Coonara Heaters

Quality wood heater - inbuilt Coonara i600 – Thought it was worthwhile posting a review on the Coonara i600 inbuilt wood heater because we didn't find one on this website before buying. We have… Read more

a large open plan home and have had the heater for about a week and it's performing well.

We did a lot of research before buying a wood heater, spoke to lots of reps and eventually settled on the Coonara. Our research gave us some criteria we wanted to follow to get a good heater, this is what we decided on:

1. Australian made, for quality but also supports the local economy. Canadian and NZ wood heaters also seem to be good. 2. Large capacity to suit our home 3. Quality brand, Coonara has a good reputation

We also saw a lot of bad online reviews for wood heaters and I didn't really understand why. I asked the reps in a few stores why this happens and they all said it comes down to user error e.g. people not know how to properly operate a wood heater. Again we did a lot fo research and came up with a method to get the heater working well. We've never had a wood heater before and this process worked for us:

1. Get very dry kindling 2. Get well seasoned split hardwood (we got red gum) from a reputed wood supplier (not FB marketplace) - paying more for wood is good in this case 3. Look up some YouTube videos for how to light a fire properly. It's simple. Put a couple of small logs in the fire, place newspaper and a firelighter on logs, place kindling on logs, light newspaper which lights the firelighter, leave the door ajar for 20 mins approx, have the vent all the way open and do not turn on the fan. After 20 mins or when the fire has caught, close the door and let the heater heat up for 30 mins then turn the fan on low. You want to keep heat in the heater while it's getting started. From there use common sense to add more wood when the fire is hot. All of this information was also in the Coonara product manual.

I've probably gone overboard with the review but getting a quality heater was really important to us. It's below zero most nights where we live. It seems buying a heater is half the job, the other half is investing time to learn how to properly use it.

But yes the I600 is good! We got the version with the zero clearance box, built a timber frame around it (following the guidelines for clearances from combustibles), sheeted up the frame with villaboard and we're going to tile it soon. We also had a licensed plumber to the heater install and he provided us with a certificate of installation.

We bought the heater from Bendigo Woodstoves. Brad was fantastic, highly recommended. We're not associated with this store in any way.

Great to heat up whole house – Best heater on the market lv owned a coonara wood heater and the coonara hermatage gas log heater both are terrefic and cheap to run Show details

Disapointed & concerned! – I wanted to support Australian Made, but would not make that a consideration again!! Main problems. Wooden handle on door cracked in first week. … Read more

Draft - a little knob pulled in/out on side to expose small slots along bottom front. VERY DIFFICULT to operate! The door is not fully sealed, with air continually able to come through top of the door. THIS IS PART OF THE DESIGN!! I am asthmatic, and this is leading to increase in my asthma, as fine particles escape too. I have a lot more ash dust on furniture. AND I believe because if this lack of seal the heater does NOT burn through the night, and chews through wood. No damper which can close off air flow on flue worries me, incase of flue fire. I can't clean ash off baffle as I could with previous heater, so will require extra service costs. It does heat up quickly when lit, but cools down quickly too, needs to be stoked continually to keep up heat.

Good heat, But poor build. Very disappointed. No service back up – We bought this heater brand new in 2020 locally through a dealer to replace a very worn out and undersized wood heater. I wanted to stay Australian… Read more

made but keep within a budget and size to suit our living rooms. The first winter had been amazing and we were very impressed with the heater, but as time has gone on it is starting to be a disappointment. Second winter & it needed a new door seal. The dealer in my town had then since stopped selling / supporting this brand. Had to shop around to find correct size door seal. Bunnings to the rescue! The fan which MUST stay on at all times will sometimes rattle during use. The baffle mounting design has been a pain also, if you accidentally bump it while putting a larger or odd shaped log in, it will fall down and its very hard to refit while the heater is full of hot coals. Our baffle has now warped and now is unusable as it will not sit in the mounting lugs which is very disappointing also. The manufacturer WILL NOT sell or ship parts directly, so I have to pay for freight to a dealer 2 hours away then MORE freight to my house to be able to use it again as they say not to use it with no baffles. The heating bricks and retaining bracket have failed also but we will have to use them as is for now. Very disappointing buying this unit as we hoped to have bought a 20+ year investment heater and 4 years later we are spending a-lot of money on the unit.

Yes when operating it kept the house very warm, the noisy fan was annoying but you learn to drown it out when it rattles. But we won’t be recommending this brand to anyone and I don’t see it lasting 10 years in this house unfortunately.