Woodburners, nice or nasty?

I agree 100%. I'm in a smokeless zone so can't see smoke but the smell of smoke is evident even if they are using the correct fuel. It means closing windows and if you're not quick enough lovely air dried washing comes in reeking of smoke and needing another rinse. That has to mean there are particulates in the air, so unhealthy.

We have a wood burner in the kitchen but never use it. I recall how my old mum used to complain about the faff of having to keep a real fire burning and then having to clear it out. Was here when we bought the house and it looks quaint so have kept it for ornamental purposes.
Our neighbour does use his and the smoke is acrid, then again he boasted about getting free wood from people’s skips, though this wood has often got paint or varnish on it so will give off dangerous pollutants. We told him this but he just laughed and said there was nothing wrong with a bit of smoke. Other neighbours have complained as well but he is one of those people who thinks anything about pollutants in the air is a load of left wing baloney and that he should be able to do as he pleases.

Thumbs down from me due to particles irritating the lungs.

I don’t like open fires either and absolutely loathe barbaques. What a grump!

Love ‘em but we don’t live that close to our neighbours. We have to have very tall chimneys by law if we have one which is fair. I only light ours very occasionally, usually when we have visitors because we can’t be bothered carting wood around,

Absolutely love ours - best thing we ever did was getting it installed. Now we have a completely free source of heating, which has made an enormous difference to our fuel bills, living in a very old, hard to heat house. We do live in a rural area though, and many of our neighbours have them too - as well as others who still have coal fires.

We have one, inherited when we bought this house. We used it a couple of times but it affected my husband's breathing. I don't really like them anyway, not green and too much faffing around to get them going. I remember the performance my parents had in getting a coal fire started when I was a child, good for toasting crumpets, but hard work in the days of no central heating.

Love ours ....we get free hardwood from a family member so its free heat during the winter months .....I love coming on from work and the log burner is blazing ....so cozy

Absolutely love ours, it was the first thing we had installed when we moved in 14 years ago. The heat it provides is wonderful, can't wait to start using ours soon.

I had one fitted a few years ago, just before they moved from ideal item to work of the devil

I love mine, it’s so easy to clean and relay . I love the heat and the light it throws. That spaniel is a fan as well

TerriBull

We have one, inherited when we bought this house. We used it a couple of times but it affected my husband's breathing. I don't really like them anyway, not green and too much faffing around to get them going. I remember the performance my parents had in getting a coal fire started when I was a child, good for toasting crumpets, but hard work in the days of no central heating.

Not much 'faffing around' involved here. Put the logs in, add a firelighter, light a match. What's so complicated about that?

Hate them.

Fortunately we only have one neighbour who has one and most days it's not too smelly. It can be like a never ending bonfire. Vile.

Love them, we had one when we lived in Françe, we looked into getting one in this house but it’s too complicated, I really miss having a cosy fire. No trouble to clean out or set and we had multiple sources of well dried wood.

Love them, although we only use ours at weekends and at Christmas.

However when we had a winter where the gas was ut off for a fortnight inNovember an the supply was unreliable fr anothe six months, we were only too glad of the wood burner. Not only did it keep us warm, but we lived in an old house with a huge brick chimney and bread oven going up through the centre of the house and the heat from the stove, going up the stack warmed the whole stack, and it accted like a storage heater and the heat from the stack kept the bedrooms warm and dry as well.

Absolutely love ours. With thee doors open downstairs it warms the whole house. We do have it cleaned and serviced yearly and use properly seasoned wood.On a cold winter day there is nothing better.
When we had some power cuts we warmed soup on it.

Love mine, had a quality one installed 14 years ago. I only burn kiln dried wood and if you walked past my house when it was in use you wouldn't smell it [or hardly]. One of the best things I've bought.

It's when people burn rubbish/old furniture/tyres and wet or varnished wood etc. that the smell is awful, I agree.

We love ours, DEFRA approved, very little smoke. All our wood is dried and tested with a moisture metre by us before being burned. We also have the facility to use smokeless fuel, which can keep the stove in all night.

I dislike them and the dangerous particles they emit concerns me. Even the latest, supposedly clean ones give off particles.

We have one we use when it’s really cold, it’s a lot of gaff and we wouldn’t really recommend one unless you have a supply of free wood, if you have to buy proper dry wood the cost is more than turning the heating up

We have a wood burning stove and we love it. We use it instead of the gas central heating in the winter. We only burn dried wood which like others, I check with a moisture metre before using. This means the chimney rarely needs cleaning as there are no soots and the stove is closed so no fumes into the room. Having said that I can very slightly smell smoke when I go outside so I can understand if you were in an urban area with multiple stoves around you there could be a build up.

We burn dry wood, a free source of heat.

We love ours at our seaside cottage. Just had a new liner installed so we’re raring to go.

Lots of air here as we overlook the sea one way and open countryside the other way. Our neighbour has one too.

It warms the whole house and it’s so cosy.

We have a large fireplace with a gas woodburner look alike at our main home. I want to do away with this one and have a real one installed. As we are open plan down stairs it would warm the whole house.

I live in a rural area with no gas, so the central heating runs on oil. My woodburner is a small eco one that runs on kiln dried wood. It’s lovely, but not as convenient as turning the central heating on.

Most people in my village burn wood, but it doesn’t seem to cause a noticeable pollution problem, although I know the particulates are potentially dangerous.

Since my husband died, it seems less worthwhile lighting the burner for one person and stacking the wood is a bit of a chore so increasingly I don’t bother with it except for visitors or in the case of power cuts.

Also I think my oil central heating is cheaper than buying kiln dried wood!

I’m getting a gas log-effect burner but would get a wood burner if I wasn’t lazy and didn’t want the pfaf. Apparently they’re very efficient and do a great job of heating draughty old houses so sounds like a sensible alternative.