I am replacing my zero clearance fp with a wood burning stove. I prefer the Hearthstone Heritage but am unsure if it will do the job I need it to. We will go off our propane. We have a pellet stove to heat the basement, so the woodstove would be to heat our first and second floors. First floor is about 1200sf open floor plan with one bedroom off the great room (where stove will be). Great room is vaulted about 25 ft. to a loft/catwalk that has bedrooms on either end. Because the Mansfield would require losing the center of the great room, we'd prefer the Heritage. Any opinions or reviews of how the Hertitage has heated your homes? Any info at all will be helpful. Thanks.
Hearthstone Heritage or Mansfield
- Thread starter kmindcl
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Welcome to the forum kmindcl.
We came close to buying a Heritage but since that time we've talked to a few owners and also some posting here on hearth.com. For the most part it is good and for sure it is a beautiful stove but I doubt it would be stove enough for your installation. The Mansfield certainly should do the trick for heating the house though.
Have you considered a Woodstock Soapstone stove? Look especially at the new Progress stove which has both the secondary burn plus a cat. That is a melding of two great ways to burn and should be the most efficient stove on the market. It will be available at the end of October. The Fireview also is a great stove and is the one we purchased. Depending upon how well the house is insulated, it can heat much more than the company recommends. For sure we have been very pleased with it and have cut our wood needs in half compared to our old stove.
We came close to buying a Heritage but since that time we've talked to a few owners and also some posting here on hearth.com. For the most part it is good and for sure it is a beautiful stove but I doubt it would be stove enough for your installation. The Mansfield certainly should do the trick for heating the house though.
Have you considered a Woodstock Soapstone stove? Look especially at the new Progress stove which has both the secondary burn plus a cat. That is a melding of two great ways to burn and should be the most efficient stove on the market. It will be available at the end of October. The Fireview also is a great stove and is the one we purchased. Depending upon how well the house is insulated, it can heat much more than the company recommends. For sure we have been very pleased with it and have cut our wood needs in half compared to our old stove.
kmindcl said:
I do not understand why that is the case. What changes?
I have a Heritage, but I have a leaky home, so I may not be the best person to comment on how much space a heritage will heat.
BrowningBAR,
Sorry. I should have clarified. They are covering the existing fireplace with a sheet of metal and setting the stove in front of the existing fireplace. right now our hearth is about 14 inches deep. Because the Mansfield is so much deeper than the Heritage and there is no side load, we'd have to extend our hearth further to accommodate the stove PLUS they require over a foot beyond that in case ashes/embers fall out. So, the stove essentially ends up almost in the center of the great room. Thanks for any advice
Sorry. I should have clarified. They are covering the existing fireplace with a sheet of metal and setting the stove in front of the existing fireplace. right now our hearth is about 14 inches deep. Because the Mansfield is so much deeper than the Heritage and there is no side load, we'd have to extend our hearth further to accommodate the stove PLUS they require over a foot beyond that in case ashes/embers fall out. So, the stove essentially ends up almost in the center of the great room. Thanks for any advice
kmindcl said:BrowningBAR,
Sorry. I should have clarified. They are covering the existing fireplace with a sheet of metal and setting the stove in front of the existing fireplace. right now our hearth is about 14 inches deep. Because the Mansfield is so much deeper than the Heritage and there is no side load, we'd have to extend our hearth further to accommodate the stove PLUS they require over a foot beyond that in case ashes/embers fall out. So, the stove essentially ends up almost in the center of the great room. Thanks for any advice
If you are looking for shortened clearances you might want to look at the T5 or T6 from Pacific energy. I know the rear clearance are quite short. The Woodstock Progress Hybrid estimated* clearances covers more required space than the Heritage, but it should have a shorter front clearance due to the stove not having a front door.
With the Heritage, you can expect a 5-6 hour burn time when it is providing meaningful heat and plenty of coals in the morning for an easy restart with stove temps at 150-250°. I believe the Mansfield will provide an additional 1-2 hours in burn times over the Heritage, on average.
Your needs will depend upon the size of home and how drafty it is.
*Clearances on the Woodstock stove are estimated as they have not released their final numbers.
From what others have said, I may be getting exceptional performances out of my Heritage, but it's working well for me. It's not a great comparison, as I have 8' ceilings, but I heated my 2Ksf two-story house last year in Fairbanks, AK. From January on, not by choice, it was the sole heater, and I kept the place very comfortable most of the time--in fact, it did a better job than my oil-burning boiler had done.
