Although I sweep a large number of ACR stoves across the local area, the vast majority of them are freestanding stoves. I can’t remember ever coming across an ACR cassette stove, so I have decided to focus this week’s blog on this ACR T400 Eco Multi-Fuel Cassette Stove that I Swept recently at an address in Linton. I find that most of the ACR stove range are slightly more tricky than other stoves to dismantle, although this is not every model, but on the whole the majority of internal components usually have to be removed from the stove before the flue can be accessed. The ACR T400 Eco Multi-Fuel Cassette Stove is no exception. This said it is a tidy little Cassette Stove and in the right setting they can be space saving and rather attractive. Even though the stove is relatively small, and situated in a rather large sitting room, the customer told me that it heats the room more than adequately.

ACR’s website is not particularly informative and gives little information about the company and distributes its stoves via dealerships. The following information can be found on the website:

ACR Heat Products have designed their own range of multifuel, gas & electric stoves using their knowledge of 35 years in the industry. The majority of our stoves are supplied with a 125mm diameter flue spigot to suit the requirements of the UK. Every woodburning and multifuel model is smoke exempt allowing you to burn wood in smoke controlled areas. They are all EcoDesign Ready meaning you are investing in some of the cleanest, most efficient, low carbon stoves to provide you with sustainable heat. Designed in the UK, ACR Stoves are a family firm.

https://www.acrheatproducts.com/stove/acr-stoves

Here is something of a monster stove, the rather large Yeoman County 13 Kw Multi-Fuel Stove. This example is in a large house in Wimbish and as you might expect, heat heats a similarly large room. As you can see from the design of this large model, it is exactly the same as the much smaller Yeoman Exmoor, with both having the round Tudor rose primary air controls.I’m not really sure why Yeoman decided to opt for a different model name for this stove by calling it the Yeoman Exmoor 13Kw instead? I’m sure that is the usual practice for other stove manufacturers. In terms of design the stove is something of a hybrid with both a contemporary and traditional look to it. Indeed, the High top versions of both the Exmoor and County models look more traditional than they do contemporary.

Yeoman Stoves are now a part of the Stovax and Gazco Heating Group, the following can be found on their website:

The Stovax Heating Group has been dedicated to the design and manufacture of exceptional stoves, fires and fireplaces for 38 years. Today, we are one of the UK’s leading stove and fireplace manufacturers, exporting to over 25 countries worldwide.

Across our wood burning, multi-fuel, gas and electric products, we strive to create the future of fire. Each of our heating products is the result of decades of expert craftsmanship and class-leading innovation – representing the pinnacle of British engineering.

The Stovax Heating Group is proud to be part of the NIBE Stoves group, a market-leading provider of domestic heating products.

Based in Exeter, England, Stovax Ltd was established in 1981 to design, manufacture and distribute wood burning stoves and fireside accessories. By 1988, the sister company Gazco Ltd was formed to develop and produce gas and electric versions of Stovax stoves.

Today, Stovax and Gazco continue to work very closely together. Each company has constantly developed its product range such that the combined businesses have grown to become one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of stoves, fireplaces and fires, with exports to countries worldwide.

In 2006, Stovax Ltd purchased Yeoman, a long established manufacturer of wood burning stoves that specialised in more rustic, rural styling. The company continues to produce a distinctive and separate range of wood burning, multi-fuel, gas and electric stoves and fires under the Yeoman brand.

Stovax is also the UK and Republic of Ireland distributor for a number of additional fireplaces and stove brands including Dovre, Lotus, Nordpeis & Varde. You can find your nearest retailer in the UK and the Republic of Ireland by using the Find a Retailer tool on this website. For information on distributors in other countries, please contact exportsales@stovax.com.

https://www.stovax.com/information/contact/

Not a spectacularly unusual or rare stove as I normally feature in my weekly blogs, but I thought I would include this stove as it is the first new Jotul Eco stoves that I have come across on my travels. This is a Jotul F 145 Wood-Burning Stove Swept that I swept recently at an address in Duddenhoe End. It was installed less than a year ago by Thaxted Stoves and had therefore only had one burning season’s usage. Even though the stove is situated in a rather large sitting room, the customer told me that it heats the room more than adequately. I think you will admit that this particular stove has a very contemporary, workman like appearance, sitting well as it does in a very contemporary setting.

