Curious on Soapstone Stoves, I have a few questions......

[hookspacken]

I am going to be building a new home soon, will definatley be installing a wood stove. Is there really any other way to heat.....lol.
Anyway, I love the look of the fireview and have seen nothing but positive reviews and commments on both the stove and the manufacturer. My questions are on how a soapstone stove heats, compared to the cast stove that I am currently using (DW small catalytic stove). My DW currently heats my ranch home, 1000 sq/ft all winter and my furnace does not come on.
My new home is going to be a 1400 sq/ft Chalet style home and I am looking for similar results, meaning I dont want to us my furnace much, if at all.
Please correct me if any of my information is not correct. I believe the soapstone stoves create a milder heat, called more even by some. So Am I correct in saying that the stove top temps are lower than the cast stove? If this is the case, does the soapstone stove not put out the heat like my stove does now? will I have an issue with heating the new home area with a soapstone stove? I know that they have a longer heat cycle, giving off heat after the fire burns down. I guess I am concerened that I dont want to drop all that $ on a stove nad not have it be able to heat my home like I am used to.
Any info and or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[savageactor7]

We like to burn hot so soapstone would not be a good choice for us....just something to think about. That soapstone look does have a certain appeal to it though.

 

[edthedawg]

Hookspacken,

Is this gonna be a 24/7 burner? or lots of starts-and-stops? We ran 24/7 mostly last winter (first season burning w/ Heritage) and got great results but I think we spent a lot of time heating the house when we weren't there, just to keep the fire re-lightable when we got home from work.

I believe the stovetop temps are going to be generally a little lower than a cast stove sees, but you can also expect not to burn as much fuel, and to have those hot surfaces providing radiation and convection heating for many hours after the fire is "out".

 

[Wet1]

I would think the fireview would be an excellent choice for a 1400 sq ft home. Stove temps will be a little lower, but the average temp of the stove should remain more stable throughout the heating cycle (less peaks and valleys) because of the larger thermal mass.

 

[Todd]

Soapstone heat has a different feel, you don't get that searing blast when the stove is burning full bore. It throws the same amount of heat but over a longer more even period. The Fireview takes some getting use to, stove top temps on the Fireview can reach over 700 because the cat is right under the top, but that doesn't mean it's putting out max BTU's, just that the cat is eating tons of smoke. You get more heat from this stove when you give it more air to create flames and red hot coals so the whole mass of soapstone throws off heat and the stove top may be a relatively cooler 500-600. If you are a serious 24/7 wood burner the Fireview would be a great fit for your 1400 sq ft chalet.

 

[hookspacken]

Yes, we will definatley be burning 24/7. Thanks for all of the info. Regarding stove temps, my DW typically runs around 450-ish on the side door when the convertor is engaged, with the convertor running around 11-1200 deggrees. This is with the main air shut down failry low.

 

[Todd]

I find I watch my flue probe temp more than the stove top, it seems to give me more info and is quicker to react than the thermometer on the stove top.

 

[Highbeam]

The normal comparison of cast iron to soapstone is going to be difficult since your CI stove is a catalytic model. The cat allows the CI stove to produce a low steady heat unlike a non-cat CI stove that is either hot or cold. I don't actually see you noticing much difference in stove top temps or burning characteristics really with the exception beign the Soap stove will take long er to heat up from cold and longer to cool down after the fire goes out, but you won't ever notice this if you're burning 24/7.

The soapstone stove at 450 is pleasant to sit by. My kids love to bask in the radiant heat.

If I was you, buying a stove for 24/7 in a 1400 SF house then I would absolutely buy a fireview. Well, or a blaze king princess. Both stoves are premium stoves but neither cost significantly more than the alternatives.

 

[summit]

soapstone stoves take longer to warm up than steel or cast, so they are not quite as effective on the "chilly spring" morning / evening kinda fires (because once they get warm, it takes several hours to start to cool off!), but if you like to start your stove in november and shut it down in march, soapstone will do the trick..

