Bubble Corner Pie Pod Stove on our narrowboat

Cooking, heating, multi-fuel and aesthetics were all requirements for our stove on Sea Glass. It's always good to have a fall-back situation for heating, cooking and boiling water if you run out of gas, your hob packs up or your central heating doesn't work. 

It was also best if it was triangular to fit nicely into a corner, so it took up less space.  That  narrowed is down to one company - Bubble Stoves owned by Harworth Heating  Also, we wanted a pale coloured stove to go with our internal decor. Black just wasnt right for us.  We chose "Almond" even though we were told it's "high maintenance" in that you need to spray it with touch up paint regularly to keep it looking good.

The price made us gasp several times but hey, you only buy one once and Harworth Heating welcomed us to look round their workshop and ask as many questions as we liked.

Are we pleased with it?  Mostly "Yes"  but we are still learning how to drive it.  There are times when a puff of smoke comes out when we open the door - more often than we would like and we need to work out the different air controls.  We are also experimenting with different types of solid fuel. It can get extremely hot burning wood and the heat is more controllable using smokeless fuel - it will stay in all night with Excel, just needs a poke and a handful of kindling and a log to reinvigorate it in the morning

We've not cooked all that much on it yet:  We've reheated casseroles, warmed up naan breads and cooked a tray bake of pork chops and apple - that worked out well but took quite a long time to cook.  Lots of time to experiment in future.  We keep an enamel jug of water on top to heat up and whilst it doesn't quite boil, its not far off and just needs a quick blast in the kettle for making tea

Oh and Harworth Heating made us a special triangular baking tray (covered in foil in the pic above). We contacted them to ask if they made one for the stove. They didn't but were in the process of doing a prototype, which they duly sent us, along with a Bubble apron and oven glove! Great service Harworth!

As we use it more this coming season we'll post our experiences in later blogs. If you have any questions at all about our stove do get in touch