Further pertinent details: our house is oriented towards the sun, with a lot of large windows on the south side, and not too many anywhere else. It's double-walled and well-insulated, earth-sheltered on the north side of the downstairs and part of the east and west walls as well.
Work/school days, I get a fire going in the morning, and come back to a house usually in the mid- to lower-60'sF, often with enough coals to get a fire going. I'll build up or restart a fire then, usually around six p.m., and do my run-up fire, and then let it back off a bit. At bedtime, I build a fire to burn overnight, and damp it down. If the dog insistts on going out in the night, I wander downstairs and enjoy the light show--at 3 a.m. the blue sheets of flam against the red coal of the wood is out of this world. By morning, I usually have coals to start up another fire; if not, I repeat until spring.
Longest useful-heat fire I got out of it was just under 12 hours, and it looked like it still intended to burn for awhile. It was -30F outside, and 65F inside. I posted about that, and someone else posted that I was, in fact, mistaken, that this didn't happen, so I'm guessing it doesn't happen all the time. As you get to know your stove, you learn how to coax a better performance out of it, how to lay a fire, what wood works best.
I did all this with some old piles of poplar left behind years before by the P.0., so it's not just in the wood.
I think a valid point of comparison is to find someone who's burning the stove you're thinking about, and compare their pre-wood-stove oil (or whatever you use) heating bill with yours. If you find a similar profile, that can help with decisions.
HTH, feel free to ask if I can be of assistance.
Further pertinent details: our house is oriented towards the sun, with a lot of large windows on the south side, and not too many anywhere else. It's double-walled and well-insulated, earth-sheltered on the north side of the downstairs and part of the east and west walls as well.
Work/school days, I get a fire going in the morning, and come back to a house usually in the mid- to lower-60'sF, often with enough coals to get a fire going. I'll build up or restart a fire then, usually around six p.m., and do my run-up fire, and then let it back off a bit. At bedtime, I build a fire to burn overnight, and damp it down. If the dog insistts on going out in the night, I wander downstairs and enjoy the light show--at 3 a.m. the blue sheets of flam against the red coal of the wood is out of this world. By morning, I usually have coals to start up another fire; if not, I repeat until spring.
Longest useful-heat fire I got out of it was just under 12 hours, and it looked like it still intended to burn for awhile. It was -30F outside, and 65F inside. I posted about that, and someone else posted that I was, in fact, mistaken, that this didn't happen, so I'm guessing it doesn't happen all the time. As you get to know your stove, you learn how to coax a better performance out of it, how to lay a fire, what wood works best.
I did all this with some old piles of poplar left behind years before by the P.0., so it's not just in the wood.
I think a valid point of comparison is to find someone who's burning the stove you're thinking about, and compare their pre-wood-stove oil (or whatever you use) heating bill with yours. If you find a similar profile, that can help with decisions.
HTH, feel free to ask if I can be of assistance.
With a non-combustible sheet metal backwall over a non-combustible fireplace, you'll have no rear clearance requirement: let's say 1" behind the stove.
Both stoves require 16" of hearth in front of the loading doors (front and side loading doors, in the case of the Heritage).
The Mansfield is 24" deep, so the front of your hearth would end up 41" from the sheet metal backwall (1" + 24" + 16")
Minimum width would be 39".
The Heritage is 19" deep, so the front of your hearth would end up 36" from the sheet metal backwall (1" + 19" +16")
Due to the side loading door, minimum width would be 52" (60" if you want the same extension on both sides of the stove for balanced appearance).
So, the "footprint" of the Mansfield & hearth in the room would be just 5" deeper than the Heritage, and 13" - 21" narrower.
Another way of looking at it:
The Mansfield hearth would occupy 1599 sq.in. in the room
The Heritage hearth would occupy 1872 - 2160 sq.in.
Lots of good info everyone. Thanks. We've only got one stove dealer and it's an hour away. They only install what they sell. It was between the Vermont Castings and Hearthstone. We liked the efficiency of the soapstone. So, we had to pick Hearthstone. I think we're going to do a mock up and see if we can live with having the Mansfield intrude the great room. Seems like the Heritage is a big gamble as to whether it will do the job, and I don't want to have to have yet another source to heat the second floor. Any opinions on getting the blowers on them?
kmidncl, you liked the soapstone but you did not have to pick Hearthstone. Woodstock also sells but not through stores. Buy direct. 6 month guarantee too. Stove not right, return it for a full refund. We looked at the Heritage but chose the Fireview and love it. Also, you do not have to have a stove seller install the stove. Any carpenter can do it. We've installed all of our stoves ourselves and found it easy to do.
