Clarke (i.e. Machine Mart) stoves - any good?

No, they're horrible. Like all those cheap cast iron stoves, they're more for decoration than use (especially the smaller cheaper potbellies). Fire them up regularly and you'll have cracking problems.

A much better deal is something built from steel rather than iron. By and large this means recycling gas cylinders or welding from flat plate. If you go to someone with an eye for design and a plasma cutter you can get something much more interesting and you may even beat Machine Mart's pricing (their big stoves are far from cheap).

Something like a Jotul is of course excellent, but the price!

If you're near Ludlow, here's a chap who makes nice designs.

To be quite honest they all look rather ugly to me, the sort of bodge my rather pathetic welding would produce.

Sadly I'm right across the other side of the country in Suffolk.

Sister has the Franklin, this has been in use for over 2 years, and for the last winter mostly every day. Not cracked yet.

IMO ugly though...

If its for the workshop ... something like these might be better:

It's for our breakfast room, not a workshop. Thanks for the link however, they sell the Hunter Herald 14 that we have in the lounge and like very much and the site looks good for having a wide range to browse through.

We have been using a small Clarke stove for 5 years + and it’s very effective. It gets lighted every evening and has never been a problem. So don’t believe all the negative comments you see on here.

You are 17 years late, stupid.

better late than never

It could of course prove that they have actually fixed the errors in the old ones though? That is the problem with the internet, old stuff carries on until somebody deletes it. Brian

I've said that about a few people.