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Open the door of a cold wood heater and the lining can tell you a lot. A fine line through a brick is usually not urgent. A loose, missing, crumbling or badly broken brick is different because it can expose the steel firebox to direct heat.

A wood heater can be the right answer for a cold Melbourne lounge, but the wall you like is not always where it can go. For wood heater installation in Melbourne, the first check is whether the building can support the exact heater, flue route, clearances, roofline and local requirements.

Wood heater terminology can become confusing when product choices, installation checks, fire behaviour and spare parts all use different words for connected parts of the same system.

The fastest way to ruin a good wood heater is to feed it wet wood. The slowest way is to keep doing it for a few winters in a row. Knowing how to store firewood at home is what stands between you and that mistake. Firewood needs to be dry, off the ground, covered on top with the sides left open, and given time. Most home stacks fail on at least one of those four. This guide walks you through all four, in the order they affect burn quality. 

Wood heater glass that keeps going black is almost always a combustion problem rather than a glass problem. The black film is tar from incomplete burning, condensed on cool glass before it had a chance to burn off. The fix is in the fire rather than the cleaner.

The cabinetmaker has gone. The slab is poured. The installer's marked where the flue boots will sit. You're standing in the lounge with a tape measure, working out where everything goes. The sofa you bought before the renovation started is in the wrong place.

You've measured the lounge. You've got a quote in your hand from one of the Ultimate showrooms. The consultant has asked one question that's stopped you in your tracks: how many square metres does the...

Two heaters, similar kilowatts, similar price. A Spectre, the convection model with a cooler outer casing. A Radiant range model, the single-skin design with a hot black surface that throws heat across the floor. Which...

Have an older wood heater? If you have, have you ever opened the firebox door to see a wisp of smoke come back into the room? If you're trying to work out why, you may...