Reviews — Reviews

Hi Windkat,

Many thanks,

Tom

(Reading, UK)

Hello,

Please find attached a few photographs of our new Windkat cowl.

I built my house back in 2016 and ever since we moved in we have been bothered with chimney noise during high winds. It was so bad that we could not even hear the television. As we live in the very far north of Scotland, high winds are very common. Since I fitted me new Windkat Cowl we have had winds over 60mph and the noise has reduced dramatically. There is still a slight noise during seriously high winds but that is to be expected. I am very happy with my purchase and will be recommending the Windkat Cowl to anyone who has down draft or chimney noise issues. 

Best Regards

S. Campbell

Dear Windkat Team,

Works like a bomb !! 🔥 🔥 

Our fireplace battled to get going, now we need to turn it down.

Many thanks

S.L

 

Thank you for such a professional and swift service. We are so please with our Windkat's, which have finally solved the long and on going smoke and smell issues in our home. We will be recommending this product to all our friends and neighbours here in Malta. 

All the best from Malta.

Dear Windkat Team,

Nothing beats getting an email from an old customer with a photo of his Windkat Cowl in action and surrounded by meters of deep snow. 

This is why we love our product and love helping people create a cosy home worldwide. 

If 2019 can bring us as much happiness than 2018 then bring it on. 

Windkat Cowls Team.

Good afternoon, 

I have attached a few Windkat photos when the weather was nice. Both Windkat's are working amazingly well and we couldn't be more happy. No more smoke or downdraught ruining the restaurant atmosphere. Thank you for the great service and support. 

Many thanks 

Diana R

We have had a troubled and smokey stove for some time now and I can finally say after trying several Cowls we have hit the jackpot. Thank you to Windkat Cowls and your excellent service. We are looking forward to a successful winter at long last. What a great clever Cowl you have. I wont be surprised if I start seeing these Windkat's all over the Alps and chalets in the near distant future. I will be recommending them.

All the best,

Steve M 

Hi Windkat Cowls,

Our Windkat cowl has now been fitted, and good news, the chimney now works. The gas fire, that previously failed its spillage test, this time round passed with flying colours.

Thank you for all your help.

Best wishes

Paul G

Dear Sir or Madam,

I Installed my new Windkat on Wednesday and am really excited about its product.

The stove no longer smokes when lit, draws clean and can be much better controlled than my previous rotating cowl, which stopped rotating after 1.5 years.

On Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed the calm flames without the slightest smell of soot at long last. We are using far less wood as we previously were and couldn't be happier. 

I did not think this product would work so well so quickly.

I'm really looking forward to a nice non-smoking stove in my cosy living room.

Best regards

H. S.

Hi team Windkat,

I wanted to send you a quick review after these cold winter months in the mountains. The Windkat has provided cosiness for both in the hotel and in our private household for a pleasant good-pulling stove at long last. As seen here at the Alststaufner Einkehr in Oberstaufen.

All the best

K.L

Hello Windkat Cowls,

I have recently purchased a Windkat Cowl and I have now tried it at long last and I must say I am completely thrilled. There is no more smoke in the living room, no matter what direction the wind is, it makes no difference to the Windkat it works like a dream. The flame burns beautifully and the release of heat with my not so great stove has increased significantly. This investment has paid off.

All the best,

Simon P 

Kent

Hello,

I fitted a Windkat cowl to the flue from my woodburning stove a few months ago.  The stove has been in regular use since, in all weathers, and the Windkat has transformed its performance.  The flue is to the front of the roof face and lower than the ridge, fully exposed to winds from the south or south-west.  Originally, it had only a rain cap.  Any wind onto the roof made the stove susceptible to downdraft and smoking, or to excessive draw.  In strong winds, I had to play with opening and closing doors and windows in the room to balance the pressure and allow the stove to work at all.  I was a bit sceptical of anti-downdraught cowls after disappointing results with a cowl of a different make on another flue, but I decided to try the Windkat as it claimed to be properly designed and engineered.  I am very glad I did, the stove is now well behaved with even the strongest winds barely affecting the flames.  Great product!

Best regards,
Barry

Hi Windkat,

Hello Windkat,

I would like to thank you very much for your help and assistance with our fire. The Windkat is mounted! And what can I say: It works flawlessly. The time when I had to use and light newspaper in our stove is finally over. Our room doesn't get filled with toxic newspaper smoke anymore. I'm very happy and happy to have made the decision to install the Windkat. Thank you for the good advice and I wish you all a Happy new Year for 2018.

