The fire you are looking at will still be going on a cold July night in twenty years, or it will be in the tip in five. Here is what is different on the inside, and which of those differences you will still care about by then.
A wood heater will sit in your living room for twenty years or more, throwing real heat out into the room from a few centimetres above the floor. Most people pick one on how it looks and what it costs, and spend more time choosing a fridge than their new fireplace. That is not a criticism. It is what happens when nobody will tell you what is inside them, and why it matters.
So that is what this article does. It is the same conversation we have on the showroom floor most days, with the door open and somebody’s hand on the steel, working out what they are actually looking at.
The short version
- Most wood fireplace models sold here are steel, lined with either cast iron or fire bricks.
- A radiant firebox heats what is in front of it. A convection firebox has a shell and a fan, and pushes heat further.
- The parts that wear out are the fire bricks, the baffle plate, the glass seals and the fan.
- Want to see the difference in person? Call Coffs Gas Company on (02) 6652 2411.
Radiant or convection: the first real decision
A radiant heater is the firebox itself, so the steel gets hot and throws heat straight out at whatever is in front of it. A convection heater has a second shell wrapped around that firebox, usually with a fan, so air is drawn between the two skins and pushed out into the room. Radiant for a smaller space you sit close to, convection for a bigger one you need to move heat across.
What a radiant firebox is doing
The box itself is the heater. You cannot touch it while it is going, and everything near it feels the warmth quickly. In a smaller lounge room with the couch a couple of metres away, that is exactly what you want. It is also the simplest heater in the range, because there is no outer shell and usually no fan, which means there is very little on it that can fail.
What the shell on a convection heater changes
Wrap a second skin around the firebox and you create a gap. Air moves through that gap, picks up the heat and comes out the top, and a fan pushes it further into the room. The outer shell also runs cooler, which matters if you have small kids or a tight spot.
Which one suits a big open plan Coffs home
The bigger and more open the area, the more you want convection, because the fan is doing the work of moving heat down a hallway or across a kitchen and dining space that radiant heat alone will not reach. That is the newer open plan builds out towards Sapphire and Moonee, and plenty of the older places closer in, which were often built bigger than what goes up today. It is the size of the space that decides it, not the age of the house. More information can be found on our wood fireplaces and heaters page, and we have both types on the showroom floor.
What is inside the firebox
Almost every wood heater sold in Australia is built from steel plate, then lined on the inside with either cast iron or fire bricks. You can still buy a heater cast in iron the whole way through, and they are beautiful things, but only a handful of models are sold in Australia. Almost everything you will see on a showroom floor here is a steel box.
The steel, and the number worth asking about
The number to ask for is the thickness of the steel. A firebox is plate steel folded and welded into a box, and the thicker that plate is, the better it holds its shape through years of being heated up and cooled down. The brands we stock publish the figure. Blaze lists 6mm steel across its freestanding range. Masport publishes a 6mm firebox on the Auburn models, with an 8mm cooktop on the Redwood and Riverstone. If a brand will not tell you the thickness, that tells you something on its own.
Cast iron liners or fire bricks, and why models differ
Inside the steel box you will finRadiant or convection, steel or cast iron: what a wood heater is built from, and what wears out first.d one or the other, and on some models a bit of both. Cast iron liners hold heat and radiate it back into the fire, which helps the burn. Fire bricks do a similar job more cheaply and are easier to replace. Neither is wrong. Coonara uses a cast iron lined box with firebricks in the base, while Nectre publishes 40mm thick firebricks across most of its range.
The baffle plate, which does more than people realise
The baffle is the plate across the top of the firebox. It holds the heat and the gases in the box longer instead of letting them shoot straight up the flue, which is most of the reason a modern slow combustion fireplace burns so much cleaner than an open fire. On some models it is a serious piece of engineering. The Jindara Tilga uses a three layer baffle system, an 8mm steel plate over a ceramic fibre blanket over silica board.
Why fire bricks crack, and why it is usually not a fault
They crack because somebody threw the wood in rather than placed it. Fire bricks are there to take the punishment so the firebox does not, and a cracked brick is doing its job. They are a wear part and they are cheap to replace. A cracked firebox is a different story entirely.
The paint on a new wood heater is not baked until you bake it
Most heaters leave the factory painted in a high temperature paint that has not been cured, and you cure it yourself by running the first few fires small. It is the thing new owners are never told, and it causes more phone calls in the first fortnight than anything else we sell.
