Hi Mark,
Having had our Firefox 8 CB installed now for a couple of weeks or so, I am  forwarding some comments:

Lighting – very easy to light, following the fitter’s advice to hold the door slightly ajar briefly to increase draft when first lighting

Appearance – looks good and seems sturdy. The glass does clouds up and discolours, needing regular cleaning to keep it looking nice, despite the airwash.

Maintaining a fire – Seems easy to keep lit. We haven’t experimented with any other fuel yet, having only burned eucalyptus, which I logged from the garden last year. I do have concerns about how much air the fire seems to be drawing in, although I am not experienced in such matters. The fire doesn’t have what I can only describe as that hypnotic ‘slow flame dance’ that I have seen other stoves do. Perhaps because ours is the clean burn model?

Heat – I have been disappointed so far in this area. We have been cautioned by various people in the trade that an 8KW stove in our house was a little excessive, but unless I am doing something wrong, it seems adequate at best. The fuel is dry and splitting the logs down into smaller pieces has helped with making it burn hotter. I have had an open fire before and it was much warmer – again contrary to what we were advised.

Dealing with Cast Fire Places – The transaction was straight-forward and staff were helpful. I collected the stove from the warehouse and staff loaded it up for me. We were recommended from a friend who bought a stove and we would happily recommend to others. Very good pricing too – the fitter was surprised and took note of the companies’ contact details!

Overall – despite some reservations, we love having the stove, enjoy the safety that it brings compared to an open fire.

Hope that this is useful,
Regards,
Darren

Castfireplaces would like to add
Eucalyptus is full of sap and oils and will take two years to season correctly to produce a good heat from it let it dry another season thats why when splitting further you are getting a better heat try some oak on the fireplace or even some smokless coal that will really create heat output
As for the glass sooting up this I think is also down to the timber you are burning not being fully seasoned
The clean burn stove does allow extra air into the fire chamber to aid the cleaner burn required for DEFRA testing hence why the air slide does not fully close

Good Day
We have had one of our customers contact us today in relation to a Firefox 5CB Clean Burn Stove they bought from us a few months ago.
It has been insatlled and he is having a problem using it and says that it burns timber fine but when using anthracite on it he struggles to get it going and ends up with unburnt fuel in the stove.
He also says it will only roar away when leaving the door slightly ajar which is not supposed as to how the stove should be operated.
I asked him about the flue etc and he has had the chimney lined with a 6″ flexible liner and says it has been fitted by a HETAS registered fitter.
As the stoves are tested by DEFRA and are CE approved im sure it will not be a problem wioth the stove designas we have sold 100s of them and have never had this before.
I have spoken to our fireplace fitter and he thinks its a lack of air supply to the room and suggested fitting a room vent to allow extra air to the stove to make it function correctly.
He is going to try some alternative fuel before fitting an airbrick but ti seems very odd it will burn wood ok but not function with anthracite.
Very strange i must say in all my years in the fireplace world ive never known a stove not work correctly through a design fault as they models are all tested prior to being sold and being DEFRA approved they have been rigourously tested.

Good afterrnoon and im back in the office nice and early today it makes a nice change i have just read an email a customer has just sent as to why they can not control the stove they have in their home.
They have moved into a new house and there is a Tiger Stove fitted in the front room and they tell me that they can not control the stove it just burns at its own rate.
Normally this is one of two things the first is to check the rope seal to the door is intact and that it forms a nice seal around the door when closed it needs to be farily tight not to allow any extra air through.
Over time the rope flattens and becomes compressed which leaks extra air into the stove allowing it to burn at is own rate and altering the air control intake makes very little difference.
This can simply be fixed by using one of our Stove Door Rope Kits they come with rope and glue and are easily glued into place.
This is the first solution to use and then retest again, if you are having no luck with this the only other cause will be chimney over draw this can be reduced by either using a chimney liner or the cheaper option of fitting a flue pipe with an inline damper.
We do sell on our website a great product called a flue pipe with damper flap this is as simple as it sounds it contains an inline damper than can simply be altered to reduce the pull on the chimney which reduces the draw and will allow for extra control over your stove.
So first off we have sent them the door rope kit to see if this works and advised them to try that first, failing that a damper will then be sent as they did not have the stove fitted and it was installed when they purchased the house they would not have known how it worked when first installed ill keep you all posted and let you know the outcome

As promised a week or so ago i have managed to find an hour yesterday to add the range of replacement glass we stock for all our Multi Fuel and Gas Stoves.
We have sourced a great quality product at a fantastic price so we can pass these savings on to our customers, the glass we have sourced is 4mm thick so is a direct replacement for the factory fitted glass and the sizes are exact so will fit straight in your stove with the minimum of fuss
So on our website now available for sale is glass for all our current stoves and we can basically supply a piece of replacement glass for any stove on the market.
You do not need to have just one of our Gallery or Carron stoves we can supply glass for any mkae or model and if we do not have your stove listed just contact us and we can supply you with glass made to measure.
The glass we supply is heat resistant and suitable for temperatures up to 760 Degree Centigrade and is designed to be used in Multi Fuel and Gas Stoves.
So if you do have a piece of broken glass in your stove we can now supply you a new piece at prices that are hard to beat and if you are local and wish to collect to save postage charge you are more than welcome too.

