Villager A Flat / AL / AH

Based On 7 Reviews

Heat Output: 14kw Flue Diameter: 150mm (6") Fuel Type: Woodburning Stove Material: Steel Flue Exit Options: Top or Rear Height: 595mm/804mm/934mm Width: 585mm/747mm Depth: 585mm/747mm

Villager A Flat / AL / AH

Villager A Flat / AL / AH Stove Review

The Villager A Range – the largest stoves in the wood burning range and incorporates primary and secondary air vents and an ‘airwash’ system to help keep the glass clean.

Villager A Flat / AL / AH, 9.0 out of 10 based on 7 ratings

7 Reviews to “Villager A Flat / AL / AH”

  1. Gareth Owen

    June 7th, 2011
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    We took this stove to our cottage in France(could not find any boiler stoves there!). It supplies 3 X 60 double and 2 X 100 double radiators. The stove itself is situated slightly out of an old inglenook type fireplace and therefore it warms the air all around it, it seems quite efficient. We only have logs to burn and the best way I have found to use the stove is to fill it with small pieces of wood to get it all going quickly and once the water is hot I switch on the pump. Later I put larger logs to maintain the temperature. It is quite easy to control the air input and last thing at night after filling the stove with logs I close the vents and the fire stays in all night.

  2. C Yeo

    June 8th, 2011
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    This is the second Villager stove I have purchased both have heated all the radiators,supplied all the hot water and kept my living room beautifully warm just by burning logs. Its easy to keep in overnight and there are instant flames and heat when re-opening the vents in the morning.

  3. S Dolley

    June 12th, 2011
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    This is our 4th villager stove.I really cannot fault it. Easy to install, superb and simple to control with top and bottom air vents and flue damper. (My one complaint, this is no longer supplied as standard) Also very easy to light and keep in overnight.

  4. John

    September 29th, 2011
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    Bought the ALI 45,000btu integral boiler version for our holiday home in France that has been sold. Used it for 2 winters.

    It heated a large detatched stone house with 11 radiators. The radiator output of the 11 radiators was 12.6kw. We only used wood. This was our first villager boiler stove. Had our first villager in 1990. Took around 1 hour to heat all the rads to a reasonably hot temperature. We had a blazing fire going for the first hour.
    It was fantastic. Kept in overnight on three large logs everytime. I let them burn for 15 minutes then shut the vents and tightened the vent nuts up and then closed the damper about 85% closed. If very windy fully closed. It is trial and error as every chimney draws differently.

    It would slumber overnight for 8-9 hours+ Come down to it and it would look dead, open up the damper and vents and 10 minutes later would ignite itself like a gas fire. Simply brilliant!!

    We used between 15 and 20 cubic metres of mostly softwood. Lit for 7 months of the year. Late september to mid April. Every rad was on full and heated the place very well. We used to pay 20-35 euro a cubic metre ready seasoned and cut to size. I prefer the hexagon shaped control knobs as you can tighten them up with the tool. Its a shame villager changed them to round.

  5. stephen meadows

    November 19th, 2011
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    this is my second villager flat top 14kw. i bought this one based on the very positive 10 years i had with the first one . if your chimney flue has a strong draw then you must purchase the damper (about £60)or you will burn too much fuel without the heat benefits . the new fire is a cheaper build quality , i feel, than the first one .maybe to save build costs ? but it is equal in all respects to the heat output and i believe that having a stove that has a greater output enables it to run at a gentler pace . this saves burning out a smaller stove to achieve a steady heat . the heat controls are ,i’m sure, affected by the prevailing conditions and take some fiddling to achieve the right balance . i’d say the damper is a must in most cases and i recall having this supplied as standard in my first purchase . i have no real critcism and received great service at a good price from firesonline. good heat and very comfortable . we love it

