Inset Stove Heat Design Vitae 6kw cassette - any good/problems? Any recommendations on inset stoves for a small room?

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Susanf

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Hi , I have a very small sitting room basically 3m by 3.3m by 2.50m high and am looking into putting in an inset stove instead of an open fire. I visited a home heating place and the smallest inset stove they had was a Vitae 6kw cassette (multi -fuel) made by Heat Design (an Irish company). Does anyone have this
stove and how has it worked for them? Any problems/issues?
Secondly, there was a Vitae 5kw landscape inset stove(wood burning) but the salesman told me the space would have to be kango'd out so wouldbe more expensive.

Thirdly, I live in an exposed windswept coastal area and everything rusts- wondering will this be an issue with the flue?

There are more expensive inset stoves like Stovax and Morso but im not sure if the extra expense is worth it?
Thanks in advance
 
Relatively speaking, a 5 or 6kW stove in a 3x3.3x2.5m room is huge.
I have the Vitea 6kW cassette stove in a space nearly 4 times the floor area of your room and it has no problem heating the space when needed with wood as fuel. The availability of the external air supply on it helped with the decision. Installation took a day and replaced an open fire.
Flues are generally stainless steel so shouldn't have an issue with corrosion.

If I were you I would first determine what size I need. If you want to get a sense of the size you need you can get an idea by borrowing a couple of 2kW electric heaters and turn them on full blast in the room for a couple of hours and then see what it's like. If it gets too warm then a 4kW stove might be too big but you don't need to run the stove full tilt either.
 
Your flue will be stainless steel, so I imagine the rain/salt will not be a problem.

Does that Vitae 6kw cassette fit nicely into your existing standard fireplace - if so I would tend to go with that.

The 6kw assumes you are feeding the fire with fuel with equivalent 6kW of energy. if you put in less , the heat output is less.

bare in mind too , that a smaller fire box means the wood needs to be cut to a much smaller length, otherwise you cant feed the burner.

Removing the fireplace surround and kango-ing the surround means alot more convection of heat is possible from your stove.
 
Susanf said:
Hi , I have a very small sitting room basically 3m by 3.3m by 2.50m high and am looking into putting in an inset stove instead of an open fire. I visited a home heating place and the smallest inset stove they had was a Vitae 6kw cassette (multi -fuel) made by Heat Design (an Irish company). Does anyone have this
stove and how has it worked for them? Any problems/issues?
Secondly, there was a Vitae 5kw landscape inset stove(wood burning) but the salesman told me the space would have to be kango'd out so wouldbe more expensive.

Thirdly, I live in an exposed windswept coastal area and everything rusts- wondering will this be an issue with the flue?

There are more expensive inset stoves like Stovax and Morso but im not sure if the extra expense is worth it?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I believe they are quite nice. I've a Henley Achill 6.6kw and it pretty much heats my home for all but the days where its zero or below.
A flexible flue cost around 900 and I think that stove was around 1250 at the time. Installation, removal of an old propane fed gas appliance, bird cowl, co monitor and some minor repairs was about 600 euro (a cast iron inset had to be cut slightly to fit the stove).

The only advice I can offer is shop around for a bulk fuel delivery and make space in a dry shed or garage for wood as its bulky to store - I burn through around 6-7 bags of wood per week if I am at home 5 days but my living room is large and open plan so the heat permeates the rest of the house well into the night. Don't bother with petrol station wood as its often left in exposed places and gets too wet to burn effectively. Most insets have smaller boxes so you probably need logs that are 25cm in length or less.
 
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I looked into getting a stove last year, have similar size room and open fire. Now while I would prefer and only need the smallest size as such the problem is the teeny tiny box in them, if you look in you can see you would need very small logs and even the shop I was in had kind of extra small firelogs to fit them. Very restrictive I thought myself as I don't want to have to be chopping the logs I buy smaller to fit and the ones I get now definitely wouldn't fit.

