The ultimate question – multi fuel or wood burning stove?

When most customers arrive at our showroom they have the understandable preconception that a multi fuel stove provides the “best of both worlds”.

What are the pros and cons of each?
A multi fuel appliance is capable of burning wood, coal and smokeless fuel. Burning coal on a multi fuel stove will result in less frequent loading of fuel and longer periods of burning but the ash will need to be cleaned out more often.
For wood burners, wood is a nicer fuel to handle and will require much less frequent cleaning out, however you will need to load it more often.

To explain:
A multi fuel stove has a slotted grate as coal requires air to flow to the underside for combustion (wood only draws air from above). When you burn wood on this slotted grate the wood ash falls through in to the ash pan before it has time to re burn. Not being able to re burn the wood ash results in less efficient burning and more frequent cleaning out.

A wood burning only stove allows you to build up a bed of ash on a solid base allowing the ash to re-burn due to the high core temperature of the appliance. This results in more efficient burning and therefore less cleaning out.

Many customers who initially think they would like a multi fuel stove often purchase a wood burner.