Cast Iron vs. Steel

[efoyt]

I love my cast iron stove but does it have an advantage over steel stoves other then the looks?

 

[BrotherBart]

Nope. Pound for pound steel and cast stoves absorb and release heat exactly the same. Cast holding and releasing it slower is an old wood burning wives tale.

 

[begreen]

No welds to pop or crack.

 

[BrotherBart]

No welds to pop or crack.

Easier to weld the cracks than cast iron. :lol:

 

[Ratherbfishin]

Speaking of steel stoves are you supposed to put a barrier of some type between the stove and kettle or whatever you are cooking with? Don't want to scratch up the paint on my new quad with cast iron kettle vs steel stove.

 

[begreen]

No welds to pop or crack.

Easier to weld the cracks than cast iron. :lol:

Not for me, I don't weld. But I can bolt in a new part!

Gotta ask yourself how many antique cast iron stoves one sees around vs steel stoves. Remembering some of the old pot belly stoves it seems that cast iron can take burning very hot over a long period of time much better.

 

[BrotherBart]

Gotta ask yourself how many antique cast iron stoves one sees around vs steel stoves. Remembering some of the old pot belly stoves it seems that cast iron can take burning very hot over a long period of time much better.

BG you and me will never live long enough to know. Now if Bob Fisher had been born back a hundred years sooner...

From the stuff on craigslist it looks like the earliest steel stoves are alive and well. Well, except for the one I executed. :red:

 

[precaud]

From the 70's thru 90's I was a cast iron man. But I've definitely flipped. I'll take a good welded joint over a gasketed or cemented one any day.

Besides, many modern cast iron stoves are really steel fireboxes in a cast iron wrapper.

 

[bjkjoseph]

i always hated the steel stoves i had in the past.they where very thin steel and ugly as sin,but the new stoves are much thicker steel,but there still pretty ugly.

 

[Nonprophet]

I like the looks of the cast iron stoves (some of them are just down-right beautiful!) but I don't like the idea of having to do an expensive and time-consuming complete tear-down and rebuild every 10 years like most cast iron stove seem to require. Likewise, steel is easily weldable if repairs are needed--not so for cast iron. Most steel stoves are pretty plain looking, but at the end of the day I want a heater not a decoration.

I've got two EPA stoves right now--one a steel Earth Stove non-cat, the other a cast iron cat VC Defiant-Encore 2550. The only thing I like better about the Defiant-Encore is the looks. The steel stove lights better, warms quicker, puts out more heat, is easier to maintain the desired temp, and retains coals far better the the cast iron stove. I think we will be selling the Defiant-Encore..........

NP

 

[madrone]

I'll be holding out for laser-welded cast titanium.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I love my cast iron stove but does it have an advantage over steel stoves other then the looks?

Is costing more an advantage? If so then yes. Otherwise, no.

 

[greythorn3]

I'll be holding out for laser-welded cast titanium.

that would be good! i think titanium you can his with a knife and make it spark too.. be a good way to get the fire going.

 

[savageactor7]

Speaking of steel stoves are you supposed to put a barrier of some type between the stove and kettle or whatever you are cooking with? Don't want to scratch up the paint on my new quad with cast iron kettle vs steel stove.

You could lay some heavy duty tin foil over the top to prevent scratching. Any barrier like a trivet will lower the cooking temp and prevent any boiling over.

 

[greythorn3]

anyone ever cook with the standard top of a blaze king?

 

[Ratman]

Cast holding and releasing it slower is an old wood burning wives tale.

Big Brother B... Ok so what research do you base this radical statement on?

I admit I did very little research but the consisise opinion is that steel walls have little mass to hold heat and they are continually being cooled by circulating air.
Not saying your wrong 'cause I know you are very experienced but if it's a wives tale it's a very well accepted one.

 

[BrotherBart]

Cast holding and releasing it slower is an old wood burning wives tale.

Big Brother B... Ok so what research do you base this radical statement on?

I admit I did very little research but the consisise opinion is that steel walls have little mass to hold heat and they are continually being cooled by circulating air.
Not saying your wrong 'cause I know you are very experienced but if it's a wives tale it's a very well accepted one.

The thermal conductivity of cast iron and carbon steel are virtually identical. And every comparative article I have seen since back to the heyday of The Mother Earth News has agreed. On woodheat.org John Gulland recognized expert in heating with wood states "Some aspects of the design of wood stoves are related more to looks and personal preference than to performance. For example, there is no functional difference between cast iron or plate steel construction, and painted or enameled finishes. These differences affect appearance and cost but not heating performance."

 

[meathead]

You can see where the "wive's tale" started though. Old school steel stoves without firebricks etc. didn't have near the mass of their cast iron counterparts. Sure the steel itself held heat as well as the cast, but there wasn't as much of it as there was cast iron so the steel stoves cooled faster. Now a steel stove (like the englander 30 @ 455lbs) weighs in about the same as its cast counterpart (like the jotul f600 @ 465lbs), so they hold heat just about the same. Comes down to what you liek to look at.

 

[efoyt]

quote]

The thermal conductivity of cast iron and carbon steel are virtually identical. And every comparative article I have seen since back to the heyday of The Mother Earth News has agreed. On woodheat.org John Gulland recognized expert in heating with wood states "Some aspects of the design of wood stoves are related more to looks and personal preference than to performance. For example, there is no functional difference between cast iron or plate steel construction, and painted or enameled finishes. These differences affect appearance and cost but not heating performance."[/quote]

Heyday of the Mother Earth News??? Is it headed down hill? I hope not, I love that mag!

 

[Stevebass4]

how can i tell if my 1993 qf 2100i is cast or steel?

 

[Stevebass4]

guess it's cast - any ideas on how to fix a big crack just kidding any other ideas

 

[logger]

Our family's heated w both steel and cast and I dont care who is giving me their info.. the steel puts heat out faster and cools down much quicker than cast. Perhaps the people doing the testing were going pound for pound, but casts usually way a hell of a lot more and there may lie the difference.

 

[Nonprophet]

Speaking of steel stoves are you supposed to put a barrier of some type between the stove and kettle or whatever you are cooking with? Don't want to scratch up the paint on my new quad with cast iron kettle vs steel stove.

I take some fiberglass stove gasket (the flat stuff/tape works best) and attach it to the bottom of my kettle with stove gasket adhesive or stove mortar. I usually do a circle, but two or three strips work well too. It usually last a season or more, it's cheap, easy, and protects the stove surface.

NP

 

[RustyShackleford]

The thermal conductivity of cast iron and carbon steel are virtually identical.

No doubt, since they are both predominantly iron.

Of course, you also need to look at their specific heat, that is, the amount of energy required
to raise a given mass by a given temperature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity),
but I would be astonished if they were very different (between cast-iron and steel) either.

So these reported differences are undoubtably due to differences in the overall mass, as well as
the thickness of the walls, of stoves made using the two materials.

Since my new BK Princess (if it ever arrives) will be almost exactly the same mass as my old
Dutchwest, I have confidence it'll store a similar amount of heat in its mass. Of course, since
its dimensions will be larger, it probably does have thinner walls on average.

 

[Jags]

Soap Stone is for carving
Plate steel is for snow plows, nuts and bolts.
Cast Iron is for wood stoves.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I gotz my asbestos undies on. Let me have it.