If you have read my Home Heating Using a Paraffin Inverter Heater page, then you will probably already be aware that I currently heat my entire home using nothing more than two paraffin inverter heaters, made by two different manufacturers, a decision which has actually saved me around 40% on my Electricity bill, by switching to Paraffin / Kerosene based heaters compared to previous years where storage heaters have been used.
One of these paraffin inverter heaters is made by a well known Japanese manufacturer called Corona, and the other is a popular inverter heater sold all across Europe by an Italian distributor called Brico Bravo. The origins of this inverter heater are unknown, but mine is branded as ‘Kero’ and I suspect that its probably made in China.
Despite its suspected Chinese origins, I have now been using this budget Brico Bravo sourced heater as one of my main sources of home heat since the Winter of 2012 with no problems whatsoever, and it has proven just as reliable in everyday service as the more expensive branded Corona heater (which cost around £100 more).
When comparing the Brico Bravo heater with the Corona 3016 model, the differences in everyday use and operation are largely negligible. Both inverter heaters have a built in fan for rapid and effective heat dispersion and both are rated at 3000 watts (when running at full output) and so either of these inverter heaters will heat an average sized living or bedroom area, very quickly indeed with no obvious differences in output or efficiency between the two models.
I run both of my inverter heaters on standard UK domestic heating oil, which is also known as 28 second kerosene, this is largely against the manufacturers recommendations of using nothing but premium or class C paraffin, however given the huge premium price added to these types of fuels in the UK, I decided that running on basic heating oil was a viable option, and around 1/3 of the price of the Premium Packaged fuel from DIY outlets. I have now been doing this continuously for four winters, with no ill effects to either my health or the heater(s). Needless to say, that both the Brico Bravo and Corona models seem to work on this standard kerosene fuel (Heating Oil) with no problems, other than a slight 30 second whiff of Kerosene when the heaters first fire up and again when they are shut off.
Using the Brico Bravo, heater is a breeze. Despite being from a Chinese source, instructions are provided in English, as are the control panel decals and text, the built in LCD display also has English characters, and is used to indicate current room temperature, desired (set) temperature, power level heat output. In the event of a fault then the heater will switch itself off, and display an error ‘E’ code followed by a number. This code will tell you exactly what is wrong with the heater.
Both the Brico Bravo and Corona Inverter heaters have low fuel warnings. In the case of the Brico Bravo heater, a low fuel alert is carried out by a short musical ‘chime’ which plays for around 5 seconds, followed by the word ‘Oil’ appearing on the LCD display on the control panel. At this stage the built in metal fuel container can be removed from the heater and safely refilled, whilst the heater continues to run at a background level, however if the tank isn’t refilled then the heater will continue to run at its minimum output for around 10 – 15 minutes before sounding the chime again and shutting down.
The Brico Bravo Inverter Heater, also has the same number of safety features as the Corona 3016, making it very safe for use in the home, workshop or mobile home. The safety features include a built in overheat protection system, Flame Failure detection, CO2 detection and fuel quality monitoring. In the event of the heater being knocked, the safety system will immediately switch off the burner and extinguish the flame, requiring a manual reset.
Both heaters have CO2 detection, and constantly sample the CO2 level in the room, if the level rises towards a dangerous level then the heaters will shut themselves off, requiring a manual reset, however the heaters will not ignite again until the CO2 level falls back to normal levels. This makes them one of the safest portable fuel heaters available.
Personally, I find that the Brico Bravo heater has slightly better overall controls than its Corona counterpart. For example, it is easy to set the Brico heater to its minimum heat output setting, simply by selecting the “Min” setting on its control panel, whilst in comparison to do the same with the Corona heater, will require you to physically lower the desired temperature setting to a value below the current room temperature which will then lower the heater output to its minimum setting automatically, as there is no manual selection.
I use both of the Brico Bravo and Corona 3016 models on a daily basis throughout the winter months, and both perform very well and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend either of these inverter heaters to anybody. However for most people the deciding factor on two very similar products always comes down to the actual purchase cost of the heater, and being some £80 – £100 cheaper than the Corona model, then the Brico Bravo wins on value for money alone.
