Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ashley]

Our factory is quite large and shared with my son www.richardjamesupholstery.com The recent dreadful weather together with extreme cold meant the need for a more powerful and more economical heater than the gas one we'd been using, so we bought a Clarke which lasted a few hours and stopped, they wouldn't/couldn't replace it but "technical" gave advice that got it going for a few more hours and then it packed up completely and we've had to take it beck for a refund. However this was after three 30 mile round trips in appalling weather and not before "technical" have agreed that it is faulty, which will take another three weeks. We've subsequently found a friend with one that has been equally troublesome, no replacements have been available and he's had to do without for a couple of weeks at a time while they repair it.

Junk!!!

Ash

[First Bedford]

Have tried same myself and found them wanting, a few different companies brand them but they are allfrom the same chinese source and all have the same problems. I have a woodburning stove now, problem is somebody stays busy just feeding it, and there is always the temptation to sit round it.

[Ashley]

You can't sit round one of those space heaters, it's like standing behind Concorde.

We've got a gas one now that you can turn right down once the place is warm.

Ash

[First Bedford]

Have a small Clarke gas heater (space heater) in a shed down the garden, warms the place very quickly but soon after becomes unbearable, no turn down on it. Will take it down to my unit and add to the other collection - spoilt by central heating at home.
With the log stove by the time I have cut kindling and sawn logs I'm sweating, it is nice though. I have a large cast iron kettle sitting on the top, if it boils dry justs heats up and adds to the thermal output. Was looking for more welding bottles on E bay, gas bottle search brings up loads of wood stoves made from empty LPG bottles, quite ingenious some of them. People in a unit not far from me have a homemade two tier one, wood in, heat out, smoke and heat up the flue into another gas bottle gives out more heat and then up another offset flue, flue made of surplus 4" box section. Looks awful but a lot more heat output for less wood than my bought cast iron wood burner.

[buzzy bee]

Hi

We have made a bottle burner, I have got several ideas for some more, and am planning to put them in to a living waggon when I get the chance to! hehe

One must is a little plate box at the top, with a door on it, to put the pie in.

One we were using a time ago, was burning logs and it smelt very smoky, so much so we thought it wasn't drawing right, so on inspection due to the heat it was giving out, it had started to burn a wooden partition wall adjacent to it.

Another idea a few friends do is to get an old steam engine/boiler, perhaps a portable, that is tired, and have it that there is no pressure, or very little pressure int he boiler, have the chimney covered by a pipe out of the roof, and hey presto, you have a huge heater, and a huge mass of hot water that will give out heat, long after the fire goes out too.

Cheers

Dave

[First Bedford]

What a most important feature that many makers seem to overlook - the pie shelf.
Since joining this forum I have taken on board so many things, not all related to motoring e.g. the British Pathe website, something I had never been aware of before, gas bottle stoves, leads to all sorts of web sites. What a fount of collected knowledge.