Off-gassing in new soapstone stove - what to expect?

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NH_Wood

NH_Wood

Minister of Fire
Dec 24, 2009
2,602
southern NH
Hi all,

The Mansfield will arrive on Friday and will be installed on Saturday - should have break-in fires Saturday afternoon. My wife is wondering about the level of off-gassing. I told her it will likely be less than that for cast iron or steel stoves, simply due to much less metal used in the soapstone stove. Make sense? For you soapstone owners, did you find the off-gassing to be fairly low, or more typical (comparable to cast iron/steel). My wife is mainly concerned with our 3 kids (one is 3 mo old) breathing in a lot of fumes. Luckily, should be warm this weekend, so opening a window won't be a house chiller. If only we had a few more weeks of really cold temps left - I REALLY wanted to get some good burns with the new stove to work on the learning curve before next year. Oh well, nature waits for no one! Thanks in advance! Cheers!
 
Our Homestead wasn't too bad for the first three or four small fires. We had to crack some windows.
 
REF1 said:
Our Homestead wasn't too bad for the first three or four small fires. We had to crack some windows.
Click to expand...

Ditto for our Phoenix. We just opened the windows a bit. The fumes were only around the first couple of break-in fires, and then we had them again when we fired up the stove the first time in the fall. If it's that much of a worry, do the break-in fires when the kids are not around for a few hours. The fumes will dissipate quickly if the house is fairly open.

We had way worse fumes when the installer fastened the flue collar to the SS liner with high-temp silicone, but that's another story altogether!
 
Ours is a Homestead- the stove wasn't bad at all, 90% was the new black pipe. Every new high temp on the stack produced "that smell".

N
 
We have a heritage and the break in fires were not stinky at all. There's not much metalwork on the mansfield or the heritage so the pipe will be your stink maker. I use double wall pipe so the painted outer shell doesn't get hot enough to burn off. I'm not sure if the inner shell is painted but I have a suspicion that double wall pipe will put out way less stink than single wall during break in.

The stone stove breaking in doesn't smell like paint baking in on a steel stove. It will smell more like a hot pancake griddle. We didn't even open the windows.

At the end of the day, there is no shame in sending the family out for a day on the town while you break it in. Gives you more time to enjoy this experience.
 
We noticed practically nothing from the stove but the stove pipe was another story. I expect you should get about the same results. btw, we built 3 fires to break-in the stove. First some kindling only. Next some kindling and a small split or 2. Third fire 2-3 splits on the kindling. After that we were good.
 
We didn't even feel the need to open any windows. My guess is most of the fumes are from the stove pipe and (on ours) the back of the stove which is cast iron. We only have about 20" of stove pipe.
 
We share Dennis' experience with respect to the stove pipe. We kept the first fires small and the windows open because we had birds at the time. We moved the bird cages to the bedroom and kept the door to that room closed, too. Better to be safe than sorry.
 
Thanks everyone! I'll expect a lower level smell, but I think sending the wife and kids out for the day (and perhaps inviting a few buddies in ;-P ) would be a good idea. Can't wait to try her out - thanks again for your thoughts. Cheers!
 
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