You may have enjoyed buying your washing machine, television, vacuum cleaner or toaster online, because most modern electrical appliances are suitable for all properties.

However, it is unlikely you would risk buying a new central heating boiler online, because not all boilers are suitable for all properties. Therefore, you would probably trust the CORGI or Gas Safe registered company who will be installing your new boiler to help you choose the right boiler.

Not all stoves are suitable for all properties. Therefore, you should only trust the HETAS or OFTEC registered company who will be installing your new stove to help you choose the right stove.

Online stove retailers are unlikely to be HETAS or OFTEC registered. They are also unlikely to accept responsibility for allowing you to buy a stove that is too powerful, not powerful enough or even too large to be legally installed in your fireplace (strict Building Regulations apply). Therefore, it is always safer to buy your stove from the same HETAS or OFTEC registered stove company who will be responsible for installing it and by doing so you can save a considerable amount of stress, time and money.

Unlike modern electrical appliances which often only last a few years, high quality wood burning and multi fuel stoves regularly lasts several decades. Therefore, seeking advice from a HETAS or OFTEC registered stove company to help you choose the most suitable stove for your property is a wise investment of your time that you will appreciate for many years to come.

GATFire Ltd is registered with HETAS, OFTEC, SiA, ICO and has been helping people choose their perfect stove for over 20 years.

Online required heat-output calculators fail take into consideration very important factors such as the thermal efficiency of your walls, ceilings, floor, windows, doors, furnishings or room layout, existing heating systems and personal preferences.

Online heat-output calculators often suggesting that people need a far higher output stove than is actually required. This could be because most calculators were produced by online stove retailers and higher-output stoves cost more.

In the stove world big is not always best and is not efficient. Stoves are designed to fully heat the room in which they are located and to subtly increase the ambient temperature in the rest of the property, this is why older properties originally contained several fireplaces. Buying a stove with an unsuitably high output in an attempt to heat the whole property is similar to trying to run ten or more 1 kW fan heaters in a single room. This is not only very expensive but can lead to being unable to remain in the room in which the stove is located because it is uncomfortably hot.

Online retailers do not typically offer refunds on stoves that have been used. Alternatively, if you discover you have bought the wrong stove before it is installed the inconvenience and cost of returning a perfectly package unwanted stove weighing around 150 kg is difficult and very expensive.

GATFire has been helping people choose their perfect output stove for over 20 years and over 80% of our new customers come to us because a previous customer has recommended us.

If you buy a stove online and you do not wish to risk invalidating your home insurance or experience difficulty selling your property in the future you will have to rely on a HETAS or OFTEC registered independent stove installer to install your stove.

However, if something goes wrong during installation or several months later the stove supplier is likely to blame the installer and the installer is likely to blame the stove supplier. This can become a nightmare making it impossible to get a refund from the stove supplier or the installer. The only way to resolve this very common problem is often to pay a reputable stove company to remove your existing stove and then install a more suitable stove.

The safest and most prudent way to buy your stove is always to buy it from the same very experienced HETAS & OFTEC registered stove company who will be responsible for installing it. Choosing one of GATFire's supplied & fully installed Stove Packages can save you a considerable amount of stress, time and money.

Buying a stove online may initially appear a cheaper option, but you will also need to spend around £400 buying all of the stove installation accessories required to install the stove and pay a HETAS or OFTEC registered independent stove installer around £1,000 to install your stove.

Because online stove retailers focus on just selling stoves, to make the online option appear less expensive they can forget to explain that installation can actually cost more than your stove and your installer is very likely to need far more than just one of their cheap "installation kits" (which normally only include a generic stove pipe, register plate, flexible chimney flue liner and rain cowl) to install a stove in compliance with Building Regulations and HETAS & OFTEC rules.

Buying a reasonable quality stove online will cost at around £400, buying all of the stove installation accessories normally required to install a stove will cost around £400 and most HETAS or OFTEC registered independent stove installers will charge at least £1,000 (£400 + £400 + £1,000) = £1,800.

We can supply a choice of high quality EcoDesign DEFRA approved stoves (RRP £799), all of the stove installation accessories normally required to install the stove and provide full installation by one of our teams of HETAS and OFTEC registered engineers for only £999 +vat = £1,198.80.

