The ESSE Ironheart’s most eye-catching feature is without a doubt its stunning large firebox. But even before we get to the ovens or cooktop, we have a cooking surface. Simply slide in the ESSE barbeque tray and you can cook steak, sausages, or pizzas (with a pizza stone) or the glowing coals. Taking the firebox as a heater, it can heat up to 80m², and has an impressive 81% efficiency. Once you add the overnight burn, this is one incredible firebox! The oven of the ESSE Ironheart is a perfect baker’s oven, with the heat from the firebox circling around the outside of the oven, providing a consistent heat.

The dog-bone hotplate on top of the ESSE Ironheart is an absolute dream to cook on. Not only is it extraordinarily large, allowing you fit 5 or 6 large pots, pans, or a kettle on top, but the entire dog-bone is a cooking surface, meaning you can cook fish, meat, veggies, pancake – basically whatever you can conjure, directly on top of the hotplate. And with the temperature gradient, control is all yours – with the left-hand side, directly above the firebox, perfect for boiling, but if you slide the kettle over to the left, you get a perfect simmer temperature. Another cool feature is the hotplate covers. These can be closed to prevent heat escape the top when not in use or use them to trap moisture and heat in when char-steaming your veggies.

One of the coolest little hidden features of the ESSE Ironheart is the way the heat is controlled. There is a little dial on the stove which dictates whether the heat from the firebox goes up into the stovetop, or across into the oven. This gives you a great deal of flexibility with where your heat goes. And when you’re cooking on the stove top, you can cover the firebox glass with the included ESSE screen, which mitigates the heat coming out of the firebox allowing you to cook on top of the firebox without burning your legs.

With traditional air-cooled flues, you have the potential to lose up to 8% of the heat your heater/cooker makes up the flue, which costs about a tonne of wood per year. With Pivot’s Insulated Room Sealed Flue Kit, the ceiling ring seals the room at the ceiling, ensuring all the heat is kept inside the room. And if you live in a modern airtight home, the Outside Air Intake will provide fresh air through a duct to your fire, ensuring your fire can breathe without issue.

The modern successor to the wood stoves that have existed for hundreds of years, the ESSE Ironheart is the culmination of ESSE’s more than 150 years of experience. With its stunning looks, brilliant firebox, and epic cooking capabilities, this is the definitive wood stove the 21^st century.