Steamer Boil-over on Soapstone Stove

Good luck ever getting water to boil at all on the stone stove. The best I've ever gotten is the beginnings of little bubbles adhered to the bottom of my kettle which was directly on the stove top. The water, if you could boil it, would be 212 and would then pour over onto a 600 degree stove and flash to steam pretty quickly. The local cooling of the stone from the energy being absorbed to boil the water would cause thermal stress in that spot. Possible to crack the stone but not likely with minor boil overs.

Really though, you'll never boil it.

Theoreticaly.. I have had the stove hot enough to boil the water in the steamer..

but never was it close to a boil over, between the mass of the cast iron steamer, and it's actual poorly shaped bottom that leaves about half the bottom not touching the stone anyways.. a few small bubbles is all I have seen.

Don't worry about boiling over and spilling onto the stove, but do worry about spilling any water on that hot stove top. We keep water on the stove all winter and we usually take the water pan off before filling it so as not to take the chance of splashing water onto the hot stove.

btw, we also cook on our soapstone stove top.

Just because your stovetop was above 212 does not mean you had a hot enough stove to boil water. It takes a lot more stove top temp to boil water. 550 won't do it even with excellent kettle contact. We're talking straight water here, no junk added to it.

I fill the kettle to the brim and don't even think twice about boil over risk.

I can second all that others have shared here - at least in respect to the Fireview and Classic I burn. I have a large cast pot for the classic - it holds at least 2.5 to 3 gallons of water - and have never had an issue. I have one of the fancy enamel black steamers for the Fireview (the largest on on the Woodstock site) and have never had any issues at all. If the stoves are really cranking, I'll get visible steam for awhile, but usually the water just evaporates without any fanfare at all. My issue with the smaller one I have on the Fireview is that if I burn a really good load of oak, hard maple or hickory - the water will completely evaporate while the stove remains hot (350-400). I will take it off, wait for the stove to cool to 200 or 250, then fill it with hot water and put it back on for the next load.

Interesting - now you folks have me thinking close on whether or not I've had water boiling on my stovetop if it was just water. I want to say I have but perhaps not. I know I have had chicken stock and various soups/stews boil on the stove (enough that I now only put them on with a trivet between under the pot if I'm not there to watch them - everyone knows a watched pot never boils right?). But then again, perhaps that is because I often times have a lid on those as they cook.

I'll have to pay better attention this year. I don't use a steamer as such though - I have always used a stock pot which has a rather large surface area on the stove. Luckily for me though I have avoided any disasters of boil-over (mostly by not filling the pot more than 80% I think - keeping a few inches on top seems a good idea when it is a messy stew).

To be honest, I do not put a tight lid on any kettle on the stove. A good lid may trap enough heat and limit the vaporization enough to cause a low boil. My goal is to evaporate the water so the lid is off or very holey. Some things get foamy like pot-pouri and can cause a boil over of foam stuff.

I bought one of those decorative cast iron stove-top steamers. I found it was more work than using the cool moisture humidifier I now use. Instead, I use the decorative thing to hold fatwood fire starters.

Like others have said, I have never boiled water on my stoves. Although on my soapstone one, before using a trivet I scratched the stone from the pot I was using. Lesson learned by me. Not sure even how I scratch it, but the marks are there. I have also spilled water out the top of my pot and is slightly stained the glass on the front. No one but me can even see that so I suggest no overfilling your pot either.

I've "tried" to boil water (w/ a cast iron kettle) on my soap stone stove. With a stove top temp of 550F, I can get a steady flow of steam from the spout.

You'll damage that stove before you reach a rolling boil.