Woodstock Fireview

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BrowningBAR

Minister of Fire
Jul 22, 2008
7,607
San Tan Valley, AZ
I know there are a decent amount of you that are Fireview owners. Now that I was screwed out of a really cheap Mansfield I would like to here from some of you about the stove. My main concern is size. The Mansfield would have been completely over-sized for the area, but I was ok with that.

Quick back story again:
Old stone farmhouse.
Total Square footage of my house is a bit less than 2,200 sq ft.
A bit drafty. (could be better, could be a lot worse, though)
This will be my third stove. The other two stoves are located at the other two ends of the house.

Some questions:
I have seen a lot of posts about Fireviews heating a lot more than their estimated square footage (900-1,600 sq ft from manufacturer with some post claiming the stove heats 2,000 - 2,500 sq ft). Obviously floor plan, wood, climate, and house tightness matters, but what can I expect from a Fireview?

Why does the Fireview have a lower square footage rating than the Hearthstone Heritage even though they have the same BTU rating?

Is the heat output anything like the Heritage?

Are overnight burns easy to achieve?

How much fiddling is done to get the stove at a steady temp? Can you easily lock in temps?

My neighbor has an older non-cat Fireview. How different is a new Fireview versus an older model?


Also note, in the floorplans, the third stove is going in a room with heavy drapes over all the windows and the main door. Again, thank you for any information that you may have.
 

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I'll try to answer some of your questions....

BrowningBAR said:
I know there are a decent amount of you that are Fireview owners. Now that I was screwed out of a really cheap Mansfield I would like to here from some of you about the stove. My main concern is size. The Mansfield would have been completely over-sized for the area, but I was ok with that.

Quick back story again:
Old stone farmhouse.
Total Square footage of my house is a bit less than 2,200 sq ft.
A bit drafty. (could be better, could be a lot worse, though)
This will be my third stove. The other two stoves are located at the other two ends of the house.

Some questions:
I have seen a lot of posts about Fireviews heating a lot more than their estimated square footage (900-1,600 sq ft from manufacturer with some post claiming the stove heats 2,000 - 2,500 sq ft). Obviously floor plan, wood, climate, and house tightness matters, but what can I expect from a Fireview?

Why does the Fireview have a lower square footage rating than the Hearthstone Heritage even though they have the same BTU rating? I think they are somewhat conservative. However, a drafty house of the size that you are speaking of would be difficult to heat with only the FV. Sounds like you have that figured out with the other stoves that are already there.

Is the heat output anything like the Heritage? Not sure. It's radiant heat, so it probably is the same. Not very "peaky", just steady.

Are overnight burns easy to achieve? Very easy. I left 3 decent sized logs on my stove at 10:00 last night and had a 300 degree stovetop temp this morning (6:30). Some LARGE coals were still red. Threw 3 new splits on and had it back to catalytic burning in 10 minutes.

How much fiddling is done to get the stove at a steady temp? Can you easily lock in temps? Not much. A little learning curve, but once that is achieved, it's pretty easy. I would like to have higher temps (I get 450-500 steady for hours, but would like 550-600). That might be a wood problem. This stove likes DRY wood.

My neighbor has an older non-cat Fireview. How different is a new Fireview versus an older model? Never saw one, so can't comment.


Also note, in the floorplans, the third stove is going in a room with heavy drapes over all the windows and the main door. Again, thank you for any information that you may have.
 
If it would be your only stove I would say it would not be enough. During the recent cold snap, I did need to run my furnace in the morning to get the house back up to temp. I think that Woodstock's numbers are just more conservative than other manufacturers but have never run a Hearthstone so can't give you more than that.
 
I appreciate the feedback. It looks like I will be the owner of a 2005 Woodstock Fireview.
 
Yeah, go for it. I think between the Fireview and Vigilant you should be pretty warm, probably won't even need the Interpid much. I think the stove ratings are all pooey, better to go by what people say here. The Heritage, Phoenix, and Fireview all have similar sized fire boxes, the difference with the Fireview is the much longer burn and higher efficiency, so it may heat a little more than the other two with less wood. Overnight burns are very easy, I loaded up with 5 splits last night at 9pm and I just reload 5 more splits at 8:30am and it took right off. Once you find your sweet spot it's pretty much set and forget for 6-12 hours.
 
If I have it up against a non combustible wall, what are the clearances to it?
 
If it's non combustible all the way through the wall you can get it as close as practical.
 
