We have known the Boxer Plus for a long time, although in a different guise, in what might feel like another lifetime. The original Boxer, with its unique firebox dating from 1981, was regrettably taken out of production in 2003 due to declining orders. It had become an unrealistic proposition to keep in the collection.
But the Boxer held a fascination for Leenders and so, in 2008, the Boxer went into redevelopment. Not with the idea of reintroducing the Boxer, but out of that Leenders healthy sense of curiosity. A curiosity that got the better of the team and so, drawing on everything they knew and thought they knew about combustion in wood burning stoves, they set to work.
Laboratory secrets in slow development
For the next 4 years, in an approach unique to Leenders, the Boxer Plus underwent changes, tweaks and refinements in the laboratory, with no prying eyes, no commercial intentions, just improvements for improvements sake, to see what the team could glean from the results. It was an itch that just had to be scratched. Most other manufacturers would have considered this project a good way to burn money. But searching and researching are so quintessentially Leenders.
Chance would have it that, during a portrait shoot of all the Leenders employees, the photographer was granted admittance to the lab. He was instantly transfixed by the Boxer Plus: ‘you have beautiful stoves in the showroom, but this one here is the best of all’, he exclaimed.
Fast seller
The spontaneous reaction from the photographer convinced the team that they should complete the preparations for taking the stove into production, that this Boxer Plus was indeed a marketable stove. Incredibly, inside a year, it was their absolute best seller. The Leenders team were stunned, ‘when we surprise the market, the market surprises us’.
Customer contact is invaluable to Leenders. ‘The feedback people provide us with in our factory showroom in Oirschot is truly wonderful. It encourages us to stay true to ourselves, and the comments and requests help us to remove anything that is not useful in practice’.
Heating fast and slow
The Boxer Plus has a good balance of steel and stone. So once the fire is lit, it provides heat to the space very quickly. As the fire burns, the stones start to store heat that they release slowly for up to 16 hours after the fire has gone out.
An exceptional firebox
The firebox in the Boxer Plus has nine stone sections and, as it is deep, it needs oxygen distributed across the fire for it to burn steadily and attractively. Extra oxygen is injected through the two stainless steel perforated pipes one third from the back of the firebox. The positioning of the pipes divides the stones and, as they are smaller than you might expect, they can all be replaced, should that ever be necessary, without having to dismantle anything, through the stove door. And while we are discussing the construction of the firebox, it is worth mentioning the specially shaped ceiling stone that slopes away from the door and interrupts the clear path for the combustion gases, causing useful turbulence that returns particulates to the fire and extracts the maximum heat from the gases before they work their way up the chimney.
Top of class
The Boxer Plus burns wood so efficiently that almost every single joule of energy is wrung from each piece of wood you entrust to it. If ever there was a Leenders stove in which form follows function, it is the Boxer Plus. As they say, it does what it says on the tin, the Boxer Plus burns wood as efficiently as is practical and releases heat fast and slow.
