owdman wrote:
They are [snip] basically v expensive,

You can get a genwine 2-hand bargain for a couple of
hundred pounds. Anthracite is a bit dear, though. I
hope it won't go up proportionally to gas! About £155
per ton at the moment.


unreliable

As in "prone to breakdown" or "difficult to keep going
consistently well"?


and impractical.

Argh! No programmer on the solid fuel ones to say "Come
on 1/2 an hour before I'm likely to come back in after
visiting the pub on Friday". That *is* an issue, yes.