want a hearthstone which one

With our sleep schedules we usually are able to throw a couple splits on during the night. Stove is still warm in morning.

thanks dwaynecornhauler!! i was wondering. i think the tribute is an awesome stove! i have a question about your black pipe. is it 8"? it looks like it. or is it double wall?

well....there is a guy wayne on here that has a tribute...you might ask him how his works for him.
i think if you load it with full logs not split, and turn the air control down to a low burn...you might have some hot coals still left.
and if you go to bed at midnight and wake up a 6 am you might have a better bed of hot coals....all in all it should still be putting out some heat though because of the way the soapstone retains the heat even after the fire is gone.

Lynch said:

so, with the tribute can you throw in a full load befor you go to sleep and in the moring 7-8 hours later will there still be a few coals left or is it completely burned down by then.

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I've never had enough coals to throw a split on that will ignite. Sometimes enough small red coals that I can get a bit of shreds of splitting debris to ignite and gradually build up rom there. The stove is a little warm to the touch in the AM, but that's about it, and my main room where the stove is, is rarely over 50, and it's only that high because I have the oil boiler set to go on if it goes below that.

This is NOT the stove to get if you want overnight burns without getting up a couple times in the night to reload (especially if you live in northern Maine).

The firebox is tiny. It's 16 inches long, yes, but the front door frame is 12 by 8 or something, so you effectively need 14-inch splits to even come close to fully loading it. It also requires the highest BTU wood-- ie, beech, black birch, shagbark hickory and the like, to get higher than 300 or 325 stovetop. Rock maple, red oak and the like won't get you higher than that, even split way down.

This is a lovely stove for warmer climates and/or small rooms, but it takes a lot of tending, a lot of reloading, a lot of splitting, a lot of fussing about firewood if you want constant good heat out of it.

Jotul

I love the Equinox

You know, that curtain looks awfully...

dwaynecornhauler said:

The curtain gets moved and is outside the minimum clearances, nip that in the bud.

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D'oh! You know us so well! :lol:

Thanks for the pic, I like your install.

Lynch said:

well i guess i dont know what to do then,
if i go to big ill be roasted out but ill get the overnight burn,
if i go to small no overnight burn

maybe ill have to get a cast iron

thanks for the imput

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Not at all clear to me that the next larger Hearthstone would roast you out, and you can always do smaller fires and/or open a window a crack. You can't run a small stove that hot, but you can sure run a big one lower.

But yes, that's the dilemma. You can't get an overnight burn with a small stove. I think you would actually be less happy with cast iron because they run at much higher stovetop temperatures than soapstone. Just sayin...

I DO NOT like having to frantically get the stove going before I even have my coffee in the AM when it's 50 degrees in the room, for sure. But it's not the worst thing in the world, and you can always switch on either the oil burner or an electric heater for a bit until the stove warms up.

Lynch said:

well i guess i dont know what to do then,
if i go to big ill be roasted out but ill get the overnight burn,
if i go to small no overnight burn

maybe ill have to get a cast iron

thanks for the imput

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Honestly, if you want controllability and long burns, grow to love the looks of the Woodstock, or a cast iron cat. Personally, when something works well for me, it looks better every day. And the opposite for a beautiful but incompatible item. That's how my mind works.

Some Hearthstone users report a tendency to burn fast and hot on a flue with a strong draft, but some reported a flue damper tamed that.
So I I bet if you picked the right larger Hearthstone, and a flue damper, and burned shorter fires when needed, you could make it work and be happy.

We all need to decide our own balance between form and function. I'm facing the same decision and, though I like the looks of the Hearthstones best, they're not the best fit for my desire for long burns and controllable output. Just my two cent's worth--the Hearthstones are great stoves, and I'd love having one.

RenovationGeorge said:

Lynch said:

well i guess i dont know what to do then,
if i go to big ill be roasted out but ill get the overnight burn,
if i go to small no overnight burn

maybe ill have to get a cast iron

thanks for the imput

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Honestly, if you want controllability and long burns, grow to love the looks of the Woodstock. Personally, when something works well for me, it looks better every day. And the opposite for beautiful but incompatible item. But that's me.

