The Chilli Penguin 5kw multi-fuel stove comes in lots of versions and lots of them (like mine) have an oven!
Short Penguin Eco
Chubby Penguin Eco
Hungry Penguin Eco + the tall order option
FatĀ Penguin Eco + the tall order option
Hungry Penguin (High and Mighty) Eco + tall orderĀ optionĀ
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They're all more focused on burning wood, but are very toughly built and more than capable of serious smokeless fuel use too. Everything you touch to operate the stove is stainless steel, and there are little reminders of penguins hidden within everything from the air vent to the handles. This is a very brand focused product, you can get matching everything from tea towels, to lighters and other cooking accessories. "Bougie" is probably the word, the only problem is it does have a price to match.
They're made from steel and have an enormously heavy and tough cast iron grate. It really has to be the toughest grate I have ever seen, from a longevity point of view, it gives the impression that it's built to do a job not just look look "bougie".
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Lighting the stove: 7/10
This stove has a very interesting lower vent that you have to balance up in order to open it. The idea is that when the stove heats up the combination of air being pulled in and the metal expanding, will cause the vent to drop down and automatically close. This makes lighting the stove incredibly easy, as the rush of extra air from below forces the stove to explode into life. However when I tried it the vent didn't automatically drop down, so make sure you are there to close it, otherwise you might over fireĀ even this stoves grate.
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Cleanness: 7-9/10
Strangely the Models with ovens have higher levels of efficiency which has been caused by the heating insulating affect of having a big and hot oven on top. This ensures greater levels of combustion on the oven models. I can only assume that this is true on all models with ovens, but of course most manufacturers don't test their standard and oven models separately, so will probably never realise this phenomena is having affect. Either way the standard version already performs at 80% and the oven versions can hit as high as 86%!
They're also DEFRA approved s standard and as the name suggests, Eco Design.
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Controls & Controllability: 7/10
Take 5 minutes to checkout Chilli Penguins website and you'll realise they're serious about penguins. The controls are designed around them and so is almost every accessory. The controls are stainless steel, and nicely engineered and designed. The main air controls have a Goldilocks damping feel, not too loose, nor too hard to move, and there's no squeaking either, it was lovely and rewarding to use. The affect of the controls is also very good, I tested it with the DEFRA kit remaining in place. It was controlled, clean, fuel efficient and I still managed to run it overnight. I did tweak the fixings on the oven door to get it to feel just right (I am a little particular), and although they don't burn you the handles do still get hot.
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Fuel economy & Burn time: 6/10
ThisĀ is a very high efficiency stove, but also flexible on fuel. It is trying to suit a lot of people and that normally is achieved at the cost of fuel economy. However in this case it performed really well, it's not cheap to buy, but if you start thinking about how much this stove offers, it starts to become good value.Ā
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Who's it for:
This stove isn't perfect, it's desire to suit a lot of us will have compromised it for the purists or those who want the highest performance. I think the reason to buy an expensive stove like this is because you want to also have the oven and perhaps some of the accessories. On it's own it is expensive, but drop into the whole experience and this stove starts to make sense. You could run your whole house from this stove, or your out building, yurt, boat etc. It can be light, heating, cooking, entertainment, conversation piece, it's wonderful. You can get it in different colours, there are no end of accessories and customisations and it looks and feels great. If it sounds like it suits you, buy one, you will love it.
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