  6. John Halstead

    December 7th, 2012
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    Our Villager was bought about 12 years ago and it’s used daily between October and March each year depending on the weather and it’s been a really good investment. Bear in mind that my comments refer to a stove that was bought 12 years ago and details may have changed in the meantime. We went for a low canopy version because it looks better than the flat one but I don’t know whether it’s still an option.
    I wanted a steel fabricated stove this time after a previous cast one cracked and had to be scrapped. I went against the advice of some stove suppliers who said the Villager A would be too much for our sitting room (67 cu metres) but we have a big fireplace and I wanted one that looked right. I’m pleased I went for the A because it looks in proportion, it’s very controllable and it doesn’t overheat the room at all. Once it’s going the air can be cut right down and the room temperature stays at a comfortable level, if we keep the room door open the stove can be turned up and it warms the other rooms by convection. There’s a chimney damper fitted but I always leave it open and control the airflow with the sliders in the doors, which can be screwed up to completely cut off the air if required. The precise and simple air controls are a great feature of the stove.
    It lights very easily especially if the doors are left ajar for a few minutes. That’s useful because after a weekend away and then coming back to a cold house it starts to warm up quickly. Another advantage of the A is that it takes big logs so there’s less cutting to do for a given amount of wood. We don’t usually leave it going overnight because it’s so easy to light next day.
    A nice accessory we went for is a snug fitting spark guard, I know it’s less efficient, but burning with the doors open is really delightful and we do that sometimes for a change.
    A couple of improvement would help: 1) It really needs adjustable feet, our york stone hearth is a bit uneven and getting all four feet to share the weight is tricky. 2) I’d like to see better location for the cast log retainer because I had to fit a couple of small steel pegs to stop it tipping, I wrote to Villager and sent photos but they didn’t seem interested.
    We keep our cut logs for two years and they are nice and dry by the time they’re used, so with minimal smoke and the airwash, the glasses stay quite clean. A light rub with some ash on a damp cloth once a week when we empty out the ashes usually does the trick. I notice that other reviewers mark down the airwash and on the odd occasion I’ve put damp logs on there is slight glass smoking, so maybe it can’t cope too well with smokey logs.
    My experience is that the biggest stove that looks right in the room is the best criterion, but whatever make you go for make sure the air supply controls are effective, and don’t forget to make sure you have a good supply of logs available, so many woodburners are now being fitted that in some areas logs are becoming scarce and expensive. A dual fuel grate and coal is probably an answer to log shortage, but don’t go for that if you have a good log supply, because logs are best burned on a bed of ash.
    Overall we’re very pleased with it and our next house renovation project will probably include a large Villager woodburner.

  7. John Halstead

    December 12th, 2012
    Overall Stove Rating
    Build Quality
    Finish Quality
    Ease Of Use
    Ease Of Ignition
    Controllability
    Refuelling Time
    Performance Of Airwash
    Quality Of Door Lock/Handle
    Ease Of Ash Removal
    Recommend To A Friend?

    Our Villager was bought about 12 years ago and it’s used daily between October and March each year depending on the weather and it’s been a really good investment. Bear in mind that my comments refer to a stove that was bought 12 years ago and details may have changed in the meantime. We went for a low canopy version because it looks better than the flat one but I don’t know whether it’s still an option.
    I wanted a steel fabricated stove this time after a previous cast one cracked and had to be scrapped. I went against the advice of some stove suppliers who said the Villager A would be too much for our sitting room (67 cu metres) but we have a big fireplace and I wanted one that looked right. I’m pleased I went for the A because it looks in proportion, it’s very controllable and it doesn’t overheat the room at all. Once it’s going the air can be cut right down and the room temperature stays at a comfortable level, if we keep the room door open the stove can be turned up and it warms the other rooms by convection. There’s a chimney damper fitted but I always leave it open and control the airflow with the sliders in the doors, which can be screwed up to completely cut off the air if required. The precise and simple air controls are a great feature of the stove.
    It lights very easily especially if the doors are left ajar for a few minutes. That’s useful because after a weekend away and then coming back to a cold house it starts to warm up quickly. Another advantage of the A is that it takes big logs so there’s less cutting to do for a given amount of wood. We don’t usually leave it going overnight because it’s so easy to light next day.
    A nice accessory we went for is a snug fitting spark guard, I know it’s less efficient, but burning with the doors open is really delightful and we do that sometimes for a change.
    A couple of improvement would help: 1) It really needs adjustable feet, our york stone hearth is a bit uneven and getting all four feet to share the weight is tricky. 2) I’d like to see better location for the cast log retainer because I had to fit a couple of small steel pegs to stop it tipping, I wrote to Villager and sent photos but they didn’t seem interested.
    We keep our cut logs for two years and they are nice and dry by the time they’re used, so with minimal smoke and the airwash, the glasses stay quite clean. A light rub with some ash on a damp cloth once a week when we empty out the ashes usually does the trick. I notice that other reviewers mark down the airwash and on the odd occasion I’ve put damp logs on there is slight glass smoking, so maybe it can’t cope too well with smokey logs.
    My experience is that the biggest stove that looks right in the room is the best criterion, but whatever make you go for make sure the air supply controls are effective, and don’t forget to make sure you have a good supply of logs available, so many woodburners are now being fitted that in some areas logs are becoming scarce and expensive. A dual fuel grate and coal is probably an answer to log shortage, but don’t go for that if you have a good log supply, because logs are best burned on a bed of ash.
    My next house renovation project will probably include a large Villager woodburner.

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Overall Stove Rating
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Ease Of Ash Removal
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