GATFire offer a selection of over 200 leading brand stoves, but if we do not stock the stove you require because we are one of the UK's largest suppliers & installers of solid fuel burning stoves we can usually supply & install any stove available in the UK or a better stove for considerably less than if you bought your own stove online and paid someone else to install it.

The dramatic increases in gas and electricity prices has unsurprisingly led to a rapid increase in the popularity of solid fuel burning stoves. To cater for this increased demand many new stove companies and independent stove installers have recently set up businesses with little more than a van, a phone number and a website. Unfortunately, 60% of new businesses close within the first three years and over 70% close within five years.

if something goes wrong several months or several years after installation, if your stove company or installer has stopped trading or moved on it is unlikely you will be able to claim on any warranty they provided or on their insurance. Every stove company or stove installer will tell you they have "been in the business for many years" but can they prove it? Before deciding who will supply & install or just install your new stove you should always check:

Are they registered with Companies House and how long has it been trading ? You can check this here.

Are they registered for VAT ? You can check this here.

Do they have their own showrooms or do they rent a small storage unit or accommodation address on an easy in easy out weekly basis?

GATFire is one of the UK's largest suppliers & installers of solid fuel burning stoves, we were established over 20 years ago, our company registration number is 07054359 our VAT registration number is 158416887. We own our showrooms in Essex & Kent and a 7000 square foot storage facility.

If something goes wrong with your stove installation in the future, if your stove company or the installers you used do not have public liability insurance or they have not been able to afford to keep up their monthly instalments, you may have nowhere to turn.

Stove installers Public Liability costs thousands of pounds each year, so many smaller installers pay for this in monthly instalments, but if times get tough they can fail to pay for their insurance instalments meaning they are no longer insured.

Therefore, before selecting a company to supply & install or just install your new stove you should always insist on seeing a copy of their insurance and then contact their insurance company to check if it is still valid.

GATFire's public liability insurance is underwritten by AXA, covers five million pounds per claim and has been paid for in a single premium every year for the last 16 years. You can view our insurance cover in the Insurance link at the bottom of the page or here.

If your stove company asks for a large deposit or stage payments, it could be because they are in financial difficulty and cannot afford to buy your stove or pay the installers before receiving your upfront payment. Over 60% of new businesses fail within three years. If a stove company goes out of business or your stove installation causes damage to your home you could have nowhere to turn. Additionally, paying a large upfront deposit can incentivise a stove company to delay or reschedule your stove installation for weeks or even months.

GATFire normally requires deposits of only £50.

Make sure your stove company and installer provides you with a written quotation which includes a full breakdown of exactly what is included in the price and a copy of their terms & conditions of business. It is important you receive all of this information in writing before you agree to go ahead. This is because unscrupulous companies make sales by providing unbelievably low quotations, then adding extremely costly extras on the day of installation. If your stove company or installer is reluctant to provide such basic written information you should seriously reconsider your choice of stove company or installer.

GATFire always provides written quotations which include a breakdown of exactly what is included in the price, a copy of its terms & conditions of business and written confirmation of your installation date.

Solid fuel stoves tend to last many years so people tend not to change their existing stove unless they move home and most areas have relatively few stove shops. Therefore, many consumers are often very unfamiliar with how much a new stove should actually cost.

Many stove companies take advantage of a lack of customer awareness to increase the profit they make on each stove, rather than selling more stoves at reasonable prices.

Stove companies who do not advertise their prices should be avoided, this is because they rely on a salesperson to “design” your stove installation. This can increase the cost of your new stove by hundreds if not thousands of pounds.

Stove companies who do not advertise supplied & installed prices should be avoided, because after you have selected a stove they rely on a compulsory "site survey" to inflate the cost of installation. This can increase the cost of your new stove by hundreds if not thousands of pounds.

GATFire's prices are completely transparent, all our prices are supplied & installed prices which include the stove of your choice, all of the installation accessories normally required to install a stove and full installation by one of our teams of HETAS & OFTEC registered engineers.

Reviews included on a companies website, review sites, Google and social media are easily manipulated by paying for false reviews and cannot always be relied upon. Stove companies who receive personal recommendations receive them because of the quality of the work they do and the price they charge.

GATFire’s combination of experience, quality of workmanship and competitive prices during the last 20 years means that over 80% of our new customers come to us because a previous customer has recommended they do so.