Retro woodburners to suit 1950s and 1960s midcentury decor

If your home is decked out in retro or vintage decor, you don’t want your woodburner to let the side down.

Here are a selection of wood-burning stoves and multi-fuel stoves that work well with midcentury interior design. Although they are all contemporary appliances – with all the efficiency benefits that brings – but look like they wouldn’t have been out of place in a living room in the 1950s or 1960s.

Invicta Oxo 10kW Wood-Burning Stove

The Invicta Oxo looks like it could be the bad guy in a 1960s sci-fi TV series, but it is actually another very interesting stove designed by French manufacturer Invicta. The design comprises both stainless steel and cast iron, while the 10kW heat output will add warmth to even large spaces.

Dimplex Langbrook 5 SE Multi-Fuel Stove

Like many woodburners, the Dimplex Langbrook is a black box. But its subtle design features help to give it a very retro look that set it apart from those other appliances. Rounded edges and unusually chunky feet give the Langbrook its distinctive look.

Invicta Ove 10kW Wood-Burning Stove

The humble egg provided the inspiration for some midcentury design classics, not least Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Egg chair. Continuing that trend is the Invicta Over, a large and spectacular feature stove incorporating a beautiful rounded design and oval glass window. Have a closer look.

Invicta Luna 10kW Wood-Burning Stove

With its tall legs and curved lines, the Invicta Luna has a distinctly midcentury aesthetic. Unlike a console table or desk that might also match that description, it comes with the benefit that it pumps 10kW of heat into your home

Invicta Ch’ti Poele 8 kW Wood-Burning Stove

The Invicta Ch’ti Poele boasts an unusual design that is very much in-keeping with the geometric shapes that dominates much midcentury design. The asymmetry gives an eye-catching look that is somehow retro and contemporary simultaneously.

Invicta Alcande 6kW Wood-Burning Stove

Another woodburner that looks like it has come straight out of the 1960s. The rounded capsule style stove body is very Space Age, while the legs would not be out of place on a piece of Scandinavian furniture.

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What is a riddling grate?

A riddling grate is a grate featuring a mechanism that allows the bars of the grate to be moved.

The benefit of this is that the bars to be tilted to allow ashes to be tipped directly into the ashpan without you having to worry about facilitating that particular journey.

A riddling grate will be found on a multi-fuel stove, rather than a wood-burning stove. Wood burns best on a flat bed of ashes, so many wood-burning stoves do not incorporate a grate or an ashpan. Please note: other woodburners are designed to have a grate – often a non-riddling grate – so if you have an appliance that has a grate it is important that you continue to use one.

Many modern multi-fuel stoves will have an externally controlled ridding grate, which is even handier for the user. With the mechanism to move the grate bars accessible via a handle on the outside of the stove body, ashes can be tipped into the ashpan without the need to even have the door open. That helps with limiting the amount of dust that gets into the room, but its key benefit comes when the stove is in use…

Smokeless coal, which is the type of coal that should be used on multi-fuel stove, burns best when there is a good supply of air from beneath. This air supply could become limited if cinders and ashes start to block the gaps between the bars. You can immediate alleviate this problem by riddling the grate and clearing some of the ashes. This task is much easier to accomplish with the aid of the external controls, which can be easily used with the aid of a stove glove and avoid the need to access anything inside the firebox.

More wood-burning and multi-fuel stove jargon-busting here.

Can you put a woodburner flue through a polycarbonate roof on a conservatory?

Can you put a woodburner flue through a polycarbonate roof on a conservatory

One of the most frequent questions we are asked by people who are interested in installing a wood-burning stove in a conservatory is: can you have a woodburner flue running through a polycarbonate roof?

In this article, we will answer that question for you.

Conservatories are very popular places to install stoves. Given that they are living rooms in which people want to spend time relaxing, yet can become cool in autumn, winter and spring given the amount of glass, it is very appealing to add a boost of warmth that makes it a comfortable environment all year round.

Understandably, a major concern before going ahead with an installation is the safety concerns about putting a flue pipe through the plastic roofs – usually polycarbonate – that tend to be used on conservatories.

The good news is that it is safe to pass a flue pipe through a conservatory roof as long as you follow these steps…

Use a twin wall flue

Sometimes called an insulated flue, a twin wall flue is a flue pipe surrounded by a layer of insulation, surrounded by another pipe. It will not got as hot as a single wall flue and is therefore safe for use with the polycarbonate roof.

Use rubber flashing

You probably won’t be able to screw or fix a lot of flashing options to the polycarbonate roof. If this is the case for your conservatory, simply use rubber flashing sealed onto the roof with silicone to keep rainwater out. If this looks unsightly from inside the conservatory, you can place a cover plate at the top of the flue before it exits the conservatory.

Consider the Building Regulations

The place at which you choose to put a flue through your polycarbonate roof might be influenced by the Building Regulations. For example, Document J of the regulations states that a flue must terminate at least 2.3 metres away from any window horizontally. Make sure you’ve studied the regulations and given due consideration to the position of your appliance within the conservatory before starting to make a hole in the conservatory roof.

Where are Carron Stoves made?

If you are considering buying an appliance from the Carron Stoves range you might be wondering where they are made. They are renowned for their high quality build, stylish design and exciting range of colour options, but where are Carron Stoves made? Let’s find out…

Carron Stoves are made in China.

The Carron brand has a long history dating back to the 16th century. The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire. It produced cannons, engines, pillar boxes, red telephone boxes and, of course, wood-burning stoves and ovens. Indeed, Benjamin Franklin is rumoured to have left a stove design at the Carron factory during a visit to the works.

The current generation of Carron woodburners is not related to the original company, which went into liquidation in 1982. They are made in China and imported to the UK and distributed by JIG UK Ltd, which is based in Lincolnshire.

What does that mean for you?

The fact that you’re looking for information about where Carron Stoves are made suggests that you have in mind that you like to buy a stove that was made in a particular country. For most people reading this blog that will be the UK, since that’s the market we serve. If that is true in your case, you might be interested in this article on British made wood burners.

Equally, if you were hoping to read that Carron are made in the UK, please don’t be too disappointed to learn that they are not. They are still excellent appliances that operate very well and look the part in any room. If finding out where Carron Stoves are made had led you to question buying one, please read the customer reviews on the model that you were thinking of getting. This should set your mind at rest because these are fantastic wood-burning stoves.

Have another look at the Carron Stoves range here.