Greetings from N.

Family S.

Hello Windkat Cowls,

The Windkats arrived as promised and have now been installed along side the previous Windkat we installed some years ago after trying numerous unsuccessful cowls. Now all the appliances are working fine with no downdraught problems so far.

Kind regards

John  

A unique Windkat Cowl project and installation has been completed. The fire draws beautifully and has created a great cosy place to relax and chill. Even though the flue is only 2.5m in length the Windkat has created an even steady draw, even during these cold winter nights. 

Thank you so much for all your help and assistance.

Regards, 

Martin Rall

Hello, Surely you can still remember our conversation. We own a house on the Vesteralen (about 300km north of the Arctic Circle). As you can see in the attached pictures, we have a 300m high mountain directly behind the house. As a result, the wind is all over the place and causes havoc on our property. With the original mounted chimney cowl, it happened again and again that the wind was blowing the smoke through the stove on the first floor and into the living room. It became so bad we didn't light the stove and had given up. Since the installation of the Windkat, we have had incredible results starting with an even flame and fire in our stove. Even in high and unpredictable wind directions the fire burns beautifully and the smoke issue has vanished into thin air. Great invention! Many Thanks D.S.

Hello, I installed my new Windkat on my stainless steel chimney flue and immediately tested the effect of it. We had high winds that I can only compare to the likes of autumn and spring storms. We lit our stove for the first time a few weeks ago and have not looked back since. The flames were calm and we had no smoke filling up the stove and trying to escape the seems. Its been a frustrating few years and we now look forward to a stress free winter. Thank you so much for your help and for such an excellent product. Attached are photos with our previous cowl which didn't work at all and the new Windkat Cowl.  Greetings L. K. 

Hi there,

I have just replaced my spinning flue cap with the Windkat Cowl and would like to tell you what a difference it's made!

Due to our installation the flue is towards the minimum length allowable. A spinning cowl was fitted to assist with the draw, however due to the prevailing wind and surrounding structure it would only spin on a rare occasion.

Whilst the stove has remained usable and I absolutely love it, on some gusty days we would have issues with backdraft and on seriously windy days we've even had smoke being forced out of the stove through the air inlet into the room!

It was after the recent high winds that I stumbled upon the Windkat Cowl. As an aircraft engineer I recognised the principle behind the design (aircraft fuel systems use high pressure fuel to induce a motive flow in a jet pump) and knew it would be ideal for my installation.

Whilst it's still early days, I've noticed an immediate improvement in the stove performance and would thoroughly recommend fitting a Windkat Cowl if people are experiencing problems with poor draw/backdraft.

Please feel free to add my comments to your site! Great product and works as advertised!

Many thanks,

Al Black

Auchterarder

Hi Philip,

We have now had the Windkat installed for around a month and have had successful after successful after successful fire without any issues.

We had two installation companies visit our property and both said that they would not install a wood burner as they were 80-90% sure that it wouldn't work in our location. We live very close to trees and have a steep garden so they were assuring me that downdraft was sure to be a major issue. I tried to explain to one fitter about the Windkat cowl and how different they are from others, but he wouldn't listen to me and said that he they are all the same...

Went to the third company and mentioned about the downdraft concern but that I intend to install a Windkat cowl. The site survey was done and they were going to use a premium flue system with the Windkat and were very confident that it will work.

So far so good. We have seen the smoke blowing down so know that it is certainly working well as the fire seems to light and burn well. 

After many conversations with you, I am so glad that I took the plunge and had the burner installed with a Windkat on the flue. The company who installed the wood burner are so impressed, they will be giving it a recommendation to other clients that have the same issue. It works well and looks really cool too.

Great product and we are very happy and extremely toasty...

Kind regards

Gary

Good afternoon.

I recently purchased and (easily) self installed my Windkat a few weeks ago. For a product to get a review from me it's either truly awful or extremely good! Yours very definitely falls into the second category. We've had a troublesome stove in our kitchen for a number of years. It was so unpredictable we hardly used it and almost regretted fitting it. Today has been my first proper test. I lit the fire in a way (deliberately) that would have been a disaster previously and the stove drew beautifully. I am flabbergasted at the difference. A really windy or cold and still day will be the final test but so far it's looking really great. Photo available as an addition to my words should you like one. Thank you again.

