Scan 67 Zensoric Review

Well this is definitely a big change. They make 3 different heights for this stove with the taller versions being able to fit heat blocks in them, so that the stove can continue to give heat out, long after it has gone out, which will be very helpful for more serious users. The stove is focused on burning wood, but does have a simple ash pan design that you would perhaps empty once a week or fortnight if you were using the stove most evenings, however the average user of something like this, may find that monthly is fine. Scan are a Danish company that make stoves from steel and are focused on a very high level of finish, style and design, what makes this very different is that it is their first stove that will quite literally control itself. 

Lighting: 7/10

This stove will wake itself up the moment you open the door, it then has a block that will hold the door ajar whilst it gets up to temperature, then you simply shove it closed that stove is in complete control. You will still need a good lighting technique with regard to placing some logs at the base and building up smaller with a firefighter at the very top, but assuming you get this down, then it is a very easy thing to deal with.

Cleanness: 10/10

This stove runs at 76% efficiency, and obviously it has the approvals from DEFRA and Eco-Design. Having said that, the key thing with this stove is that it will run at optimum all the time. The glass is always spotless and the efficiency is always at maximum and all the questions around using a stove are answered for you. All you need to do is add dry fuel, that's literally it.

Controls: 8/10

There 3 primary settings that get set by your fitter depending on what you will be burning. Once this is set you then have a silicone covered spinner on the front, which it seems to me is primarily there to placate the user who wants something to play with. When you're dealing with optimum it seems logical that any disruption to that is counter efficiency, so the affect of this control is at best minimal.

The main handle is made of wood, and is therefore "stay cool", the whole stove looks and feels very nicely put together so the whole experience is very rewarding, particularly because every time anyone sees the stove it's very evident that the user knows how to get the very best out of a stove (just keep the automation bit under your hat).

Economy: 5or10/10

This stove ran at 300ºF very reliably and also on a net of logs it would run for 8-9 hours. So as you'd expect this stove was incredibly predictable. Because efficiency is an important part of the "Economy" question you could very easily think this stove is always at optimum and is therefore 10/10. But on the flip side whilst it is less efficient to run a stove closed down for longer, there would be others of us who would prefer the trade off of lower efficiency during the burn, but removing the need to re-light the stove. If you intend to use the stove as much as possible, then this may actually be more economic if you're in and out of the house. This stove would tend to burn itself out if left for more than 2.5 hours, and as re-lighting is obviously where far more efficiency is lost, than running at slightly lower for a longer period, may be the better answer. As such serious users may actually find they don't benefit from this automation. Only you will know what works best for you, but given the style of the appliance and that the buyers of these types of stoves tend to be using them during the evening and weekends, then for those users this is probably more of a 10/10.

What I thought:

 This stove is very clearly not for all of us. The practicality of needing to be with the stove to re-load it every hour or 2 will suit intermittent users, who are running the stove for the evening, but won't grab the functional user wanting to leave the stove lit for hours on end. Having said that there are a lot of advantages to this automation, and they're very relevant to all of us, for example:

This stove is controlling itself to ensure that it will not under fire itself causing soot in the chimney, tar on the glass and low efficiency, but it will also prevent over firing which will have a dramatic affect on the lifespan of internal components. This automation means that it is always pretty to look at, it produces less ash and all of this adds up to far less effort: removing ash, cleaning the glass, going back to the stove to adjust the vent etc. 

The output from this stove is incredibly predictable, as is the burn time which makes organising your home heating and preventing be too hot or too cold very easy, and that reliability again removes questions and mistakes, which again will just increase your enjoyment of what is intended to be a fantastic looking source of pleasure and enjoyment.