Woodwarm Fireview 5 review

The Woodwarm Fireview 5 comes in several versions. You can get it with standard legs or a log store. They make 3 different doors to change the style from Contemporary to Traditional and the one I had was the Vintage. You can also get them in either a wood version, or you can take advantage of the famous WoodWarm grate, which promises to maintain the best conditions for either wood or coal in 1 stove. All Woodward stoves are genuinely British made (I've actually seen it happening) and they will option different colours, you can get an add in 5" collar that allows their stoves to be connected to an entirely 5" system, and they're the only manufacturer that will continue to provide parts and a complete renovation service to all their stoves going back decades. One things for sure the stoves, are very tough, heavy and built for the long haul. These stoves also come with a rather cool feature called SkanTag

https://www.skantag.co.uk/

This allows you to scan a QR code with your phone and then gain access to:

"How to" videos, service records, spares, installation details, FAQ answers

This makes putting a stove like this into a rented property very attractive, and also makes it very easy for new users to get to grips with the stove nice and quickly.

Lighting: 9/10

Multi-fuel stoves always have an advantage here as the additional lower air makes lighting very quick. Of course the issue with this is that if it gets going quickly it will often burn your fuel quickly too. This stove however has a very clever grate design that intends to maximise air below when open and then to stodge and seal with ash very quickly when closed. Initially it sound too good to be true, but then in reality it exceeded my expectations.

Cleanness: 8/10

The Fireview 5 can run at 82.5% efficiency which is nice and high, and obviously has DEFRA and EcoDesign approval. During our testing we could run the stove over night with either wood or coal, and the glass always stayed clean. Because the control only goes so far, what surprised me most was that I struggled more to make dirty than to keep it clean.

Controls: 9/10

They make 3 styles with different handles, but I tested the Vintage which is the most complicated as it has an upper and lower door, which means more to play with, but potentially more things for Woodwarm to get wrong. Thankfully they haven't the handles do get hot but the tool for opening and closing the doors is superb and very satisfying to use. It also riddles the grate and removes the ash pan, and the stove comes with a glove too for placing fuel in the stove and all of this added up to a very satisfying user experience. They all have the same single air control, all the way to the left for air below (for lighting and coal use), to the right for air above (for wood burning use) and then bring it to the middle where it drops down to lock in place at the optimum shut down position. The affect is immediate and the way the stove burns is superb. Generally I found that I would close the stove 90% of the way for the evening, but if ever I was leaving the stove I would click it into the middle and like a trusty dog it was always in when I returned.

Economy: 8/10

This stove ran for 9 hours on a net of logs, and it burned beautifully the whole time. Also because of its very heavy build not only am I convinced that every part of this will outlast many of its competitors, due to the weight I'm also convinced that the thermal mass it stores up will also translate to a very even temperature and heat output.

What I thought:

This is a full on multi-fuel stove, the riddling grate is the best design I've ever used not only due to the ease and effectiveness of riddling, but also the ability to close down and maximise wood burning efficiency. This stove doesn't have a full range of control which may frustrate some more experienced or serious users, but on the other hand it does remove a lot of question marks and actually the range of control given was still enough to achieve what I wanted, both in terms of look (creating wavy flames), efficiency (driving loads of heat without just wasting fuel) and long burn time (I managed to run over night with a range of different fuel sources including wood and smokeless fuel).

If you're looking for something easy to use and light, flexible on fuels, British, high end, tough and nicely engineered then the Fireview definitely fits the bill. They make so many versions that there is surely a look to suit you, so the only question really is is it worth the cost for you?