There’s nothing like the comforting feeling of a real fire 🔥 glowing and flickering away, we are all drawn to it in some primeval way. Another comforting thing is a lovely big pile of logs!
I was always fascinated with my grand-parents' wood stove, it seemed to make the kitchen cozier and friendlier somehow. Your stove seems to fit your personality to a tee!
Years back l lived in a cottage in the Stafforshire village of Yoxall. I had a similar cooker called an Aga. I burnt wood and coal on it and it also kept the kitchen warm. Baked spuds have never tasted as good as those cooked in that oven.
@@RichardVobes Hey Richard, me and my wife are about to buy a house that has an Esse Cat in the kitchen. Im doing my homework on the stove and am pretty excited. Im just wondering, what would you say makes the Esse way of cooking different from cooking on a regular gas/electric range?
We only recently watched your installation video and here it is 2 yrs. later. Wow! You've done a tremendous job of keeping it well oiled and just looking superb. It's the heart of your cozy kitchen and I love it! Wish I had one. I do have a barrel stove in my man cave (garage) and I spend a lot of time out there just staring into the fire as I tool around. I'm a carpenter by trade. Thanks for another great video!
Your video brought back childhood memories. My parents house in Felpham had no central heating. Only a coal fire in the lounge and a Rayburn in the kitchen which provided hot water and enabled my mother to do her cooking. In the winter the condensation on the bedroom windows would freeze. Part of my paper round was along the seafront. Nice in the summer but not in the winter if wet and windy. This is beginning to sound like a Monty Python sketch. I am enjoying your border walk which will soon be approaching familiar territory.
Love your Esse you clearly enjoy the whole process. As you say it's a ritual,I grew up with a solid fuel range in our farmhouse kitchen. Have lovely memories of all the family gathering around the range. It's a thing of beauty .Would love to own one...
A great feature in the kitchen. I love my wood burning stove. While there is no temperature regulator every time I cook on it the results are never short of perfect. And the heat is so much nicer than radiators.
The stove is much easier to clean when still hot, I learned this by watching a japanese chef. With just a wet rag, no cleaning chemicals to avoid fumes, the spills and stains wipe off easily as the water from the rag bubbles on the surface easily removing the stains.
Great video! Ive had my Ironheart since 2013 and im infatuated with it. I fire it up in october and keep it going until april or may. I pull the wishbone about every 3 months and vac it out. It is without a doubt the best money ive ever spent. I use the top for cooking and i bake in it often. Ha my friends never bring it up anymore because they know from experience that im going to run my mouth bragging it up. Its the best thing since sliced bread!!!!!!
Great stuff, fond memories of when I was a kid and when we lived at Forest Grange school - we had a Rayburn and two open fires - wood was plentiful then though as it was just after the great storm!
Thanks for this Richard, I remember that my grandmother had a cast iron kitchener for heating and cooking which was probably the early version of your Esse Ironheart.
I loved this video Richard. I'm always fascinated by the stoves in the UK, I think they make a kitchen so much more cozy and purposeful as well. We always hear about the Aga's, so it was nice to hear of another make of stove, it seems to suit you perfectly. We are expecting freezing rain here where I live in Ontario, Canada, so a nice wood stove would be wonderful, but we don't have one, so I may turn on my gas fireplace...definitely not the same though. Thank you for sharing...take really good care, stay well, stay safe. 💖
(another Kavanagh - this one from NZ) Good Man Richard - I love your stove. - I had this year's $1,000. worth of "old man pine" delivered onto my front garden about a month ago to dry in the wind & sun for next winter's use in my lounge log-burner. You can't beat the feeling of 'security' knowing no matter what occurs you'll be warm & OK to cook stuff.- Cheers & Thanks for sharing.
@@denniskavanagh3075 GDay from the Hurunui - I was a Londoner (Kilburn) but came to NZ in 1976. - Dad was from Co. Wicklow one of 12 siblings I think. martykilburnpom@gmail.com
Just a suggestion, fill cracks with fire brick cement, from £4 (wickes) upwards, I used to press a layer into the surface of all the bricks, slows the deterioration, extends the useful life. 7 years with a Petit Godin.
