Scandia Heat and Cook SCX501

Get a better brand – You have to keep heaps of wood burning in it for it to draw properly or the fire goes out even with all the air flow controls fully open Hard to get a decent fire burning even with good amounts of kindling Show details

Poor performance – I bought the Scandia SCX 501 wood-fired cooker without water heating from Bunnings in Bendigo. I have owned and used combustion stoves at different houses since the 1980's - an Irish Stanley double oven (excellent) and two Gourmet Cookers made in Albury. This Albury model is a bakers oven style, as is the Scandia. They were all bought new and… Read more

installed professionally. This Scandia was cheap by comparison. I gave it the benefit of the doubt but that was a mistake and a waste of money, so very costly in the end. When burning good red gum in the Scandia to get the heat up for a roast, the metal expands and the side damper control locks on open. When it cools down and the metal contracts, this lever works again. This is bad design as the heat went up the flue and it wasted good wood. The rope seal inside the firebox door allowed smoke and fine ash particles to leak into the room from the top right-hand corner. This is not good for interior air quality or for lung health. The oven temperature gauge just fell out. I blocked that hole off with some magnetic steel. The oven never got hot enough to do a proper roast. I ended up hating this Scandia stove and had it flung after two winters of use. It was replaced by another wood cooker, but slighly bigger, the Australian-made Nectre Big Bakers Oven. Chalk and Cheese. This one is a real wood-fired stove, not a flimsy, badly engineered, light-weight imitation. The quality of the cooking in the Nectre oven is exceptionally good. The high top rail in the oven allows a cast iron frypan to sit up close to the bottom of the firebox for cooking chips, pieces of chicken, etc. I have made countless egg custatrds over the years with the same recipe. I sat this on the floor of the Nectre oven and it was the best I have ever made. The same redgum takes around twice as long to burn in the Nectre than the cheapie Scandia but it puts out more heat because it is much more efficient at burning and internal airflow and therefore is more economical to run. Now, I will not need to buy another wood stove again. I gave up on using the oven in the Scandia. I can't wait to use the oven in the Nectre which has noticeably better quality cooking. It also puts out more heat that flows into other rooms. The Nectre is a seriously good stove design and very well made by direct comparison to the inefficient and poorly made Scandia which cuts corners on materials, manufacturing expertise and efficiency. It also seems to me from my experience that the Scandia brand has inefficient or non-existent quality control in whatever part of the world that their factory is. It's a no brainer. I do not see how anyone can give this Scandia stove a genuine and authentic good review, unless they have never had experience with a seriously good wood-fired cooker.

No problems & great value – I’m into my second season with this heater & have nothing bad to say about it. I’ve done zero repairs & the only maintenance has been a quick brush out of the side cavities. Have cooked a few meals on top & in the oven. Oven temp is a bit hard to regulate, but other than that I’ve got no complaints. Heats my 100m home well, sometimes too well.

Great value heater. Don't believe the naysayers – easy to light and it stays lit overnight without a problem. Im burning good red box. The older models have some consumables inside the firebox that could warp. Easy to change. Show details

Winter warmth is not negotiable – My stone cottage is so small that everything in it has to have more than one purpose. The heat and cook wood heater suits me just fine. There is plenty of firewood on the property and the burner box large enough for the chainsawed logs. I cook all the meals on the hot plate with the added bonus of an oven. The oven does require extra heat but once… Read more

you gain experience together with the inbuilt thermometer roasted meals are easy to cook. The stone chimney also heats the upstairs bedroom and this keeps heating costs to absolute minimum. Perhaps more suited to the country than the city it is my most important winter appliance.

