Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
zim, I'm not Deadon, but will give an answer to you anyway. We looked at soapstone stoves for years and about 1 1/2 years ago finally decided to look at them further. At first, we wanted to stay away from a cat. stove because of some things we had heard and read about them. However, knowing Woodstock has such great stoves we finally did look at them and actually talked to a couple people who had them. Long story short, we almost bought a Hearthstone but instead went with Woodstock and have not been sorry in the least.
We love the stove and have absolutely no problem with it being a cat. stove. You'll read that they are slow to heat up when starting from cold. Not necessarily so! Yes, a bit slower than a steel or cast stove, but certainly not that much slower. We get heat quite fast if need be, but, of course, once you start burning regularly, that is not an issue anyway.
The best thing we like about ours is that we burn so much less wood and stay so much warmer than we did with the old stove. Not only that, but the stove burns so clean we still have not cleaned our chimney since installing the new stove. It did take some getting used to because the stove does operate a little different from what we were accustomed to but it was a very short learning curve. You learn fast the best way to load, depending upon what you want. In the winter, just load it up and go to bed.
As for the cat. it also is almost a no-brainer on how to use it. First, when attending a fire, one puts the wood in and opens the draft. On this stove, you also flip another lever which is right by the draft lever. Just move it one way. Once the fire is going good you have to start closing the draft....and then you turn the cat on, which amounts to moving that little lever the opposite direction that you did when you put the wood in. That is all there is to operating the cat. Once you have the draft set where you need it, forget the stove for hours.
On cleaning the cat. Certainly no problem and my wife can even do it. You must let the stove cool some. We let the wood burn down to ashes and in just a short time you can open the top of the stove and, wearing the stove gloves, just lift out the cat. We usually brush it off with an old paint brush. Set the cat back in and then start your fire going. Cleaning the cat takes only 2 or 3 minutes at most and a child could do it.
In fact, the stove is so easy to run and maintain that my wife can do it all if need be and she does many days. It is a beautiful piece of furniture! We also love the glass in front as when there is flame it is nice to see it. Speaking of that flame, it is unusual how is acts and is fun to watch.
In short, I highly recommend the soapstone, at least the Woodstock stoves. Hearthstone makes some pretty stoves too but I've heard of more problems from them and I'm glad we went the way we did. The folks at Woodstock will bend over backwards to make certain you are satisfied with the stove and if not, they'll buy it back. Hard to beat a warranty like that!
Good luck.
We love the stove and have absolutely no problem with it being a cat. stove. You'll read that they are slow to heat up when starting from cold. Not necessarily so! Yes, a bit slower than a steel or cast stove, but certainly not that much slower. We get heat quite fast if need be, but, of course, once you start burning regularly, that is not an issue anyway.
The best thing we like about ours is that we burn so much less wood and stay so much warmer than we did with the old stove. Not only that, but the stove burns so clean we still have not cleaned our chimney since installing the new stove. It did take some getting used to because the stove does operate a little different from what we were accustomed to but it was a very short learning curve. You learn fast the best way to load, depending upon what you want. In the winter, just load it up and go to bed.
As for the cat. it also is almost a no-brainer on how to use it. First, when attending a fire, one puts the wood in and opens the draft. On this stove, you also flip another lever which is right by the draft lever. Just move it one way. Once the fire is going good you have to start closing the draft....and then you turn the cat on, which amounts to moving that little lever the opposite direction that you did when you put the wood in. That is all there is to operating the cat. Once you have the draft set where you need it, forget the stove for hours.
On cleaning the cat. Certainly no problem and my wife can even do it. You must let the stove cool some. We let the wood burn down to ashes and in just a short time you can open the top of the stove and, wearing the stove gloves, just lift out the cat. We usually brush it off with an old paint brush. Set the cat back in and then start your fire going. Cleaning the cat takes only 2 or 3 minutes at most and a child could do it.
In fact, the stove is so easy to run and maintain that my wife can do it all if need be and she does many days. It is a beautiful piece of furniture! We also love the glass in front as when there is flame it is nice to see it. Speaking of that flame, it is unusual how is acts and is fun to watch.
In short, I highly recommend the soapstone, at least the Woodstock stoves. Hearthstone makes some pretty stoves too but I've heard of more problems from them and I'm glad we went the way we did. The folks at Woodstock will bend over backwards to make certain you are satisfied with the stove and if not, they'll buy it back. Hard to beat a warranty like that!
Good luck.
