soapstone/or Woodstock question

I'm gonna call Woodstock ask some questions but wondered has anyone had any soapstone crack like from heat (overfire) or other means .Also any discoloration issues. Also how is the soapstone connected to the frame ,does this need redone ever . Sorry I'm a maintenance man. Looking at the progress & Fireview( I see cat cost is only $125 for fireview )
I'm limited to 6" flue size
Other contenders are:

Lopi cape cod ( I here good things about maint on this one )

BK princess ( can't see one & so far cost most & wife Veto's )

I know I'm forgetting some

Come on Honest owners

Help Jack with his fate

My stove is over 20 years old, mine for the last year. No cracks.

I forgot to say I own a slab of soapstone it sets on granpa fisher it cracked this is why I'm curious.

Never

Never saw a Woodstock crack. Most of today's stoves take 6" flues. My friend with an older Paladium II take a 7" flue but he used a 7 to 6 reducer. It works great and he has no problems with it. Generally, the rule of thumb is you can increase the pipe size if you need to use an adapter because of pre-existing flue pipe. Nonetheless, his works fine. No issues. As for the cats, I would compare them with the prices at woodmanspartplus.com. I recently bought a baffle significantly less them the mfg.

Only one year's experience here. The first stove top on the PH was a one-piece stone, which was soon determined to be a design issue due to cracks (including mine). Modified design, new replacement stones for free, and all is well. I haven't had the stove apart, but from what I can see, the stones are held in place by the metal framework (stones sit within channels, and are not directly fastened).

An exchange student in our household put cookie dough directly on the stone top and it left a large stain. A little fine sandpaper cleaned it off quite nicely.

My parents have an older Fireview with dark stones on the top. They did a little cleaning and the stones looked better - I expect with even more cleaning they could lighten it up quite a bit. No signs of damaged/cracked stones anywhere on that stove.

Thanks for the woodsmans site they got good cat prices ,have you used their parts vs oem parts?

Burned a Fireview for a good number of years before purchasing my PH last year. The soapstone has been no issue. Original design was faulty for PH top, because they could not get clear enough soapstone for the size and thickness of the top...some cracked. So, as stated, they redesigned the top, replaced those already in existence, and all is well. The Fireview did just great. The last year I burned with it, a small crack (which isn't open) started on one of the two top pieces. I just put another slab on top of it, so no issues with smoke. It is still intact just fine. Will be very easy to replace, which I will do if I recommission the stove. These stoves seldom need servicing, but are very easy for the owner to service if they do need it. To be fair, I should state that I did a lot of cooking on top of the Fireview, put a lot of weight on it, including a stack of 5 replacement top pieces, which I use to heat the beds, and the stove is probably not designed to take that much weight on the top...
Have nothing but good things to say about Woodstock, their accessability, kindness, courtesy and service, and the quality of their build.

Thanks , I've only heard good from these guys ,that's why they made my short list .

I have bought from them before and quite satisfied. My most recent purchase is the vermiculite baffle that goes over the reburning tubes and various other sudries I needed. I though they were fair. I have also spoken with them on the phone and they reassure you that the products will work. The baffle I received looks just like the one I am removing from the stove.

My SIL's Fireview leaked air around some seams between the frame and stones, which we temporarily fixed (pretty well) with 'Rutland Gasket Cement and Stove Sealer.' Stove was probably overfired by previous owner and something could be warped, causing leakage. Haven't looked closely enough at that possibility yet. I don't know what a rebuild would entail, were it necessary...not sure if there are gaskets in those seams or what. Never seen anyone on here talk about rebuilding that stove. I'm thinking that if I'm nice to my Fv, it will be a long time before it needs any major work.
On thing is certain; Woodstock parts are some of the most reasonably-priced around...

I've owned 3 Woodstock's and one of my Keystones had two stones crack on me. One of the top stones cracked and was very easy to replace, remove two bolts, pop the top, turn it over and replace the stone, took about 10 minutes.

The other crack was the small stone under the side door and that took a little more maintenance. I had to remove the top, front and side then replace the stone and seal it all back up with furnace cement. Took a couple hours.

Woodstock was great about all this and sent me everything I needed for free and I also talked with a stove builder and had great instructions with pictures.

You never know if a stone will crack or not. Sometimes there are hidden fissures, mineral deposits or defects that the manufacture doesn't always catch.There can also be moisture hidden inside that can expand and pop when it gets hot quickly during your first couple fires.

Jack, as you know, Woodstock is second to none when it comes to customer service. They also give you a 6 month guarantee on the stoves. As for cracking, it does not happen often but don't forget, there is more than one layer of stone there! Also, scratches and stains are easy to get out, usually with 0000 steel wool.

You are a maintenance man so take a look at the Fireview manual and you will see how simple it is to replace anything if it needs to be done. The biggest issue is with the cats and those are being improved a lot. For some reason they got a bad batch of them but hopefully that is all behind now.

As for cleaning the cat, it takes only a couple minutes at most. There are 2 shipping bolts that have to be removed but once removed they do not have to be put back in. So it is a matter of lifting the top lid. Reach in with one hand and lift out the cat. We take ours out on the porch and brush it with an old paint brush. Pop it back in and all is done.

We are on our sixth year with the Fireview and extremely pleased with both the stove and the company.

i have a small hairline crack on one of my heritages. nothing to really worry about so far. it's not really noticeable now that i've gotten used to it. as long as it doesn't carry through to the firebox, i consider it cosmetic only.

I was speaking to Woodstock a week or so ago...well after purchasing my FV...about a number of different questions. Out of curiosity I asked about stones cracking and was told that it's not all that common but it does happen, usually in the side wall opposite the fill door. Their statement (and it makes sense) is that in that spot it is usually the result of an owner repeatedly putting wood in with too much force. These are double wall stoves so a hairline crack is really no more than a cosmetic issue. For repair of seals and filling cracks they recommend their own stove cement - it has soapstone powder mixed in for both appearance and adhesion. Think it was around 7 bucks for a tube....which I've ordered to have on hand, just in case...

sounds good

We got a woodstock fireveiw 2 years ago. We live in northern Iowa so we burn about 8 months out of the year. We were burning some maple and the wife forgot to close the damper down. It was only a short time and the back outer wall cracked. The thermostat said about 600 degrees. The danger zone is about 700. So I don't think she over fired it. Looked on the repair site for woodstock it tells how to replace the sides but not the back. We had already sent the stove back once because the door was on the wrong side. Our fault about $100.00 shipping good thing we didn't take it out of the crate. Has anyone out there replaced the outer back soapstone? I'm not sure how to remove the flue cover above the back wall.

You are asking about Woodstock, so.. take this with a grain of salt.. our Homestead stones did darken a bit after the first few fires, looked even better. We did get an iron stain on a stone, sanded/polished out. Our Mansfield has two stones with hairline surface cracks, you can't see them without a high powered flashlight and looking for them. They don't bother me or the stove a bit.

Stone is a natural material. There will be variations.

I would say call Woodstock...I'm sure someone there will be only too happy to walk you through the process of getting that stone out.

Experience is priceless , Honesty beyond that

Hope your repairs go well

I have a little crack on my Heritage. Not too bad. I forgot where it was and would have to look for it on the right top stone.

Bobby G,i just wanted to say that with that stove heating so fast that you were heating the stone too fast and i bet it was still getting hotter after you closed it down.The real heat never even reached the outside stone as it was heating so fast.