Problem with the handle on the top left – Hi we are having trouble with the coiled handle on the top left side as it’s stuck-and the fire place is only a few years old... what can we do Nadia Show details

Faulty damper handle – Same problem as Kaz after 2 seasons! Damper handle seized meaning a very hard to light fire, fire does not hold heat just goes out the chimney so oven cooking is not possible. We researched and saved for a mutli-purpose wood fire so expected a lot longer life time when paying $2500. Out of warranty so Bunnings can't help. Very disappointed is putting it mildly. Show details

Don’t do it – Look they are poorly constructed, they have a very bad quality control system and there after sales support is terrible. Basically a cheap Chinese product with no after sales support marketed as a premium Australian product! Save yourself the disappointment Show details

I love it – Excellent value for money.Heats our 220m2 plus house with ease and we live on a farm above 1000m in one of the coldest parts of Australia near portland near Lithgow.Our average winter is between -8 and -12 and it gets colder than that sometimes yet the house is cosy as...Our wood usage has halved since we replaced our old everhot and we no longer… Read more

need to split every piece of wood.Cooking is a dream and easy once you get the hang of it... Dollar for dollar the heat and cook is the best stove you can buy.Why spend 3 x the money simply because a stove is made in scandinavia or similar? The other stoves are NOT 3 x better in any way...Plus the bloke I talked to at Bathurst Bunnings was friendly extremely helpful and knowledgeable.He answered every question I put to him and I DID grill him about the ins and outs of the stove etc.... The other shops I talked to when we decided to change out out our old stove were condescending more than a little pompous and ridiculously overpriced.I'll be surprised if they are still in business in a years time

Wow – Best cooker on the market . Have made so many delicious meals using this , have never been so excited to get in and cook before , but with one of these I can’t go wrong . Would highly recommend this from first time cooks right thru to chefs u won’t go wrong  Show details

Not worth the money – Cheap China steel. I’ve had mine for 3 years and the inside back has a hole burnt threw all ready. Will have to try and pull it apart and weld it up. Also the flue handle is stuck from sitting over summer. Will not buy another one of this brand !  Show details

Best Value, Size & Quality I could find – I was replacing a twenty year old fireplace and had been doing a lot of research when I came across Scandia. I rang them to get some technical questions answered and got a friendly, helpful person on the line first time. I was happy with the answers that I now know were accurate! I purchaser the fireplace and self installed, i have been using it… Read more

for heat and cooking for a few months now and thought I might share some insights.

Firstly when the unit arrived I removed the cardboard outer to find an inner woodern pallett completely surounding and attached to the stove that was protecting it from all but the most severe transport damage. I was very impressed at the care taken to pack the unit even though it took some time to unwrap/unpack. The second thing I liked was the ease in witch I was able to disasemble the unit to lower it's weight in order to move in inside and locate it, I was after all by myself. Readdembly was just as easy!

Running in the fireplace as per the instructions was fine though there was some rather bad paint like smells the first few times and I would seriously advise doing this in a well ventilated unocupied area at least the first two times. The smell has now long since gone and I suppose compared to a newly painted room was nothing new to those living in a chemical society.

The stove burns clean leaving little to no ash and compared to my old fireplace uses far less wood for the same output however I note that due to the large amount of steel (200kg odd) in the unit it takes quite a while to get going and I do have to use smaller wood at the start to get a good fire going. In short allow an hour to get the oven equalized and hot! Now rather than puting a layer of sand in the firebox I purchased and installed three 20mm firebricks covering the base of the firebox making cleanup much easier and also stablizing the oven temp over a larger range of fire intensity. On overnight slow burn the oven maintains 150C or slightly above.

Cooking is great but be prepared to get hot standing in front of the glass when using the cooktop especially if you are using a wock in the fire hole, I might nearly advise the use of a welders leather apron if you plain to cook for a lot of people. The oven has three wide, deep but not very high shelves so unless you are cooking three layers of piza or other narrow things like pies you need to remove at least one rack. Most of my pirex dishes are higher than the space between all three. For roasts etc I pull out the middle tray. There are quite a few combinations you can do in the oven and so far I have not had any issues I could not find a solution for. Note though the back of the oven gets hotter than the front and with no oven light a good strong torch is essential to look in to see when a dish needs rotating!

Cleaning is easy enough through many openings. Had this been this my old stobe I would have had a pile of ash and soot by now however this stove seems to burn much cleaner. So far It looks like I will get through this winter without a chimny sweep. Note this stove has a hidden ash draw under the oven that is accessable with the oven door open. This draw is a hidden gem, I never saw it in the advertising and almost considered not buying this unit thinking it was not there, luckily this was one of my phone queries. It collects any big particals of soot and ash falling down and is easily slid out and emptied though as yet I have only had a handful of ash and dust in it. You can also use it instead of a gal bucket when cleaning the fireplace ash.