So my final conclusion on ending this inverter heater review, is that both the Brico Bravo and Corona heaters have identical features, give the same amount of heat output, and use the same amount of fuel to produce the heat. Both heaters are extremely well built and the build quality of the cheaper Brico Bravo heater is just as good as the Corona model, despite it not having the same Japanese built heritage nor the credibility of the Corona brand badge.
In short, (in my own opinion) there is nothing to justify the extra £80 – £100 price tag on the Corona model, and in addition, the greater flexibility in relation to the heat output selection controls on the cheaper Brico Bravo model actually make it more attractive. In fact you would have to spend over £300 in order to get the same level of features as the Brico Bravo inverter heater by buying a much higher specification Corona Model.
The Brico Bravo Inverter Heater reviewed above has now been discontinued, and Brico no longer ship from Italy to the UK. You can find the very latest deals on Inverter Heaters in the table below.
 | Inverter 5086 3.2kw Heater | |
 | Tosai-241 Paraffin Radiant Heater. 2.2KW Output | |
 | Zibro LC-2230 Inverter Heater |
Have you seen a similar inverter heater cheaper?, please share it in the comments below
I wonder if you can give me some advice? The link above to the site selling the bricobravo inverter heater now says, “may not ship to the UK”.I was interested in purchasing one but when I tryed to proceed I reached a page where I was asked to commit to purchase without being told what the delivery cost would be.I still want to purchase this inverter heater,but wary of the legaleese language.I hope this comment makes some sense and hope you can advise me how to purchase this SRE 300 heater.
Hi,
I’ve successfully bought one of these Heaters from Brico Bravo, and I know through the comments that some other readers have managed to purchase one too. Unfortunately I have no connection with the company who sells these heaters, so its possible their policy has changed. I’ve heard a rumour that its possible that at least one distributor has been dummy spitting over the price difference between their goods and Brico, so its possible that this may have some bearing on the latest decision. All I can suggest that you contact Brico Bravo directly, and ask why they have changed their policy on shipping outside of Italy when several people from the UK have previously purchased. Please feel free to share any reply that you get on here.
I did email the company and this is the reply I received from them
“Dear customer,
we are so sorry but for some customs’s problem is not possible to send it abroad.
Regards
Giorgia”
Yes I think I shall try and contact them again.Your comment and the reply I received from bricobravo doesn’t sound very good for the consumer,yet again.
Hello again,this is the reply I received back after enquiring about brico,s policy change. “Gentile cliente con la spedizione arrivano danneggiate quindi preferiamo non spedire
distinti saluti
simona” “Dear customer with the shipment arrive damaged so we prefer not to ship
with best regards
simona”, their reply was in Italian and I,ve put it through Google translate A bit disappointing,but that look’s like that then.
So, two people at Brico each give you a different reason for not dealing with customers in the UK, this doesn’t add up to me, especially as they have been selling them for at least the last Two years (I bought my heater from them in 2012). The excuse about customs doesn’t make any sense either, Goods in the EU are not liable for import duty between EU Countries, so there shouldn’t be any problems with customs and if there was, it would have been highlighted well before now. I think its also strange that this turn of events has happened shortly after I was made aware of some sour grapes and tantrum throwing.
Whatever the actual reason, It’s a shame that Brico, have taken this stance, as traffic is monitored to and from this blog and over time we have sent their auction page a good deal of traffic, and even if only 10% of it converted to an actual sale then its still a significant amount of business passed to them and from several EU regions, so I suspect that by now limiting sales to Italy alone won’t be doing them any favours on an E-commerce level.
I work as a Purchasing Manager by trade and when I get some free time I will see if I can locate another European distributor of these heaters who might be willing to deal directly with customers in the UK, in return for the goodwill of the large amount of free advertising that we can offer them, it shouldn’t be too difficult as these heaters are very popular in France and Spain, and I’ll do it out of principle, if nothing else. I pride myself on making sure that the supply chain all play a fair game, both professionally and personally – because i’m a consumer too!.
I think I will also contact Brico tomorrow in a professional capacity, to see if I can speak to somebody Senior and find out exactly what is going on, we have Multilingual staff, so the language barrier won’t be an issue, and will make it harder to be fobbed off.
