In The Spotlight: Chilli Penguin Stoves

Who Are They?

Chilli Penguin are a small family run business located near the stunning coastline of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales who were established in 2001. When buying a stove for their first home, although they loved the stove, they thought they could make something better. With a design and engineering background and an idea about a little stove with an oven, the initial design was created. From the sketches a wooden prototype was made and then a company found who could fabricate the components in steel.

The early prototypes were welded up in the garage and trialled in their home. Soon the parts and tooling outgrew the garage and the first premises were obtained, an industrial unit in Caerphilly in South Wales. A name for the stove was required and one of their son’s favourite books when he was 3 was about a penguin who didn’t like the cold. From that chilly penguin… Chilli Penguin was born. The first model had a little oven box on top and it became known as the Hungry Penguin. The first production model was bought in 2002 and they are still in touch with that customer who is still using his Hungry Penguin.

In 2010 the business moved to its current base in Pwllheli on the beautiful Llŷn Peninsula. Where possible Chilli Penguin work with partner companies in Caernarfon. All the fabrication and painting is completed in house, in Pwllheli.

Chilli penguin High and Mighty wood burning stove in charred red, cook stove — Chilli Penguin High & Mighty in Charred Red

The Penguin Aim

Chilli Penguin are a small company, who do not mass produce. All their stoves are made to order, so they know every single stove that goes out of our door. Their customers really matter. What inspires and excites them is beautiful, functional design that look amazing and perform brilliantly.

Chilli Penguin Idris wood burning stove — Chilli Penguin Idris

They want their stoves to burn as efficiently and cleanly as possible. They are committed to UK manufacturing not only because the UK is good at it, but also every order contributes to the salary of someone local to us or someone who we know.

Chilli Penguin have high environmental credentials, using wooden pallets, cardboard packaging, wood wool and shredded waste paper where possible for transporting the stoves with a compostable bag to cover the stoves with.

The Penguin Family

Chilli Penguin are well known for their cook stoves. The brand have 22 different stove models, 12 of which you can cook with. There are 6 different colour options (black being the standard). All of the currently available stoves are Ecodesign ready, and have achieved the HETAS Cleaner Choice accreditation. They have also been tested to burn in smoke control areas.

Chilli Billie Gentoo stove suitable for Yurts, Pod, Canal boats, small rooms, cook stove — Chilli Billie Gentoo in Charred Red

The smallest fire in the range is the Chilli Billie Gentoo. This fire is often found in yurts, shepherds huts and garden studio’s although it also sits nicely in little cottages and homes requiring a smaller heat output. It can come with an optional cooking tube should you wish. It is now a front loading wood burning stove with the same stainless steel handle as the rest of the penguins. It has a stainless steel top plate as standard. The optional side shelves also have the stainless top.

Chilli Penguin Fat Penguin cook stove — Chilli Penguin Fat Penguin

Continuing with the cooking theme, there is the original Hungry Penguin which is still in production today (abet with a few upgrades), the Hungry Penguin Tall Order which has a larger cooking oven, the Fat Penguin which adds convector panels to the sides making this a wider model than the Hungry Penguin and also the Fat Penguin Tall Order giving you the benefit of the larger oven with convector panels. The High & Mighty range are similar to the Hungry Penguin family with the added extra log storage underneath them.

Chilli Penguin Popty Stout wood burning stove, cook stove — Chilli Penguin Popty Stout

The Popty range of cooking stoves (Popty is Welsh for oven) have a large cooking oven and start with the smaller Popty Cube. The Popty Stout is the middle model and has convector panels and finally the Popty Lofty is the tallest of the Popty stoves, providing an oven for cooking, a generous wood fire box for heating and storage place for wood. It is the multi tasker of this family. Ask and you will receive; generosity and warmth, food and heat, toasty toes by the fire and crunchy toast on your plate, breakfast muffins, lunch time soups, afternoon sticky cakes and suppertime divine bakes.

Chilli Penguin Seventy Ate wood burning cook stove — Chilli Penguin Seventy Ate

The largest of the cook stoves is the Seventy Ate which can also come as a shorter model – the Seventy Ate Shorty. This fire has a large oven and also a larger 7kW output ideal for those rooms needing that little extra. It gives you heat, it gives you food, it gives you hot drinks, it has somewhere to store your logs and it’s got a glorious big window to watch your fire burning. When the world disappoints you, it will be waiting for you at home. This penguin will work for it’s living: it can multi task, it’s strong, it’s hot, it’s got muscle and it cooks.

For the non cook models within the range there is the Short and Chubby Penguin, the popular Stock Cube model (with and without convector panels), the Fubsy (the name comes from an old English word meaning “a short stature with a wide girth”, or “short and stout”) and the Penguin 7 which can also be a convector model. The Woody Cat is 83% efficient and has a particulate emission figure that is 75% lower than the figure required by Ecodesign standard, thanks to the catalytic converter technology. The Woody can be a multi fuel model.