Best Solid fuel range for both cooking and heating .

[JohnnyKelly]

Bit of advice needed regarding replacing an old Stanley range .Solid fuel.I am trying to source a second hand solid fuel range to heat about 8 rads and also to cook on .My current old Stanley 8 just does the hot water and about four rads badly.No oven and never hot enough to even boil potatoes .My friend has a Stanley super star and its great but he says there are various types of boilers.Whats the best one for me to buy that will cover cooking and heating .Thanks in advance guys .

 

[Brambles]

A solid fuel Aga Deluxe coupled to a 135 litre / day boiler will feed 10 to 12 radiators. The standard Aga will struggle to feed a 90 litre /day boiler.

In my view, they are the best engineered ranges around, but they are not problem free.

Find a good local installer who will maintain it for you. The maintenance is more important than the instal.

Even the 40 year old models seem to have plenty of life left in them!

Rayburn’s are probably ok, but I only have limited experience of them. However, the key for your requirement is a range capable of cooking and delivering a boiler capacity of around 135lpd

No experience on Stanley’s I’m afraid, but if you can find a Stanley that matches the thermal output of an Aga Deluxe and couple it to a 135lpd boiler, you won’t go far wrong.

A final point - with a solid fuel Aga ( and I guess the others) only use anthracite ( or coal if no anthracite) don’t add or use wood, peat or biomass chips.

 

[JohnnyKelly]

A solid fuel Aga Deluxe coupled to a 135 litre / day boiler will feed 10 to 12 radiators. The standard Aga will struggle to feed a 90 litre /day boiler.

In my view, they are the best engineered ranges around, but they are not problem free.

Find a good local installer who will maintain it for you. The maintenance is more important than the instal.

Even the 40 year old models seem to have plenty of life left in them!

Rayburn’s are probably ok, but I only have limited experience of them. However, the key for your requirement is a range capable of cooking and delivering a boiler capacity of around 135lpd

No experience on Stanley’s I’m afraid, but if you can find a Stanley that matches the thermal output of an Aga Deluxe and couple it to a 135lpd boiler, you won’t go far wrong.

A final point - with a solid fuel Aga ( and I guess the others) only use anthracite ( or coal if no anthracite) don’t add or use wood, peat or biomass chips.

Thanks a million for your advice .Only problem is that in Ireland where I come from we harvest our own peat from our own bog so at least until the EU stop us we will be using turf or peat .Thanks again though .

 

[Brambles]

Well, I guessed that from your flag, so I mentioned peat!! but you really need a much hotter flame than peat can deliver - the grates in most ovens are far too narrow to burn low temperature fuels (biomass, lignite or peat). Compromise and add anthracite nuts to the fuel mix - the difference is dramatic - the peat will burn for longer, at a higher temperature and leave far less soot in the flue.

Before you rip out the old system - try fuelling it with 100% anthracite and see what a difference it makes.

It may save you the cost of a replacement range - and the Welsh are always keen to sell their anthracite!!