Choosing a stove can be a little daunting if you are new to solid fuel appliances, so below we have provided a little information to help inform you of the types of appliances available. It is by no means a definitive guide.

Traditional cast iron stoves
Cast iron is still one of the most popular materials from which stoves are made. Cast iron stoves can withstand high temperatures and be moulded into decorative designs. Cast iron stoves can be enamelled in a variety of colours but are usually black. Cast iron stoves can crack if not used correctly, usually due to fast firing as the cast iron can't withstand the shock of rapid heating.
Most stoves have either a single or double glass door with an 'airwash' control which directs incoming air over the glass door. This helps to prevent tar build up but, is only effective as the quality of solid fuels being burned. All multi fuel stoves now have to meet stringent standards regarding efficiency levels and most can burn wood or smokeless fuels. Some stoves use clean burn technology which uses a secondary burn system to reduce emmisions to an absolute minimum, making stoves an eco friendly form of heating. Other features of multi fuel stoves include riddling grates, which help remove the ash from the fire grate into an ash pan below. This is a useful function when burning smokeless fuels as ash build up needs to be kept to a minimum. Often the riddler can be operated externally without the need to open the stove. Wood however burns much more efficiently on a bed of ash, so a riddling grate is unnecessary.
A very basic form of stove is the 'pot belly' stove which has no window, is tall in shape with a large round pot belly. The design makes it useful for burning long pieces of wood but they are fairly innefficient and most suited for workshops or outbuildings.

Steel stoves
Steel stoves are often made with a steel body but a cast iron door. This is because generally the stove body can be welded together with precision cut sheets of steel which are easy to manufacture on an assembly line. Some doors are steel but most moulded with cast iron to accomodate the glass and air intakes. The designs incorporate the same features found on cast iron stoves including air-washed doors and clean burn technology. Steel stoves don't suffer from the possibility of cracking like cast iron stoves but are lined with heat resistant fire boards to protect the steel body from buckling due to the heat. They are usually more contemporary in design due to limitations with the production process.
Steel bodied stoves are a fairly recent newcomer to the British market compared to cast iron stoves, but have been available throughout Europe, in particular Scandinavia for quite some time. Contemporary Scandinavian stoves are now finding their way into British homes but, are often designed to stand alone in a room as a piece of furniture, rather than sit inside an inglenook fireplace. Some varieties come in assorted colours, have soapstone claddings and large glass viewing windows.
The contemporary Scandinavian stoves are often highly efficient with low CO2 emissions which makes them very eco friendly. There are also airtight designs available, which are fed with oxygen via a pipe from the outside of the building, directly into the body of the stove. This means that the stove isn't drawing air from the room that has already been heated up, but draws cold air from outside, making the stoves extremely efficient.

Electric stoves
Not worthy of being called stoves, electric stoves are basically an electric fan heater disguised in a box to look a bit like a stove. They usually have orange fire bulbs in to give a poor fire effect. You cannot get an electric stove with a realistic flame, it just doesn't happen!!! They are expensive to run, very inneficient and not for the eco warriors. There are just no benefits to owning an electric stove.

Types of fuels for stoves

Multifuel – coal, smokeless fuel and wood.
Stoves that burn all types of solid fuel are called multi fuel stoves. If burning coal or smokeless fuels, the stoves are fitted with a grate that allows more oxygen to aid the combustion process. Wood stoves however don't need a grate as wood burns better on a bed of ash.
Wood is the traditional fuel used in stoves as it is classed as a carbon neutral fuel. Put simply, if a tree falls down and rots, it will release exactly the same amount of carbon as if it were burned in a stove. Therefore if we burn sustainable wood, a new tree is planted when a tree is cut down to use as fuel. The tree planted then absorbs the carbon released when the wood is burned on the stove.
Smokeless fuels tend to burn hottest for longest, followed by house coal and then wood. Most stoves are rated for heat output using coal, so if you are only going to burn wood, choose a stove with a slightly higher output rating, as wood burns with a lower heat output.
Wood MUST be well seasoned, ideally dried for 2 years. It can be purchased in processed form as compressed sawdust logs which is a waste product from manufacturing industries.

Wood pellets
A recent addition to the UK market are wood pellet stoves. They are popular in the States but have yet to take off over here. The pellets are fed into an external hopper which feeds the stove internally via a feeding mechanism. Wood pellet stoves are becoming more widely available but take up a lot of space. They are awkward to fit to existing properties so are only really suitable for new builds.

Gas
A gas stove is simply a cast iron or steel solid fuel stove that has been modified and fitted with a gas burner. The gas burner heats ceramic coals to give a realistic living flame. Gas stoves are quickly going out of favour due to the increasing cost of gas. They are however very easy to control and clean. Gas is available through the mains (natural gas) or bottled(lpg).

Oil
Oil is no longer a cost effective fuel to use due to ever increasing prices. It is also bad to the environment due to its production process.