I'm heating over 2200 ft² on two floors, but I don't keep the house nearly as warm as most folks - we're happy with 62-65 as the peak temps away from the stove area. When temps outside fell to single digits I had to use the central heat to warm things up in the morning after overnight burn as I didn't feed the stove for over 8 hours (still was able to start right up from coals but a 250-300 °F stove isn't putting out enough heat to fight off single digits!). So, as an only stove you aren't likely to heat all that space to what most folks here consider 'warm' especially if it is drafty as you describe it. However you do have other stoves in there so...

Overnight burns? no problem here at all. From a full stove even when running higher air (see wood comments below) I can get a quick start after 9-10 hours and even longer time if I pile the coals up and play with it a bit. I don't remember the last time I actually used kindling to start a fire.

Also note that I've concluded my wood could be better - based on comparisons with others I am sure I would be getting significantly more heat from the stove if burning better wood. The wood I started out the season with (front of pile) was much better than what I'm into now and I can tell a difference. So the point being that if your wood really is superb you will get amazing results (see Dennis for reference there) but even with "ok" wood as I'm doing now you can get really good results (wood that may have a few sizzles in there but is mostly dry but clearly not in that nice 15-20% range).
 
Hearthstone makes a good product, but, in my view, the numbers they post are all best case scenario. If it's rated for 1800 sq ft, then that would be for an ultra tight house. If rated for 8 hr burn, look more for 6-7 hours. Woodstock is a bit more realistic I think (less likely to disappoint).

I'm stuffing the fireview and getting 6-9 hour burns (7-8 is more typical) and good coals. When turning the draft up a bit (with CAT engaged), I get 4-6 hour burns and a TREMENDOUS amount of heat off of the front and sides of the stove.

I think I'll do better next season because a) SOME of my wood is ~24% moisture and slightly moldy; b) learning curve

So far, I'm happy with the stove for my ~1600 sq ft. Low 70's in the 30x15 living room, 63-70 elsewhere.
 
Vic99 said:
When turning the draft up a bit (with CAT engaged), I get 4-6 hour burns and a TREMENDOUS amount of heat off of the front and sides of the stove.

I can certainly agree/relate with this statement.

When pushing the stove for maximum heat output I turn up the air (keep flames in the box) and 'push' the stove as it is and get a lot of heat from the whole box - talking 500* + IR readings around the sides, higher from glass of course and will get 4-6 hrs before reloading. That is a lot of hot stone. Now in my case the last 30-60 minutes will be turning air up even higher to burn down the coals and I'll get another blast of heat out the glass as they glow super bright and burn down getting ready for the next quick burn. When I reload the coals will be burned down and the stove may still be 400+. Burns nice and clean (no smoke out of the chimney) of course, but it can't be the most efficient way to operate as the surface temp of my flue (single wall 22" up from where it bends) will run up to 300* during the peak burn. Burning this way is how I've managed to load 5x in one day (the most I've ever done).
 
Vic99 said:
Hearthstone makes a good product, but, in my view, the numbers they post are all best case scenario. If it's rated for 1800 sq ft, then that would be for an ultra tight house. If rated for 8 hr burn, look more for 6-7 hours. Woodstock is a bit more realistic I think (less likely to disappoint).

I'm stuffing the fireview and getting 6-9 hour burns (7-8 is more typical) and good coals. When turning the draft up a bit (with CAT engaged), I get 4-6 hour burns and a TREMENDOUS amount of heat off of the front and sides of the stove.

I think I'll do better next season because a) SOME of my wood is ~24% moisture and slightly moldy; b) learning curve

So far, I'm happy with the stove for my ~1600 sq ft. Low 70's in the 30x15 living room, 63-70 elsewhere.

These are almost exactly the same results I get. My LR is smaller and stays warmer. The rest of the house is same. One end of my house is over a very poorly insulated crawl space and that is really working against my wood heat only plan. Our tax return will address the crawl space and I expect much better performance next winter. The furnace has been assisting the stove these last couple cold and windy weeks. If I had a second stove in the cold end of the house, the heat would probably never turn on.
I am another satisfied Woodstock customer.
 
So, I can expect about the same type of performance that I have seen out of a heritage. Good.

How hot can you burn a Fireview? For instance I can burn the Vigilant safely up to 650-700 degrees. Same goes with the Intrepid. But they are cast iron. I know Hearstone specifically states that anything over 600 is over-firing and they imply damage could be done by doing so.

Is this the same for the Fireview?
 
So, god willing, this will be the end of my oil needs entirely.
 
I think the official "overfire" temp on the surface thermometer is around 650-675 (the thermometer they include with the stove). However Dennis has reported that he hits 700 fairly often and doesn't panic when he does.

