Full of questions today...soapstone stoves.

[mgh-pa]

If the stove in the basement doesn't pan out (which it MAY not), I may consider putting in a soapstone stove back in the original den/family room where I removed the original from. Since we're in the middle of a remodel of the room, I could certainly build a nice hearth, and the thimble is still in good shape. However, this room is where we would spend most of our time, and it's not HUGE (640 sq. ft), but it has a 4 stair open staircase into the main open first floor kitchen/dining room (840 sq ft).

People claim soapstone stoves have a "softer" heat. Does this mean it's not a "burn you out of the room" heat? That's our main fear of putting a stove in the main living area like that (plus the mess, but if the stove in the basement isn't working out, we don't have other options).

 

[branchburner]

What was the original? I assume it overstayed its welcome by working too well. If you had a smaller cat model from Woodstock, you'd be in good shape for comfort at a pretty wide range of outdoor temps. But any stove can give you too much of a good thing under certain conditions, even if it is "softer" heat.

 

[Fsappo]

Best way I can describe it, from burning my Mansfield in the showroom (about 2500 SF) is...you feel warm 40 feet away from the stove, and you feel only slightly warmer 10 feet from the stove. I would go to a Hearthstone dealer who has one burning in the showroom for a demonstration. The next wood burner I put in my house (when I am done experimenting with the Enerzone 3.4) Will be a Hearthstone soapstone stove.

 

[mgh-pa]

What was the original? I assume it overstayed its welcome by working too well. If you had a smaller cat model from Woodstock, you'd be in good shape for comfort at a pretty wide range of outdoor temps. But any stove can give you too much of a good thing under certain conditions, even if it is "softer" heat.

Actually, it's an unknown stove. I posted a thread about identifying it on here, but no one seems to recognize it.

Here it is:

We never tried firing in the room as we moved in after the heating season and began remodeling right away in the room it was in. We removed it because we wouldn't have like something that large in the main living area.

 

[Corey]

Having not owned a soapstone, so take this for what it's worth, but - if you look at the actual math, the heat storage of the soapstone is not terribly significant with respect to the actual heat output of the stove. Generally no more than 15-20 minutes worth of heat is stored in the stone. So it takes a little longer to get heat from the cold stove, but you get a little more heat as the fire dies out.

What may be significant and the mention of the 'soft' heat is the soapstone will distribute the heat more evenly around the stove due to it's thermal conductivity. Plus, most soapstone is 'redlined' at 500ºF. Go hotter and you risk damage to the stone. A good steel stove won't have troubles until you're north of 800ºF or more. Radiated energy increases as the 4th power of temperature, so there is a LOT more energy coming from an 800ºF stove as a 500ºF soapstone.

My personal thought - if you're a 24/7 burner, want a little more even heat, and like the look, a soapstone might work for you. If you are a 'fire it up in the evening and let it die in the morning' (like me), the soapstone might be more of a hindrance than help because it will delay the start of heat and limit the peak heat you can get from the stove. They are much better for steady burners. When I come home in the bitter cold, it's not uncommon for my stove to reach 925-950ºF to really crank out some heat for the first hour or so of warming the cold house.

 

[branchburner]

I guess sitting next to that beast could cook you medium-well in short order. I think where it is now is going to do a good job heating that block and floor, but maybe not the upstairs. I'd say if you are renovating anyway, and you can afford it, by all means consider a new stove upstairs. A small, efficient stove in the living space will absolutely give you much more bang for the buck as far as wood consumption goes. Yes, a little more mess, but a lot more coziness.

 

[Fsappo]

Having not owned a soapstone, so take this for what it's worth, but - if you look at the actual math, the heat storage of the soapstone is not terribly significant with respect to the actual heat output of the stove. Generally no more than 15-20 minutes worth of heat is stored in the stone. So it takes a little longer to get heat from the cold stove, but you get a little more heat as the fire dies out.

What may be significant and the mention of the 'soft' heat is the soapstone will distribute the heat more evenly around the stove due to it's thermal conductivity. Plus, most soapstone is 'redlined' at 500ºF. Go hotter and you risk damage to the stone. A good steel stove won't have troubles until you're north of 800ºF or more. Radiated energy increases as the 4th power of temperature, so there is a LOT more energy coming from an 800ºF stove as a 500ºF soapstone.

My personal thought - if you're a 24/7 burner, want a little more even heat, and like the look, a soapstone might work for you. If you are a 'fire it up in the evening and let it die in the morning' (like me), the soapstone might be more of a hindrance than help because it will delay the start of heat and limit the peak heat you can get from the stove. They are much better for steady burners. When I come home in the bitter cold, it's not uncommon for my stove to reach 925-950ºF to really crank out some heat for the first hour or so of warming the cold house.

