Can anyone help identify this inset wood burner?

[jtcedinburgh]

(broken link removed)

I hope I'm not violating any rules by posting a link to Ebay - I'm in no way connected with the seller - but I am interested in this insert as it's quite a bit less expensive than any 'name' insert, and as I want to replace our inefficient living flame gas insert, this seems like an option worth exploring.

If anyone can ID, or make any useful comments about the stove that'd be helpful to me. I'm particularly interested in the fact it has no internal firebricks - does this matter? Do you think I could add some and would that make sense? Also, I assume it's not a 'cleanburn' style - but maybe someone recognises the type of stove that it is and can give me more details...

Thanks,

John

 

[Burn-1]

John,

The first thing I would do is contact the seller on eBay and ask him/her. It appears from another eBay listing that this might be a La Foyere. Here is one for sale on eBay and at a much lower price La Foyere insert and if you look at this link about installation on the seller's website you were asking about they speak about French models and show some diagrams with a heat exchange setup (broken link removed) so that may help. I know Stovax and Dovre make similar looking cassettes.

Firebricks might add more mass and keep firebox temperatures a bit higher but it would also slow down the heat transfer to those fins which line the sides of the insert. The La Foyere unit for sale says that it has a baffle at the top but this is the crudest kind of secondary combustion. I think that either unit would have high wood consumption as there appear to be no air controls so this is much more like a cast-iron fireplace rather than a fireplace insert so you would be getting what you paid for.

 

[jtcedinburgh]

Thanks - it certainly looks like the same thing. One thing, though - the seller on your link says:

The ash pan has an integral slider to control air intake and heat.

...so there is some kind of control, but as to how effective it is... who can say?

So, what do you reckon? Walk on, or investigate further (I have emailed the seller incidentally)?

 

[webbie]

That is a very typical European insert design. I have seen stuff that looked like that from Hergom (maker of HearthStone from spain), from Scan and from Dovre and probably others. Even the German foundry Olsberg made something similar. There are probably markings somewhere on it, and that may be the only way to find out for sure.

 

[jtcedinburgh]

Thanks. Are inserts of this design typically any good?