soapstone, T6 or Jotul F600

[madie10398]

I also am looking to buy a wood stove and have been reading your threads for a couple of months and have been visiting dealers (have to admit I am a bit dissapointed with the limited feedback/information they have provided me with and feel it is now time to ask you all for advice) First off I will be heating a approx 3000 sq/ft house with open floor plan and cathedral ceilings in the center of the house which is open to a loft and bedrooms. We built the house three years ago and my husband was nicknamed the insulation king (needless to say the house is well insulated). I have narrowed my choice to the equinox (given a price of 2900) or the PE T6 (2300). I am looking for long burn times and a nice gentle heat but able to heat the whole house. Any advice from the pros would be extremely helpful as I am not sure what to do. Thank you for help!!

 

[begreen]

Welcome madie. It sounds like you have a good plan in place. Kudos for adding the extra insulation. It would be good to evaluate the current heating load by looking at how many btus/month show up in the monthly heating bills. That will help you determine the size of stove needed.

Suggestions are pretty much the same as far as stoves go. The Equinox will have more capacity than the stoves mentioned above. It's in the rare league of 4 cu ft stoves. There is a lot of thermal mass there. So if your goal is 24/7 heating it would work well. A better comparison stove to the T6 would be the Mansfield. Whatever the choice, try to locate the stove centrally with an interior chimney or flue pipe. Add ceiling fans if they are not already installed.

 

[madie10398]

Thank you for your input. It is hard to figure out our exact BTU's (we use propane and only fill the tank 1-2 times per year and it does heat, HW, dryer,stove so a rough estimate would be 800-1000 gal of propane for heat per year).

I guess my some of my concerns are:

Would the Equinox be too large for our needs? The Mansfield is $2600 and the Equinox is $2900 I realize she is giving us a good price on the equinox as everyone else is more in the 3500 range (so not a large difference in price in the long run between the two soapstone stoves)

They say the T6 can produce soapstone like heat....have you found this to be true?

I guess I am just trying to get feedback from people who have actually used these stoves. So any info. would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[Todd]

I think both of you are good candidates for the new Equinox. That 4 cu ft firebox will burn a long time and give off many BTU's for your large square footage. Another big stove with a 4 ft firebox is The Blaze King. If you want soapstone heat buy a soapstone stove. Cast iron and steel can only store half the BTU's pound for pound that soapstone can.

 

[begreen]

Thank you for your input. It is hard to figure out our exact BTU's (we use propane and only fill the tank 1-2 times per year and it does heat, HW, dryer,stove so a rough estimate would be 800-1000 gal of propane for heat per year).

I guess my some of my concerns are:

Would the Equinox be too large for our needs? The Mansfield is $2600 and the Equinox is $2900 I realize she is giving us a good price on the equinox as everyone else is more in the 3500 range (so not a large difference in price in the long run between the two soapstone stoves)

They say the T6 can produce soapstone like heat....have you found this to be true?

I guess I am just trying to get feedback from people who have actually used these stoves. So any info. would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!!

Yes, that would be tough to estimate without a sense of the monthly load. It sounds like the house is fairly tight. The propane load is not bad considering the house size. Would you know the btu output (size) of the furnace? Does it keep the house warm in the coldest weather?

The T6 has a lot of mass and does retain heat much like a soapstone stove. It's less fragile and can be pushed hotter. This might be important if you intend to cook on it occasionally and are concerned about spills. On the other hand, we have a lot of very happy Mansfield owners. Hearthstone has a good track record. If you like the look of soapstone, it could work as well.

 

[madie10398]

BeGreen: Our furnace output has 72,000 BTU output (viessman vitdens 200 boiler). It has no problem keeping our house warm in the winter. We have one room that we had a hard time heating properly which is above the garage and is the last to get the water from the boiler. That is the only room that remained cold and the rest of the house was fine. We kept the house between 64 and 68 most of the time.

Between the equinox and T6 which one will need the least "babysitting". I have three kids now and don't want a stove that is going to need constant tending.

Again, I can't thank you all enough for your advice..........I need it!!

 

[begreen]

That's what I suspected, the heat load is pretty low considering the house size. Insulation works!

Based on the propane usage, I'm going to guess that the Mansfield or T6 will cover your needs well. As long as you have good quality firewood, and burn correctly, neither stove (T6 or Mansfield) is going to need a lot of fussing. Normally in winter, the stove will need fueling 3 times a day. Say at around 7am, 3 pm and 10 pm. Fill it up, let the wood char, turn the air down. Regulate the heat output mostly by the size and quantity of the wood loaded. In fall/spring it might be only twice a day. There are lots of posts about both manufacturers. The Hearthstone owners will have to chime in here about running that stove. I can say that the T6 is one of the easiest to start and run that I've owned.

 

[madie10398]

Hello. I am in need of some advice (I posted in an earlier thread(got some great info from BeGreen) but just figured out how to start my own) I am looking for any input to help me in my decision making process.

2800-3000 sq ft house. 2 story-open floor plan. Has ceiling fans and the house is well insulated.

I need an easy to use stove that is going to adequately heat the house and provide long burn times.

So far some of the pricing I have received is as follows: mansfield 2600, equinox 2900, T6 2300

I would love to hear from people who use these stoves and can provide me with information to help me make my decision. You all provide great advice (more than I have been able to get from the dealers) Thanks!!