On the other hand, I bet if you picked the right larger Hearthstone, you could make it work. But Hearthstone users report a tendency to burn fast and hot, so you need to decide your own balance between form and function. I'm facing the same decision and, though I like the looks of the Hearthstones best, they're not the best fit for my desire for long burns and controllable output. Just my two cent's worth.

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I would get a Woodstock in a heartbeat if they'd make one with a top flue. As it is, they take up much more room with that pipe sticking out the back if you abide by the clearances, room that my long narrow front room simply doesn't have.

What's this about Hearthstones burning fast and hot? I've somehow missed that and find it a bit hard to believe, given the behavior of my Tribute, admittedly the runt of the litter so maybe behaves differently just from its size. It's been my impression that the Hearthstones, like other non-cat stoves, certainly can't do the long low burns of a good cat stove, but I've never read here that they're any worse at that than others. I don't suppose you could point me to any threads here on that subject off the top of your head? I'm really curious now.

i think the thread said...they are really a fast hot burning stove because of the nature of soapstone.

heres the answer for this guy
a gas stove!

sorry.... they are really NOT a fast hot stove....

ruth140 said:

sorry.... they are really NOT a fast hot stove....

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+1. Also, gyrfalcon - how is it that you can't get that Tribute above ~ 350* or so - that seems CRAZY. I know it's a smaller firebox, but I'd have assumed that a full load would give you high stove temps, just not as long burn times as the larger stoves. How can you heat a space adequately with a stove that doesn't want to go much over 300*??!! Cheers!

gyrfalcon said:

It's 16 inches long, yes, but the front door frame is 12 by 8 or something, so you effectively need 14-inch splits to even come close to fully loading it. It also requires the highest BTU wood-- ie, beech, black birch, shagbark hickory and the like, to get higher than 300 or 325 stovetop. Rock maple, red oak and the like won't get you higher than that, even split way down.

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How dry is your wood? I can get the Heritage up to 600+ degrees with 3 medium splits (16" in length). I've poked around inside a tribute firebox and three medium sized splits would fit in that firebox.

NH_Wood said:

ruth140 said:

sorry.... they are really NOT a fast hot stove....

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+1. Also, gyrfalcon - how is it that you can't get that Tribute above ~ 350* or so - that seems CRAZY. I know it's a smaller firebox, but I'd have assumed that a full load would give you high stove temps, just not as long burn times as the larger stoves. How can you heat a space adequately with a stove that doesn't want to go much over 300*??!! Cheers!

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I can get 'er up to between 450 and 475 for a little while (remember how short that burn cycle is with this stove) with a full load of very small splits of well-dried high-BTU wood-- hence my fondness for beech and black birch. But with the stove packed with lower-BTU wood, like rock maple or oak, there just isn't all that much wood burning in there. And a lot of the heat gets stored in that soapstone. The Hearthstone manuals put overfire at 600 and actually advises staying in the 350 to 400 range.

As for your last question-- it depends on your definition of "adequately." I'm perfectly comfortable in the mid-60s room temp (and even lower if I've just come in from outdoor work!), I'm happy with my very cold 2nd floor bedrooms and even have the stairs blocked off with a couple of very heavy movers blankets, I'm tolerant of temperature variations, and I do supplement with good electric heaters when I need to spend more than a little bit of time in the more distant rooms.

I hasten to add this is FAR from ideal, but it's all tolerable. I didn't buy this stove intending to use it as the primary source of heat, but then heating oil prices went through the roof, and you know the rest of the story. If my income hadn't taken such a huge hit from the recession, I'd get a bigger stove. But I can get by with this one until finances improve somewhere down the road.

gyrfalcon how many sq ft are you trying to heat with it?

oh i just saw the "fast and hot " post.
lets remember there are alot of factors in the type of burn you will get out of your stove.
the wood is number 1, plus how you have it split...full logs will burn longer then split.
the condition of your stove, are the gaskets in good shape? doors closing properly??
also your draft..... and that can vary depending on the weather!
super good draft on a super windy day = fast hot burn.
you can take the same stove and put it in different installations and get very different results.
i still cant get away from that fact he is trying to heat 700 sq ft.
thats about 20' x 35'
or something like that.
i have had an over sized stove......it was unbearable to sit in the same room with it!
and try as i might the room was 85! ....needless to say after a good meal...we all sat on the couch and fell asleep )
btw it was a Jotul Oslo...best stove in the world.....

