Ideal Steel with or without soapstone?

If your budget is tight I would skip them. The thermal capacity of firebrick is pretty close to that of soapstone. I doubt you will notice much of a difference.

My two cents: if looking to keep cost down, no, they are not going to be a huge deal. If you ran a control test and burned the stove in your house with and without them, I doubt very much you could weigh a significant impact.

I have burned different stoves, and occasionally modified the ones I've had by adding fire brick or soapstone. Any variations pale in comparison to the real biggie: a wood stove vs. NO wood stove!

Of course, there can be a huge difference between a wood stove that functions well for you vs. one that doesn't. Assuming a newer EPA stove, a few things that are going to be big-impact factors in your install will be:

- firebox size of stove (bigger obviously = hotter/longer burns)
- venting system (6" liner of appropriate height, to provide sufficient draft)
- very well seasoned wood (green/moist wood will inhibit secondary combustion)

Good draft and good wood are essential to making a good stove do good work.

I got the soapstone side panels but skipped the inserts. I honestly don't think it would make any difference (Woodstock said it makes no burn-time difference), and didn't want to have to replace soapstone if/when they break. Now if I could have used the ashpan I probably would have just gone for 'the works' anyways, but it turned out my install needs to be at low height setting which makes the ashpan impossible, so I passed, no regrets.