Being clear about what each term means is therefore invaluable and will help you to come to a final purchasing decision more easily. Many of Alpine stoves for example the 250 cast iron stove, are made to be either log burning or multifuel burners, it is necessary to be clear on which would best for your individual heating needs.

What is a multifuel stove?

A multi-fuel wood burning stove is designed to burn a range of fuels:

• Wooden logs
• Smokeless fuel

This is possible by the central riddling grate and ash pan, or a raised grate that has bars which allows the stove to efficiently burn many types of materials. Unlike wood burning stoves, the fuel bed needs to be de-ashed to help create and manage for the best combustion and the best burning as well. The design of Alpines multifuel stoves includes an ash pan underneath the grate to both collect and enable the safe removal of the ashes that are created during burning times.

Innovations in Alpines stoves design have helped with this burning process and make a quicker, easier and cleaner air wash process. It is worth noting also the improvement that an air inlet makes to efficient combustion as it introduces air from underneath the grate.

What is a wood burning stove?

A wood burning stove runs far more effectively when the fuel is allowed to sit on a bed of ashes. For this reason you will note that a wood stove usually has a fixed grate with a flat base. This ensures that the ashes created when logs are burning are collected in the base of the firebox to allow fresh logs to be placed on top: this greatly assists the combustion process.