Math aside, our stove radiates heat for hours after the fire is out enough to not see any glowing coals in the firebox

 

[mgh-pa]

Thanks for the information, guys that was really helpful.

It's funny you mention the burning 24/7 vs periodical burning. I never knew so many people burned periodically (growing up, we always burned 24/7 during the peak heating season). Since this would be my main source of heat (I do have baseboard as a supplemental), I would assume I would be burning 24/7.

So it's safe to say you must be more careful when burning in a soapstone compared to a iron/steel stove then as far as temps are concerned, and I would have never known that. Thanks, guys.

 

[Fsappo]

Im not overly careful. I just start a fire with some split wood and a couple of firestarters , fill up the firebox with logs and turn the air down. 8-10 hour burn with an hour or two of heat after the fire goes out..then it's normally time for me to go home anyhow.

 

[littlesmokey]

I'm still intriqued with the old stove. Take a few minutes and do some more pics and dimensions, inside and out. What size pipe and anything else you might think helpful. It's not the prettiest stove, but has"character" and may save you big bucks if we can help you resurrect it. Lots of small stoves of older vintage are still in use, and can be efficiently operated. Sometimes better than the large ones. Might call it a smoking Dragon-Fly????

 

[Fsappo]

I'm intriqued also, but no matter what you do to that stove there is no way it will come close to the performance and efficiency of an EPA Certified stove. If he is going for full time use, I'd install a new stove and put this in his garage as an experiment. I'm with you though, it would be great to see how a stove like that operates.

 

[Flatbedford]

This my first year with the Fireview. In my opinion, the soapstone stove won't burn you out of a smaller room. We replaced a pretty big Franklin Style stove with the soapstone. The old stove would make tons of heat, so much that that we had to be nearly naked to be in the living room (not always a bad thing). All that heat would eventually get to the rest of the house if I kept reloading it every two hours or so. The "soft" heat of the soapstone seems to gently waft through the house. We get good heat from it for about 6 or 8 hours and there are enough coals to ignite fresh wood after as much as 18 hours. The stove itself stays quite warm for 12 hours or more.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thanks for the information, guys that was really helpful.

It's funny you mention the burning 24/7 vs periodical burning. I never knew so many people burned periodically (growing up, we always burned 24/7 during the peak heating season). Since this would be my main source of heat (I do have baseboard as a supplemental), I would assume I would be burning 24/7.

So it's safe to say you must be more careful when burning in a soapstone compared to a iron/steel stove then as far as temps are concerned, and I would have never known that. Thanks, guys.

If you believe what Corey wrote, then you must be more careful. However, you might be better served by listening to people who actually own a soapstone stove!

The two main soapstone stoves are made by Hearthstone and Woodstock. Hearthstone does not want you to have a very high temperature but Woodstock says to go ahead and heat up to 700 degrees. That is a pretty hot stove!

I think where some confusion exists is in heating up a cold stove. If the soapstone is real cold and if you were to build a roaring fire, then you might crack the stone. This too is where some get the idea that getting heat from a soapstone stove is a slow process. That is pure bull. If taking 10-15 minutes more than with a steel or cast stove is slow, then I suggest someone is in too much of a hurry.

We installed our soapstone stove 2 years ago and it is our only source of heat. That is, we have no backup furnace. We have no problem heating our home and we do not get uncomfortable near the stove as one might with a steel or all cast stove. It truly is a soft heat.

One of the things we like best about our soapstone stove is that we now use only half the wood we used to use and stay much warmer through the entire house.

The stove is easy to operate and low on maintenance. My wife can easily do everything that needs to be done with the stove if she needs to.


As for the stove in the basement, those blocks will rob a lot of that heat instead of the heat getting to the upstairs. A stove in the basement needs an insulated basement in order to heat properly.

Good luck.

 

[Corey]

Math aside, our stove radiates heat for hours after the fire is out enough to not see any glowing coals in the firebox

True, but my plain steel stove radiates heat for hours minus about 15 minutes.

 

[Flatbedford]

My old steel stove was pretty cold after about 6 hours, and my Fireview isn't cold until after more than 20 hours.

 

[mgh-pa]

Thanks, guys. I will get some dimensions. I just gone putting in another load. I'm experimenting with it right now even though the temps aren't supposed to get down much further than 40 degrees tonight. It seemed to be a bit slow in building up the heat last time I started a fire, so this time, I'm keeping the draft adjustments open much further. I can't get over how much hotter it is down there in the shorter amount of time. Still isn't doing as much as I would like on the first floor (only 67 degrees and it's only 47 out now).