In the meantime, if you want to call Brico’s bluff, a large number of online parcel companies, like Interparcel, Parcel2GO, Parcel2Ship, Worldwide Parcel Services etc, will collect goods for you from EU countries and deliver to your UK address using a heavily discounted DHL, Fed Ex etc service, and I would imagine that it would cost no more than £15 or £20 from Italy to the UK. With this in mind, You could always ask Brico if you can buy the heater exc shipping, and have your own carrier service to collect from their warehouse address!. This may of course trigger a Third excuse….
All I feel I can say at the moment is that I am A little perplexed by Brico’s response.If a company chooses to turn away trade,well that is their choice.I am still a bit new to buying online and maybe not quite ready to try using the services of an online parcel company.But that’s today,maybe tomorrow I’ll think differently.I like, I’m sure many others would be very grateful to be pointed in the direction of another distributor within Europe.There could also be a really good EU trading scandal story in this as well.Lastly I would like to say how much I enjoy this blog.Full of good advice and food for thought.Cheers for now.
Hi Robert.
Yes, I fully agree with the rights of a Company to choose whom they deal with, provided of course its their OWN choice. I just can’t understand why, after a number of years, they have decided to pull the plug on what looks to be their entire European Market outside of Italy. If it was problems with deliveries or damage, then common business sense would suggest that you would try another carrier company even if the costs had to be passed on, they would still be in a strong position price wise, even if additional protective packaging and a premium carrier had to be used and the costs were passed on to the end customer.
Lets be honest, the prices of similar heaters, is nearly double the price of Brico’s product here in the UK, often for exactly the same heater, and that price difference buys a hell of a lot protective packaging and Goods in Transit insurance, and Brico could still remain competitive. Carrier firms like DPD are very popular across Europe, and their charges are not excessive.
Its also very interesting to note that the products on Brico’s other Auctions, all ship to the UK, including Gas Heaters, Bio-ethanol Fires and even De-humidifiers, which must be just as delicate, heavy and difficult to pack and ship as the Inverter Heaters and suffice to say that any problems with customs on Inverter Heaters would also apply to all of the other goods they sell too!, in fact pretty much everything that they list on their Ebay account is still available for delivery to the rest of Europe including the UK, apart from these inverter heaters – a point which I will be putting to them!.
I can’t see an EU trading scandal story, but I do come across this type of thing a lot and *IF* there is any wrongdoing, then there are various pieces of EU legislation in place which *may* apply depending on what the situation is. I know manufacturers themselves – even offshore ones, also frown on these types of practices once they are made aware of the facts, especially if it means that they are potentially losing sales, and posts alone on this blog already prove that they are, so I wonder how much business and revenue is being lost on the wider scale, over a period of time.
However, the one main overall question for the consumer also still remains, if a Distributor in Italy can afford to sell these heaters for Euro 150 / £120 and still clearly make a profit, then why can’t we buy this same model of Heater from a UK Vendor for the same price?. The cheapest I could find from a UK source for exactly the same make and model was £210.00 + £10.00 postage, its nothing to do with VAT either, Italy has a slightly higher rate than the UK, @ 22% which is the VAT Rate that Brico would be paying locally when exporting to an EU based non trading, non UK Vat registered customer.
In the meantime, these heaters do come up on Ebay from time to time from European vendors, if you set your Ebay preferences to ‘Europe” (left hand side of the results) and search for “poele a petrole” or “Poele A Pétrole Électronique” i’m sure that you will soon find one for sale, which will ship to the UK. and this method was essentially how I found Brico Bravo.
The EU trading scandal line was kinda a disappointed half joke.What I am thinking about at the moment,is trying to contact the manufacturer directly and trying to find out if it’s possible and how much it would cost to buy directly from them,if possible and less than £220,then I would prefer buy that way rather than navigate a system now that I’m not sure I trust.I checked out the spanish ebay and amazon sites and the cheapest I could find was This Heater on Ebay (Spain) or This one on Amazon (Spain) But to be honest I wouldn’t know if they were the same product I was looking to buy from Brico,though they do look similar. Sorry still haven’t worked how to put links in properly.
