Hearthstone Homestead

[lazeedan]

I am considering putting in a Homestead. I have a 1500 square ft ranch very open floor plan, with a useless fireplace right in the middle of the house. I plan to put a 6 inch liner up the 8 inch fireplace chimney. And hearth mounting this stove. We really like the look of the soapstones but I have no first hand experience with. Some people have told me I will be disapointed with the performance. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[jpl1nh]

Many factors affect whether this stove works well for you. What part of the country do you live in? How good is your insulation? Lots of windows?..etc. Assuming you sized the stove correctly for you situation, then regarding your question about be dissapointed by the performance, I'm guessing, of soapstone stoves in general, most soapstone owners love their stoves. They provide a gentler and steadier heat than steel or iron stoves. You need to somewhat anticipate your heating periods because you don't get immediate reponse from them. As far as being dissapointed, there is no reason for that to be the case unless you really want immediate, scorch your pants off type heat.

 

[Burn-1]

If your floor plan is open enough and your stove is centrally placed I think you should be fine.

Soapstone heat is mostly radiant so anything in the line of sight of the stove gets the most heat although there is some convection as well. If you are looking at the hearth mount, you might want to consider the optional surround panels for it. It will probably throw some more heat out away from the chimney.

 

[Todd]

With the Homestead in the middle of a 1500sq ft open floor plan, I don't see how you would be disappointed. Make sure you install a block off plate were your liner goes up your flue and also a rear heat shield to reflect the heat out into the room. I use to own a homestead and it was a good stove. 8-9 hour burn times, and will easily heat 1500 sq ft.

 

[lazeedan]

I live in southwest Michigan. The house is insulated ok. And no I don't want scorching hot heat that's why we started looking at soapstones. Thanks for the input.

 

[Gooserider]

The Homestead is a very nice unit, and I think that just about all the reports I've seen on it have been positive. The only cautionary note I would offer on it is to carefully read the manual, and make sure you can deal with the unit's clearance requirements, especially the unusually high floor protection requirement for the 4" leg (hearthmount) model - At R-6.6, they are the highest I know of for a listed stove. The freestanding model with the 6" legs also has substantial protection requirements, but isn't quite as extreme. The stove's other clearance requirements (top, sides, rear, front) are significant, but fairly typical - I don't know why the floor protection spec is so high.

If the hearth requirements are OK, then I would say you'd be happy with the stove in other respects. The 2.0 cf firebox is a bit on the small side, but 1500 sqft is also, so that shouldn't be an issue, especially as the soapstone tends to give longer burn times.

The other cautionary thing about soapstone is that because of it's slower heat curve, it is best suited for those willing to make the 24/7 burning commitment - it takes long enough to produce meaningful heat that it isn't as good for those just wanting supplemental heat. With soapstone the idea is to get the stove hot at the beginning of the season, and keep it that way.... However for 24/7 burner's it's great - If I could afford one, I'd put it in w/o hesitating.

Gooserider

 

[rdrcr56]

We have the homestead and love it, our house is 1100 sq. ft. I can bring the room where the stove is up from 68 deg. to 76 deg. in about forty minutes. The overnight burn is about 7 hours, with enough coals to re-start up to 9 hours. With double wall, and the heat shield the rear clearance is 7 in. if I remember and 16 in. on the side. For the hearth 2 layers of micor and 2 of durock covers the r-factor for the hearth.

 

[nshif]

For the hearth 2 layers of micor and 2 of durock covers the r-factor for the hearth.

If Goose is correct and the short legs require R 6.6 2- 1/2 " layers of micore and 2- 1/2 " layers of duroc aint gonna even be close
Micore = 1.1 per 1/2"
duroc = .26 per 1/2"
which to be adds to 2.72.

 

[rdrcr56]

We have the 6 in. legs, sorry about that.

 

[Todd]

Homestead with 6" legs and floor heat shield needs a R 2.5 according to the manual.

 

[lazeedan]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like I'm going to be putting in a different hearth. The Heartland catalog isn't very helpful with these requirements. For hearth requirements it says see owners manual. So I'll ask the stove shop before I commit to this stove. Any thing else I should be considering?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[nshif]

Try this for hearth floor protection requirments.
http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/documents/Homestead8570Manual.pdf
If you can get by with 6" legs youd be alot better off as far as r factor

 

[lazeedan]

Thanks for the link. I'm going to go with 6" legs & heat shield. I'm trying to decide if we are going to hearth mount or freestanding. I wonder how much heat I'm going to loose if I hearth mount. If I freestand I can get the blower kit. Do you think I would need the blower?

Thanks
Dan

 

[nshif]

You can try it without the blower then add it later if you feel you need it. It does help to distribute the heat.

 

[Highbeam]

I tore down my masonry chimney and replaced it with a freestanding soapstone. The old insert had a steel EPA Lopi stove. If you go freestanding then don't bother with the blower or at least try without it before spending the large amount of money. The beauty of the freestanding stove is the silence and a blower would ruin that IMO. I think you would lose a lot of heat in a hearthmount compared to a freestanding since the masonry seems to always suck heat away and out the chimney.

I was able to heat my main living space of about 750 SF (1700 SF home, poorly or not insulated, single pane leaky windows) from 66 to 73 in two hours last night starting from a cold stove and only getting it to 400 stove top. The soapstone is slower to react than a steel stove meaning a raging fire doesn't immediately warm it up and a dying fire doesn't immediately let it cool off. It has been a learning curve for sure and the slow reaction time is hugely helpful when burning low density softwood since I can load it up and let it rage without worrying about an overfire, then repeat once the fire dies down if I need more heat. Just really different than the steel where I had to babysit it more.

 

[jpl1nh]

I tore down my masonry chimney and replaced it with a freestanding soapstone. The old insert had a steel EPA Lopi stove. If you go freestanding then don't bother with the blower or at least try without it before spending the large amount of money. The beauty of the freestanding stove is the silence and a blower would ruin that IMO. I think you would lose a lot of heat in a hearthmount compared to a freestanding since the masonry seems to always suck heat away and out the chimney.

I was able to heat my main living space of about 750 SF (1700 SF home, poorly or not insulated, single pane leaky windows) from 66 to 73 in two hours last night starting from a cold stove and only getting it to 400 stove top. The soapstone is slower to react than a steel stove meaning a raging fire doesn't immediately warm it up and a dying fire doesn't immediately let it cool off. It has been a learning curve for sure and the slow reaction time is hugely helpful when burning low density softwood since I can load it up and let it rage without worrying about an overfire, then repeat once the fire dies down if I need more heat. Just really different than the steel where I had to babysit it more.

Soapstone is a pleasure in the "babysitting" dept isn't it?

 

[Highbeam]

"Soapstone is a pleasure in the “babysitting” dept isn’t it?"

Really it is. Though my stove is a non-cat I find that I don't need to fiddle with the air control to regulate the temperature like with the steel. I have to restart the fire every morning for several reasons. I want to start the fire, make sure it is going for a couple of minutes, then latch the door and go get dressed or make my lunch or whatever. The draft is wide open on the heritage and I know that the stove will not be overfired for at least two hours so I can go about my business while the stove absorbs all that energy. Just way less effort is required to keep this stove safely producing heat. I am a believer.

 

[lazeedan]

Thanks for all the input. We have decide to go ahead and get it. We went and ordered it tonight. They didn't have any 6 inch legs in stock. I have picked up my 6 inch liner. Hopefully will put the liner in tomorrow. The stove supposed to be ready in about a week. I'm sure I will have questions.

Thanks,
Dan