pyroclassic stoves

My life with a Pyroclassic Stove

I saw a thread where someone was considering a Pyroclassic wood stove and since I had one for 17 years I thought I might be of help to them.
The original Pyroclassic was developed by DSIR and I saw it years ago at Molly Melish's house, yes really long ago. The one I first saw was never built commercially as far as I know and it was eventually completely redesigned and modified for it to be mainly a heater. I never much liked the oven top thing which I also bought and it was not a good cooker from my viewpoint. The present manufacturers took over from DSIR. What I had was the Pyroclassic 4. But it was a brilliant heater. And it burned so clean. I felt quite righteous about my almost smokeless chimney. I was not as careful as I now have to be to not have a smokey chimney. It burned HOT.
It was easily the best heater I've ever had but I wanted a built in oven for baking bread and better cook top.

I rather wish I'd kept it and just added something designed especially for baking and cooking. It is a tremendous heater. Sometimes I wish I had it back. []
But my friends will love it I'm sure.

Hi Marvin, I totally agree with you. They are brilliant as a heater. Mine is a pyroclassic III and about 2 years ago I went up to the Napier factory and bought a new ceramic liner and rebuilt it and also included the newer ceramic back plate. My original back plate was only steel and it totally burnt away. It is now better than ever. Mine also has a wetback which is awesome. I keep my hot water heater turned down to 45C over winter and the hot tap temperature is usually around 75C - 80C - albeit the heater goes 24 x 7 during winter. Burning manuka (of which I have a plentiful supply) it keeps the heat and embers really well. I too wanted to cook on it and ended up building my oven stove to sit on top of it and it worked like a dream. In the end I got sick of the perpetual cooking smell in the house and reverted back to the good old electricity. Good to know however that if needs be I always have a backup option

Hi All,

just wondering, those of you with the pyroclassic, what is the typical wood piece size for these stoves?

Cheers, S.