The links again,those are the Spanish ones,but I haven’t figured how to link to the google translated link of those pages.Feel free to amend.Get a bit lost in the english language never mind espanol.
Hi Robert.
Most of these cheaper Generic heaters are often made by the same OEM or production line, either in China or Hong Kong and they just get re-badged with different branding, this is why you will often find basically the same heater being sold under different names in different Countries, however usually they share the same model number, SRE300, SRE 304 etc which is the give away as per your Amazon find. At the end of the day, they all do the same Job.
I deal with suppliers in Asia all of the time, and thanks to sites like Ali Express and DX its slowly getting easier for the consumer to buy directly from Off Shore sources and cut out the middleman or in some cases – several middlemen. However with heavy and bulky goods its a bit more difficult, as manufacturers will only deal with you if you are wanting to buy in Container loads shipped via sea transport, plus you have to pay what is called a T/T payment of either 100% or 60/40 upfront, meaning you take a risk if you don’t know or haven’t researched the source. Then you have some quite horrific shipping costs, import paperwork & customs, Vat, import duty etc, in short its not something that you could really do as a 1-off purchase as a consumer, unless it was via one of the aforementioned sites.
Given the discounted prices, I first believed that Brico Bravo were buying directly from the manufacturer themselves, however if it turns out that they have had the rug pulled from under them (for whatever reason), then this wouldn’t be the case.
You would need to get a large discount retailer who is already set up buying product from China / HK, to take an interest in importing and stocking these heaters nationally, basically an entity like an appliance version of Richer Sounds or a UK version of Brico Bravo, basically somebody who can buy in bulk directly from the manufacturer, cutting out the importers and various middlemen along the chain.
As I mentioned before, I do know several colleagues who are involved in both the retail and white goods’ procurement & supply chain, so its just a matter of them taking the idea and getting their Marketing and Product departments interested, and convince these key decision makers that there is enough demand to make it a viable stocked line. However in order to push this aspect, i’ve already directed them to several Brico auctions, both current and via Google Cache, where the ‘sold’ figures at given periods speak for themselves.
Unfortunately these things don’t happen overnight, hence why it would be easier for me to either try and get Brico to reconsider their decision, or find and promote another European retailer who can ship directly to the UK, as mentioned last night.
Thanks for the links (i’ll tidy them up for you later so they are easily read), I don’t see much difference between the Spanish one which you have found and the previous Brico one, all of the heat outputs are the same, so this would perhaps be a shorter term option if you (or anybody else) wanted to avoid paying high UK prices – assuming the Vendor will ship to the UK, i’ll fire off some emails later.
I’ve also provided a shortened URL for your Spanish listing below, which is automatically translated into English.
http://goo.gl/UnAjF3
Hello again Admin, Yes I see your point,about attempting to contact the manufacturer directly.A definate non-starter for the ordinary consumer.If you do manage to glean any truths about the situation reguarding Brico,it would be interesting to know.If Brico’s new policy is concrete for whatever reason,then I’m sure alot of UK customers would be more than glad to purchase from any other European source,given the apparent difference in price. I have emailed the Spanish company on ebay,asking if they do deliver to the UK and what the total cost,including P&P would be and hopefully I’ll hear back from them.Although from looking at the site,I kinda suspect they don’t deliver to the UK,but who knows,if they don’t,perhaps they might consider doing just that.Please overlook the way this post looks,I just cant get the hang of microsoft office
Hi admin,I received a reply from the spanish company on ebay that you linked to and at the moment they don’t have that particular model in stock but should have back in stock in two weeks,and the quoted price to deliver to the UK is 39 Euro.So thats 189.9 Euro plus 39Euro delivery.
228 Euro’s is around £174.00 at the current exchange rate, so although not as cheap as Brico, its certainly still a worthwhile saving over UK prices for similar heaters, and the Cheapest deal so far. If I can get them to update the shipping options on their Ebay listing to include the UK when they get the new stock in, then i’ll update this page, and also the “Cheap Inverter Heater” page with links to the new Listing.