Follow up email: 

Lit it in the wind last night, absolutely no problems at all. Wish everything did it's job as well as your product!

Greg.

Now that the days are getting shorter and the outside temperatures are getting colder, the time has come when using your fireplace or stove will increases the cosiness of your home. To ensure this becomes a reality, the Windkat Cowl is the only solution.

We are delighted that the Windkat has once again solved another customers open fireplace issue, lack of draw and smokey room problems. The Windkat was also colour matched against the customers unique chimney stack which they are extremely proud of. 
These are just some of the reasons a Windkat Cowl can transform your home for the better. 

Your Windkat Cowl has been installed and our stove is finally drawing beautifully again after years of stress. I have attached some photos for you.

Thank you for your excellent service and product. 

M Dallenbach

Dear Mr. Goerlach,

As promised, I would like to review one of our results concerning the Windkat Cowl.

I have attached two pictures for you which shows the problems of the flue set up and wall mounting set up. As a restriction on the height was an issue we only needed to use a 90 ° angle flue and then the installation of the Windkat itself. The purpose of the Windkat was to take over manually when our ventilation system is turned off inside the building.

As far as the Windkat is concerned and the operation of the system, we can not yet determine any clear results since we have only been able to test it in a few occasions but so far the results have been outstanding and we are so happy.

With regards to the  Windkat working and being successful it was clear after switching off the ventilation fan, because then we were able to establish that a stable air pressure is present. We had tried many other Cowls with no luck and wasting our money but now we can finally relax and get a clean efficient ventilation 24hours a day automatically and now manually. 

I would like to thank you very much for having helped us with the ventilation issues we had and helping us choose the right Windkat Cowl. We are also grateful for helping us get a constant even draw and air flow with our ventilation system once its turned off and has to work manually.

Sincerely, / Kind regards

David Delly

Project Engineer Team Process Engineering

Professor Dr. Berg

Hi Philip

We have had the Windkat for four months now and its working fine, no need to check for down drafts anymore (it looks good to).

The Windkat is working really well. I think we have been through most wind directions, with only a couple of small puffs of smoke in a seriously strong westerly. The last email I sent I had checked the flu when the wind was in the south west and there was a down draft, in the past (with other cowls) this has meant the room filling with smoke on lighting a fire. After using the Windkat I tried lighting the fire and it worked and has been working ever since. 

Thank you for all your help, 

Kind regards

Barry

Philip,

Windkat is fitted and it's made a big difference to the control of the burner. It still smokes a little bit when it's cool, but once it gets up to temperature that's when it's noticeable. Before if you closed the primary vent it would die out. Now it's controlled by the secondary vent with good results.

Thank you so much for your help and assistance. 

Kind regards

Steve Trotman

Dear Windkat Team,

In March of this year we bought a Windkat Cowl from you. In the last few weeks, we have started lighting our stove and heating our living room and we are thrilled with the results. Our stove burns better than ever before. Our living room is no longer filled with smoke and fumes every time we light the fire, the glass of the stove is always nice and clear and the wood burns perfectly. You are welcome to publish my review on your website. I can highly recommend anyone who has problems with any stove or fireplace to buy a Windkat!

Best regards.

J.E.

A fantastic Windkat Installation for passive ventilation purposes. This is for a Bakery in Munich and has been a huge success. Not only does the Windkat Cowl work for fires and fuels it is also unique in the fact it can be used for passive ventilation. 

Good morning,

As promised, here are two pictures of our Windkat with extension.

We were really desperate to sort out our new fireplace. We had paid a lot of money and it did not work properly. It smelt in our living room of cold smoke and the draw was so bad that we couldn't light a fire anymore.

This is finally now in the past, thanks to your help and your product.

Thank you for your competent advice on the phone and your excellent service. We will be recommending this product to all our friends and family.

Kind regards

M.K.

Good day Windkat, After 6 years since the installation, I can happily inform you that we are still very satisfied with the installed WindKat Cowl. The purchase was a very good investment. We finally have a roaring stove again without puffs of smoke entering our living room.