Run a small fire, let it go out, let the whole thing cool down, then do it again a couple of times before you load it up properly. That process bakes the paint on. If you skip it and run a big fire on the first night, the paint smells, it can smoke, and the finish will not be what it should have been. Do it properly and you never think about it again.
What fails first, and why the warranty tells you before you buy
Fire bricks crack, baffle plates burn out over years of use, fans give up after a few years, and glass seals go hard and stop sealing. The firebox itself, if it is a good one, mostly just keeps going. We have units out there that have run for thirty years without a problem.
Here is the part nobody points out. The manufacturers already agree with that list, and they publish it. Look at what the warranties cover and, more importantly, what they exclude.
| Brand | Firebox warranty | What is excluded or shorter |
|---|---|---|
| Jindara | 10 years | Paint 12 months. All other components 12 months, excluding glass, firebrick lining or baffle plate damaged by impact |
| Coonara | 10 years on the firebox, excluding baffles and liners | All other components 12 months |
| Nectre | 10 years on the integrity of the firebox | Firebricks, baffle plates, brick retainers, door glass, door and glass seals |
| Masport | 10 years on the firebox | 1 year on all internal fire parts |
Every one of them warrants the box for ten years and carves out the bricks, the baffle and the glass. That is a manufacturer telling you, in writing, which parts are consumables. Read a warranty that way and it stops being fine print and starts being a parts list.
It also tells you something useful about the brand. A firebox warranty is a statement about the steel. Ten years is the standard among the brands we stock, and if you are looking at something offering less than that, ask why.
What buying on price actually costs you
Every few years a heater appears at a price that looks too good to ignore, and plenty of people quite reasonably take it. The trouble is that a firebox built down to a price does not look any different on a showroom floor. The box looks like a box, the door shuts, the glass is clean.
Where it shows up is year two and beyond. Thinner plate moves out of shape, liners fail early, and parts become hard to get once a model has been discontinued. We have pulled enough of them out and replaced them to know the pattern. Those customers were not careless either. They simply had nothing to compare, because nobody had told them what to look at.
What to ask before you buy on price
Ask the plate thickness of the firebox. Ask what the liners are and what it costs to replace them. Ask how long the firebox is warranted for, and what the warranty excludes. Ask whether anyone locally can get parts for it in five years. Four questions, and they will tell you more than the price tag will.
Which of these brands is Australian made
Two of the brands we stock are both Australian made and Australian owned, two more are made here under overseas ownership, and one is Canadian. Worth being straight about, because “Australian” gets used loosely and where a heater is built decides how fast you get parts for it in eight years.
- **Coonara and Jindara are both Australian made and Australian owned.** Jindara publishes “100% Australian made and owned” and builds in Ararat, Victoria. Coonara has been manufacturing here for over 45 years.
- **Nectre is Australian made** in Dry Creek, South Australia, though the parent company is not Australian owned.
- Masport manufactures its steel fireboxes in Australia, with several models certified Australian Made, and also has a long New Zealand manufacturing history.
- Blaze is Australian designed for Australian conditions rather than Australian made.
- **Regency is made in Canada** and has been for over 40 years, which is not a mark against it. Canada knows a thing or two about cold.
None of that makes a heater good or bad on its own. It matters because it tells you where the parts come from and how long you will wait for them. If origin is a deciding factor for you, ask us about the specific model you are looking at rather than the brand, because it varies model by model within some ranges.
Weight, and whether your floor can take it
A woodfire heater is heavier than people expect. The brands we stock publish weights from around 90 kilos for the smallest models to roughly 250 for the largest, and the bigger inbuilt units can push past that before you have put a single log in.
On a concrete slab that is nobody’s problem. On a timber floor over joists it can be, and it is one of the things we check on site before we quote rather than on the day of the install. If the floor needs it, we block out and brace underneath before the heater goes anywhere near it. The newer floating slab designs need the engineering to be right too.
That check is built into the installation, not an extra. It is also why we would rather look at the room before we give you a number.
What the law requires of a wood heater sold in NSW
Every new solid fuel heater sold in this state has to clear two bars, and they are higher than most people assume. NSW EPA regulations require “at least 60 per cent efficiency and no more than 1.5 grams of particle emissions per kilogram of fuel burnt”.
Efficiency is tested to AS/NZS 4012 and emissions to AS/NZS 4013, and the heater carries a compliance plate showing it. If a unit does not meet both, it cannot legally be sold here, so everything on our floor complies as a matter of law rather than as a selling point.