With that said, you need good dry wood to get there - keep in mind that to hit those temps you have to have a really hot fire for a bit of time as it take time to get the stones heated that hot (unlike a metal stove that gets the heat through very quickly). The max I've gotten mine to so far is just barely over 650 on two occasions.
 
Slow1 said:
I think the official "overfire" temp on the surface thermometer is around 650-675 (the thermometer they include with the stove). However Dennis has reported that he hits 700 fairly often and doesn't panic when he does.

With that said, you need good dry wood to get there - keep in mind that to hit those temps you have to have a really hot fire for a bit of time as it take time to get the stones heated that hot (unlike a metal stove that gets the heat through very quickly). The max I've gotten mine to so far is just barely over 650 on two occasions.


Good to hear about the surface temps.

Last year's wood was barely passable. This year the wood was a lot more seasoned. Next year should be even better. Is the stove more or less forgiving when it comes to less than perfect wood when compared to VC cat stoves?
 
I don't know about VC cat stoves. Seems more forgiving than the VC non-cat though from my experience. However there is a difference between 'less than perfect' and 'wet' - I have only had bubbles once this year and I consider that to be wet. I have had a few sizzles and that is less than perfect clearly. I know I can get a LOT more out of this stove if I get some really good wood in there - I had a stack of 15-20% wood at the start and it was pretty amazing.
 
BrowningBAR said:
So, I can expect about the same type of performance that I have seen out of a heritage. Good.

How hot can you burn a Fireview? For instance I can burn the Vigilant safely up to 650-700 degrees. Same goes with the Intrepid. But they are cast iron. I know Hearstone specifically states that anything over 600 is over-firing and they imply damage could be done by doing so.

Is this the same for the Fireview?


From the Fireview manual:

over 250...........OK to engage the combustor
400-600............Normal operating temperature
600-700............High burn range
over 700...........DO NOT burn in this range

....cast iron begins to oxidize (reddish or whitish discoloration) at 1400 degrees. Sustained temperatures in this range lead to cast iron warping, becoming brittle, and eventually deteriorating completely. Burning a stove frequently at those excessive temperatures is known as overfiring.



I might add on the overnight fires. One person might very well get a 10-12 hours burn while the next poor fellow get a good 6 hour burn. Usually the difference boils down to what fuel they are burning. Todd burns locust and gets 10 hours with no problem but Mr. New Guy burns popple, willow, cottonwood or some other type of wood and he just can't get those long burns.....and then tends to blame the the stove. Sorry, when it comes to burning wood, all wood is not created equal.


Browning, I think you are making a wise choice.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
BrowningBAR said:
So, I can expect about the same type of performance that I have seen out of a heritage. Good.

How hot can you burn a Fireview? For instance I can burn the Vigilant safely up to 650-700 degrees. Same goes with the Intrepid. But they are cast iron. I know Hearstone specifically states that anything over 600 is over-firing and they imply damage could be done by doing so.

Is this the same for the Fireview?


From the Fireview manual:

over 250...........OK to engage the combustor
400-600............Normal operating temperature
600-700............High burn range
over 700...........DO NOT burn in this range

....cast iron begins to oxidize (reddish or whitish discoloration) at 1400 degrees. Sustained temperatures in this range lead to cast iron warping, becoming brittle, and eventually deteriorating completely. Burning a stove frequently at those excessive temperatures is known as overfiring.



I might add on the overnight fires. One person might very well get a 10-12 hours burn while the next poor fellow get a good 6 hour burn. Usually the difference boils down to what fuel they are burning. Todd burns locust and gets 10 hours with no problem but Mr. New Guy burns popple, willow, cottonwood or some other type of wood and he just can't get those long burns.....and then tends to blame the the stove. Sorry, when it comes to burning wood, all wood is not created equal.


Browning, I think you are making a wise choice.


Thank you for the response. I will be happy when I can go 12 months without buying a stove (I get all excited and waste a lot of time looking at specs and online manuals)!

Something I didn't ask yet is that Woodstock states that the log length should be no longer than 16". Is this right? That sounds odd considering that is the same max. length that the Intrepid allows for and the FireView has much larger firebox dimensions.

Or is this a N/S vs. E/W loading thing?
 
We have burned some up to 18" or a tad more but those you have to load up above the bottom of the door else they won't fit. Still best to cut 16" and then all will fit.
 
I aim for 16-17" when I cut. The firebox is not a perfect cube . . . some parts can accomodate close to 19", but this should not be the rule. I have found that saving 1-3 inch ends is worth it. Load up with your standard splits. Fill in the gaps with a few ends and sticks. Makes me feel that I'm getting another half hour out of my burn.

I've gotten to 670 with dry pine.

