Beat the fuel price hike - go for wood! (Rayburn 345W)

Member Name: ariom

Product:	Rayburn 345W
Date:	07/10/08 (1630 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheaper, stylish, less waste, hot water and cooker always on

Disadvantages: messy, need very well seasoned wood

Rayburns are classic items which add style and a theme to a farmhouse style kitchen. Many come being supplied by gas or oil, but in today's rising fuel price climate - is that what you want? The Rayburn 345W runs on wood (and only wood, it's adapted so it can't take anything else due to the cheap VAT), meaning you may be able to escape the price hike. and for your wood, there's far less wasted energy - it does your heating, cooking and hot water (and you can pretend you're doing your bit for the planet since it's renewable too!) For us, it's very cost effective, as my sister-in-law has a farm which means she can pass on wood to us. We have had to buy some wood to supplement this and normally pay about £120 for 3 tonnes. It is really important that you get properly seasoned wood, or the chimney clogs really easily (as we discovered to our peril!). In summer this amount of wood would last us 3-4 months, but we expect it to last considerably less time in winter.

Since it runs on wood, this has a big advantage - you get a reduced VAT rate of 5% on the Rayburn. If you get it installed at the same time, you get the reduced VAT rate on the installation too. This covers just the installation though, if you need to have your chimney lined, fireplace plastered etc then that'll still be at standard VAT. The Rayburn itself costs about £3,500, though you may be able to negotiate it down a bit with the retailer. It cost us about £7,000 in total including installation and we had a new liner in our chimey, an old electric fire removed, the fireplace knocked through and replastered and some adjustments to our heating system in with it. About £5,000 of this was at the reduced VAT rate. It is really quite a personal thing as different houses will cost different amounts to install. You also need a stone or tiled hearth infront incase you drop any burning wood on it. You may have one already, we installed a whole stone floor in the room we were going to use.

Unlike cooking on electric (which is what I had come from), you can't set the Rayburn to 180 degrees and put your dinner in. It has three broad categories on the front "Simmer", "Bake" and "Roast" to guide you what temperature the main oven is at. You get it to these temperatures by adding or reducing the wood, turning a little spin wheel that affects how much air goes in, flicking a switch on the front so the hot air goes more to the cooker than the heating and adjusting how much heat goes up the chimney by pulling in and out a small tray, and even then it depends on the type and quality of wood. It takes a bit of getting used to, and while you're learning anything like a roast may be best done on a Sunday when it could be had for lunch or dinner. Similar adjustments need to be made to get your heating (8 radiators worth) right, though this does have a thermostat in it so your house doesn't get too hot if you get it wrong!

The hot water has never been a problem for us. If the Rayburn is going for a two hours or so, we'll have a full tank of water at so hot our bath thermometer can't measure it. Similarly, once the Rayburn is going, the hotplate on top will be hot enough to do it's job. Again, precision isn't a feature. Slid your pans down over the firebox to get it hotter, over the cooker to get it cooler, but depending on how hot your Rayburn is, it might be impossible to get things off the boil. The Rayburn also features a warming oven. What this does, again depends on how hot you've got things going. It's great to put plates in to warm on a normal day, can be used for slow cooking over night (we haven't tried that one yet), or to keep your food warm if it's finished cooking (useful for the timings of the xmas day roast).

Keeping the Rayburn going normally requires topping up with wood every 4 hours to get a reasonable output. It is possible to put it on "bank" and keep it going overnight or throughout the day by reducing the burn rate, but you'll get less output in terms of heating etc.

The big downside is the mess. This item isn't for the pristeen footballer's-wives kitchen that some oil or gas Agas are. I can't remove the ash box without spilling ash over the floor. The flue needs cleaning (by sticking your arm up with a brush) every month and they reckon the chimney needs sweeping each year, but we needed ours doing after 6 months.

It comes in a wipe clean enamel finish in a variety of colours.

Summary: We love it, but it's a lifestyle choice that won't suit everyone.