Jotul are a Norweigan company and have been making stoves and fireplaces for over 160 years. Jotul are proud of their global status, selling their products in 43 different countries spread over six continents – Truly a global brand!

Jøtul was founded by Oluf Onsum as Kværner Jernstøberi (Kværner Foundry) in the outskirts of Christiania (now Oslo) in 1853. While stoves initially were the main products, the company had diversified by the beginning of the 20th century, when it produced turbines and lumber equipment.

As the heating appliance manufacture decreased in importance, the production was spun off in 1916 and sold to Herman Anker, one of Kværner’s managers. He founded Jøtul AS in 1920 as a sales organization for its products. The sales stagnated during the depression in the 1920s, and 36-year-old Herman Anker died in 1927, leaving it to his successor, 34-year-old Johannes Gahr to modernize and eventually salvage the company. By 1935, the turnaround had succeeded, and the firm acquired its modern name.

By the 1960s, stoves using liquid fuels, especially kerosene had supplanted wood-burning appliances, a trend that was only reversed in the 1970s, partly due to the 1973 oil crisis. Jøtul used this opportunity to gain a strong international foothold and drastically increased its exports to continental Europe and North America.

The Gahr family sold the business to Norcem in 1977, and a period of international expansion began, as Jøtul acquired a number of foundries and importers abroad. This period lasted for approximately ten years, but came to an end during the recession in the late 1980s, when Jøtul once again focussed on the domestic market. However, it has resumed its international diversification in the 21st century, and today its products are sold worldwide.

In March 2018, Jøtul was acquired by the global private equity firm OpenGate Capital. Along with management, OpenGate has crafted a plan to boost performance and eliminate inefficiencies in Jøtul’s operations. In addition, OpenGate Capital is actively searching for add-on targets to further drive Jøtul’s growth. In November 2018, OpenGate and Jøtul completed the add-on acquisition of AICO, an Italian and French based pellet-burning stove leader.

https://www.jotul.co.uk/

Although I sweep a lot of Morso stoves across the area, this is the only example of the Morso 7110 multi-fuel model that I sweep. So this stove is something of a rarity. This example is in a thatched cottage in Bardfield End Green near Thaxted. It is situated in a rather large sitting room, so it has its work cut out to heat it satisfactorily on a cold day. This said the customer reports that it more than adequately heats the room. As can be viewed in the photo it is a substantial appliance and has rather clean, straight lines. Very much a contemporary look set against an old vernacular building. It is that juxtaposition of old and new that works really well I think you would agree?

Morso are a Danish stove company who have been making metal consumer goods since 1953. It was Neils Christensen who founded the Morson Foundry making all sorts of products including metal stable windows, tools, pots and pans and even grave crosses. Around the turn of the century Morso began to start making tiled stoves and room heaters for schools, churches, railsways, government ministries and even to the Danish Royal Family. Indeed, so successful where they, that in 1915 they became the official purveyor of stoves to the Danish Royal Family. It was in the 1950 when tiled stoves became obsolete that Morso began producing Wood-burning Stoves.

Morso Stoves UK

Unit 14B, Davy Court, Castle Mount Way, Rugby, Warwickshire CV23 0UZ

01788554410

https://morsoe.com/

Here is something that i thought was really interesting. Whilst working in Shalford just this week, I saw this memorial to B17 Flying Fortress ‘Dry Gulcher’ which crash close to the church in Shalford on 4^th August 1944. I found it a fascinating piece of local history and thought some of my customers might think the same? B17 Flying Fortress ‘Dry Gulcher’ was initially stationed at Bassingbourn from 27^th February 1944 but was transferred to 532^nd Bomb Squadron of the 381^st Bomb Group at nearby Ridgewell on 27^th April 1944. The tail marking for the 381^st Bomb Group was a white L in a black triangle.

