onthelake said:
RoseRedHoofbeats said:
Man, I wish I still had my spreadsheets from when I was researching woodstoves! Wait until you have to build a hearthpad for the sucker.... (note: just give up and find some Micore. Trust me on this.) And I'm with you on the cats. Maybe after I feel like I've gotten the hang of this and need a second stove for some reason, I'll check it out, but for my first stove I just wanted a box I could make a fire in, the end, goodnight.
I too looked down my nose at steel stoves and wanted a solid cast iron stove- isn't that what stoves are supposed to be made of? What is this steel nonsense?! ......., just defending my itty bitty steel box.)
If you're looking at Jotuls and Hearthstones, I'm guessing you aren't on that small of a budget. Personally, I've never heard a bad thing about Jotuls. Soapstone IS pretty finicky about maintenance- not that it's hard, it's just a matter of keeping up with it. . I would just up and pull the trigger and get the Jotul. Cheaper, easier, and it's cast iron.
~Rose
Not so much turning up my nose as wanting something that has the statistical probability of being good for minimum 10 years and up to 20. This is probably be the last house we buy - being at "that age' - so I want something were the odds are it is going to last as long as we need it. So it is bite-the-bullet on cost time and get in exactly what we need and have done with it - probably until we end up in assisted living or something.
(I was being emphatic on the 'no steel' because so many of the regulars on these threads coming in pushing their particular choice - not you - but others who do it in every single post they get a chance. The Blaze King afficandos are among the most strident seconded only by ceratin people with a Woodstock Soapstone.)
My all-time favorite wood stove was a little cast-iron Waterford Lepruchaun we put in the cabin in the mountains decades ago. Got caught there when a 200 year storm hit and where winter temps usually didn't go below 0, it hit MINUS 31 ! ANd there we were in an uninsulated - and I mean UNinsulated cabin - and that little stove that had a 33000 BTU rating came through and kept us warm in a 900 ft cabin for the entire week we were stuck there. Later sold the camp, sold the stove and last time I heard it was still rockin' and rolling at 20 years old.....
SIgh..... if I could only have another Waterford....... unfortunately going to England/Ireland, buying one and shipping it back isn't in the household budget this month.....
I understand what you have read about the soapstones. There are threads on this forum about how how you have to watch the surface temperature on this one and that one doesn't want to be hotter than XXX...... Maybe it is the owner's being anal, maybe there is trick to them. Have to say I saw a lot of soapstone stoves in the homes of Old Amish (horse and buggy) and them seemed to do just fine. Maybe it was the stoves I saw 20 years ago and now they are fussier......maybe it is the owners now who obsess over the stove and go on and on about its operation.
THe big thing is the soapstones DO cost 50% more per BTU than comparable cast iron. (And even way more per relative BTU than steel.) Makes you wonder if those who buy them aren't motivated by (1) looks of the stove and/or (2) ego since they are obviously upper-upscale toys.
At this point I am confused by what type of stove you are favoring. We'll go back to your original list of:
Hearthstone – Heritage Soapstone 1900 sq ft 50000 btu
Hearthstone – Phoenix Soapstone 2000 60000
Hearthstone – Mansfield Soapstone 2500 80000
Hearthstone Shelburne cast iron 1800 50000
Hearthstone – Bennington Cast iron 2200 70000
Jotul F500 cast iron 2000 70000
Lopi Liberty cast iron 1500 -2500 73400
Vermont Casting – Defiant 2 in 1 cast iron 2400 75000
Woodstock – Progress hybrid soapstone Est 1600 - 2350 80000
Do not put much stock in claimed BTU rating and heating areas. They border on marketing gimmicks.
Of those listed, I would lean towards the Mansfield, Bennington, Jotul, and the Defiant, as long as you are aware of the maintenance of the VC (lots of gaskets which some people hate, and past VCs have had quality control issues).
The Phoenix is the same size as the Heritage. I like the stove, but I like to over-size for easier over night burns. Which is why I suggest the Manfield over it.
The Bennington is about the same size as the Mansfield, but it is a convection stove. If you go with this, be sure to get the blower.
The Jotul F500 is probably a little smaller interms of out put than the Mansield, but not by much. Burn times are probably a little shorter than the Mansfield.
The Lopi cast iron stove; I've heard bad things about 'downdraft stove' but I have no information about them. So, if you like the stove, do some research on it.
VC Defiant; As I mentioned, it would meat your needs and it would provide the longest burns of the stove you found acceptable (about 10 hours). But, it is a cat stove (I like cat stoves, others do not, so you need to figure out what you like), it has a lot of gaskets that will need to be replaced every 5-ish years (I'm fine with that, others are not), and past VC stoves have had quality issues.
What would I buy? The Mansfield, the VC Defiant, or the Woodstock HybridAwfulName. And I would lean to the VC and the Woodstock as they are both cheaper and provide shoulder season flexibility which is important when you are over-sizing.
Why? I value two things; lots of heat and long burn times. Both, the VC and Woodstock, will provide a lot of heat and provide the longest burn times of the bunch.
!