Stove big enough but won't be too hot

Your heating sq ft numbers are just a little off.

jeffatus said:

Fixed the numbers in the original post, thanks!

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Your Welcome. If your house is 3,000 sq ft. I'd go with the bigger one. I'll let others chime in because I honestly don't know anything about those stoves.

Have you considered the cat soapstones from Woodstock, like the Fireview and Progress Hybrid? The cat should let you dial down the heat a bit and still get long burn times. For installation, you will need to DIY or find a good local sweep, rather than the Hearthstone shop. But Woodstock will help you out there.

I'd rather risk too large and needing to dial-back my burns, than going too small and kicking myself in the ass for not getting a large enough stove to begin with.

I guess what you are looking for is a more convective than radiant stove. A radiant stove will heat the surrounding objects more than a convective stove that will primarily heat the air. The heated air can be moved out of the room by placing a small fan on the ground in the area that the warm air should travel to. Blow cold air along the floor towards the stove room and warm air will flow along the ceiling to make up for the displaced cold air. This works better then trying to push the warm air out since the cold air is more dense and easier to move.

A large convective stove should not heat you out of the room while still giving you enough power to heat most of the house. As a rule of thumb: The lower the clearances with double wall pipe the more convective a stove is. The Manchester has 16" which is not too bad. The Jotul F55 is slightly better at 14" side clearance. Other good options are the Pacific Energy T6 and the BlazeKing Ashford 30. The latter is catalytic and gives you a more regulated and even heat output.

jeffatus said:

Is there a reason I should be concerned about the Hearthstone shop doing the install?

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No, I was just assuming they wouldn't have much interest in installing a stove you didn't buy from them. My concern would be if you had a problem, they might simply tell you to talk to the folks who sold you the stove, even though the problem might actually be with the install or the flue rather than with the stove itself.

Speaking of flue, is the stove going into an existing chimney setup, with a 6" liner?

I've burned with the Manchester for two seasons and I can tell you that you probably won't feel like you're getting cooked out of the room. I use my stove very similarly to what you want to do with yours...supplemental heat and ambiance. The view of the fire is fantastic by the way. The convective nature of this stove is evident when you are near it. It puts out really even heat. Small fires aren't a problem either. In fact for a 2.9 cubic foot firebox I feel like its a little on the small side since some of the space is wasted due to its shape. You can only load E/W and you are forced to "step back" the logs when you are loading the stove. If not you risk logs rolling into the glass...which shouldn't hurt anything but drives me crazy when that happens. One more thing, I'm not sure how you'll have this stove setup but in my experience side loading is the only way to go. You can obviously load it from the front but if you can't access the side door your missing out on a big plus this stove has to offer.

Overall I think you will be really pleased with the Manchester based on what you've stated. I get a lot of compliments about its looks too. I love the classic cast iron stoves.

I have the Hearthstone Equinox, the big brother of your choices. After having a cast iron stove for 3 decades, I can assure you that soapstone is a very soft, even heat and you will not be cooked from a few feet away. I find it very easy to burn with less wood and get less heat. The disadvantage is that less wood means shorter burn times but that inconvenience disappears during frigid weather when you crank it up and it keeps everyone warm. I'd compare it to every car on the road can do 60 mph on the highway but a lot can't do that pulling a heavy trailer. Always go larger so that you have the hp when it's needed.

Soapstone does take longer to get hot since you need to get the mass hot first but it will stay warm for hours after the fire is gone. If you are burning this on a 'sometimes' basis, I might go to a cast iron stove which will produce heat much faster. I burn mine 24/7 all winter and much prefer soapstone for that.

jeffatus said:

No! No more choices...too many choices! Lol! I can't decide as it is

I put a deposit down this afternoon on the Heritage Soapstone stove, but I'm wondering now if I should have opted for the larger cast iron stove (Manchester). I can change my order in the morning if I wanted to, I just needed to have the deposit down since both stoves had a sale that ended today.

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Yes you need bigger. I pushed 30 cords through a heritage to heat my 1700 sf home in the pnw. It worked as advertised. 3000sf? in Michigan? You can't go too big.

I have a Jotul F55 in my 3,200 sq ft house which is rated to heat up to 2,500 sq ft. It's not too big, so I say go for the bigger stove.

Next thing to do is acquire some good dry wood 20% moisture content or less.
I would go buy a moisture meter from Lowes and double check what the wood seller tells you.
Fresh split a piece and check the inside surface.
These stoves must have dry seasoned wood to operate.
Oak can take 2 to 3 years to season.