So that means you need the slightly bigger box stove, obviously output is higher but you dont have to fill it up and a small fire in it will be enough. Gave up on the idea myself totally when the quote was €3,500 which was far too much to spend for something I would only be using at most 5 months a year and not even every night. Installer kept telling me I wouldn't know myself with the heat from it but the heat was not my motivation as such, the open fire heats the room fine but I don't like the associated mess of ashes falling onto surround etc and would have preferred the enclosed nature of the stove. Either way I didn't go ahead but my advice be sure and look in and see if the logs or fuel you are buying will easily fit in the space.
 
Monbretia said:
I looked into getting a stove last year, have similar size room and open fire. Now while I would prefer and only need the smallest size as such the problem is the teeny tiny box in them, if you look in you can see you would need very small logs and even the shop I was in had kind of extra small firelogs to fit them. Very restrictive I thought myself as I don't want to have to be chopping the logs I buy smaller to fit and the ones I get now definitely wouldn't fit.

So that means you need the slightly bigger box stove, obviously output is higher but you dont have to fill it up and a small fire in it will be enough. Gave up on the idea myself totally when the quote was €3,500 which was far too much to spend for something I would only be using at most 5 months a year and not even every night. Installer kept telling me I wouldn't know myself with the heat from it but the heat was not my motivation as such, the open fire heats the room fine but I don't like the associated mess of ashes falling onto surround etc and would have preferred the enclosed nature of the stove. Either way I didn't go ahead but my advice be sure and look in and see if the logs or fuel you are buying will easily fit in the space.
Click to expand...
Very true about the size of firebox......I would however recommend the stove vs open fire, simply for the comfort level and the 80% efficiency compared to the open fire. You will be able to save on OFH/GFH expenses to other rooms, simply because your hallway - keeping doors of your living room open will heat most of the house including the upstairs which has a high thermal mass.

The open chimney is acts like an always on draught , sucking out warm air out of your house. The closed nature with stove not in use is therefore another saving.
 
clinteastwood said:
Very true about the size of firebox......I would however recommend the stove vs open fire, simply for the comfort level and the 80% efficiency compared to the open fire. You will be able to save on OFH/GFH expenses to other rooms, simply because your hallway - keeping doors of your living room open will heat most of the house including the upstairs which has a high thermal mass.

The open chimney is acts like an always on draught , sucking out warm air out of your house. The closed nature with stove not in use is therefore another saving.
Click to expand...
I get what you are saying but other than the comfort of not having messy ashes sneaking out on to granite suround the heat level is fine from a small fire. The layout of the room and house means no other room is really going to benefit from a hotter fire in there, there are only double doors to kitchen which are usually open anyway except for the coldest windiest weather as sunroom is off kitchen and their are draughty windows in there, next on the fix list!. I have a metal of some sort surround on the fireplace before timber outer surround, I find once the metal part heats up it's like an added radiator and even though the fire may die down the heat remains for ages. I would actually have to lose that part to put in a stove, now I know the stove metal heats up too but the extra heat was never my motivation, I have enough heat I just wanted cleaner :)
 
I have both types of stoves, inset and free-standing.
I prefer the latter.
Does not depend on a power source, for the fans.
A proper cast iron stove is more effective, and looks better.
I am talking Jotul, Morso etc.
I mainly use kiln-dried wood.
 
fistophobia said:
I have both types of stoves, inset and free-standing.
I prefer the latter.
Does not depend on a power source, for the fans.
A proper cast iron stove is more effective, and looks better.
I am talking Jotul, Morso etc.
I mainly use kiln-dried wood.
Click to expand...
Same here, I kangoo'd out the old fireplace to give plenty of surrounding space for air convection and installed a Morso Owl. Its great, the casting should last 20years and I have not replaced any string, glass,grating or baffle plates since its installation in 2016. If on 24hrs/7 days a week the stove can easily heat a 200m2 house - given time for the concrete mass of the house to respond..

I use coal and 5yr old wood (I have a garage to store 10m3 of wood.). The old fireplace was a joke, probably getting 1kW heat for 5kW fuel and having a great big bloody hole to the sky isnt a good idea for comfort or your wallet.
 
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