We have had this stove for 10 years or thereabouts. We find the stove slow to warm up and start heating the room 45 mins or so. Also heavy rain puts water down our chimney and onto the stove
which has caused all the enamel on the top to flake off. Although every year we start with small fires to not shock the stove the top plate has split from one side edge to the middle.
I have had the stove for six years. I chose the Green enamel model which looks great but is prone to chipping. The matt black model would be easier to maintain. My only problem with the stove
is the door closing handle which has a tendancy to work loose.
We had this installed 2 years ago and have been happy with it but the door handle's screw constantly works loose - so the handle is always falling off when the stove is red hot!! I have bought
replacement screws (very expensive for their size ) but they never stay in place. Tried rope glue (recommended by Stovax) but to no avail. In desperation even tried superglue but that is no good because of the heat.
We bought this stove in the summer in anticipation of a cold winter. We live In a draughty Edwardian house and the front rooms were too cold to use even with the heating on. We bought the
ivory Huntington 28 as it seemed to have good reviews and was very attractive with the gothic door. We are really pleased with the stove which, once mastered, gives out good heat although it doesn't heat the whole house as we hoped, the front rooms are toasty warm. Our only quibble is, as somebody else has commented, the door handle keeps working loose and we have to tighten it with a tiny Alan key. this with only using the stove about twice a week as the cold winter has failed to materialise this year!
We are Dutch and live in the south of the Netherlands.
This is our first stove ever,in our other house we had an open fireplace.
We choose this stove because it is small and looks very pretty
with the gothic door.
We live in a 1930’s house with no floor or wall insulation.
Our sitting room is 10 x 4 meters and has a high ceiling and we have central heating. (which we don’t use when the stove is burning)
The stove stands in the middle of the room and when we heat it up it warms the whole room, most of the time so well that we must open the door to the hall and dining room because it is getting to warm. (we had some very cold days in January)
Although the Huntingdon is a multifuel burner we only burn wood.
The stove gets so hot that you can’t stand longer than a few seconds in front of it, just long enough to put another log in.
We don’t mind that is has a small and shallow fire box. We have logs of 30 cm that just fit into it. Every 30 to 45 minutes you have to put one in to keep the temperature. It is very easy to light a fire and even the control ability after a short time is very easy.
The air wash works almost perfect.
Even our friends and family who all have different kinds of woodburners are amazed by the heat output.
I honestly can't find a negative point.
So all in all we are very happy with this small little heat bomb and would buy it any time again
Stove expert replied:
Great review of a small good looking stove working well. Certainly a satisfied customer.
This is my third stove and friends have other makes too so I have a few to compare with. The Stovax 28 is solid and good looking. However we are not pleased with it in terms of heat output.
We bought it as a multi-fuel in the hope that we could burn wood and coal. We have experimented with various types of coal, smokeless and premium house coal. We have used just wood and a combination of wood and coal.
Our chimney has a new liner. We do not suffer from smoke blowing back so whilst I think the draw could be improved, it is adequate and not problematic. Our house is old, the room size approx 15' x 19' x 7' high. We have central heating.
Our experience is that when burning wood or smokeless coal the stove itself does not get warm enough to feel any noticeable heat. Some may say we need a large stove, but I have had a smaller old model in my last house with similar room size, the Esse Montrose. this stove pumped out so much heat we had to leave the lounge door open. This Stovax generates no more heat than the tiny 12" open fire we use to have. I can even touch the sides of teh stove, it is that cool. We have candles on the hearth next to it which are in no danger of melting. I never use to touch the Esse as it would get too hot. We also have a Jotul, pure logburner which gets a lot hotter than this one.
The only way we can get an adequate amount of heat from it, sufficient for Spring & Autumn use, but not during winter unless we have the central heating on at the same time, is to use a lot of house coal, but we have to really stoke it up and even then, we would have to keep the lounge door closed and I sit with a rug over me. Then I feel just nice and toasty, but it isn't winter yet. We go through about 1 sack every 4-7 nights and we only use the fire to sit down in the evening for up to 3 hours.
Other problems are that the fire box is so shallow, you can't fit wood on anyway, unless the sticks are very small. It restricts lighting and re-fuelling. This isn't a problem if using coal and if it gave out any heat, I would put up with this restriction.
In conclusion - the Stovax 28 should not be used for wood at all. Even smokeless doesn’t give off any heat. Unless you have a small room in a modern house not located in a smokeless zone so you can just burn house coal, I would recommend against the stovax. They look great and are very solid, but that’s as far as it goes. The input/output ratio is no where near as good as other stoves and you will not keep warm with this stove.