Very nice Richard, unfortunately where I live (Seattle) these are illegal. When I was a youth in a small village called Roade just outside Northampton UK the house I lived in had an Aga and I loved that beast. I now cook on electric coil and it's just meh. It works but there's no soul. You're a lucky man.
Hi Paul, only just found Richards vlogs! By strange coincidence, I live in an old cottage near the church in Ashton near Roade , we have an AGA cooker in our kitchen.. actually it’s the second one here as the original when we moved here over thirty years ago was run on solid fuel. We now have gas in the village so we changed to a gas one when we had gas installed. Much cleaner and easier to manage.
Awesome vlog ... that meal looked so tasty too !!! An old friend had one in her cottage. It was connected up to 3 long radiators and from start up, those radiators took 7hrs to warm up... it was never off all winter for that reason lol .. very nice though
Hi Richard had one for 6 years mines bit battered but great bit of kit ,as you have the grates use eco coal (6~8 pieces) over night with all dampers closed then ready to go next morining bit of kindle boom.
I'm moving home in early January 2021 and the new house has a solid fuel burning range, not Esse, but similar (made by Waterford Stanley). It will take wood, coal and peat (turf, as they say in the west of Ireland where I live, and that will be the main fuel used in the range). I have found your short series on using your Esse very informative, as I have only cooked with gas and electricity previously. However, if you could consider a short video on how you cook with the range, in terms of setting oven temperatures and controlling hob heat for simmering food it would be very helpful. Merry Christmas from County Kerry. Stephen Power
Lovely to see your Esse Ironheart update two years on. I think you seem to love it more than you did last year! Maybe you have become used to its ways and habits and it has become a routine which now is normal - or maybe you just love life more in general ! !
How lovely, it looks great and I bet it gives a really cosy feel to your kitchen! I remember watching your videos when you were setting this up and the obstacles you had to overcome! I'm glad its worked out for you. You said the wood can be expensive...do you find it more economical than using a gas or electric stove? Freshly baked home made bread! Sounds divine! Oh and thankyou for releasing your Naked Englishman podcasts...im enjoying listening to those and working my way through.
Hi Gina - I think I will really know how economical the wood stove is when my youngest son and girlfriend have left home next year. They have the electric fires on and immersion heater on rather too frequently for me to judge.
The esse looks even better now after a year of TLC! We grew up wth a 1950s aga, which died about ten years ago. It's still in situ and so what I would love to do is finally replace it with an esse..the glass front and size have won me over! I'm just waiting for that windfall to make it all possible....!
What about on Sundays with your weekly chat you could add a little segment where you cook something new every week on your Esse? Or alternatively, a new show once a week. 'Cooking with Vobes' perhaps?
I used to polish my woodburner with a tube of that stuff in a previous life (when married). I loved it, could stare into the flames all evening. Now I have an electric imitation woodburner which is really a glorified fan heater featuring plastic logs....ah well...the world keeps on turning and things keep changing.
could be fun to get one of those pulley maid drying racks for your clothesdrying. Not sure if it would be that useful with your ceiling height, but definately fun and stylish
Love your videos Richard we are thinking of installing an Esse in our welsh cottage we have our own supply of wood .My only concern is that the Esse might be a bit to powerful for my kitchen which is 6.50 m x 4.30 . Your kitchen doesnt look too large is the heat output to much ?
Clinker = creosote? Wood is relatively cheap in the US. We used to get cut-up logs delivered free from the tree cutters in the spring. We heated the house with a giant wood stove. I miss that since we moved.
OFF THE BORDER..... A trek of such enormity in winter time was brave And not the way of lesser human beings to behave Bald exploration done indoors is quite another thing The merits of an Esse have a somewhat different ring! JB20
I’d rather have a real fire to watch than a tv but the glass is missing from the fire in the new house and I haven’t got a clue how to have it replaced at a reasonable price. I suppose at some point it will get done after unpacking 🥵
b - if it helps we recently replaced the glass in our stove. We googled the model of our stove and ordered online and it came with some replacement fire rope as well which is also worth changing. Process of changing seemed daunting at first but was surprisingly easy. Came to about £45 including p&p which was very reasonable.
I'm considering purchasing one of these for Australian conditions. No power, no heat at my property. I thought it was a good choice but it's AUD$12k here.... Mother Firetruckers....
