Wood heater reviews and recommendations

I can only speak from our own experience. We bought a Ned Kelly which is fanless but easily heated a 12 m x 8 meter room and the adjacent bedrooms. It was very efficient and lasted all night if we loaded up an hour before bed, 10:30 to 11:00 pm. we used it for 20 years and it is still working well for the new owners of the property.

Incorrect wood heaters are effectively carbon neutral in operation as the trees are grown via photosynthesis which uses H2O and & CO2 releasing vital oxygen and this was all done essentially within the last century, so using wood heaters is only recycling modern CO2.
Unlike gas heaters which burn FOSSIL fuels which are essentially the carbon remnants of organic life forms from hundreds of millions years ago. Releasing CO2 which had been trapped in the earthā€™s crust for many millions of years and in effect raising the CO2 level in the atmosphereā€¦

Wood heaters are better for fighting climate change than coal fired power stations and burning of gas.

I will agree that when run inefficiently they can contribute to reduced neighbourhood air quality.

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We have an original Arrow brand slow combustion wood heater in our home for 30 winters now and we live in the cold climate central Vic highlands where wintertime overnight temps regularly approach zero degrees C and sometime drop as low as -6C so it runs 24/7 for essentially 6mths.
It is now getting long in the tooth and will require replacement soon, but it heats a 18 square open plan 80ā€™s design house for 6-7mths every year on about 7 cubic meters of local hardwood annually so it appears to be very efficient even though it is older design. Also it doesnā€™t use fire bricks just cast iron heat plates internally and they have also lasted very well. We stopped using the fan around 8 years ago when it got noisy and we now find it a nicer heater just radiating warmth through the house as it is central located.

That may be the case but they do contribute to air pollution even if they are run efficiently. They are a health hazard for both those that operate them as well as the rest of the community. Once solar power with efficient batteries in the home is affordable for the poor wood fires should be banned.

It will Never happen.
Wood heating is as old as human history and will continue indefinitely long after fossil fuels are exhausted. Wood is really only stored sunlight and so is totally renewable. Most wood fuel is harvested legally and this helps with bushfire fuel load reduction.
Remember the amount of wood burned naturally through bushfire would be in a magnitude many times greater than all that gathered for humans to use for heating.
And the smoke and ash produced and released would be far greater from fires started by natural causes such as bushfires started by lightning strikes.

Using wood heating is not a socio-economic issue as you imply, not everyone lives in the burbs with all amenities supplied in their address and so alternatives are used.

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I have recently gone through this ā€œexerciseā€ and did alot of research. I live in northern Tasmania on rural acreage and it regularly gets to minus three at night and often not getting to 10 degrees during the day. The ones to avoid are pellet heaters as they wonā€™t last through the night and the Scandia range which are from Bunnings as they are cheaply made e.g. quality of rivets and the finishes. The brands that are worth further investigating are in no particular order are Coonara, Jindara and Masport depending on what look and feel you like. I was referred to an installer by a friend who came to my home to make sure that what I was considering would be appropriate for the space, the location in the home, fire proofing, air transfer kit and loads more. He would also be able to provide the certificate for council. In the end though, I did not install one because my reverse cycle air conditioners were starting to play up and it became a choice of replacing them and giving me heating and cooling or putting in the wood heater - both cost the same to do at about $5,000 for what I was looking at. Maybe one day :slight_smile:

Yes the Scandia range is sold exclusively by Bunnings, but that isnā€™t necessarily an indication of poor quality.
All the hinges etc are held on by screws, I canā€™t see any rivets in my Scandia Heat and Cook. The finish looks good to me, the removeable stove hotplates on top fit well, all the controls function properly, the firebox has replaceable side plates, backing firebricks and thereā€™s a decent list of other available spare parts, so I expect a long life from itā€¦ at half the price of the Nectre Big Bakers Oven I was also considering.

I had not been looking for one on which to cook - just to heat so maybe they are constructed differently (?). I buy many good quality products from Bunnings but in this instance, I was told by multiple people (including a Bunnings employee and the installer) of the short comings of the brand so had shortlisted the ones in the original response. Given the 24/7 use I planned for it, I was advised to buy one from Australia made for Australian conditions rather than a cheaper Chinese version. There are many variable (like everything!) that include budget and preferred design.

When it comes to heating, conditions are much, much more severe in China than Australia! I usually have a chuckle when I hear things need to be tough for ā€œAustralian conditionsā€, when in fact our conditions are quire mild in comparison with the much more severe conditions in many countries.

Scandia have actually been making wood heaters for about 65 years in Melbourne, I think only recently being sold through Bunnings, but they do import heaters and parts from China these days. They do claim they are designed for ā€œAustralian conditionsā€ though :wink:

Ferij49. They did burn through the night 20 yrs ago but now I believe you canā€™t turn them down completely, the air vent is slightly open to lower the emissions

Thank you, for doing the research.:slightly_smiling_face:
The Jindara comes up good on many reviews. Did you research the Nectre too?

Thank you. In UK I noticed they have small windmill type fans that they sit on top of the fire place. As the heat rises it turns the blades. They were very effective and no noise. They are available on eBay here too. We were very impressed with them.

