a bit of research and asking questions is like a golf ball you know how golf balls have all those dimples over them that’s about reducing air resistance across them and the effect of this dimple brick design is the same what they’re trying to do is get more turbulence more air speed not only does that make the flames look prettier and more engaging but it also helps things run cleaner uh and to be fair the bricks do seem very nice and clean.
Now this stove generally is about looking Sleek burning very cleanly and looking engaging being a great focal point and it has served that purpose very very well it’s not with the intended use of constant serious chugging all the time so it hasn’t run overnight um uh it it wasn’t capable of doing that but to be fair in terms of its intended purpose it served its job very very well I think for cleanness we’re going to give it a 7 out of 10.
This stove is obviously designed with the look in mind it’s very sleek and smartly finished but thankfully they haven’t um cheapened the build it’s still heavy tough and rugged um but as I say very nicely finished as well um we get a pair of gloves which is very nice they’re very smart um and they work well uh We’ve then got this uh detachable handle that obviously stays cool because it’s detachable and I like the design it’s sort of triangular it’s interesting and not to mention I like the look of this without the handle um but then when I want to use the handle that drops in that looks smart enough as it is anyway um but uh yeah obviously we’ve got our boost function which you’ll use for lighting or getting it going again if you’ve left it uh running and it’s burned right down to almost nothing you put some new fuel on it and obviously as you can see it’s like a jet engine um and then once it’s up to temperature you can flick that off and slot this back into the lock position we then get to the control which is silicon line so you know the idea is I don’t need a glove this stays completely cool and I can go from fully open to fully closed now this stove is designed to run hotter and cleaner so it’s not giving you a full range of control that’s reducing burn time but it’s increasing efficiency and the whole performance of the stove which is essentially the intention of this stove.
Overall for controls and build I’m going to give this a 7 out of 10 um the it’s the control that knocks it back a little bit that’s a deliberate that’s an intended uh reduction in control to maximize the look um in terms of build it’s you know still probably a higher score than 7 out of 10 but overall a 7.
We test fuel economy by getting the stove up to operating temperature and then seeing how long we can eek it out at operating temperature on a single net of kiln dried logs uh and this one ran for 10 hours which was a great score and we also found that if we loaded it up carefully we could trickle it on uh for a few hours afterwards as well and that leads us on to this stove’s real party piece. This stove’s boost function, you know we put that new log on there and uh I’ll get my glove because the boost function does get hot but you watch this fully open this is in real time and that had burned right down obviously you could have burned it down much further than that but it’s straight up and going so I haven’t had to wait for it. I can then shut this right back down again then and essentially leave it to just burn pretty okay let’s start with this pesky item uh well most of us are never going to have to play around with this but probably if there are any installers watching already know what this is for. The entire stove comes out of its convection box to help with installation, so this is about bringing the flu back into position so it gets bolted up, and then you can pull the flu into place and connect it all up. I haven’t done it which is why I haven’t filmed it, but it’s obviously just a useful thing for the installer. You and I can ignore it.
Okay, so the lower door misbehaved once, but to be fair, that was a very easy solve. We’ve then got the removable handle; some will really like that because it stays cool, others won’t be a fan because they might lose it or whatever, but it’s a bit subjective. We’ve then got the ash pan, and the grate isn’t great for getting the ash down, so you’re probably more likely to take it out manually, mostly, but that boost function is the other main reason for that grate design which is superb.
We then get to the control. Now some people will have wished for more serious control, but I tend to think that those buyers won’t necessarily be looking for a cassette stove because this is more sort of wow, sports car style rather than functional Land Rover. Oh finally, there was the log retainer which has to be taken out with some screws so that you can get the back brick out and service and whatever. Now it’s not the end of the world, but it is something where I probably just put those screws finger tight to make that process nice and easy when I have to do it.
From there, this stove has some key and unique things that set it apart for anyone looking for a cassette stove and could be the reason why I feel this stove is so sorted. The main one for me is history. You can’t buy history; this is earned over time. The name Riva—there’s a reason why that is the thumbnail to this video; it just says Riva because that history means something. That history means that we’ve got decades of use, refinement, tweaks, historical reliability, and love for a brand or a particular name. It’s got all of that, and you can’t buy it. If I start a car manufacturer tomorrow, I may well build a very good car, but nobody wants to buy it because there’s no history. The Boost, relighting the dimpled bricks, the click shut door, the tidy ash pan, the silicon control, the look of the handle—it’s all really clean, smart, tough, and more importantly than anything else when you’re talking about a finishing piece for a room, is it looks great and most importantly of all, it’s got history and a story that’s worth talking about.
Futura 4
Futura 5
Futura 8
Futura Wood & Multi-fuel Stoves
Sign up to our newsletter and receive the latest news and updates, including product launches, offers and promotions, exclusive giveaways and competitions, as well as seasonal tips and advice.
Subscribe Now!