@@RichardVobes Yeah. It's on the boat to Australia right now ETA Mid July 2022. The 12k includes delivery, parts and installation. Considering the Global problems now I think it was wise to bed it down financially before the world goes to hell in a handbag. It included the wet back components. I'll appreciate your comments Mate.
Of course, if Boris has his way, all our coal fires, gas stoves, Esses and Aga-Rayburns will be outlawed before too long...I'm still trying to work out how electricity generation can genuinely be a cleaner source of fuel when our wind, solar and tidal generation remains so pathetically small, and the production of components/batteries etc is still so ecologically unsound...I'd have thought that in the UK tidal/water power might be the most efficient and invisible form of production, (wind is all well and good, albeit visually polluting - but like solar it's relatively cheap, hence some take up) - and whatever happened to watermills, barriers, sluices and dams? Our total energy derived from renewable sources is less than 10% of our needs, and yet experts reckon we have the potential to not only supply all our own needs, but up to 50% of Europe's too if we ever wanted to export it? Sounds just the sort of thing that might be useful and fruitful in the not-too-distant future, but requires long-term investment...hence the big no-no. I expect when it's all far too late it'll be franchised off to private investment...these things usually are, (or am I just being far too cynical?)...in the meantime just watch the politicians squirm around trying to remove our appliances and find inexpensive (bitter laugh) replacements....
The things is, I bet all these rich politicians have lovely country ranges with big log piles and cosy fire places in their mansions. I think the cracks are slowly appearing in all these ridiculous policies. I don't know how they can continue to peddle the nonsense for too much longer. After Covid, the public will be wiser to lies governments spout - when the facts come out.
2020 VISION (verse 1 of 5) With Parliament incapable and Boris in a spin One wonders how a thicker wedge will come from one so thin There'll need to be protracted skill and effort otherwise Quite how from Brexit ashes will the Phoenix ever rise? JB19
Thanks Richard, I'm on the brink of buying one of these, this was very helpful! 😊
There’s nothing like the comforting feeling of a real fire 🔥 glowing and flickering away, we are all drawn to it in some primeval way. Another comforting thing is a lovely big pile of logs!
I love both my fire and my log pile. It makes me feel human.
I was always fascinated with my grand-parents' wood stove, it seemed to make the kitchen cozier and friendlier somehow. Your stove seems to fit your personality to a tee!
I love the Esse - and way of cooking - thank you.
Years back l lived in a cottage in the Stafforshire village of Yoxall. I had a similar cooker called an Aga. I burnt wood and coal on it and it also kept the kitchen warm. Baked spuds have never tasted as good as those cooked in that oven.
@@RichardVobes Hey Richard, me and my wife are about to buy a house that has an Esse Cat in the kitchen. Im doing my homework on the stove and am pretty excited. Im just wondering, what would you say makes the Esse way of cooking different from cooking on a regular gas/electric range?
Your kitchen is a dream come true. Fabulous. As usual you had me enthralled. Thank you.
I am so pleased. :)
I have wondered about such stoves. Thanks so much. God bless you all.
Thanks so much - glad you enjoyed the video.
Also a good place to dry seeds , defrost things from the freezer or dry out just washed filters thanks Richard for a charming video
We only recently watched your installation video and here it is 2 yrs. later. Wow! You've done a tremendous job of keeping it well oiled and just looking superb. It's the heart of your cozy kitchen and I love it! Wish I had one. I do have a barrel stove in my man cave (garage) and I spend a lot of time out there just staring into the fire as I tool around. I'm a carpenter by trade. Thanks for another great video!
A man has to have his cave!
Your video brought back childhood memories. My parents house in Felpham had no central heating. Only a coal fire in the lounge and a Rayburn in the kitchen which provided hot water and enabled my mother to do her cooking. In the winter the condensation on the bedroom windows would freeze. Part of my paper round was along the seafront. Nice in the summer but not in the winter if wet and windy. This is beginning to sound like a Monty Python sketch. I am enjoying your border walk which will soon be approaching familiar territory.
Yes...I recall the days before we put central heating in, when in winter we often used to have ice on the inside of our bedroom windows!
I still do not have central heating and I feel healthier because of it.
Love your Esse you clearly enjoy the whole process. As you say it's a ritual,I grew up with a solid fuel range in our farmhouse kitchen. Have lovely memories of all the family gathering around the range. It's a thing of beauty .Would love to own one...
