Stove Top Kettle

RORY12553 said:

I have a hearthstone heritage stove and wanted to know if anybody could recommend a decent kettle or something to give off some steam into the house?

Click to expand...

A steamer won't give you all that much extra humidity, but every little bit helps in the winter, I think. Try looking on www.northlineexpress.com, which has the best prices on the Web and is a good company to do business with, and fast shipping.

I recommend not a kettle but the sort of tureen-shaped things with a lattice type top. Puts more humidity into the air at once than a kettle with a spout and much easier to fill without moving it.

If you're going to use one on a soapstone stove, though, *do not touch it* during the heating season or you'll risk scraping and marring the top. Mine sits there all winter and gets lifted off very, very carefully to clean in the spring and put back down very, very, very carefully, and I've managed to avoid marking the soapstone. (Using a trivet doesn't work on soapstone because the stovetop doesn't get hot enough that way to boil it off.)

Rory, it would be great if you'd put the name of your stove in your Signature line. Do this by clicking on "Your Control Panel" at the top of this page. Then it will always be in your posts.

gryfalcon, another thing you can do is get some soapstone blocks to sit the steamer on. They are sold as boot driers or glove driers and they work great for that but also work great for sitting kettles on.

A stove doesn't look complete without something holding water on it..lol.

I purchased one from a local plow & hearth that is pretty heavy duty and works well.

RORY12553 said:

I have a hearthstone heritage stove and wanted to know if anybody could recommend a decent kettle or something to give off some steam into the house?

Click to expand...

Depending on the size of your home, the kettle will not supply adequate moisture. IMHO, they are a waste of $, time, and can damage the stove top.

But they do look nice.

We just use a couple of old stainless tea kettles on our stove. Been doing it for years. Not really for humidification, though they are allowed to steam away all day. We use the hot water for dishes, etc. I have never seen a rise in humidity from them, according to our measuring. If you use hard water, you'll be effort ahead to clean out regularly whatever vessel you decide to use. Otherwise, you'll end up with a heavily-crusted mess before long.

As others have said, steamers for woodstoves will not put out a substantial amount of moisture into the home . . . it helps . . . but just a little bit. I ended up getting an enamel covered cast iron steamer for cheap at Lowes . . . I dutifully fill it every other day or so . . . usually with potpourri to make the house smell nice. The steamer itself sits on a slab of soapstone I have sitting above my woodstove top . . . before I had the soapstone topper I used a trivet.

firefighterjake said:

As others have said, steamers for woodstoves will not put out a substantial amount of moisture into the home . . . it helps . . . but just a little bit. I ended up getting an enamel covered cast iron steamer for cheap at Lowes . . . I dutifully fill it every other day or so . . . usually with potpourri to make the house smell nice. The steamer itself sits on a slab of soapstone I have sitting above my woodstove top . . . before I had the soapstone topper I used a trivet.

Click to expand...

For whatever it's worth, I need to refill mine, sitting directly on the stove, two or three times a day in cold weather when I've really got the stove cranking, so mine is putting several times the amount of moisture into the air as yours apparently does.

Even so, it doesn't make a huge difference, but it does seem to make just that critical difference that keeps my nose from drying out uncomfortably and my cats' fur from throwing sparks when I pet them. :roll:

I use a 10"x16" baking pan and my ecofan.........I set the fan so it blows across the open pan. Using this technique, I make almost 3 gallons a day vaporize into thin air!