Wood I use is a combination of blood wood, stringy bark, spotted gum and the odd black wattle & iron bark all cut and seasoned from my own property. I cut the logs into very approximate 12" long slabs and split them as required. I always remove all BARK from any wood as should you also. I lay my fire wood across the firebox so nothing can roll forward into the glass or out on the floor.

Value for money wise the closest thing I found to this unit was three times the price and I can not justify that difference under any circumstance. Longevity wise this unit is constructed with steel the same thickness and even thicker in some places than my twenty year old stove It replaced. I could sit here and nit pick a few miniour issues like the slightly sticky air air vent that a normal person might ignore however an OCD person like myself and or any decient handy person with a file and a screwdriver could fix in ten minutes just like I did but I won't because I saved over fourthousand dollars buying this unit compared to it's closest rival! I specifically waited to do this review until I had put a few hundred kilos of wood through this unit and got my cheff on.

To sum up nothing in this world is perfect or indestructable and certainly you won't please all the people all the time but anyone that knows me knows I have high standards when it comes to funcinality & value. This unit is all it claims to be and more. I rarely give five stars but in this case it's the VALUE for MONEY that deserves the extra recognition. After reading the negative reviews here so far they seem to be nit picky things any handy person could easily fix. The bottom line is that if you calculate the cost of materials used in this stove and add a little labour cost for manufacture plus factoting in that it looks good and works well you can not ignore the fact this is a great product!

Ongoing design flaw and no help from Scandia – Absolutely ridiculous that the damper box handle jams tight when a build up of ash grit binds the rod due to no allowance in the rod holder. Damper lid moves freely but the handle is jammed. They tried to blame a small leak but it is obvious there is no rust or water damage and the licenced builder fixed the tiny leak when he installed my new… Read more

flue ($500) two winters ago. It's only a 12mth warranty on the handle and Scandia are quite happy to drag out enquiries when they know this design flaw has been ongoing for five years. Like this recent Ford fiasco... just blame the consumer. My Nectre Cook and heat is a little ripper I have owned it for over eight years, it's now in the outside bird room which gets gerni'd twice a week and it's design won't let you down like this Scandia does! The Scandia cost $2600 fully installed and I have only had three winters use! Scandia "rectified" this problem.... more like covered their butts....by now printing in the new owner manual that you must keep moving this handle throughout the year.... whoever has had a fire for their lifetime really don't need to read a manual they're pretty straight forward.... unless there is a design flaw..... please avoid the treatment I have had and buy a Nectre from BBQs galore or your local heating store and be sure you can keep your family warm when you choose without any stress. They can't even put you on to a technician to fix the problem so don't expect after sales service and be certain to photocopy the receipt as they fade but the serial number on the back determines manufacture date and who/when it was supplied to the retailer.

So far, so good – This is probably the best bang-for-buck fireplace that I could find, that also doubles as a stove/oven. We only had a small 'foot print' that we could fit the fireplace in and the clearances are very tight for the size of the box (@ 175mm off the wall and 425mm off anything from the side). I also bought the 1050mm x 1050mm hearth and the flue kit… Read more

at the same time to finish everything off. So far my wife has cooked cakes, pizzas, chips, all the vegis for diner and with a kettle on the top we haven't turned the electric kettle on since. The fireplace itself is really easy to use (and control) as well. My wife and I are very happy (so far) with the heat-and-cook.

Heating and cooking good – Scandia heat and cook slow combustion wood heater. The unit does both these things pretty good but the quality of build on our unit is far from that. On several occasions I have had to unfree the choke (chimney flue) due to poor design and fitment, the lever on the side of the heater freezes solid and is quiet a chore to set it free, the last time… Read more

I needed to remove the small oblong plate at lhs of chimney and use a gas torch to free it. The oven chrome trays are at least 10mm out of level, with a glass door it's not a good sight when watching the flames. Service? Well that matches the product. Check it out thoroughly before purchasing.