A great feature in the kitchen. I love my wood burning stove. While there is no temperature regulator every time I cook on it the results are never short of perfect. And the heat is so much nicer than radiators.
Oh, Andrew, we agree on many things, but this we agree on so much. I love my wood burning stove.
This is a great video. Very informative. Thank you for sharing!
Your stove is beautiful!
Glad it was helpful! I love my Esse.
They're fantastic stoves - my sister-in-law has a single one in her kitchen in Buxton - it's always lovely to see and throws out deep warming heat
I nearly bought the single one - either are objects of beauty.
The stove is much easier to clean when still hot, I learned this by watching a japanese chef. With just a wet rag, no cleaning chemicals to avoid fumes, the spills and stains wipe off easily as the water from the rag bubbles on the surface easily removing the stains.
Great video! Ive had my Ironheart since 2013 and im infatuated with it. I fire it up in october and keep it going until april or may. I pull the wishbone about every 3 months and vac it out. It is without a doubt the best money ive ever spent. I use the top for cooking and i bake in it often. Ha my friends never bring it up anymore because they know from experience that im going to run my mouth bragging it up. Its the best thing since sliced bread!!!!!!
I couldn't agree more - thanks for sharing your love for your Esse.
Great stuff, fond memories of when I was a kid and when we lived at Forest Grange school - we had a Rayburn and two open fires - wood was plentiful then though as it was just after the great storm!
I wish it was plentiful now! :) Thanks, Matt!
Your love for the Esse is astounding
Thanks for this Richard, I remember that my grandmother had a cast iron kitchener for heating and cooking which was probably the early version of your Esse Ironheart.
Lucky her - I bet she loved it.
Great video, Cheers!
Great videos and great page! Keep up the good work
Superb mate. Love it. 💪💪. Now get your coat on and go for a tab 😎👍
Great video. Trip down Memory lane for me. My mother had a Range when I was a very young child and she used to polish it with a black substance too.
Happy memories, then. :)
Had one growing up. Very cosy kitchen by the time I got there. :)
I loved this video Richard. I'm always fascinated by the stoves in the UK, I think they make a kitchen so much more cozy and purposeful as well. We always hear about the Aga's, so it was nice to hear of another make of stove, it seems to suit you perfectly. We are expecting freezing rain here where I live in Ontario, Canada, so a nice wood stove would be wonderful, but we don't have one, so I may turn on my gas fireplace...definitely not the same though. Thank you for sharing...take really good care, stay well, stay safe. 💖
I have to say there is something very primeval about a woodburning stove.
I love them! My grandmother had one and food tasted much better, especially bread! Makes the kitchen very cosy.
I love making bread with my Esse.
Great video! Really enjoyed it. Greetings from Belgium!
Thank you very much!
(another Kavanagh - this one from NZ) Good Man Richard - I love your stove. - I had this year's $1,000. worth of "old man pine" delivered onto my front garden about a month ago to dry in the wind & sun for next winter's use in my lounge log-burner. You can't beat the feeling of 'security' knowing no matter what occurs you'll be warm & OK to cook stuff.- Cheers & Thanks for sharing.
I love see the wood sitting in the garden ready to burn for the same reason.
Hello Martin, this Kavanagh from London but currently in Hong Kong.
@@denniskavanagh3075 GDay from the Hurunui - I was a Londoner (Kilburn) but came to NZ in 1976. - Dad was from Co. Wicklow one of 12 siblings I think. martykilburnpom@gmail.com
Just a suggestion, fill cracks with fire brick cement, from £4 (wickes) upwards, I used to press a layer into the surface of all the bricks, slows the deterioration, extends the useful life. 7 years with a Petit Godin.
Wow! What a lovely tip - thanks so much for that.
Very nice Richard, unfortunately where I live (Seattle) these are illegal. When I was a youth in a small village called Roade just outside Northampton UK the house I lived in had an Aga and I loved that beast. I now cook on electric coil and it's just meh. It works but there's no soul. You're a lucky man.
I feel your pain - what a shame it is illegal.