On 4^th August 1944 Dry Gulcher took off with other Flying Fortresses from Ridgewell to bomb the German secret rocket testing site at Peenemunde. All the aircraft taking part in the raid had a full bomb load on takeoff. However, shortly after takeoff and whilst getting into formation over Shalford Dry Gulcher developed engine trouble and one of its engines caught fire, causing the plane to start to lose altitude. Quite quickly the left wing of the plane became engulfed in flames and the fire started to spread to the rest of the aircraft. Most of the crew were able to escape the stricken aircraft and safely parachute to the ground. However, the tail gunner Harry Norris was trapped in his turret and was killed when the plane exploded just a few hundred feet from the ground. The aircraft control cables had broken due to the fire and had trapped rear gunner Harry Norris in the plane. When his body was found later on the ground, it was wrapped in the control cables. The explosion was so large, it damaged the nearby Shalford hall. Harold Norris is buried at the American War Cemetery at Madingly Road, Cambridge.

The surviving crew members were: Pilot: Capt George Hanley Cuppernall, Co-pilot: Capt Irving Moore, Navigator: Russ Radley, Bombardier: Chas Young, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Earl Yankton, Radio Operator: Frank Heinze, Obs-Capt: Francis Hawkins, Waist gunner: Loren Murphy, Waist gunner: Lt Jim Sneed.

Back now after a lovely two week Easter break and rearing to go! Until the other day I had no idea that Dimplex made solid fuel stoves, I thought they just made gas and electric fires, just shows how wrong you can be! Dimpex among other things have the Optiflame stove range, although it is true that Dimpex are largely a manufacturer of electrical appliances under trade names like Creda, Morphy Richards, Goblin Vacuum Cleaners, Roberts Radios and LEC Refrigeration. Having said this, the customer is more than happy with his inset stove tells me that it more than adequately heats the room even on the coldest of days. He is also happy that it is very neat and tidy in the room and doesn’t therefore take up too much space.

Dimplex Glen are an Irish company whose head office is in Dublin, although they have factories across the UK, notably in Mexborough near Doncaster. They also have branches in North America, Germany, Holland, Japan, Poland, Belgium, France, Australia and Scandinavia.

https://www.dimplex.co.uk/charm-wood-burning-stove-ease-electric

Here’s a stove you won’t see every day, a Dean Forge Eight Ate Wood-Burning Stove that I recently Swept in an address in Wratting Common. As you can see it is a stove that has a cooking compartment above the fire box. Ideally, this stove is located in the kitchen area of the home. The customer told me that the stove works very efficiently and that the cooking compartment is not just a novelty idea as they regularly use it, although this is mainly to cook pizza. Having said this they have used it to cook other things, including to bake bread and cakes which it does very well. What’s not to like, a beautiful wood-burning stove and yummy home-made food!

Dean Forge are a British stove manufacture, based in Dean Prior Buckfastleigh and Marsh Barton Exeter in Devon. Close to Dartmoor National park and the South Hams, two areas of outstanding natural beauty. Dean Forge production facility is conveniently located beside the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth and in easy reach of Torbay, Dartmoor and the surrounding area. The company was established in 1969 and are now one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of Eco 2022 compliant wood-burning and multi-fuel stoves.

Dean Forge, Dean Prior,
Buckfastleigh,
Devon, TQ11 0LS

T: 01364 643 574

Dean Forge, Unit 21, Norman Court Business Estate,
Budlake Road
Marsh Barton
Exeter, Devon
EX2 8PY
T: 01392 348335

email at
stoves@deanforge.co.uk

https://deanforge.co.uk/support/contact-us/

This stove was installed by Cut Maple Stoves in Sturmer/New England:

Cut Maple Stove & Fire Company,

Sturmer Road,

New England,

Halstead CO9 4BB

Telephone: 01440 788788

Email: cutmaple@fireplacesetc.co.uk

Website: http://www.fireplacesetc.co.uk

As can be seen from my blog, I do sweep a number of Nordpeis stoves, although they do remain relatively rare across the area, they do tend to be unusual and very contemporary. They also tend to be the smaller models of Nordpeis. Well for this week’s blog, I came across this Nordpeis Bergen Wood-Burning Stove at an address in Duxford, as can be seen from the photograph it is significantly different than those stoves which I have previously featured in my blogs. For one thing it has a much more traditional appearance than other Nordpeis stoves, for another it is significantly larger than other Nordpeis models that I sweep. Having said this, its size is deceptive as surprisingly the Bergen has only a 5Kw rated output. The stove is situated in a rather large room, but despite the size of room and its 5Kw output, the customer tells me that it more than adequately heats the room even on the coldest of days.

A Google search reveals that Nordpeis are based in Norway and were established 30 years ago.

https://www.nordpeis.co.uk/about/

It would appear that Nordpeis are sold in the UK are part of the Stovax Stove Company and are sold through approved retailers.

Stovax Limited,

Falcon Road,

Sowton,

Industrial Estate,

Exeter EX2 7LF

T: 01392 474000

Just the other week, I encountered a really tricky job, that took quite some time to complete. Fortunately, we had set aside a long appointment to complete the work, as the customer had requested that we sweep an unlined Charnwood C-Five Multi-Fuel Stove, two open fire bedroom chimneys and a redundant chimney that had an old bee’s nest in it. The redundant chimney being accessed by a small ventilation panel low down in the wall. The customer had had a mesh fitted across the chimney and an anti-bird cowl fitted and believed the bees long gone. This small vent opening made accessing and sweeping the chimney very difficult, let alone removing the horrible sticky, sooty nest deposits that were swept down. I used 18mm power sweeping rods with a large scrubber head and driven by a Boch 36 Volts cordless drill to remove the deposits.

The nest was rather extensive and was around 2 meters in length at the top of the stack. It consisted of old nest at the bottom and new nest at the top. I’m thinking that it had been there for a number of years with the bees adding successive new layers of nest year on year. The bottom metre of nest was dry old nest material and filled a large trug. The top metre of nest was more recent and consisted of honey combe and lots of sticky, runny honey mixed with chimney deposits, 2nd trug (See photos). The very top of the nest was still active and full of live bees! I only discovered this at the conclusion of the sweeping process. This said, I was able to sweep out all the nest and removed most of the material via the vent opening. I was able to do this as I had been removing the material a bit at a time whilst sweeping.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the process I had to stop removing the swept material from the chimney as numerous live bees were starting to come down the chimney and out into the room. At this point I quickly put the vent cover back on to prevent large numbers of bees coming into the room. Fortunately, I had time to remove the majority of the rather sticky, material from the base of the chimney via the vent. This material had a very unpleasant consistency, as it comprised old nest and honey combe, dead bees, honey and sooty chimney deposits. All this material was enough to fill several large gardening trugs. After a tidy up, everything was left nice and clean and tidy, so a job well done in the end. All that was left to do then was to later clean all the sticky rods and equipment! Not a short job in itself!

 Here is a very tidy cassette stove, a Brabas Bellfire Unilux 640 Cassette Wood-burning Stove that I recently swept at an address in Radwinter. Brabas Bellfire is not a make of stove that I was aware of, so on returning home I immediately Googled the company so I could see what I could find out about them. The stove itself had a system of two separate baffles in order to increase its operational efficiency and was a little tricky to dismantle. I say a little trick, when I really mean quite awkward!!! The customer reported that it does work very well when alight and heats the room, which apparently is a very cold room, more than adequately.

Barbas Bellfire are based in Holland and Belgium, they employ over 160 staff and produce 120 different models of stove. So, they are a large concern on the continent and have been manufacturing stoves since 1976. They manufacture wood-burning stoves as well as gas fires. Some of their wood-burning stove models include the Evolux 100-45 range, and the Box range. The box is what it says on the tin a box stove in various sizes.

Barbas Bellfire

Hallenstraat 17

5531 AB,

Bladel,

Holland

T: (0)49 733 9200

E: info@barbasbellfires.com