 

[Fsappo]

Math aside, our stove radiates heat for hours after the fire is out enough to not see any glowing coals in the firebox

True, but my plain steel stove radiates heat for hours minus about 15 minutes.

Id bet a free wood stove that if I put equal wood in a steel stove and a soapstone stove with the same cubic foot firebox lits them both and choked the air back on both, a soapstone stove would register a 200 degree surface temp HOURS longer than a steel stove. There's too many folks on these forums that have burned both styles for you to throw a quote out there based on something you read in order to prove a point

Dont worry about it too much, steel stoves serve their purpose..they just wont hold heat the same as a Hearthstone -15 minutes. If you want to really find out, try two side by side

 

[Fsappo]

Math aside, our stove radiates heat for hours after the fire is out enough to not see any glowing coals in the firebox

True, but my plain steel stove radiates heat for hours minus about 15 minutes.

Unless maybe you lined your steel stove with soapstone?

 

[Patapsco Mike]

People claim soapstone stoves have a "softer" heat. Does this mean it's not a "burn you out of the room" heat? That's our main fear of putting a stove in the main living area like that (plus the mess, but if the stove in the basement isn't working out, we don't have other options).

It does not matter what your stove is made of, all that matters is BTU/time. Too many BTU's over too short a time will drive you out.

I think in your situation, and ones like yours, a Blaze King stove would be a good fit. The Blaze King has a thermostatically controlled air inlet that allows you to run a pretty big stove at a low BTU output. This keeps you from being blasted out of the room while giving you a crazy-long burn time. You would have the ability to set your stove on a very low heat output- much lower than any other normal stove I am aware of. Lowering the total amount of heat your stove is generating is the key to keeping you from being driven out of the room, and the
BK has a pretty unique ability to do that.

Fixed to clarify SolarandWood's comment (below)

 

[SolarAndWood]

You will have less heat output than a regular stove

Why do you think this Mike? Or do you just mean it can be burned lower?

 

[goody1006]

I am the very PROUD owner of a hearthstone phoenix soapstone stove, and it was the best investment my late hubby & I ever made.

I use wood as my primary source of heat once it's cool enough in the fall, thru to spring. I try not to use the electric heat any more than I have to.

I can get it so warm in the main part of the house, I have to open doors, etc....though I usually don't have that happen very often (hormonal temp surges can be a GOOD thing...lol)

My house is single story, 3200 sq ft and the stove heats half of it very nicely.

Biggest thing to remember is s-l-o-w warm up whenever the stove is COLD...that included the first fire of the season. After that, I keep mine going 24/7 unless I'm going to be gone for long periods.

What I love the BEST is the way they radiate heat long after the main fire is out.

hope that helps---I recommend these stoves to anyone who asks.

 

[Highbeam]

People claim soapstone stoves have a "softer" heat. Does this mean it's not a "burn you out of the room" heat? That's our main fear of putting a stove in the main living area like that (plus the mess, but if the stove in the basement isn't working out, we don't have other options).

It does not matter what your stove is made of, all that matters is BTU/time. Too many BTU's over too short a time will drive you out.

I think in your situation, and ones like yours, a Blaze King stove would be a good fit. The Blaze King has a thermostatically controlled air inlet that allows you to run a pretty big stove at a low BTU output. This keeps you from being blasted out of the room while giving you a crazy-long burn time. You would have the ability to set your stove on a very low heat output- much lower than any other normal stove I am aware of. Lowering the total amount of heat your stove is generating is the key to keeping you from being driven out of the room, and the
BK has a pretty unique ability to do that.

Fixed to clarify SolarandWood's comment (below)

While the thermostat is nice to regulate the exact stove temperature and then should extend burn times somewhat, pretty much everything you describe are positive attributes of any cat stove. Imagine a soapstone cat stove. All cat stoves can be essentially snuffed and run at a cool stove top temp for many hours longer than a similar sized non-cat stove.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Highbeam is right.

And the nice thing about that cat stove is that you won't get the creosote problem as you might in a thermostatically controlled stove.

The problem with any stove where the draft is controlled by a thermostat is that the draft closes (or partially closes) and then the wood just sits there and smolders. That is how you get a creosote problem. If the wood sits and smolders in a cat stove, all is still well because the cat will burn the smoke; hence, no creosote.

For example, in our old stove where the draft was controlled, we cleaned our chimney 2, 3 and sometimes 4 times per year. In our cat stove, after 2 years we got just a small (I think a cup) of soot from the chimney. btw, we also stay warmer now and burn half the amount of wood we used to.

 

[begreen]

Or have your cake and eat it too. The BK cat stoves have a thermostatic damper. They seem to burn clean and long.