It is worth knowing because it quietly rules out a lot of what gets offered online, and because it is the reason a modern wood burning fireplace is a completely different appliance to the open hearth your grandparents had.
Salt air, the rain cap, and the touch up nobody knows about
The flue itself is stainless, so it is not usually the flue that goes. It is the rain cap on top, and we see far more of them rusted out down here on the coast than we do up at Dorrigo. Salt air is patient.
The heater body is the same story. If dust sits on it and it starts to freckle with rust, that is not the end of the unit. You can sand it back and repaint it with the right high temperature paint, and we do that for people. A twelve year old heater can look close to new again for the cost of an afternoon.
Buying a wood fireplace from Coffs Gas Company
We usually have 30 to 40 woodfire heaters on the floor, which means you can stand in front of a radiant and a convection unit side by side, open the doors, and look at the liners and the baffles yourself rather than reading about them. You can also see which wood fireplace brands we carry before you come in.
We install what we sell and we service and repair it afterwards, so a cracked brick or a tired fan is a phone call rather than a project. We are also one of very few businesses around here that sweeps chimneys and flues, which is worth knowing when you are choosing who to buy from. Family owned here since 1982, and still the same family.
If you are still working out whether wood is even the right call, our guide to choosing between a gas fireplace, a wood fireplace and an electric flame fire is the place to start.
FAQs
Cast iron or steel: which is better?
Neither, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling one of them. This is about the firebox itself rather than the liners inside it. Steel plate is lighter, cheaper to build with and can be welded back together, which is why nearly everything sold here is steel. A cast iron box holds heat longer and looks the part, but it is much heavier and it can crack rather than flex if it is heated and cooled hard, and a cracked casting is not a repair job. Thickness and weld quality will tell you more than the material does.
Is it worth buying a second hand wood heater?
Sometimes, but check two things first. Heaters sold before September 2019 were built to looser emission limits, so an older unit may not meet the current NSW standard even though it was perfectly legal when it was new. Then look at the firebox itself for warping, cracked welds or a baffle that has burned through, because those are the faults that make a cheap heater expensive. Bricks and seals are replaceable and should not put you off.
Why does my new wood heater smell like paint?
Because the paint has not been baked yet, and that is normal. High temperature paint cures with heat, and the factory applies it without curing it. Run two or three small fires, letting the heater cool fully between each one, and it goes for good. Open a window and expect the room to smell for an hour or so each time. If the smell is still there after the third burn, or you get smoke rather than odour, stop and give us a ring, because that is not the paint.
Can a wood heater go on a timber floor?
Yes, in most cases, and it is more common than people assume. What it needs is a non-combustible hearth underneath and a floor structure that will carry the load, which sometimes means blocking out and bracing between the joists first. Neither is a big job when it is planned in. It becomes a big job when a heater turns up on a truck and nobody has looked underneath.
What is a baffle plate, and how do I know it has gone?
It is the plate across the top of the firebox, and it is what keeps the heat and the gases in the box long enough to burn cleanly. When one is failing you tend to notice the fire getting harder to control, more wood going through for less heat, and sometimes visible warping or a hole if you look up into the top of the box. It is a replaceable part, not a reason to replace the heater.
What emissions standard do wood heaters have to meet in NSW?
No more than 1.5 grams of particulate per kilogram of fuel burnt, and at least 60 per cent efficiency. Emissions are tested to AS/NZS 4013 and efficiency to AS/NZS 4012, and compliant heaters carry a plate showing it. Those limits tightened in 2019, so a heater bought second hand or well before then may not meet the current standard even if it was legal when it was sold.
Come and Open a Few Doors in Coffs Harbour
You will learn more in ten minutes with the doors open than in a week of reading spec sheets. Come in, look at the difference between a cast iron liner and a fire brick, feel the weight of a firebox door, and ask us the awkward questions about what wears out.
We will tell you which one suits your room, and we will tell you when the cheaper one is the right answer, because we are the ones who have to come back and service it.
Come and see us at 92 Industrial Drive, North Boambee Valley, call (02) 6652 2411, or send us an enquiry. We look after Coffs Harbour, Scotts Head, Dorrigo, Grafton and everywhere in between.
Written by the team at Coffs Gas Company.
Disclaimer: This article is general information only. Specifications, warranty terms and inclusions vary between brands, models and model years, and are current at the time of writing. Check the manufacturer’s own documentation for your specific appliance, and have any solid fuel appliance installed by a licensed professional to AS/NZS 2918.
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