So when fitting a stove in a traditional type setting there is nothing better than having a traditional wooden beam sat above the opening it really finishes the look off.
So with so many of our customers requesting a real beam instead of the false oak beam we currently supply Castfireplaces has decided to source these and offer them for sale on our website we have managed to source a fantastic supplier very local to us and all we have to do is plane and sand the fronts and then finish them in our oil.
This will ensure our customers have a finished product ready to install into the chimney breast we have ordered them into stock with widths of 48″ 54″ and 60″ they are 7″ aprrox depth and around 3″ to 4″ thick so will sit nicely on a brick and protrude into the room.
They will need a concrete lintel behind them to support the chimney breast but once fitted you would never know these are due into stock the second week of March and we wil be having stock of them at our warehouse, we will also be adding a range of shelves using the same material as customers have asked about these items too.
As we manufacture wooden surrounds its no problem at all apart from the dreaded time to add these items to our product range.
So if you do require a traditional oak beam for your stove or fireplace check back soon im sure we will have what you require

Good afternoon todays little post is about something i read about in the daily papers about a Tawny Owl nesting inside a wood burning stove.
Im sure Stovax will be pleased about the photos as it clearly shows one of the range of stoves they offer, So Mr and Mrs Parker came home to find the two birds nesting in the grate of the woodburner and opened the doors and they flew out of the farmhouse.
He remarked it wouldnt have been a happy ending if they had fallen down the other chimney as it’s always lit.
So a happy ending to this tale im sorry to say its quite common for birds to nest in chimneys over the colder months and them building a birds nest to block your chimney is quite common.
The simplest way to ensure your chimney is clear is to have it swept prior to it being used in the winter months not only will this ensure its soot free and blockage free it avoids a build up of tar in your chimney too the causes of many fires.
A simple way to stop this is to have a bird guard fitted to your chimney pot or have a flue liner with a birds guard on the Cowl i can assure you they will not be able to get in the chimney.
So take a look at the photo below of the owl and just be careful before you light your stove or fireplace

Good morning and another cold frosty morning again and im at the showroom and factory for what is a very busy morning of collections and viewings.
This morning before i left the office at 9am we have had three customers ring up to see if they can collect and view stoves this morning at our showroom.
No im very aware that stoves are very seasonal and as soon as the weather turns and the temperature drops its stove sales frenzy.
So with this in mind we have stocked up on levels of all of our stoves which are all in stock at long last so we can ensure we have enough to last what is predicted to be a very cold month.
With photos on the news and met office warnings of extreme weather arriving from today onwards it seems to have sent people rushing out to get solid fuel fireplaces and stoves.
So im only here for two hours this morning then im off for the weekend so if you miss me today there is nobody around till monday for collections etc.
I cant sign off today without wishing Forest good luck against our bitter rivals Derby on Sunday we really need a win Come on you Redssssssss

Well they have been a long time arriving and im pleased to say we have taken delivery of some more of our DEFRA approved stoves again to replenish our stock levels.
These particular models have been out of stock for weeks so im glad to see them return to stock even though we have limited amounts of both of these models.
We have not taken any forward orders as we were unsure to an exact delivery date so im pleased to say we have 12 Classic 5 Stoves and 10 Classic 8 stoves in stock ready to go.
We have sold two today to customers who knew they were coming in one to a local fitter who really needed it Friday for a job in Belper but they just didnt come in time.
These are in limited supply im afriad as the next batch are not due in till the End of March not ideal but again there is very little we can do about this.
So if you are after one of our Classic Defra approved stoves move quickly to avoid losing out im going to have a classic 8 stove myself at home i just think they look fantastic so my trusty tiger plus is going to be replaced after many years of hard work.

Hello and a little bit of good news about the arrival into stock of some DEFRA approved stoves we were expecting these brand new Mark II Firefox 5CB clean burn stoves into stock around the End of January but i’ve had a phonecall today from our suppliers saying we can have 12 of these on Monday ahead of schedule.
These i believe have been borrowed from another regional supplier as every company in the trade supply is short of these so im quite happy to take delivery of them.
This will help out 4 of our customers that have ordered these stoves from our website even though they are out of stock they were keen to secure our sale price which we currently have on offer.
So as to stock levels we have some Classic 5 and Classic 8 stoves arriving to us Monday 16th January so these have been made available for sale again on our website, stocks on these are limited too we only have 16 of each arriving which im afriad will not last long.
So if you are on our website looking at our DEFRA approved stoves move quickly to secure the model you want before they have all gone again im told on the quite stock levels will not be right in the trade untill at least April which is a problem to say the least.

A question a customer has asked us today is to whether the glass in the stove will crack under normal use, im pleased to say the answer is NO.
In our Multi Fuel Stoves and DEFRA Approved stoves we sell they all have glass panels in them so you can view the flames in the stove whilst running.
There are a few stoves on the market still which have cast iron doors byt there not very nice to look at more of a workshop heater i would say.
So this morning a customer of ours rang me asking whether the glass is ok in the stove as they were worried before they lit the stove, the glass we supply is High temperature glass and is designed to work under extreme heat conditions.
It will not break under normal use and the only reason it will break is through mechanical damage ie closing it onto a log etc or slamming the door shut.
Another reason is customers tightening the glass brackets which hold it in place they should not be overtightened as under use the glass will move slightly on the rope seals with expansion and contraction.
So off they go to light and enjoy the new stove they have purchased from us