Hi Paul, only just found Richards vlogs! By strange coincidence, I live in an old cottage near the church in Ashton near Roade , we have an AGA cooker in our kitchen.. actually it’s the second one here as the original when we moved here over thirty years ago was run on solid fuel. We now have gas in the village so we changed to a gas one when we had gas installed. Much cleaner and easier to manage.
@@RichardVobes Just a note: only uncertified wood stoves are illegal in Washington, unless they are your main source of heat.
Awesome vlog ... that meal looked so tasty too !!! An old friend had one in her cottage. It was connected up to 3 long radiators and from start up, those radiators took 7hrs to warm up... it was never off all winter for that reason lol .. very nice though
I haven't connected radiators to mine, but who knows, one day!
The link in the description for cooking on the Esse goes to cleaning the Esse. Enjoyed both the both videos.
I just noticed that - all fixed now - thanks.
Hi Richard had one for 6 years mines bit battered but great bit of kit ,as you have the grates use eco coal (6~8 pieces) over night with all dampers closed then ready to go next morining bit of kindle boom.
I will have to look into that eco-coal - thanks for the tip.
Lovely stove Richard
I'm moving home in early January 2021 and the new house has a solid fuel burning range, not Esse, but similar (made by Waterford Stanley). It will take wood, coal and peat (turf, as they say in the west of Ireland where I live, and that will be the main fuel used in the range). I have found your short series on using your Esse very informative, as I have only cooked with gas and electricity previously. However, if you could consider a short video on how you cook with the range, in terms of setting oven temperatures and controlling hob heat for simmering food it would be very helpful. Merry Christmas from County Kerry. Stephen Power
Lovely to see your Esse Ironheart update two years on. I think you seem to love it more than you did last year! Maybe you have become used to its ways and habits and it has become a routine which now is normal - or maybe you just love life more in general ! !
I have certainly got more use to it - but loving life too.
How lovely, it looks great and I bet it gives a really cosy feel to your kitchen! I remember watching your videos when you were setting this up and the obstacles you had to overcome! I'm glad its worked out for you. You said the wood can be expensive...do you find it more economical than using a gas or electric stove? Freshly baked home made bread! Sounds divine! Oh and thankyou for releasing your Naked Englishman podcasts...im enjoying listening to those and working my way through.
Hi Gina - I think I will really know how economical the wood stove is when my youngest son and girlfriend have left home next year. They have the electric fires on and immersion heater on rather too frequently for me to judge.
@@RichardVobes Well so long as you prefer it thats what really counts! Bet its cosy though!
The esse looks even better now after a year of TLC! We grew up wth a 1950s aga, which died about ten years ago. It's still in situ and so what I would love to do is finally replace it with an esse..the glass front and size have won me over! I'm just waiting for that windfall to make it all possible....!
I do love my esse - seeming the fire within warms my inner heart.
@@RichardVobes I know how you feel!
Watching from Australia... I am thinking of buying a wood Stove..
It’s like a wood powered AGA stove! Nice
A lot of criticism on forums with the enamel tops is flaking and easy chipping of the enamel.
I don't have the enamel for that reason.
Very interesting thank you
What about on Sundays with your weekly chat you could add a little segment where you cook something new every week on your Esse? Or alternatively, a new show once a week. 'Cooking with Vobes' perhaps?
I certainly do what to experiment with my Esse cooking - so I think a few shows on wet weather days will be good.
Yes , make Mac n Cheese 🫕 please!
I used to polish my woodburner with a tube of that stuff in a previous life (when married). I loved it, could stare into the flames all evening.
Now I have an electric imitation woodburner which is really a glorified fan heater featuring plastic logs....ah well...the world keeps on turning and things keep changing.
I love staring into the flames myself, Jackie.
could be fun to get one of those pulley maid drying racks for your clothesdrying. Not sure if it would be that useful with your ceiling height, but definately fun and stylish
Love your videos Richard we are thinking of installing an Esse in our welsh cottage we have our own supply of wood .My only concern is that the Esse might be a bit to powerful for my kitchen which is 6.50 m x 4.30 . Your kitchen doesnt look too large is the heat output to much ?
Thanks for your video! What do you take for the surface? Ours is anthracite…
Clinker = creosote?
Wood is relatively cheap in the US. We used to get cut-up logs delivered free from the tree cutters in the spring. We heated the house with a giant wood stove. I miss that since we moved.
I wish wood was cheaper here.