BrowningBAR said:

gyrfalcon said:

It's 16 inches long, yes, but the front door frame is 12 by 8 or something, so you effectively need 14-inch splits to even come close to fully loading it. It also requires the highest BTU wood-- ie, beech, black birch, shagbark hickory and the like, to get higher than 300 or 325 stovetop. Rock maple, red oak and the like won't get you higher than that, even split way down.

Click to expand...

How dry is your wood? I can get the Heritage up to 600+ degrees with 3 medium splits (16" in length). I've poked around inside a tribute firebox and three medium sized splits would fit in that firebox.

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I certainly invite you to come try a test run! I'm talking ideal 20 percent moisture. (This was from a load of truly gorgeous kiln-dried mixed cordwood my superb local lumber mill has recently started selling.) I get about 400 with medium beech or black birch splits, 450 and sometimes briefly a bit higher with smaller splits. About 325 with medium rock maple or red oak splits, 350 with smaller. It struggles to reach 300 with medium red maple, doesn't go more than 325 with small splits. Etc. It was a very enjoyable and fascinating couple of months being able to experiment with an almost perfectly consistent wood supply of those various types.

I can only venture a guess why your larger stove might run hotter with the same amount of wood, but one thing I suspect is air circulation. My stove would be packed to the gills (E/W) with 3 16-inch splits, if you could even get them in there through the door opening. I actually get higher stovetop temperatures with a less fully loaded stove. Also, the floor is so shallow, you can't get a really good coal bed in there before it starts spilling out the door (which also btw reduces the amount of wood you can fit in).

gyrfalcon said:

[I would get a Woodstock in a heartbeat if they'd make one with a top flue. As it is, they take up much more room with that pipe sticking out the back if you abide by the clearances, room that my long narrow front room simply doesn't have.

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The Woodstock Keystone and Palladian can be vented either from the top or rear and they also only need 8" clearance in front since it's a side loader where the Hearthstones require 16".

Todd said:

gyrfalcon said:

[I would get a Woodstock in a heartbeat if they'd make one with a top flue. As it is, they take up much more room with that pipe sticking out the back if you abide by the clearances, room that my long narrow front room simply doesn't have.

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The Woodstock Keystone and Palladian can be vented either from the top or rear and they also only need 8" clearance in front since it's a side loader where the Hearthstones require 16".

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The rear clearances do not compare to the hearthstone, though. Huge difference. Rear clearances with heat shield is 7" on the Heritage. 18" for the Fireview. A hearth pad sticking out 9" further is a big difference from a stove sticking out 11" further.

gyrfalcon said:

What's this about Hearthstones burning fast and hot? I've somehow missed that and find it a bit hard to believe, given the behavior of my Tribute, admittedly the runt of the litter so maybe behaves differently just from its size. It's been my impression that the Hearthstones, like other non-cat stoves, certainly can't do the long low burns of a good cat stove, but I've never read here that they're any worse at that than others. I don't suppose you could point me to any threads here on that subject off the top of your head? I'm really curious now.

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As I said, they can burn hot and fast, and sometimes need a flue damper. The guy is concerned about being too hot, so I was addressing that:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/763623/

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/763563/

And I've seen it in other threads--search around if you like. It's not so much an characteristic of Hearthstones in particular, but non-cat EPA stoves in general. Ironically, they need a good draft to pull air through the secondaries, but because EPA compliance means their primary air cannot be completely shut off, they can be hard to turn down enough on a flue with a strong draft. That's not a criticism, but an attempt to be helpful.

Easy folks.