Best greetings from Lake Balaton

Werner Giebenhain

Hello Windkat Cowls, I hope your well! Please find attached a couple of pics / small clips of the Windkat in action. Been really impressed with it, working really well. Stove is pulling brilliant with it now. Also Philip have you had any orders from Wigan yet? If not you can be expecting some because I have been in regular contact with the company that fitted my stove - They actually now tell any potential customers with a shorter flue that they would recommend to fit a Windkat cowl, how good is that? Also they text me in the week to ask me where I ordered my Windkat from so I put them onto the website.

Craig Ryan

A big thank you for the Windkat Cowl that we purchased through the company that fitted our log burner. It has resolved our down draft problems entirely after some agonising winters.

Kind regards

Troy Archer

Just a couple of photo's showing our Windkat installation.

As can be seen from the 2 original photo's the chimney pot was replaced with a shorter version with the stainless liner tube cemented centrally and the Windkat fitted.

Up to now the Windkat seems to be performing extremely well with a reduced noise level even in the high winds. We are looking forward to the winter storms yet so we will wait and see.

Regards

Peter Bennett

Hello again I hope you have had a great Christmas and New Year. I just thought I would get back in touch with you whilst the Windkat is on! The product is amazing and my stove is like a new one but with one minor problem, there is still smoke coming back into the room when I open the stove door, but nowhere near as much! It tends to be when there is not much wind outside and it is calm...maybe my flue is too short? On the other hand my stoves glass is no longer black, it is clear! And also my stove is a lot more responsive ( I can actually shut it down now when up to temp) which I could not do before. Also I can easily tell that efficiency has been greatly improved! I am really happy Philip it's just a shame about the little bit of smoke sometimes coming back into the room a bit. 

Speak to you soon, regards, Craig (Devon)

Dear Windkat Cowls Ltd,

Just to let you know that the new cowl is fitted and working extremely well. We haven’t yet had a full Cornish gale but in all other circumstances the chimney has drawn as it should with no sign of any downdraft. Many thanks for all your help.

Kind regards

Julian  

26/10/16

We ordered this cowl early December, it arrived five days later really well boxed and protected.

We could not access the chimney top till just after Christmas due to the poor weather. We then got to the existing pot and took off the bird guard and checked the pot itself as well as cleaning the inside of the pot. We checked the Windkat fitted the pot snugly which it did. We warmed up the mastic supplied, carefully applied it to the cowl and placed the cowl into the pot. All done in about 15 minutes with no problem.

Since installing, the log burner has lit easily and draught has been more consistent than before. Overnight burning has been easier too. The reason we wanted this Cowl being that we live in the North of Scotland in a valley, close to a wood. When the wind is in a SW direction we were getting serious downdraught and smoke filling the room. Having now used the cowl for several weeks without much wind, we have last evening had high gusting wind from the SW, NO smoke!

We can only say that we are delighted with the product, it is well made, easy to fit and does what it says it will do. Expensive maybe, but the end result is excellent and the cowl will last for years, unlike its cheaper competitors.

I fitted my wood burning stove last year. Since the first time that it was lit the room would fill with smoke. It was so bad that all of the windows had to be opened and the room vacated. It was also very difficult to light taking 2 or 3 attempts. In an effort to resolve the problem I added another length of twin wall piping to no avail.
 
I did a bit of investigation on the internet and came upon your product. It looked to be just the job and with the money back guarantee where could I go wrong.
 
Well the WindKat arrived and I fitted it straight away which was simplicity itself. I lit the fire (first time) and there was no smoke in the room at all. You could see it in the fire but it wasn't escaping. As well as curing the smoke and lighting problems it also seems to make the fire burn more efficiently. Previously it would blaze away getting through the fuel at a rate of knots.
 
I am a bit of a sceptic and wanted to be sure that this was not a one off. I am extremely happy to report that it was not - since then I have had several fires and encountered none of the previous problems.
 
In conclusion, I am extremely happy with the product and would recommend it without hesitation - it does what it says on the can!
 
Many thanks
 
Mr Stone

The Windkat you supplied has been fitted for two weeks now, and as I expected the results have been extraordinary! For the first time since the house was built in 1974 there is no longer any sign of downdraughts from the chimney, even in the highest winds. Fires burn much better and much more consistently since the updraught is also consistent.

Given the ovality of the chimney pot, I made up a clamping system from stainless steel, as we discussed, and that made fitting the cowl a five minute job, tightening two screws. It also means that removing it for any reason would also be a five minute job. The clamp deals easily with the ovality of the pot.