 

[joshlaugh]

I have a soapstone stove and really like it. It does take longer to heat up the house(might take a few hours in my house) although the room that it is in heats up pretty fast. I run the stove between 4-500 degrees. Occasionally I was too lazy to wake up at 3am to feed it but the stone would still be warm in the morning. Overall I really like my Heritage stove and we think it looks nice too. Good luck with whatever route you choose.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Naturally you are going to hear all the pat answers about the soapstone stoves: They are slow to warm up, more complicated to operate, etc., etc. Don't believe all you read or hear about them either.

We found that they are a bit slower to warm up, but very little. Once you get the hang of it they warm up quite fast.

The are not complicated to operate at all unless you want to say that using two levers is complicated. The two levers are one for the draft and one for the cat. Setting the draft is pretty simple and so is setting the cat. The cat is either on or off and the draft has settings from 1 to 4. How can this be complicated?

Contrary to Todd (sorry Todd), we find that you don't need the red hot coals nor the flame. That does not mean we don't get them but many, many times we won't have flame nor can we see anything that appears hot. Yet, the stove is kicking out good heat and the stovetop will be 600-650 degrees.

The heat does feel different. Like Todd says, it does not feel like a blast furnace. It really is a soft warm heat.

I worried when we built a heart 16" high because heat rises and I figured the floors would be too cold. No worry there. We had a plastic floor (one of those plastic floors you put by a desk) by the entry door for a while and that thing it seems was always cold with our old stove. When we put the Fireview in, it suddenly changed and then it stayed very warm. The radiant heat from this stove is fantastic.

The only caution I would give to anyone is to make certain that the wood they burn is well seasoned and that does not mean to take someone's word that it is seasoned and ready to burn. I say the wood should be in the stack a minimum of 2 years. Anyone who has trouble with Woodstock stoves not burning right is burning unseasoned wood.

We burn 50% of the amount of wood that we used to and stay much, much warmer now with our Fireview. And, we have not cleaned the chimney since installing the Fireview in 2007.

Methinks this stove will serve you well.

 

[Todd]

Contrary to Todd (sorry Todd), we find that you don't need the red hot coals nor the flame. That does not mean we don't get them but many, many times we won't have flame nor can we see anything that appears hot. Yet, the stove is kicking out good heat and the stovetop will be 600-650 degrees.

I was just trying to state that the stove top doesn't always tell the whole story with this stove. Like you say you can get a stove top temp of 650 with no flame and red hot coals, but with this senario most of the heat is coming off the top. When you turn up the air and get more fire and coals it heats up more soapstone and produces more heat and the stove top may actually drop some. Most of the time I burn mine with just a small flicker of flame, but sometimes you need more heat and need to turn up the air.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree Todd and was not trying to be contrary in the least. They do kick out a lot of heat either way!

 

[Highbeam]

The woodstock is VERY complicated..... hehehe, JK, that bothers Dennis yet he was the first one to bring it up here.

Actually it should be less complicated than the VC cat stove you're coming from. As I recall, that VC cat has primary AND secondary air controls on top of the cat bypass. The fireview is easy compared to that.

The majority of soapstone stoves have only one air control lever. Hot one way, cold the other.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Highbeam, you are right that I brought that up....only to show how ridiculous that idea is! lol

 

[fire_man]

Todd is absolutely right, you get the most heat from higher firebox temperatures, not stove top temps. I put a thermometer on the front of the Fireview (on the cast iron trim) and when there is a flame inside the firebox the front thermometer can reach above 500 degrees, but without firebox flame its as low as 300. The room gets much warmer when there is flame and the front thermometer gets above 400 or so. I like to keep one thermometer on top, one on the flue and one on the front. My wife thinks I'm crazy monitoring all of this, but she is use to it by now. Thank goodness for this site, its nice to know there are other crazy types out there :cheese: