Great review. Appreciate the nostalgia. Agree with other contributor - burn box too narrow & not tall enough for larger wood pieces. Needing gloves for every adjustment is also a pain. These are 2 reasons I replaced my Stovax with a more advanced stove and wouldn't go back. Plus despite being popular their spares are expensive and after a few years they only make some to order. The soft metal door mechanism lasted 3 years, but no warranty for wear & tear and shape beyond a blacksmith. As an aside, not sure your Tesla comment on modern / complex stands. With no engine, exhaust, oil and so on they are much simpler than a pickup truck. So they break less. For modern / complex, VW's infotainment system is an example of legendary slow difficulty! But you can have your dashboard instruments in any colour!
I’m not convinced. An engine can start with any person, with a bit of oil and fuel. It can break and you can then fix it (particularly with old trucks etc). Where as a Tesla is completely controlled by a corporation. If they have a software fault, suddenly no one can even unlock their cars (which happened not long ago). And if you have an accident, rather than repairing and re-using, Tesla will disable the car and it cannot be unlocked, with a preference for replacement. Now I’m sure there are good reasons for these things, but for the ordinary person (who doesn’t have several cars to choose from to suit their needs for the day), these do not inspire confidence, or imply reliability. To be fair, maybe I’m becoming a bit of a dinosaur, stuck in the past 😅.
@@TheTortoiseIf those are your views, that's fine. Are they also your experience? They read more like a Daily Mail story. None of the half dozen Tesla owners I know have had any such experiences. All modern cars can be shut down by an electromagnetic pulse. All Tesla owner I know have had random bits of their ICE cars break - that's why they sent them to recycling and bought something simpler. But I respect your views. Just watch out of large asteroids heading towards Earth! Museums are indeed ideal places for some poorly supported traditional stoves, which is a shame but after decades of underinvestment, the UK sadly lack apprentices who can fix them. It's a lovely stove. But my experience is lifespan of affordable spares would be a worry.
Fair enough. I am definitely a lover of old things, no particular agenda, just slow moving: Walking before bikes, bikes before ICE cars, ICE before electric. It’s very much on theme with “theTortoise”. I’ll get to newer things, but ideally very slowly 😅
Respect for that. We move soooo slowly as a world. Rapid progress some argue stopped around 1969 (one small step!)! But the clue is in your name. So don't change. Savour the journey. Value legacy. Make an inheritance. But borrow a Tesla for a weekend and you may ask why cars replaced horses. Despising Musk's politics as a Bond baddie is OK too! But never change G - we need diverse views and expert insight.
Thanks for the reply, genuinely a breath of fresh air, and definitely interesting to actually learn from others. And to be fair the most fun I’ve ever had in a car, was in an electric Renault Twizy 😂. I literally couldn’t stop smiling, every time I got in it!
We had two cars at one time, one was a modern vw golf diesel. The other was my Jag xj6 3.2. The golf I could drive for miles before the heater would output anything, the jag was warm reversing out of the drive. Guess which one did 20mpg and which did 50+. To prove your point of flue temps.
I dont know. The burn chamber is too small for standard kiln dried logs, and the controls are woeful... The top airwash control is practically inaccessible and fiddly to position correctly, and there's no atrempt made to keep the controls cool. I do like the robust door hinge design though, and the fact there's a lip under the door to catch ash. I find it bizarre that ash spillage is an issue with most stoves. It's a completely solvable issue.
Yea, they do a few sizes though. It’s definitely not for everyone, but neither is a Toyota Hilux. For me I like the simple ruggedness, but there’s definitely less refinement as you say.
I am hoping to be looking at an inset stove soon from Stovax. It’ll probably be a Riva initially, but it’ll be an exciting one to see regardless. Hopefully I’ll get a look at a studio soon too 🤞
Underneath this is essentially the same thing as some of the Woodford stoves. It may be worth looking at the Turing/Lowry 5 review, if the Clifton is of interest. These are almost certainly made in the same factory, and appear to share the same air system, controls and even dimensions. They will have some tweaks like swapping the side for the riddling control arm, but they’re all but the same thing.
Great review. Appreciate the nostalgia.
