Full review of the FDC5 Wide Eco

The FDC stoves are made together with other appliances made by Charlton and Jenrick, like FireLine and PureVision. They're all tough steel stoves with cast iron doors and a clean look. They have interesting ceramic firebricks that although don't look too different, I imagine that if treated with some care, could outlast many other firebricks. However if you're a little more heavy handed I equally imagine that they could have a shorter lifespan than the equivalent and softer vermiculite fire board. These stoves are multi-fuel, they have a proper riddling grate and ash pan, and a good tool for operating this and removing the pan.

You can get this stove in 4 sizes:

The FDC 4

FDC 5

The one I tested the FDC 5 Wide

and finally an 8

Lighting: 8/10

Multi-fuel stoves are often very easy to light. the lower vents make getting things hot is easy and quick. The tricky bit is can the stove control well enough to overcome this eagerness to blast through fuel. But from a lighting perspective, easy as any I've used.

Cleanness: 8/10

This stove runs at over 80% efficiency and as the "Eco" name suggests, it complies with all the relevant legislation and clean burning requirements. It is also a very clean burning stove, given its multi-fuel design it isn't necessarily perfect if you try and get wood to stay in for long periods, but overall given its intended audience, use and purpose, it performed really well here!

Controls: 7/10

It comes with some very smart gloves. The handle and controls all get hot, so the glove certainly comes into some use. This being a multi-fuel stove we also have a tool for removing the grate etc, and in this case its smart, nicely finished works well. The biggest in terms of control was that it surpassed my expectations by miles, it was verging on gas fire levels of control, you could dictate the burn rate almost absolutely. This did mean that you would need to learn where to position the control for both a long and clean burn, so it may not be quite as intuitive, but that's true for most highly controllable stoves. The controls getting hot and being slightly fiddly was the biggest weakness, but I can only say I was impressed and pleasantly surprised by how well this stove controlled.

Economy: 7/10

This stove ran for 8-10 hours on a single net of kiln dried logs. Bearing in mind this is a multi-fuel stove and we were testing on wood this is really impressive. If you were to be using coal based fuel then you could achieve far greater numbers with the same weight of fuel, but coal does have its own downsides which only you will know whether they are acceptable to you. But based on my test with wood, this stove performed really well and was well worthy of its 7/10 score.

What I thought:

Its handles and controls get hot and are a little less practical, but to be fair I buy in to this traditional style and the expectation that - that is sort of "part of the fun". It's also incredibly controllable, which really adds to the fun and makes the stove a joy to use, and show off. If you're after fuel flexibility, a traditional style, then this stove is really excellent. The cleanness and control is basically a bonus on top, but all this together makes a really desirable and enjoyable stove to own.