Assuming Brico don’t have a change of heart in the meantime. I don’t speak Italian, so I asked a colleague to contact them with a ‘script’ of questions to put to them, unfortunately there was no senior management available to speak to them this Afternoon, so they are going to continue over the next few days, hopefully I’ll have some further information soon.
Thanks for the continued updates.
Hiya, I came across This Heater. If you scroll down, That company name looks familiar, doesn’t it? I emailed them – “letsBrico” to enquire about delivering to the UK, but no response so far.
I think Brico are some kind of chain or Franchise, which have outlets located all over Europe, I think one of their trading names is / was also ‘Bricolage’. Hence with (their collective) buying power I was surprised that they appear to be buying stock through distribution, rather than direct. Of course when an entity buys direct from the manufacturer, it removes a lot of the internal politics as well!.
It will be interesting to see whether you get a reply, but of course if it all ships out from the same hub (Brico Bravo) you’ll probably just get the usual scripted response.
Curious update, I’ve heard again from the Spanish company that was willing to sell the inverter heater for 189.9 Euro + 39 Euro delivery cost. I’ll just copy n paste what was said and google translate if thats ok. Remember this is after they said I’d have to wait a fortnight.
This is them:
Hola, puedo pedir una estufa directamente al fabricante. El precio sería 210 euros la estufa
35 gastos de envio un salado
Hi, I can ask a stove manufacturer directly. The price would be 210 euros stove 35 Shipping costs.
My reply,
hola, no me importa esperar un tiempo, si eso significa que puede comprar el calentador de un poco más barato, El Mañana es una buena cosa. Mis mejores deseos, Robert.
hello,I don’t mind waiting a while, If it means I can buy the heater a little cheaper
Best wishes Robert.
Now this:
199 +35 gastos de envio fuera de ebay para que no me cobren la comisión. Simplemente con paypal +35
199 + 35 shipping charge off ebay Paypal not charge me for the commission.
I’m not sure what to make of that. I’m relatively new to buying online.It sounds like they want to haggle over a price? But also am I wrong in thinking that buying through sites like ebay,amazon etc. Provides some kind of consumer protection, otherwise it’s just a private transaction between 2 people at great distance it’s not like if there’s an issue,I can simply go to their shop! Your advice would be gladly received and feel free to edit this comment,if need be.
Just looked at that comment, basically first it’s wait 2 weeks and it will cost 189.9 + 39 Euro, then on further contact it’s gone up to 210 + 35 Euro, but now it’s 199 + 35 Euro?
Forgot to mention,looking at the above arithmetic.Ebay just sent me a £5 voucher lol.
I guess they have had a look around to see what we are paying for these heaters in the UK, and figured they could easily add a few quid, or Euro’s in this case into the equation, and we would happily pay it. The minute you mention to an overseas Vendor that you are in the UK, they seem happy to think that we will be happy to pay top dollar for their goods. Hmmm I wonder why!!
Offering to buy outside of Ebay is quite common, and yes it saves the Vendor a significant amount of commission, not to mention Ebay listing fees, on the flip side, you would lose the protection of Ebay.
How is the vendor requesting that you would pay for the order, if not via Paypal?
Personally, I would be negotiating at the original Ebay price which you were offered and quoted, namely 189 euros + 39 Euro shipping fee AND offering to do the transaction outside of Ebay, which should, lower the price to below the original 189 euros.
Bearing in mind that Brico’s price was £120 + Shipping (£150 in Total) (as can still be seen in the linked listing) i’d still be wanting to get as near to that target price as possible from an alternative vendor.
You can’t send website links via Ebay (they delete / block them), but if its possible to get the vendors’ email address in order to communicate directly, then you could send them the link to Brico’s Ebay auction, and ask them if they can supply that model of heater and meet (or get as close as possible to) Brico’s price. Its possible that the SRE series is a cheaper model than the one that they are currently offering, and they may be able to get it from their same distributor source (Which is I suspect will be Essege).
