Stovax Huntingdon Eco Review

The Stovax Huntingdon is a bit of an old favourite in the industry. Historically it was an all cast iron beast, but it did have a few historical issues. Now its part steel, part cast iron, gone is the low efficiency and enamel finishes, and in is the clean, efficient and reliable Huntingdon Eco.

Its all made in Exeter, England and the new design benefits from many modern ideas, like convection panels to improve heat output, heat shields to minimise distances. You can get a wood only version, or a multi-fuel grate version and it comes with a 5 year warranty.

Thankfully you can still get it with its traditional glass traceries and you can get it in either: Wood, multi-fuel, gas or electric versions.

Lighting: 6/10

It is always good practice to use the "upside down lighting method", with modern stoves, and this is no different. Lighting this one is pretty simple and standard, just move the vent to secondary air once its burning and the stove will slowly get to temperature over the course of 15-20 minutes.

Cleanness: 7/10

This stove is A+ efficiency rating, and can run at 82.9% efficiency which is nice and high, its also obviously DEFRA and EcoDesign approved.

During our testing we couldn't run the stove over night with wood, but we did have the multi-fuel version, despite this it could run clean as long as it was lit, you just need to ensure you have the secondary air turned on. If you run the stove with just the primary air open (normally only done during lighting) then the glass will haze, but mix in some air above the fuel and it was clean as a whistle for us.

Controls: 7/10

You get some nice gloves, the handle stays relatively cool due to its design, leaning out away from the door. You get a smart looking tool, that riddles the grate and all of this integrates very nicely. The holes in the grate are very little, so shaking ash down does take some time, and it is often easier to simply take it out manually (with a tortoise ash brush of course!):

https://thetortoise.net/products/the-tortoise-ash-brush-and-pan

The ash pan under the grate however is very nicely finished, and works as well as any other too.

In terms of the actual control, the way it works does depend on whether you have the wood or the multi-fuel version, but the effect is essentially the same (we know this because we've also tested the Stovax Futura wood version, which is the same stove with a different external look). It doesn't switch the stove right down to zero, but it does dampen the stove down, keeping the flames flickering rather than raging, whilst maintaining very high levels of efficiency.

Economy: 7/10

This stove ran for 9 hours on a net of logs, and it burned beautifully the whole time. Because of the stoves cast iron exterior it was noticeable how easily the stove stayed at a temperature without jumping up and down when you put more fuel on and then it burned down. The control assisted with this really well too, as you could completely shut it down, and this was a perfect setting (on my chimney) to keep it right at the bottom of operating temperature all day. You could tell it was also still  running at high efficiency, because each log would burn down to perfect glowing charcoal, with nothing unburned or raging away.

What I thought:

This stove for me is focused on evening and weekend, intermittent use. Its not that it wouldn't be capable of some more serious/constant use, but you can feel from the stove that it wants to wow you with the flames, and maintain a very clean, traditional and classic look. Its not supposed to be black on the glass, chugging for 24 hours, it wants to be looked at, kept clean and smart, and to complete your room every evening.

It does have a grate and therefore some fuel flexibility, but again it is more focused on wood burning, which is required if you want those pretty flames that Stovax have worked so hard to get with this stove.

Also

This one was 5KW, but they have been bringing out other sizes, so there should be one to suit most room sizes!