With my less than perfect wood, I get to 475-525 most of the time. Sometimes to 550.
 
I agree with everything that has been said so far. The stove design and function are both tried and tested and I would venture to say that in most instances of poor performance (been there), the culprit can be linked to a fuel source that is less than optimal and/or operator error. I'm guilty of making both mistakes (many more times than I'd like to admit) but once a little guidance is obtained from the good folks here (or at Woodstock), it can all be remedied with time.

By the way...3 stoves...Awesome.
 
Ted E. Bear said:
By the way...3 stoves...Awesome.

It will be great, but that is the reason that this stove has to be as fiddle free as much as possible and long burn times is such a need. Otherwise I will be going from room to room checking and loading stoves every five minutes for 4-5 months. And I am tired of of waking up to 55 degree temps upstairs.

I figure I will go through about 7 cords of wood in a winter with this set-up. Which will cost me about $570 in wood a year. That is a FAR cry from $3,500 in oil with the house at 60 degrees.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
We have burned some up to 18" or a tad more but those you have to load up above the bottom of the door else they won't fit. Still best to cut 16" and then all will fit.


Ok, that makes sense. It was confusing the hell out of me. I saw the firebox dimensions and 16" wasn't adding up. I order and cut wood with my neighbor that owns an older, non-cat Fireview so I will just make all my splits the same length (the vigilant can take 22" splits...23" if you get creative).
 
BrowningBAR said:
I appreciate the feedback. It looks like I will be the owner of a 2005 Woodstock Fireview.

2005? Did you score a used one?
 
BrowningBAR said:
Some questions:
I have seen a lot of posts about Fireviews heating a lot more than their estimated square footage (900-1,600 sq ft from manufacturer with some post claiming the stove heats 2,000 - 2,500 sq ft). Obviously floor plan, wood, climate, and house tightness matters, but what can I expect from a Fireview?

Why does the Fireview have a lower square footage rating than the Hearthstone Heritage even though they have the same BTU rating?

Is the heat output anything like the Heritage?

Are overnight burns easy to achieve?

How much fiddling is done to get the stove at a steady temp? Can you easily lock in temps?

My neighbor has an older non-cat Fireview. How different is a new Fireview versus an older model?


Also note, in the floorplans, the third stove is going in a room with heavy drapes over all the windows and the main door. Again, thank you for any information that you may have.

Thought I should reply since I have a very similar situation. My house is brick sided, built in 1928, and about 2000 to 2200 square feet (depending how you figure it). We have replacement windows but no insulation in the walls and not enough in the attic. I installed my Fireview in the fall. Let me preface my experiences by pointing out that a lot of my wood was not fully seasoned. Some of it up close to 30%, which I'm sure is working against me, but the only other choice I had was to buy wood.

Anyway, I find that it can keep our house pretty comfortable in the 30s and 40s with no help from the furnace. Down into the twenties, it may need some help in the early morning (which is also when the stove is at its lowest heat output). In the teens, I find the furnace coming on just before loading even during the day. When we get down to single digits and negative temps, the stove needs a lot of help from the furnace. I should also point out that we typically keep the thermostat (in the same room as the stove) at 64 during the day and 60 or even 58 at night. I think, however, that the thermostat is reading the temperature of the wall (adjacent to some cold basement stairs) more than it is the room.

Overall, we're not staying any warmer than we did without the stove (unless we're in the room with it) but did reduce our first heating bill of the winter from $360 last year to $150 this year. Haven't seen the bill from the extreme cold of the last few weeks yet.

I had a revelation, though, when I visited my grandfather's house in northern Iowa. His stove is an older Dover, which I doubt is as efficient as the Fireview, but he was able to keep his house stuffy warm burning very small, low fires in that stove (outside temps around 0º). The difference. Primarily insulation. He built the house just 15 years ago and insulated his 2 x 6 walls to modern standards. I'm convinced the fireview would be more than adequate for us if I could afford to insulate my house properly, but I'm not sure I can a afford the $$$$$$$. I hesitate to make that kind of investment in the house because, if I sell the house in the near future, I doubt the insulation would increase the price by anywhere near what it cost me.

Regarding burn times, I get 8 to 9 hours overnight routinely even in the coldest weather, but if I tried to keep it near maximum output, like the others, it would probably be more like 4 to 6. (I'm trying to conserve wood due to a shortage.) I reload at midnight and at 8 or 9, there are more than enough coals to get the new fire going in a few minutes. If we only need, light heating, 12 hours is not difficult, but I find that I get a lot more creosote inside the box at that rate. Again, however, my wood is not optimally seasoned. Can't wait till next year when everything is adequately seasoned.
 
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