Available from Bunnings too, we have one. They use a small Peltier device to generate a small amount of power (power increases as the temperature difference across the device increases), and shift a correspondingly small amount of air. Vastly less than a small pedestal or built in fan blower, and IMHO really only of novelty value. If I want to disperse the hot air from near the ceiling, I use our DC pedestal fan. At a low setting (uses ~10W), it quickly evens out temperature stratification, and warms the lower section of the living space a few degrees very quickly. The Peltier fanā€™s breeze is almost undetectable, unless you hold your hand right in front of it.

I am in WA and bought a heater from a local manufacturer called Jarrahdale when our 25 yo Maxiheat died.
The machine is very well constructed but I donā€™t know if it is available outside of WA. Check their website. Be very sure you know what you are getting into. In WOZ jarrah firewood is about $260/tonne and can be in short supply. We go through 3 tonnes a year and we donā€™t live in a mansion. Our Winters are also short and mild compared to some states. The other issue is that they are now designed (probably an ADR) so that you cannot turn them down low, ie they will burn out within a few hours. You canā€™t leave them simmering overnight and fire them up in the morning, they have to be re-lit. It is possible to modify the Jarrahdale so you can turn it down low, but I suspect this is probably illegal and attracts a greater penalty than beating the shit out someone in the pub. The process is a little tricky but a handyman can do it. Hope this helps.

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I agree that wood can be a renewable resource but it is being burnt and destroyed at a rate greater than at which it is being regrown. Yes there are always natural events that cause fires. But the human created burning that occurs for pasture and food production, the palm oil industry, mining (rainforests removed so soil can be washed for gems, gold, and so on), the removal of natural vegetation for strip mining, removal of virgin growth for housing and furniture, removal for land clearing for towns and cities, these are destroying the trees of the world in vast amounts and they are not being replaced at the same rate. So if talking in the whole human sense we are increasing the carbon load in the atmosphere by our destruction of the wood sources of the world.

Some articles that may be worth reading:






This gave us a laugh :joy:

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Read this earlier in the day re sustainability of forests in Australia . Worth a look . Shows the steps being undertaken to make our forests sustainable and a renewable resource .

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/forestry/australias-forests/forest-mgnt

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You are confusing two distinct issues one is gathering of firewood for heating and the other is deforestation to create or enlarge commercial farming activities.
Gathering of firewood in Australia is largely regulated and doesnā€™t cause deforestation, gathering firewood on public land is limited to only using trees that are dead and marked for the purpose.

Greedy farmers and pastoralists that decided to clear bush and forests to increase their productive farmland cause deforestation and that happens both here and abroad.

You people need some prospective on this, the amount of wood gathered for heating in Australia in one year probably would not be equivalent to the amount of forest biomass that is cleared worldwide in one minute.

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In addition to this, conservatively removing wood from forests is actually very environmentally friendly. Typically how firewood is harvested for domestic use in Australia. A forest will quickly replace trees through new ones and growth of surrounding trees when a tree is felled.

When that wood is used to make things like furniture, timber flooring etc then selectively cutting down trees from forests is one of the best ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere. For a lot of people, cutting down trees seems pretty counterintuitive to preserving the environment, but it can do a lot of good.

Sustainable wood is a great alternative to many many other materials such as plastics and steel. In this case, when you compare it to burning gas or coal, then it beats fossil fuels hands down.

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Buy a Masport or similar quality brand based on what your local supplier sells. You will need parts and support at some time in the future. What ever you buy try and buy local. Iā€™ve used one for some years and a few other brands in holiday accommodation. They all work the same like a Hyundai Excel works the same as a Nissan Pulsar or Ford Laser. none will genuinely burn all night (8 hours). You could coax the old style slow combustion heater stoves/cookers to 6hrs + if you had really good wood. Your children will burn their hands at least once each winter as a reminder and your adult friends every time they visit for drinks.

Have you considered a high efficiency outdoor installed chip heater and pumped water (hydronic heating) instead.

Your Choice re the environment. Nearly all our electricity comes from fossil fuel so using the heat directly from burning fossil fuel instead of at low recovery rates from a power station is a line ball call.
The in house free standing heaters all still leak some smoke no matter how hard you try. The add on external circulating fan kits are essential if you are trying to heat a large area efficiently and evenly or use your ceiling fans in reverse.

The efficiency ratings are not worth worrying about. Low particulate emissions are only achieved with perfect fuel. If you burn what you salvage from fallen trees or your own plantation it will all give you massive amounts of soot that are a 100 times above the standard. Most of the waste I burn would wind up as CO2 as it rots or goes up in the next environmental burn anyway. Wood is a renewable resource and you can recycle your carbon!

There is a lot of time and effort! Really a lot of time and effort and time and sweat cutting and managing your wood supply. If you buy wood in itā€™s cheaper to run a reverse cycle aircon vs the outdoor gym with the block splitter and chain saw.

No doubt you have considered PV and batteries with a good reverse cycle? I can see plenty of advice to this effect from other Choice members who appear to have made this $25,000 investment decision. This works really well in north Queensland and the NT. Not so sure if it is worth the cost in the southern states where in Winter there is no sun!