Hearthstone Castleton vs Heritage

[RAS]

Hi all, first time poster here.
We are on the verge of updating our Jotul F100 to either the Hearthstone Castleton or the Heritage model, and I wanted any existing users and owners thoughts on the stoves. My main concern is trying to gauge the difference in heat and btu outputs. Our Jotul at 35,000 btu's does a great job, but in the very cold weeks we overheated it and melted the baffle trying to keep the house warm! So is the Castleton at 45,000 btu's going to be significantly hotter? Or do we need the Heritage at 55,000 btu's, which if burning efficiently could be too hot? Our house is an old leaky 1200 square foot farmhouse in the Catskills. Any thoughts would be most appreciated !! Thanks.

 

[begreen]

I'd go for the Heritage. You don't need to run the stove at peak output. Also consider at cat stove from Woodstock or Blaze King.

 

[RAS]

I'd go for the Heritage. You don't need to run the stove at peak output. Also consider at cat stove from Woodstock or Blaze King.

Thanks for this - her indoors is a little concerned that our 15 x 20 living room will get very warm .... although I doubt there will be any complaints !

 

[Warm_in_NH]

I love my Shelburne. Heating; moderately insulated, North side of the hill, 1100 square feet. Central NH, it putts along 60% of the time and really ran optimally 40% of the time during the coldest 6 weeks.
Rated for "1800 sq ft." . All factors considered, being 75-80 inside, no complaints.

 

[Highbeam]

You can ignore the btu ratings and instead focus on firebox size with non-cat stoves. Heating a small home with a non-cat can be challenging because a stove small enough to not overheat you is too small for long burn times, as in, you'll be cold every morning or you'll be hot all the time.

I used a heritage for just under 30 cords to heat a 1700 SF home. It had no problem providing sufficient heat in single digit outside temps. The stove room is smaller than your 15x20 and we certainly keep that room in the mid to upper 70s so that the far rooms will be in the upper 60s.

The trouble with the heritage and some of the other hearthstones is the low durability of their hinges and door latches. My circa 2005 model was NOT built to last or to have replacable wear parts.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Thanks for this - her indoors is a little concerned that our 15 x 20 living room will get very warm .... although I doubt there will be any complaints !

I don't know that I've ever seen anyone on this forum over the years say they wished they'd gotten a smaller stove, but lotsa people wish they'd gotten a larger one.

With soapstone, it's actually pretty hard to blast people out of the room with heat unless it's a very big stove in a very small room. That said, building smaller fires, wood selection and even opening a window a crack are all ways to vary the heat output of the stove.

I have a Heritage in a 1,300-foot old leaky farmhouse in mid-Vermont, and the stove is definitely not too much for my needs. It's just right in most winters, not quite enough in last winter's really brutal cold spells. My 1st floor is basically open, with a 12x35-foot front room going across the front of the house, and a second floor I keep blocked off because I'm happy sleeping in the cold. So probably not too different from yours as a heating project.

But word of warning. You will not get overnight heat from this stove. The firebox just isn't big enough to leave you with more than scattered coals in the morning.

 

[aansorge]

Take a look a Woodstock....(broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/sale)

 

[RAS]

We're going with the Heritage, I've just spent the week re-enforcing the subfloor and expect delivery in about ten days. One other question I have is about an external air supply. We notice even with our little stove we have strong drafts from the other rooms, but I was thinking that if the stove creates more heat, the house will be warmer as a "whole" and therefore shouldn't be as drafty ...? Or not? ...... does an external air supply help significantly ? Is this a whole other thread?

 

[gyrfalcon]

We're going with the Heritage, I've just spent the week re-enforcing the subfloor and expect delivery in about ten days. One other question I have is about an external air supply. We notice even with our little stove we have strong drafts from the other rooms, but I was thinking that if the stove creates more heat, the house will be warmer as a "whole" and therefore shouldn't be as drafty ...? Or not? ...... does an external air supply help significantly ? Is this a whole other thread?

The physics of this is definitely not my area of expertise, so I hope other folks will be along soon to give you advice. But I definitely noticed less cold drafts on the floor from other rooms into the big front room where the stove lives when I went from the tiny Tribute to the Heritage. Once you get everything warmed up, there isn't the dramatically colder air to come drafting into the room. The outside air thing is beyond me, but I never heard of it being a solution to drafts in the house.

 

[RAS]

I imagine it's a bit of both, we also use large window fans to help circulate the warm, they make a big difference.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

It all depends on whether the cold air drafts are from cold air returning to the stove room after its been displaced with warm air heated by the stove or if it's cold air being sucked in through the gaps in the house and needed for combustion....
Hmmmmmm....
If a window cracked open eliminates the cold air drafts then maybe a outside air supply would be beneficial. If a cracked window has zero affect then the bigger stove will probably create more warm air, less of noticeable cold draft on the floor (although b there will always be one, just ask the dog)

Just my .02 worth.

 

[gyrfalcon]

It all depends on whether the cold air drafts are from cold air returning to the stove room after its been displaced with warm air heated by the stove or if it's cold air being sucked in through the gaps in the house and needed for combustion....
Hmmmmmm....
If a window cracked open eliminates the cold air drafts then maybe a outside air supply would be beneficial. If a cracked window has zero affect then the bigger stove will probably create more warm air, less of noticeable cold draft on the floor (although b there will always be one, just ask the dog)

Just my .02 worth.

Yeah, and amen. I discovered the biggest source of cold air on my floor was-- oh, long story not very interesting, but it was a gap between the floor and the wall created after a redo of the flooring. I was clued in by the fact that the cats kept catching mice over there... duh. But other than that, my leaky old farmhouse isn't leaky enough to produce drafts from outside air to notice. The big blast was coming in from the kitchen area off the stove room, largely uninsulated except for the cabinets along the walls.

I have a long, wide ribbon hanging down almost to the floor in the doorway from stove room to kitchen partly to entertain the cats, and although it still moves gently on cold days with the stove going, it's nothing compared to how much it waved and billowed with the smaller stove.

 

[Highbeam]

I had an OAK on my heritage. I loved it. The Heritage actually is great for OAK as it is one of the stoves that takes 100% of the intake air through the OAK stub. It's a nice 3" nipple.

While I did dump the stove due to durability concerns, the stove did perform exactly as advertised with 10 hour burns and plenty of heat for my 1700SF. I even was satisfied with HS's customer service, a great tech was responsive when I had questions.

The mirror finish on the HS soapstone is really attractive. Almost like a granite counter top.