Agree with other contributor - burn box too narrow & not tall enough for larger wood pieces. Needing gloves for every adjustment is also a pain. These are 2 reasons I replaced my Stovax with a more advanced stove and wouldn't go back. Plus despite being popular their spares are expensive and after a few years they only make some to order. The soft metal door mechanism lasted 3 years, but no warranty for wear & tear and shape beyond a blacksmith.
As an aside, not sure your Tesla comment on modern / complex stands. With no engine, exhaust, oil and so on they are much simpler than a pickup truck. So they break less. For modern / complex, VW's infotainment system is an example of legendary slow difficulty! But you can have your dashboard instruments in any colour!
I’m not convinced. An engine can start with any person, with a bit of oil and fuel. It can break and you can then fix it (particularly with old trucks etc). Where as a Tesla is completely controlled by a corporation. If they have a software fault, suddenly no one can even unlock their cars (which happened not long ago). And if you have an accident, rather than repairing and re-using, Tesla will disable the car and it cannot be unlocked, with a preference for replacement. Now I’m sure there are good reasons for these things, but for the ordinary person (who doesn’t have several cars to choose from to suit their needs for the day), these do not inspire confidence, or imply reliability. To be fair, maybe I’m becoming a bit of a dinosaur, stuck in the past 😅.
@@TheTortoiseIf those are your views, that's fine. Are they also your experience? They read more like a Daily Mail story. None of the half dozen Tesla owners I know have had any such experiences. All modern cars can be shut down by an electromagnetic pulse. All Tesla owner I know have had random bits of their ICE cars break - that's why they sent them to recycling and bought something simpler.
But I respect your views. Just watch out of large asteroids heading towards Earth! Museums are indeed ideal places for some poorly supported traditional stoves, which is a shame but after decades of underinvestment, the UK sadly lack apprentices who can fix them.
It's a lovely stove. But my experience is lifespan of affordable spares would be a worry.
Fair enough. I am definitely a lover of old things, no particular agenda, just slow moving:
Walking before bikes, bikes before ICE cars, ICE before electric.
It’s very much on theme with “theTortoise”. I’ll get to newer things, but ideally very slowly 😅
Respect for that. We move soooo slowly as a world. Rapid progress some argue stopped around 1969 (one small step!)! But the clue is in your name. So don't change. Savour the journey. Value legacy. Make an inheritance. But borrow a Tesla for a weekend and you may ask why cars replaced horses. Despising Musk's politics as a Bond baddie is OK too! But never change G - we need diverse views and expert insight.
Thanks for the reply, genuinely a breath of fresh air, and definitely interesting to actually learn from others. And to be fair the most fun I’ve ever had in a car, was in an electric Renault Twizy 😂. I literally couldn’t stop smiling, every time I got in it!
We had two cars at one time, one was a modern vw golf diesel. The other was my Jag xj6 3.2.
The golf I could drive for miles before the heater would output anything, the jag was warm reversing out of the drive.
Guess which one did 20mpg and which did 50+. To prove your point of flue temps.
I’m loving the car analogies!
I dont know. The burn chamber is too small for standard kiln dried logs, and the controls are woeful... The top airwash control is practically inaccessible and fiddly to position correctly, and there's no atrempt made to keep the controls cool. I do like the robust door hinge design though, and the fact there's a lip under the door to catch ash. I find it bizarre that ash spillage is an issue with most stoves. It's a completely solvable issue.
Yea, they do a few sizes though. It’s definitely not for everyone, but neither is a Toyota Hilux. For me I like the simple ruggedness, but there’s definitely less refinement as you say.
Can you do one of the stoves studio 1 one please.
I am hoping to be looking at an inset stove soon from Stovax. It’ll probably be a Riva initially, but it’ll be an exciting one to see regardless.
Hopefully I’ll get a look at a studio soon too 🤞
👍
Be nice to see what an MMF Clifton 5 stove is like
Underneath this is essentially the same thing as some of the Woodford stoves. It may be worth looking at the Turing/Lowry 5 review, if the Clifton is of interest. These are almost certainly made in the same factory, and appear to share the same air system, controls and even dimensions. They will have some tweaks like swapping the side for the riddling control arm, but they’re all but the same thing.