Ok look, here is your Spanish heater, for sale from what looks like yet another Brico styled outlet
http://www.bricor.es/bricor/detalle.action?idProducto=000000000001849120&coSet=000000000001940299
This appears to be the Manufacturers website in Spain, should you want to send them an email to see if they will deal with you direct, or if they can suggest a European distributor who can ship to the UK
http://www.qlima.es/2093/qlima-sre-3531-tc-120-m3.htm
This German company appears to ship to the UK, although you may have to contact them for shipping charges
http://zibro-shop.eshop.t-online.de/epages/Store3_Shop36831.sf/en_GB/?ViewObjectPath=%2FShops%2FShop36831%2FProducts%2FKERO%5B1%5D
Admin,thank you for your advice. Regarding Paypal, I don’t know yet, but If I understand your question correctly, presumably,Visa,Mastercard etc. On the translated page of the Spanish seller,at the bottom of the page is the name,address and email address of the company. It was using there email address that I first contacted them,and reading what you have written above, perhaps there email address is there for that purpose. I told them that I’m thinking about the offer,and again now that I’ve read your advice, I think I will continue to shop for a better deal and at least speak to the other companies you have linked too. I notice the Spanish seller has amended the ebay page, now 110 Euro + postage.
Ok, If you do decide to buy outside of Ebay, then always use a Credit Card (not a debit card) as purchases over £100 are protected under a consumer credit law called Section 75, and this also extends to purchases made online, and outside of the UK. So if the item isn’t as described, turns up damaged or worse still, doesn’t turn up at all, then your purchase is covered, and will be refunded by the Bank / Credit Card company. Never pay by Bank Transfer or Western Union regardless of how much the company offer you as a discount on goods paid for by this method.
If you can wait for a while, i’m sure that something better will eventually come along
There is a UK distributor currently selling the Zibro Heaters for £172 inc Vat and Delivery. I suspect that this is currently the cheapest price for these Heaters in the UK
http://fave.co/1zL5in0
(Thanks to Ian Fossett for sharing the Link)
Thanks to Ian Fosset,This is the cheapest I found,from the link Admin gave above for the german company.I tryed to contact them last week to confirm if they do deliver to the UK,and to find out the cost of delivery.I received a reply informing me that they were on holiday(I think?).Google translated the email as we “we are currently at the fair,back from the fair on Monday”.Which made me laugh.I’ll take a look at both the UK company and try to contact the german company again.Many thanks
Sorry This,from the german company.http://zibro-shop.eshop.t-online.de/epages/Store3_Shop36831.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Shop36831/Products/KERO%5B1%5D
Possibly at an exhibition (Trade Fair) perhaps?, as opposed to riding around on the dodgems. (Although with team building courses these days, you never know!.)
Its possible that they may direct you to buy from a UK Distributor (like Energy Bulbs above) or they may deal direct with you, there isn’t a lot in the price between the two, so it all hinges on carriage charges from Germany.
We shall await their reply with interest.
Hello Admin,I never did hear back from the German company,goodness knows why,perhaps the fair was that good,they decided to join it! The manufacturer you linked to above, put me in touch with a Dutch company,who quoted a delivery cost of 30Euro.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zibrowebshop.com%2Ftectro-made-by-qlima-laser-petroleumkachel-sre-133.html&edit-text=&act=url
This in total would come to £200.In the end I bought the heater you linked to above from the UK supplier. I should say that I live in the far north of Scotland and the cost of the heater and delivery charges came to a total of £188. But still cheaper than I would have had, too buy from Europe(at the moment). I had the heater on today and yes it does heat up a room pretty quick. All I should be doing now is educating myself a bit more on how to look after / service the heater and navigate the horrendous complexity of getting a better deal on utility prices, tarrif this, tarrif that, standing charge, Kwh?? I’m very grateful for all your help and good advice. Take care for now.
Those delivery charges do bite pretty hard once you head North don’t they, I think these are determined by the delivery companies though rather than the Vendors. I have an APC courier rate card in front of me, and anything farther North of the A9 seems to get loaded with tiered extra charges, and according to this it actually costs the same to send a 10kg package to Inverness (and beyond) as it does to ship the same package to Spain and the Netherlands!
If you have a recent energy bill to hand, its much easier to just use one of the many energy comparison sites to find a cheaper deal, and just enter in the details from an existing bill. I recommend using at least two or better still, three different comparison sites in order to get a good idea of which would be the cheapest provider and so the best supplier to move to. If you need any help, then just ask
As well as moving suppliers there are other little things you can do to reduce your usage too, and a lot are covered in this blog.
