Stanley Donard v Rayburn 345w

[new goody]

Has this been done to death? If it has my humble apologies in advance. Can you point me to the right page/forum/thread for this.

If not, I am in Australia and want to know what peeps thoughts are on these wood burning cookers. Clearly both are good lookers and the Stanley the less expensive of the two. But are we comparing apples with apples here? I read a lot about the Rayburn being a hungry beast and I believe the Stanley Donard a new model so can't find a lot of info around on it.

Intend using it for cooking/hot water/heating. The kitchen area where the unit will live is part of a larger open-plan style living area of around 100m2 (help! I am not sure of my metric conversions here - promise I will have them to hand next time).

Thanks in advance
New Goody

[Odsox]

The Donard is on the Stanley Waterford site at .. http://www.waterfordstanley.com/Product ... s/1153.htm Plus the have a brochure request.
I would think that with the business situation in Waterford city they will bend over backwards to get your custom and possibly bring you a brochure in person (I would anyway ... it's cold and wet here)

[JulieSherris]

I have the Stanley Superstar - the older version of the Donard.....

BUT... I fully intend to get the Donard when we revamp our kitchen/diner....

And I abso-bloody-lutely LOVE it!

It heats our hot water, does for our radiators & handles all my cooking too... plus it's great for bread rising, keeping my coffee hot in the mug for a while (when I leave my cup on the simmer plate & forget it while I go for a wander in the garden... )

When we do revamp the rooms here, we're knocking 3 rooms into 1, so we're going to fit an extra radiator in here too - the Stanley's good, but with the back rooms having a flat roof & no insulation, one extra rad should compensate.

Plus you feel SO smug at the end of a week & realise that you've not switched the leccy oven on since WAY before xmas!!

As for amount... well, we burn peat turf here, but the wood I use is about the same amount... so you know the hand baskets you get in supermarkets? Well, I get through 4 of those per day.... but remember that Stan is running 24/7 as well.... if it gets REALLY cold, or if I'm having a baking day, then add one or two extra baskets.... But then, this will be a LOT less in the summer!

Good luck!

[new goody]

Hi Odsox and thanks. I have been poring over the Stanley site which is where I found out about the Donard. Given the current drought and heatwave here I will be insisting that Mr/Ms Waterford Stanley Representative also brings a couple of buckets of water with that catalogue.

JulieSherris – this is great info, just the kind of detail I was hoping to get. Can you tell me how many radiators you are currently running off Stan? Ta.

[JulieSherris]

.... Can you tell me how many radiators you are currently running off Stan? Ta.

Hi new goody - ok... let me count.... bathroom, hallway, dining room, 3 bedrooms, & lounge.... so that's 7 in our house -
but they can run up to 12.....

I'd certainly never go back to 'normal' central heating.
When we first moved in here last September, the previous owners hadn't used Stan apart from a daily fire to heat the water for over 9 years...
so in my kitchen, I have a leccy oven & a gas hob that runs from a gas bottle outside. The gas bottle was nearly empty..... and it's got gas in, even now!
And thank goodness for old-fashioned whistling kettles - mine sits on the range all day & is always ready for action!!

[new goody]

JulieSherris you read my mind, I was going to ask about the tea/coffee making facilities. One other thing, with the radiators, can you hang wet things on them to dry? Thanks for the info. I just had a quick skim of your blog - good stuff. Hope you will be posting some pics soon too.

[JulieSherris]

Yep, clothes can go over the rads - they're just bog standard radiators.
Although our ones have been painted with emulsion a few times, so they don't exactly 'radiate'... but that's a project for the warmer months.... hubby will be installing nice new efficient rads for next winter.
And yeah, it's ok, he knows!!

As for the blog... well I'm going to take some pics when our trees have been cleared to do a before & after.... but I think even I will be a little shocked at the change!!

Julie

[Odsox]

One other thing, with the radiators, can you hang wet things on them to dry?

We are a bit unpatriotic and have a Rayburn, but we have one of those retractable washing lines above the stove.
The one we have has 4 lines and the alcove the stove is in is 5'6" wide, so that gives us a VERY useful 22 feet of drying space.
If you would like to send me the buckets New Goody, I can send you all the water you want ... I'm getting a bit fed up with all the rain we keep getting.

[JulieSherris]

...If you would like to send me the buckets New Goody, I can send you all the water you want ... I'm getting a bit fed up with all the rain we keep getting.

Can you send some of ours too, Tony, while you're at it??

Andy was planning to dig out part of the front for a duck pond... looks like no digging will be necessary if this carries on
I'm watching out to see if any swans settle in the front - I'm sure it won't be long

[Odsox]

Can you send some of ours too, Tony, while you're at it??

Depends how big his/her buckets are .... size matters
Still, the sun's shining today, but the next 2 days .... well I think I will hibernate for a bit.

[solarcooker]

I don't know if you are into do-it-yourself, but have you done any research into "rocket stoves"? They are wood-burning stoves that have the capability of being 2-3 times the efficiency of a standard wood stove. That's valuable if wood is a scarce commodity. The basic concept can be modified to fit a number of applications. You can Google "rocket stove" to see some of the theory and stove designs. I've also done a little experimenting with them, and solar cookers, on my website, www.alternative-energy-source.org. It's free. Hope this helps.