Nectre Mk1 Series

Not Impressed – I have had a lot of wood heaters over 50 years this is very disappointing especially as we wanted to buy Australian. We use good dry seasoned redwood. This uses lots of wood and poor combustion heating for its size. Was not impressed with who put it in as the "nectre tradie" either, messy job with lose bits on flue. Will never buy another one! Save your money look elsewhere. Show details

Simple and reliable – We bought a Nectre mk1 back in 2014 and it has performed flawlessly and warms our large area quickly, my only gripe is that one reason we bought it is because you can fit large logs in the through the open door- Nectre recommends short logs that are fed at right angles to the door - I guess to avoid logs rolling into the glass ( I have seen a… Read more

quite a few with cracked glass ) Being handy with a welder I made a shallow log guard that sits behind the glass and which works superbly - surprised Nectre dont offer them as a option ,as prior to fitting it my home grown firewood would often roll onto the glass. Certainly would have alot more happy customers. Recently the fires were getting harder to light - cleaned our long angular flue out ( first time in 9 years ) and removed a 1/2 bucket of soot- working as good as ever again ! If anyone wants to see the log guard design I'm happy to share the dimensions etc .

nectre mega – we brought the Nectre Mega with a water jacket the top plate inside the fire fell down into the fire happened twice emailed Nectre and they said that can't happen they said there is no vibration for that to happen well it did happen twice could not use it till we had it fixed they don't know there product because when the water heats up there is… Read more

vibration they would not answer any more emails, for them to totally deny that it doesn't happen does not say much for the company, once it was fixed it worked o/k, so don't count on there after sales service .

7 years ... and still great!! – Had this model installed into our high split level home in 2010. We researched slow combustion heaters for months beforehand. The design brief - had to be Australian made, and it MUST NOT have a fan - these ALWAYS start to rattle/shake/vibrate enough to give you a breakdown - usually a month or two out of warranty!! Finally settled on the… Read more

Nectre, as it fulfilled both requirements, and had the added bonus of having a top which is rated for cooking ... you can actually fry your bacon and eggs directly on the cast iron top if you choose. As self sufficient types this represents a GREAT backup in the event that all other cooking options become unavailable due to some calamity!!

The firebox comes with heat resistant fire bricks, with its secondary air baffle at the top left. Its knob is round black heat resistant plastic. The primary baffles are located at the lower front. The door opens from the right. Its handle, and that of the primary baffle is enmeshed with a silver wire outer. All handles are able to be used even at high heat.

The heat output is remarkable, even within our massive open planned living area. When we walk upstairs its like walking into a wall of heat that reminds us of an outback summer - a combination of the upward moving warmth and radiated heat from the exposed flue that runs straight up beside the stairs 5 metres to our ceiling.

So to light the fire, all you need is good seasoned hardwood - we buy ours from wood mongers and allow it to season in a shed exposed to the northern sun for 12 months in addition to the time the wood man seasoned it for. Then a bed of Cypress pine (in our case) with either a fire lighter or newspaper. Open both baffles wide and away you go. The primary baffles at the front then get closed reasonably quickly as the fire takes ... until ultimately they get closed completely leaving just the upper secondary baffle to adjust gently more or less open to maintain a good flame at optimum wood consumption.

Our installer warned us that we MAY need to leave the secondary baffle open due to the long flue run in our application to avoid poor flame and smoking... but over the years we have found that we can more or less use the heater as normal without regard to this factor. The heater is rated to burn wood overnight to allow it to be simply stoked up in the morning .... however we do not use this feature. Our experience is that this method takes a lot of practice to get right ... and contributes to unnecessary soot/creosote buildup on the glass door and the flue interior.

We just love that cook top though. We don't use it to directly cook food on ... but it boils a GREAT billy!! We have solar hot water, and naturally it's never as hot in the depths of winter. Rather than expend $ boosting the water we simply put a couple of large boilers full of water on the top of the heater and these are boiling merrily after an hour or two while we watch TV. Great for a hot bath, and for dishwashing water ... and surprisingly, the water heats again fairly smartly when burning at high heat. Magnificent!!

We have had zero performance or durability issues with this model. The black paint on the top of the unit particularly started to wear fairly early to expose a brownish ... almost rust colour ... however this is easily fixed up, should you be the type that's concerned by it, with a re-coat of heat resistant paint. We don't give a damn about it .... it looks "rustic"!! The door is easily cleaned following the directions in the manual using nothing more than "spray and wipe" with a green scourer and paper towel. So far we've cleaned the flue just once ... and surprisingly, very little particulate matter was removed .... we must be doing the right thing.

In summary .... no flaws to speak of. Was it one of the best purchase decisions we've ever made???? Yep!!