@@RichardVobes I feel for you. Bad policies eventually work their way down to mundane things like firewood.
You should grow a couple of trees in the backyard for the firewood.
Hi, might you link me to your water heater design? Thanks! Ta.
Like Esse stove food must taste nice In oven good piece dry wood cost every so often keep it clean last year's stove polish old fashion
Yes, thank you
Was it new, are they still making them
Stovax also do fire cement.
and now the million dollar question; HOW DO WE KEEP THE ESSE CLEAN? Details please! Thanks
Wipe with a damp rag when cold - and don't worry about it being spotless.
A lovely stove let me know if you ever want to sell..regards from exmoor🌳
We want one on our boat 😀
You can get smaller ones!
Would love one but they are around £5k now.
Beautiful
Does the water boiler come as standard or did you fit it yourself?
I fitted myself, but you can order a fitted version.
OFF THE BORDER.....
A trek of such enormity
in winter time was brave
And not the way of lesser
human beings to behave
Bald exploration done indoors
is quite another thing
The merits of an Esse
have a somewhat different ring! JB20
John Byrne: Love it!
On those wet days, one has to find something else to explore, it is true!
Mr BT. With thanks... Currently stuck in lines of 14 syllables (8-6), a meter that is proving difficult to banish from the mind.....
I’d rather have a real fire to watch than a tv but the glass is missing from the fire in the new house and I haven’t got a clue how to have it replaced at a reasonable price.
I suppose at some point it will get done after unpacking 🥵
Good luck with the unpacking.
b - if it helps we recently replaced the glass in our stove. We googled the model of our stove and ordered online and it came with some replacement fire rope as well which is also worth changing. Process of changing seemed daunting at first but was surprisingly easy. Came to about £45 including p&p which was very reasonable.
I'm considering purchasing one of these for Australian conditions. No power, no heat at my property. I thought it was a good choice but it's AUD$12k here.... Mother Firetruckers....
Blimey! That's a lot!
@@RichardVobes Yeah. It's on the boat to Australia right now ETA Mid July 2022. The 12k includes delivery, parts and installation. Considering the Global problems now I think it was wise to bed it down financially before the world goes to hell in a handbag. It included the wet back components. I'll appreciate your comments Mate.
Use grape seed oil
Wonderful Richard, but please use gloves because your skin will absorb some of those chemicals 😊
Thanks for the tip
I have never understood why people don’t have the pipes and electricity cables etched into the walls. It’s just untidy as it is here.
Not impressed that the firebricks last only 3yeas my wood burner has lasted 7 and they still look ok
Of course, if Boris has his way, all our coal fires, gas stoves, Esses and Aga-Rayburns will be outlawed before too long...I'm still trying to work out how electricity generation can genuinely be a cleaner source of fuel when our wind, solar and tidal generation remains so pathetically small, and the production of components/batteries etc is still so ecologically unsound...I'd have thought that in the UK tidal/water power might be the most efficient and invisible form of production, (wind is all well and good, albeit visually polluting - but like solar it's relatively cheap, hence some take up) - and whatever happened to watermills, barriers, sluices and dams?
Our total energy derived from renewable sources is less than 10% of our needs, and yet experts reckon we have the potential to not only supply all our own needs, but up to 50% of Europe's too if we ever wanted to export it? Sounds just the sort of thing that might be useful and fruitful in the not-too-distant future, but requires long-term investment...hence the big no-no. I expect when it's all far too late it'll be franchised off to private investment...these things usually are, (or am I just being far too cynical?)...in the meantime just watch the politicians squirm around trying to remove our appliances and find inexpensive (bitter laugh) replacements....
The things is, I bet all these rich politicians have lovely country ranges with big log piles and cosy fire places in their mansions. I think the cracks are slowly appearing in all these ridiculous policies. I don't know how they can continue to peddle the nonsense for too much longer. After Covid, the public will be wiser to lies governments spout - when the facts come out.
2020 VISION (verse 1 of 5)
With Parliament incapable
and Boris in a spin
One wonders how a thicker wedge
will come from one so thin
There'll need to be protracted skill
and effort otherwise
Quite how from Brexit ashes
will the Phoenix ever rise? JB19
Let's hope so!
Harry Hill isn't as funny as he used to be
no cool oven for sickly lambs