DOVRE 250 REVIEWS
Overall Rating 7.8 /10
Build quality 8/10
Functionality 8 /10
Value for money 7/10
Customer experience 7/10
Recommend to a friend 9/10
Dovre 250
First class choice after all the homework!
Reviewed By: David Sewell 2 years ago
Like
many people who are considering installing a stove for the first time I
was somewhat lost as to where to begin in comparing the features I
desired, with the availability of a stove on the market to actually
meet these. I hope that my review of this stove will assist others in
their decision to go the stove route, as I literally spent tens of
hours in narrowing my choice down to this little beauty (of which we
now have 2 installed in each of our separate lounge and dining rooms).
I made my decision based partly on the comments on this site hence why
I felt it important to add a review.
The Stoves I opted for were the Dovre 250 multifuel with short legs and optional smoke control kits.
Both
of our rooms are approx 5mx4mx3m in size and we have limited size
fireplace openings (these stoves just squeezed into our chimney
openings leaving the required space surrounding them to the inside of
the chimney breast).
I have had gas coal "effect" fires
installed in smaller rooms in my previous property with a rating of 5kw
and was always disappointed with the poor level of heat I actually got
from these so was initially a little sceptical about "only" having a
5kw rating on this stove.
I have to say that these stoves are
great at belting the heat straight out into the rooms and make them
nice and toasty within a short space of time - they are far more
efficient than any gas fire could be in my opinion. There is also the
added benefit that you can keep a 2 litre camping kettle on top of the
stove throughout the evening to make a few cups of tea / coffee without
having to boil kettle!
We have turned off the heating to
our downstairs and rely on lighting our stoves to keep warm. Whilst
time will tell, I am not convinced that we will be able to heat the
entire house from the two stoves on the coldest of evenings, as our
house has an above average number of bedrooms. The boiler may not yet
be completely redundant but I do feel that we will save money through a
combination of a) sourcing logs from a competitively priced farm and b)
ensuring our friends will pass any logs to us should they have tree
surgery works undertaken, as our gas bill has been extortionate over
last two winters.
In essence, my desires when choosing a stove were:
- Reasonable cost
- Top quality cast iron construction
- Multifuel
- Airwash
- Large as poss. viewing window
- Ability to accept realistic sized logs (to 30cms)
- DEFRA Smoke Exempt (with optional smoke control kit)
This was the only stove to meet all of these requirements hence my decision to "take a chance".
MY WIFE AND I ARE TOTALLY DELIGHTED WITH OUR CHOICE. THESE STOVES HAVE EXCEEDED OUR EXPECTATIONS.
From
an operating point of view, I find that if I set a roaring fire to get
the flue to a good temperature thus maximising the draw, the
controlability with the dial and slider improves dramatically, to a
point where you can have the stove either roaring or slumbering after
half an hour or so. The draw achieved and controllability is especially
pleasing as one of my chimneys has had the stack historically reduced
and I have had to have a 600mm pot fitted to get near the necessary
height.
I have had no issues with the movement of the knobs or slide controls.
I
set the fire with a layer of screwed up paper balls, kindling on top of
this (the better the quality, the easier the lighting) and finally a
small log. As I put the next log on, I will usually add 2/3 homefire
coal briquettes also (hence benefit of multifuel) as I find these aid
me in keeping the heat up and seem to reduce the number of logs I need
to keep adding through the evening. I use hardwood logs sourced from a
local farm and season these in my self constructed log store (much
better value than ready built).
The ash pan works well,
catching most of the ash and there is a knob you pull out to disturb
the grate above so that the ash falls through to ash pan. Relatively
little ash is produced compared to the quantity of log burnt. I have
made a basic cover to transport the ash pan from stove. This avoids the
problem of ash being dropped from the ashpan as you transport through
the house to outside (and you don't need to buy an expensive,
unnecessary and awkward to store metal box to put ash pan in when you
transport it).
I from personal choice also went for a 25
year guarantee 904/904 liner as I intend to stay in my house for many
years and as long as you sweep twice a year and stick to quality fuel,
then this should last for at least that period.
I use a
mixture of paper with vinegar, a glass cleaner and also a scraper (the
type you use to scrap dried paint from glass) to remove any marks from
the glass window. The scraper especially works well and with care you
don't damage the glass.
As for overnight burning I don't
feel that any small stove will successfully do this but if I add a few
briquettes just as I go to bed, I find that these are usually warm
enough in the morning to relight a log quite easily.
In essence I have to concur with many of the comments for this stove on the site and strongly recommend.
Follow this thread for more discussion about the merits of the Dovre 250 stove
I
looked at lots of Stoves before purchasing the Dovre 250 wood. It heats
my main room and also other rooms in the house. My heating has gone off
and the Stove is on. Its a great purchase and wish I had installed one
years ago. I also had my chimney lined, although extra cost was worth
it.
