GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store

Is the GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store worth buying?

Yes, if you burn through a cubic metre of hardwood or more each winter, because the GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store at £169.99 is the largest shelter here: 2.3 m3 of stacked wood under an aluminium and polycarbonate roof, with zip covers and a 20 kg carry bag in the box. It is not the buy for a small patio or a household that gets through two bags a week, since the frame alone takes 163 x 70 cm of ground and the £29.49 VOUNOT Log Rack holds 920 litres for a fifth of the money.

The value works out better than the price suggests. Those 2.3 m3 are about 2,260 litres, so £169.99 comes to 7.5p a litre, against 11.4p for the £89.99 VIVOHOME 6ft and 18.5p for the £135.99 CHARLES BENTLEY. Paying £80 more than the VIVOHOME buys 1,472 extra litres, which is the whole case for this store.

What you are really buying is a season's worth of fuel in one place rather than a rack you refill weekly. The 89 owners who have rated it give 3.9, so the design impresses more people than the first winter's use does, and that is the honest trade for this much capacity at this price.

How much wood does the GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store actually hold?

Multiply the frame out and the 2.3 m3 is real: 163 cm wide, 70 cm deep and 198 cm tall gives 2,259,780 cm3, roughly 2,260 litres, and that is what pocketing a full pallet of kiln dried hardwood looks like. Into the £169.99 price, it lands at 7.5p a litre, the second-cheapest storage here and a third of the cost per litre of the wooden CHARLES BENTLEY.

Stacked logs are round and leave gaps, so the full volume only fits when you lay split wood in tightly and accept the odd piece sitting proud, with the rear of the stack resting close to the back panel. The 198 cm height is the part people underestimate: the top of the load is above head height, and the last layer goes in with both arms up.

A tiered shelf keeps kindling separate from the main load, and the 70 cm depth is what lets a long log sit inside the frame rather than poking through the front covers. At a trailer load a month, a household running a log burner most evenings will not empty it before spring.

What comes with the GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store and what does it need from you?

In the box you get the 38 kg powder-coated steel frame, an aluminium roof with UV-resistant polycarbonate multi-wall panels, front and side waterproof PE covers with zip closures, height-adjustable feet and a 20 kg firewood carry bag with an adjustable strap. The frame is finished black and rated rust resistant, scratch resistant and weather resistant.

It arrives needing assembly, and 38 kg of steel is easier to raise and square up with two people than alone. The adjustable feet are the feature that matters on real ground, letting you level the frame on sloping paving, lawn or a patio, and the 70 cm depth means it stands clear of a wall so damp air can move behind the stack.

The covers roll up rather than hinge, so loading means unfastening, rolling and tying back before you touch a log. That is a small thing in July and a nuisance in a February drizzle, which is when most people refill a store this size.

Where does the GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store fall short?

The evidence is thin: 89 buyers give it 3.9, where the VIVOHOME 6ft has 3,739 buyers at 4.3. With a sample that small you are buying ahead of the crowd rather than following one, which matters most on the covers and the roof fixings.

The footprint is the second cost. At 163 cm wide, 70 cm deep and 198 cm tall it behaves more like a small shed than a rack, and it needs a corner of the garden you are not using for anything else. Put it somewhere you walk past daily, because a store that size is easy to forget about until the wood at the back has been sitting there two years.

Roll-up covers and a single tiered shelf also mean you cannot short-fill this store neatly. Part-loaded, the front cover sags against the empty space, and the shelf that suits kindling becomes wasted volume if all you buy is full-length logs.

How does the GARDEBRUK XXL Log Store compare with the VIVOHOME 6ft and the CHARLES BENTLEY?

The VIVOHOME 6ft costs £89.99 and holds about 788 litres, so it is £80 cheaper and stores 1,472 litres less, at 11.4p a litre against this store's 7.5p. Choose the VIVOHOME for a covered rack along a patio wall and the GARDEBRUK when the whole winter's wood has to live in one place.

The CHARLES BENTLEY Wooden Log Store is £135.99 for 737 litres, £34 less and 1,523 litres fewer, at 18.5p a litre. That is the one for timber looks, FSC spruce and a slanted roof instead of fabric covers, while the GARDEBRUK is the one for capacity and for a steel frame that does not rot, twist or need staining.