However just by using one of these heaters to produce the bulk of your room heat, (and so keeping one or more Electric Heaters switched off as a result), will reduce your Electricity bill quite significantly.
I must admit that i’ve never used (or pulled apart) A Zibro heater, although I had heard of them. The majority of these heaters are generally pretty much the same inside and operate on a similar principle, and so the servicing guide here should at least point you in the right direction.
Fantastic site. The cheapest kerosene heater at the moment: http://fave.co/1SfpGCc
Great site..very informative. .many thanks..may I ask a direct question regarding condensation.
I’ve seen reports on other sites and forums that these heaters, (of which I want to buy two to replace the economy 7 heating system), can cause heavy condensation in a well insulated house with little ventilation.
Could somebody please give me information on first hand experience?
Many thanks. .
Peter..
I can only speak from my own experience, and i’ve never personally had any damp or condensation issues in five years of use of these heaters. Friends who use one to heat a static caravan don’t seem to have problems either, although granted their use is seasonal. Its worth noting that you still need to keep a reasonable amount of natural room ventilation to use these heaters safely in any case, as they use combustion, and will just trip out if the level of natural room ventilation isn’t adequate. However having adequate ventilation is just the same for Portable LPG Fires and those diesel / kerosene space heaters in Marquees and workshops and for paint drying, the physics of that aspect will not change.
Hi Admin,
I’d appreciate any advice/help on a Brico Bravo heater I’m using.
It’s been going fine for 3 years now and apart from a few clean outs of the black deposits inside the burning cup I’ve never had a problem.
I burn 50:50 heating oil and C1 paraffin with an additive which is suppose to help it burn cleaner. Can’t comment if this helps of not but it’s been burning lovely.
I’ve just finished the latest clean as the paraffin container was almost empty and it’s been taking two attempts at lighting. I’ve just switched it back on after finishing cleaning and it is having difficulties running a smooth flame. It burns fine for 3-4 mins then a change in the burning sound and it seems to stop burning and a whoosh of yellow flame blows out the front it quickly recovers and then burns ok for 10 mins then another episode the same. On two occasions the yellow flame period was so long it stopped on an E4 error. When I turn it up to 30 degrees it seems to burn better but flashes of occasional yellow appear around the outside of the burning chamber.
Any ideas as it’s a little scary when the flames lick out the front. Thanks, Adrian.
Hi Adrian. First of all I would stop using it, flames blowing out from the front sounds like something is badly wrong, and this would be potentially dangerous. First of all, both of my inverter heaters – including the Brico SRE series have the burner in an enclosed metal chamber, with a small window (to see the flame), if flames are being blown out of the front of the heater, then your heater sounds like its either missing its metal enclosure or its badly damaged in some way, and if the burn chamber isn’t properly sealed, then it would probably also explain the poor combustion.
Hi Admin, thanks for your reply, I did stop using it and stripped it down again.
Nothing is missing from the unit it is the very same heater that gas be heating the house for 3 years. It was a very strange reaction to me and alarming. The only thing I found was the aluminium gasket between the burning cup and the cap that screws on top was not sitting flat inside the shallow recess. I made a new one by cutting out the suspect from a baco foil roasting dish. Same thickness and made from aluminium. I rolled it flat and replaced it. After a few minutes of yellow flashing the burner settled down. It’s been a few days now and it’s completely back to normal. No more flame throwing, I’m interested in your comments about the burn chamber being enclosed. I don’t think they are enclosed at all. The air blows through the chamber and is heated as it comes into contact with the blue flame. The chamber just heats the paraffin and allows the vapour to except through holes which are protected by stainless gauze this is ignited as it escapes and burns blue flame. If liquid paraffin escapes under the seal is can ignite so I think mine was allowing heated liquid paraffin to escape under the aluminium seal and ignite in an uncontrolled way the air just blow the flames out the front. Quite spectacular to watch, my wife was not quite so impressed. I’d be interested in anybody’s comments as to whether that’s what’s happening inside the chamber. Cheers Adrian.