Stove with or without back boiler?

irish25

Hi there , just wondering if anyone has any advice.im looking to get a stove and was thinking of getting back boiler one so that it might heat my readators as well but everyone seems to be putting me off saying there no good.

Anyone agree with back boilers?

connemara man

With

Little My

with, definitely.

My dad has your average big family house and a normal sized fire easily heats all the radiators. We have a rented house with an open fire and no back boiler and its ridiculous that we have to have the central heating on as well as the fire to heat the house sufficiently.

Shakti

'With' or you'll be sorry and stop listening to 'everyone' and don't buy a stove off them

Dtp79

Shakti wrote: »

'With' or you'll be sorry and stop listening to 'everyone' and don't buy a stove off them

Why heat one room when you could heat the whole house ( depending on house size obviously ) with almost the same amount of fuel

Shakti

Dtp79 wrote: »

Why heat one room when you could heat the whole house ( depending on house size obviously ) with almost the same amount of fuel

exactly

biko

Moved to DIY from Galway

Looking at previous threads and from own experience back boiler is the way to go.
You can turn it off and on as you need it and use solid fuel to heat the whole house cheap-ish.

irish25

Thanks it's seems to make sense to me obviously to get it with.
The problems people are telling me is

1. You will still have the heating on as it will barley heat the radiators.
2. There will be no heat coming from the actual fire as its being diverted to the water.?

I still think I'm going for the boiler just want to hear what people think.

Thanks

Ceepo

All depend's really, on a few things,
Type of house, 2 story or single, how many Rad's, size of stove,

If you have a 2 story and heating 4/5 rad up stairs + 2/3 down stairs, i would go with a boiler type, but would need to be big enough to heat them,
If you have a single story with stove in a largish room then i would go without a boiler as a lot of your head is gone to heat the water and not the room, and sometimes its still not hot enough to heat the Rad's much more than "luke warm", and you are not getting the benefit of any of them,,

Make sure what ever Stove you go for is big enough to do the job you want,

jjf1974

Make sure the stove boiler is big enough to heat all your rads +cylinder.people often fit boiler stoves that are to small or they think a few sods of turf will heat a house full of rads.

Shakti

@irish25
both those statements are false,
plus buying second hand much better value and you need to consider the flue if not done right your stove will underperform and be problematic in windy conditions like today.

biko

I've used back boilers with an electrical pump and the heat from the fire is not lessened at all by using a back boiler, that's just crazy talk.
It will take a while to heat the rads but once they are hot they stay hot for quite some time.

Note that if you choose a system with pump you "must" use the back boiler if you have the fire going for an while as otherwise the water close to the fire turns to steam and builds pressure in the system, at least that's my experience.
Depends on the system used I presume.

joeKel73

irish25 wrote: »

1. You will still have the heating on as it will barley heat the radiators.
2. There will be no heat coming from the actual fire as its being diverted to the water.?

Shakti wrote: »

@irish25
both those statements are false

biko wrote: »

I've used back boilers with an electrical pump and the heat from the fire is not lessened at all by using a back boiler, that's just crazy talk.

My parents got a boru stove with a back boiler in a few weeks ago. I'd agree with both of the statements. It's a 2-storey house and it really doesn't give great heat to the radiators.

The stove itself doesn't give much heat to the room. The version of the stove without the back boiler gives hot air into the room, this one doesn't. It's giving a lot less heat that an open fire... need to be a foot away to feel the direct heat...

Shakti

@ Joe
size/model of stove?

Shakti

and.....
size of room roughly?

Jack180570

We sell firewood and lots of the people we sell to tell us that they are heating their entire house with just the backboiler stove. The most popular stove seems to be the boru 20kw... now so far I am still heating the old house with oil. .. which probably seems silly but didn't have enough confidence to buy a stove till I got some decent feedback.
Going to have it installed in next few weeks and will give feedback here.
I think I'm going to go for a reasonably straightforward installation but am going to fit a laddomat 21 heat charge as it looks like the right thing to do technically. Interestingly. . None of the plumbers I've spoken to had ever heard of a laddomat.
A stove without a backboiler is good where u have an open plan layout or a sitting room with two separate doors which will allow the heat to circulate. These dry stoves are much easier to operate cleanly with wood as there is nothing to cool down the firebox. . If you are going for a backboiler stove i would recommend fitting a laddomat. .. a good website for advice is stovesonline.co.uk

nacimroc

Just to add to anyone who stumbles across this thread. We fitted the 20kw Boru stove to our 2500 sq/ft house. It heats downstairs constant, but once downstairs is warm, I can divert it to the upstairs also. Its fantastic.

I had all these people telling me they are great etc., but I never realised how good. 2 bails of briquettes heat the whole house for 24 hours and a huge sitting room plus constant hot water. Its only 4kW of heat to the room, but you can have rads on aswell so its fine. 16kW to the water is technically very under spec for my house but it still heats them very warm.

Putting a stove in with a back boiler is a must, unless the plumbing or cost is a huge deal.

mcgee

Anyone use a firebird boiler insert stove . I am at present using back boiler with coal and have great heat to my rooms and rads also have oil when not using back boiler. I am thinking about installing a firebird stove would the heat be the same or is my back boiler fire better. I live in a 3 bed semi and need the stove to heat 10 rads

jezko

mcgee wrote: »

Anyone use a firebird boiler insert stove . I am at present using back boiler with coal and have great heat to my rooms and rads also have oil when not using back boiler. I am thinking about installing a firebird stove would the heat be the same or is my back boiler fire better. I live in a 3 bed semi and need the stove to heat 10 rads

Had been looking at getting one... 16KW Insert.. My Parents got one about 6 months ago, and seeing how its preformed I'm looking else where now...
Found it Smoked a hell of lot, asked at where it was bought what to do about it .... They were Not very helpful.. The fireplace hasn't had a history of having a down draught. We have a "Chinese Hat" Installed on the new flue liner.

Also wasn't Impressed with heat output to Water..or Room!!
We use Seasoned "shed" dried soft wood.. Mixed Ash and Alder. The only time we get decent heat is when we Add Coal..
That Laddomat Heat Charger sounds Interesting... Makes sence in a way

Just to Add house is old cottage and with 10 Rads most 4' ... We were told the 16 KW would Make a decent Heat

r3nu4l

J o e wrote: »

My parents got a boru stove with a back boiler in a few weeks ago. I'd agree with both of the statements. It's a 2-storey house and it really doesn't give great heat to the radiators.

The stove itself doesn't give much heat to the room. The version of the stove without the back boiler gives hot air into the room, this one doesn't. It's giving a lot less heat that an open fire... need to be a foot away to feel the direct heat...

Conversely, I was in a house for a week over Christmas where they recently installed a stove with a back boiler. The stove gives off more heat into the room than the old fire ever did and it also heated the rads so that they were too hot to touch for very long...

I've been visiting this house on and off for over 14 years now and have never been so warm in the place.

It seems to me that how it is set up, the size of the stove and boiler etc, all seem to matter. A small stove and boiler may have trouble heating a two story house but a large stove and back boiler won't imo.