Backwoods Savage said:
Clearances might be an issue as the rear clearances on the Fireview are far more than the Hearthstones. This poster had concerns about the stove being pushed to far out into the room.
kmindcl said:
If you are torn between the two stoves in terms of heat production you might want to make sure you aren't settling on a stove that will not meet your heating needs. The worse thing you can do is settle, spend your hard earned money, and then realize the stove does not meet your heating needs.
I understand size/clearances are an issue, but look at the fireview. Rear clearances are larger, but front clearance are shorter.
You should also look at the Pacific Energy T5 or T6. Rear clearances are short and it may allow you to tuck in the stove closer to the wall so it does not stick out as far.
Pacific Energy T5 and T6:
http://www.pacificenergy.net/alderlea/index.php
Woodstock Fireview:
http://www.woodstove.com/fireview
As a Mansfield owner, I'd suggest the Mansfield if you can deal with the extra space (seems small) required in your great room. The stove is beautiful, the view of the fire is simply awesome with the size of the glass, and it pumps some serious BTU's - I'm VERY glad I went with this stove - it 100% heated my 3000sqft home last year - I also looked into the Fireview, but the good folks at Woodstock didn't think it would be enough heat for my size home - I'm guessing they were right. Cheers!
NH_Wood said:
As a Heritage owner, I agree. The additional capacity of the Mansfield comes in handy as winter gets ugly. At the very least, the extra burn times come in handy.
Heritage is a great stove, but I am a huge fan of large fireboxes.
Mock-ups are a good idea. Don't forget to include a cardboard `hearth'. Frankly, having a wood stove in the middle of a great room might be worth considering. They make great centers for conversation circles. Kids and I have pulled up chairs around three sides of our stove to sit and visit, and it's a good feeling. Stoves pull in people like moths to a flame. Have you looked at the Equinox? It's going to pump out similar heat to the Mansfield, but has that side door thing going for it. It's actually larger than the Mansfield, but if your room is done on a large scale, it probably would be a good visual fit. The Equinox is rated for homes up to 3500sf--bigger than yours, but that 25' ceiling is a game changer.
Good luck, and keep us informed if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see what people choose and why, and how it's working out for them.
There's a thread on here not too long ago started by a fellow who put both a Hearthstone Clydesdale and an Equinox in at the same time, and he's got pix. You might want to check it out.
Good luck, and keep us informed if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see what people choose and why, and how it's working out for them.
There's a thread on here not too long ago started by a fellow who put both a Hearthstone Clydesdale and an Equinox in at the same time, and he's got pix. You might want to check it out.
I don't think my Heritage is big enough for that space plus the rest of it. My house is 1200 square feet, and the Heritage heats it satisfactorily, but it is not even close to the amount of space you are talking about.
In my climate we need heat about 9 months of the year, now until mid june. Temps are cool, hovering at about 35-40 for the majority of the winter. I have shoved well over 20 cords of softwood species through my heritage to heat my 1700 SF well insulated 1963 rambler.
We love it, the stove performs just as advertised and rated. It was rated for 1900SF as I recall and I don't doubt it. We normally run the stove at 350-400 which is less than half of the rated output. It can run to 600 if needed. It will burn overnight but honestly, by morning it isn't making much heat.
The heritage is superior to the mansfield in that it has the side door. The side door is freaking awesome, we don't even open the front door except every few months to clean the fly ash from the front glass. The mansfield also looks goofy with those feet and the door isn't as nice to look at.
Both stoves are good, the ashpans and door latches are the weaknesses.
We love it, the stove performs just as advertised and rated. It was rated for 1900SF as I recall and I don't doubt it. We normally run the stove at 350-400 which is less than half of the rated output. It can run to 600 if needed. It will burn overnight but honestly, by morning it isn't making much heat.
The heritage is superior to the mansfield in that it has the side door. The side door is freaking awesome, we don't even open the front door except every few months to clean the fly ash from the front glass. The mansfield also looks goofy with those feet and the door isn't as nice to look at.
Both stoves are good, the ashpans and door latches are the weaknesses.
You are very right Bar, I was under the impression that he lived further north for some reason. Prolly never gets too many zero degree days there in Maryland, or two and a half months below freezing.
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