 

[begreen]

moving other threads here to consolidate and avoid redundancy

 

[madie10398]

Do you think the equinox would blast me out of our house or be a bit overkill? I tend to like the looks of the equinox better than the mansfield.

I also really like the look of the Jotul F 600 Firelight CB which throws 81,000 BTU's and states can heat 2,500 sq/ft. I think this would provide us with enough heat for the 2800 sq/ft being that we are well insulated....I just was wondering what some others have experienced with the heat output and burn time with this stove.

I am sure I would be happy with either stove....I guess I just analyze everything to death!!

 

[begreen]

The amount of heat output from the stove is in direct proportion to the fuel + air put into it. That's in your control.

Based on what can be gathered from your heating load, I do think the Equinox would be overkill, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work. I do think that you may never use more than a portion of it's potential heating capacity. In spring and fall you would have to burn smaller and shorter fires. The problem with too big a stove is that during fall and spring the fires get too small to get the stove up to temperature. When that happens, combustion is dirty and inefficient. The other problem is that the Equinox is new, so there isn't a lot of data on how it performs over a wide variety of conditions. It might be a great spring and fall burner, but we don't have a lot of reports yet to know.

The F600 is well tested in a lot of conditions. It comes up to temp pretty quickly. I think it would work ok.

 

[Rich L]

Do you think the equinox would blast me out of our house or be a bit overkill? I tend to like the looks of the equinox better than the mansfield.

I also really like the look of the Jotul F 600 Firelight CB which throws 81,000 BTU's and states can heat 2,500 sq/ft. I think this would provide us with enough heat for the 2800 sq/ft being that we are well insulated....I just was wondering what some others have experienced with the heat output and burn time with this stove.

I am sure I would be happy with either stove....I guess I just analyze everything to death!!

Hey Madie,I hear it gets pretty cold in upstate New York.Stop playing around and go with the Hearthstone Equinox.Which I would have gotten had I known of it's existence before I got the Mansfield.I thing the mansfield is rated to heat 2500sq' and that may mean an insulated home not an uninsulated home.If so you'll end up quite chilly in your 2800sq'-3000sq' home.Quell all doubt and go with the Equinox.

 

[Todd]

The Equinox wouldn't be over kill for a 3000 sq ft home in upstate NY. Soapstone is different, you can sit 10 foot away from the stove without it seering you well done. If I had 3000 sq ft I would definitely look for a stove with a 4 cu ft firebox. Those manufactures sq ft heating numbers are almost always over exaggerated especially for a colder climate.

 

[madie10398]

Thanks for the advice. It actually sounds as if the PE Alderlea T6 should be reconsidered. I'm thinking it would be middle of the road between the soapstone and the Jotul???? BG said in an old post that the heat from it is similar to a soapstone. I only wish it had the enamel finish....I really like the fact that Jotul would always look new. The stove will be in the main living area so I will need to be looking at it all of the time (looks are important to us ladies). And as I said previously....I have three kids....I don't want a stove that is going to need a lot of fussing. Well, I guess the hubbie and I will just have to sit down and look at the pros/cons and not to mention the ol price and then make a decision. The equinox at 2900, the jotul with enamel at 2300 or the alderlea T6 at 2300 (do these prices sound reasonable....I thought the T6 would be priced a little lower I read in a previous post that someone got one for around 2000 with tax). Thanks again and I will let you all know when we make the big decision.

 

[loneeagle15]

I think I would go for the equinox it's easier to build a smaller fire than you need but pretty hard to get more heat out of a smaller stove and if I remember right the Mansfield is rated up to 2400sq ft and I do love the performance of our Mansfield which is 1 step up from what was recommended for our sq ft

 

[Rich L]

Thanks for the advice. It actually sounds as if the PE Alderlea T6 should be reconsidered. I'm thinking it would be middle of the road between the soapstone and the Jotul???? BG said in an old post that the heat from it is similar to a soapstone. I only wish it had the enamel finish....I really like the fact that Jotul would always look new. The stove will be in the main living area so I will need to be looking at it all of the time (looks are important to us ladies). And as I said previously....I have three kids....I don't want a stove that is going to need a lot of fussing. Well, I guess the hubbie and I will just have to sit down and look at the pros/cons and not to mention the ol price and then make a decision. The equinox at 2900, the jotul with enamel at 2300 or the alderlea T6 at 2300 (do these prices sound reasonable....I thought the T6 would be priced a little lower I read in a previous post that someone got one for around 2000 with tax). Thanks again and I will let you all know when we make the big decision.

Hi again Madie,I'm replacing a PE Summit Classic with a soapstone because the Summit didn't get the job done for me.Go Equinox,you'll be glad you did.

 

[Hanko]

you need a barrel stove, hooked in series with a OWB plumbed into a open fireplace, with a jotul back up, a soapstone secondary, then straight stove pipe out the side window, dripping fuel oil onto a mansfield, loppi, pacific energy side bar, and a big fat gal with two arm loads of wood, just my opinion. sounds simple dont it

 

[Hanko]

oh sorry, you need a auto feed ash disposal system, and drop it into a lowes or home depot cheap ass stove, and wow man now your cooking ass. dont forget dry wood too

 

[Hanko]

this all said with a smile on my face, so dont get mad. I wonder just what really is the best stove.

 

[begreen]

Like the man said, the best stove is the one you own.

 

[madie10398]

Thanks guys...you are right. As long as it takes the curse off and makes the house a little warmer than it was this winter then we will be happy.

I think I'm just going to put all the names in a hat and have the kids pick one