Need opinions

[Chopper]

I believe I'm narrowed down to these two stoves. Hearth stone heritage or the jotul castine. My house is 1300 sq. plan on heating the whole house.I found a good price on a new heritage...under1900....but can't seem to find any prices on the castine. I know the heritage is a bit large but I figure with the stone I won't be run out of the room.On the other hand I was thinking the castine might run me out of the room. The installation will be a corner install, straight vertical chimney. Iknow everybody has their personal favorite stoves, The castine has the look I'm looking for if I go with cast , the heritage I can't stop staring at it.By the way Istill have the old forrester sitting in garage .Don't know if I'm going to install in workshop or just use it for a boat anchor. Opinons would be appreciated. chopper

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

There both fantastic stoves. The castine or the heratige will have similar burn times. Of course i love my heratige, but in general i like stone stoves, and the heratige in a corner install is nice because you can use the rear vent and put the cook plate on the top. Its a nice place to keep a steamer. The castine is a beautifull cast stove that has lots of detail in the casting, the door latch is real beefy and its well constructed. If you can find a heratige for under $1900 bucks i would jump all over it. You have the right idea about a small space and the soft heat that the heratige will provide. Thats more then enough stove for that space. Any smaller and you run into burn time issues.

 

[kd460]

Seeing both of those in person, I second the hearthstone. Very nice. It would have been my next choice if I couldn't find an insert to fit my ZC fireplace. I lso like a corner install. Seems to keep the room "open". The corner is dedicated for the stove, and does not seem to impinge (sp?) on the rest of the room. Keep us posted, KD

 

[begreen]

Good choices, I would be happy with either. Actually, next winter we will be relying on the woodstove a lot more and are considering upgrading. These two stoves are on the top of the list. My wife if biased towards the Castine, but that is based solely on aesthetics. She really likes their gothic arched door design. I'm lobbying for the Heritage or Phoenix for greater heat output and longer between load times.

MSG - How long do you go between reloadings and with what type wood - pine? Will the Castine really burn as long on softwood? I thought it had a smaller firebox but could be wrong. So far I haven't been able to find specific firebox cu. ft. dimensions. It is EPA rated at about 7,000 btu/hr less than the Phoenix.

 

[Todd]

Go with the Heritage. Sounds like you found a great deal on one. You will like how the soapstone heats verses cast iron or steel.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

BeGreen, i go along time between loads, thats because i let the fire die out and relight at a later time. I would say, i get 5-6 hours between starting a cold firebox and a almost out, mature bed of coals. I could not relight off the coal bed after 8 hours but depending on how well i load it, i could after 5. I think the castine and the heratige are close in firebox size. Jotul doesnt post there numbers that way. The phoneix is a nice stove too. I dont like the front much but thats a personal observation.

I use my stove different then most. I light it in the morning at 7:30, it burns untill about 1:00 it heats untill about 5:00 and then i relight it at 8:00pm, and just let it go. I dont realy mess with the air controls much. I guess im lazy and just let it burn full bore.

 

[begreen]

Good to know, and that is with pine? We'll be burning softwoods for the most part as well. With the little Jotul we have a max of 3+ hrs. before the coals can no longer relight a fire.

The between loads times are exactly what I am looking for, not "burn" times, which are at best ambiguous. The stove will be in our livingroom, so reducing the number of times one opens it up and feeds the stove is a good thing in my book. Less futzing = less mess. The Heritage manual says to clean out the ashpan once per day. What has your experience been?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Ohhh, the ashpan, its been 2 years since i have opened the door. Im not to good about using the pan. With the pine mix i use (ponderosa, spuce and doug fir,) there is little ash to be cleaned. I scoop my firebox every 2-3 weeks. For some reason, those woods dont create alot of ash. I only scoop it when it starts to cover the dog house, which is almost spilling out. I find that it burns alot better with a good ash bed in it.