Over a number of years I had tries several different sorts of cowls, none of which were cheap, and none of which worked. I could have saved some money by buying one of yours in the beginning!

Thanks for your untiring help with this project. I would happily recommend a Windkat to anyone with a downdraught problem, and I will do so.

I wanted to update you on the chimney cowl I purchased from you. In short, it worked. I’ve had an oil stove installed in the house for about 8 years, and this is the first winter it worked correctly. Prior to installing the cowl we could only turn the stove up to about 40 percent of maximum before it would start becoming unstable, we had tried several different cowls.  My house is old by North American standards(circa.1884), with little insulation, and large about 3500 square feet. When the furnace is used to heat the house it uses about 300-400 litres of oil a week, thankfully as bad as the weather was this winter we only uses the furnace for about 10 days, typically we use it for two months. The cowl paid for itself in a season.

The quality of workmanship and materials is high. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. 

As wood a burner novice I knew little or nothing of the complexities of wood burning stoves and their various accessories, but it was clear from my research the choice of cowl was just as important as the choice of the stove itself. As the research progressed it also became very clear I was spoilt for choice in terms of both design and price when it came to the cowl. Aware southwest England is particularly prone to strong winds and gales in the winter months, I was keen to ensure the chosen cowl should have a proven track record when it came to coping  with down-draught problems. It was also important to get it right first time if I were to avoid return visits to the top of our chimney! The Windkat appeared to fit the bill, albeit at a premium price.
Our wood burner, a Hwam 3110, was installed just before Christmas together with a Windkat 150 plug-in and the initial results were excellent with plenty of draw in the stove itself. The next test would be how well it coped with down-draughts and the answer was to come sooner than expected on Boxing Day evening, when the west country experienced some very strong winds. Whilst the weather outside remained rough there was absolutely no indication of this within the stove, which continued to draw in exactly the same manner as it had done on calm days. Even when the stove was opened to refuel there was no evidence of any down-draught whatsoever.
Thus far the Windkat has performed very well and I would happily recommend this chimney cowl to any potential customers. No, it wasn’t the cheapest cowl on the market, but it’s well made from quality materials and 'Does exactly what is says on the tin’. Hopefully the Windkat will also prove to be a wise longterm investment.

Thank you & kind regards,

It is some time since I installed your wonderful Windkat Chimney Cowl (April this year) but we have only recently had to start heating the home (the log burner is our only source of heating). Please find attached two pictures, one showing the fire burning with flue temperature gauge and heat powered fans and the second one taken within a minute showing how clean the burn is!
We used to have trouble with slow burning and large amounts of smoke along with our downdraft. We now have very clean burning with no problems getting things started or keeping them going. As you can see (or not) there is almost no smoke visible demonstrating how efficient how log burner has become. We are using between 2/3 and 1/2 the amount of wood we were using before your cowl was fitted and only need to empty the ash pan every four or five days instead of daily (another demonstration of how the efficiency has been improved!).
I have to say I was nervous spending the amount I did on a cowl but have absolutely NO regrets whatsoever.
Bloody brilliant!

Thanks again,

Being one of life's skeptics, I was dubious about this product to say the least (especially at the price), but having researched and read lots of reviews, it seemed the best option for our downdraft issue (smoke filled room almost every time we lit the stove - my wife banned me from using it!).
Yes, there are much cheaper options on the market (which I must confess I have never tried) but none of them offered the full package of low maintenance (no moving parts), easy to install (although managed to get our builder to do it for free!), works in all conditions (windy and still), etc. I'm delighted to say I have tested the cowl in various weather conditions, and have yet to find any that cause the downdraft and resulting smoking. This appears to be science at it's best, so in my opinion merits the steep price tag - I would recommend this product to anyone having downdraft/draw issues with their wood burning stove. Now I'm allowed to light the stove whenever I want!

Having suffered from smoked filled rooms in many houses in spite of receiving entirely useless  "expert advice" along the way, at our present house (where we suffered the same problem)  we decided to fit a Windkat and it has transformed our lives and probably extended them too! I would recommend the Windkat to anyone with fire smoke problems.

"the plug in windkat that I ordered  earlier on this year [2013] to use on my chimney flue,  is working well and has stopped all the downdraught, also it has improved the performance of our stove by increasing the heat output with a consistent regular burn, allowing the fuel on the fire to burn slower, but yet generates a high heat output,  and no smoke enters the room when opening the stove doors."