heritage or mansfield

[lanos]

I have been reading posts on this site for 6 months thinking that by reading about thousand posts it would clear up the delema of chosing heritage or mansfield soap stone stove looking to buy now all done with major redo . Looking for owner input because been to at least ten different dealears and each one gives a new view on each stove . OR need someone or dealerthat knows these stoves very good.

 

[Todd]

I think the experts here will be asking you these questions.

How much sq ft are you trying to heat?
What kind of floor plan?
How is your insulation?
Location?

I've heard great things about both stoves. You will love how the soapstone heats. Good luck.

 

[lanos]

What it comes down to right now is the wifes absoloot love of the seafoam finish on the heritage and me loving the loading capacity of the mansfield.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Badger, i have owened both. If your worried that the mansfield is not avalible in seafoam, it will be soon. They are in production now. Other then that, its real simple. One holds more wood.

 

[lanos]

Wait a minute. after talking to all these different dealers. that is the first I've heard that the Mansfield was going to expand it's line to include seafoam. How do you know that , and when will it be available? We want if very soon so we can install it for the fall heating season, here in Wisconsin.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I got it in a memo in the spring from herthstone. I orderd some and they have yet to ship. I will check it out on wensday. They arent making a ton, and they will be hard to get. I cant tell you why your dealers didnt tell you, my guess is they didnt know, or they would rather you buy somehting in stock.

If you search for "seafoam mansfield" you will find that some info was posted in march about it. They had 100 of them to sell, i will check it out further on wensday.

 

[hearthtools]

The Mansfield is a monster.
Make sure you need that much heat.
The H1 Seafoam is my best seller in the hearthstoneline.
Most dealers are not going to tell you that something will be available soon. Becasue what happens is that it get draged on and you might not buy a stove for a year.
We rather you buy a stove now.
I waited 4 years for Avalon to come out with the Astoria Insert. They showed it at our trade show 3 years in a row but it took 4 years to give it to us.

 

[Rhone]

I second the notion, we need more info on the insulation, location, heating requirements.

Here's some myths about burning wood that I've come across. Myth: It doesn't matter what size you get you can just burn less wood. That's incorrect. You need loads with enough fuel to get the secondary burn units to 1100+ degrees, and loads tall enough to have flames shooting up there to keep them lit. My Hearthstone Clydesdale with a 2.4 cu ft firebox I've found has a 4 log split minimum. 3 splits the fire burns like crap, smokes, fills the chimney with creosote, I'm lucky if the fans go on, and afterward I sit back and wonder, what the hell was that, where was the heat!?? 4 splits there's enough fuel to get my unit in motion and operating like it should. The secondary burn starts, there's enough high flames to sustain it, the fans kick on and I get heat for 5 hours or so which is enough for the nights of Spring & Fall. 3 log splits are useless, my system just doesn't have enough fuel to get moving, 4 splits will heat for 4-5 hours and any additional beyond the 4 my unit runs even better to being best fully loaded (8 log splits).

That's why we need to know space, place, and insulation. My guess, the Mansfield needs 5-6 log splits as a minimum load for it to function. Probably runs best with 10-12 splits. The 5-6 log splits is a lot of heat, and may produce too much for a house that's well insulated or in a warm climate in Spring & Fall. You also don't want to be mid-winter and not filling it to the max denying it where it's probably most efficient. Going oversized is a good idea, but you don't want to grossly oversize. There's a lot of us that have an idea of what a soapstone stove will do, and can probably tell if the Mansfield is just too much stove for where you're thinking of using it.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I second the notion, we need more info on the insulation, location, heating requirements.

Here's some myths about burning wood that I've come across. Myth: It doesn't matter what size you get you can just burn less wood. That's incorrect. You need loads with enough fuel to get the secondary burn units to 1100+ degrees, and loads tall enough to have flames shooting up there to keep them lit. My Hearthstone Clydesdale with a 2.4 cu ft firebox I've found has a 4 log split minimum. 3 splits the fire burns like crap, smokes, fills the chimney with creosote, I'm lucky if the fans go on, and afterward I sit back and wonder, what the hell was that, where was the heat!?? 4 splits there's enough fuel to warm up my unit for the secondary burn and the fuel high enough for flames to reach and sustain it, it burns better/hotter, fans kick on and I get heat for 5 hours or so which makes enough heat for the nights of Spring & Fall. So, 3 log splits are useless, burns so crappy and the secondary burn doesn't go the unit hardly warms up, but 4 lot splits will heat for 4-5 hours. My unit runs best fully loaded with 8 log splits.

That's why we need to know space, place, and insulation. My guess, the Mansfield needs 5-6 log splits as a minimum load for it to function. Probably runs best with 10-12 splits. The 5-6 log splits is a lot of heat, and may produce too much for a house that's well insulated or in a warm climate in Spring & Fall. You also don't want to be mid-winter and not filling it to the max denying it where it's probably most efficient. Going oversized is a good idea, but you don't want to grossly oversize. There's a lot of us that have an idea of what a soapstone stove will do, and can probably tell if the Mansfield is just too much stove for where you're thinking of using it.

This is true to a point, And you definatly dont want to grossly oversize as stated above. You will find alot of different opinions on this, and alot of that has to do with location. Where i live its cold. Cold for a good 7 months, Temps rarley get above freezing for months at a time. The burn season is september through may. We will have a different opinion then dealers on the east and west coast, and definatly of the midwest. i have found on good drafting chimneys that you can load approx 60% of load capacity. My heritage burns great with three splits, and once i have a good coal bed i can burn one split at a time. The heritage is plenty in most situations, i live in high altitude, burn pine, and it heats my 1800 square foot house fine.
If your house is open with at least 2000 squares you would be better buying the mansfield.

Maybe you dealer didnt tell you about the seafoam mansfield because he thinks the hearitage is a better fit and is trying to muscle you to buy what he thinks you need. He might be right.

 

[Shane]

Rod: Waiting for the Astoria was a bummer. I'm really happy they have the ZC kit for it now though.

The Mansfield doesn't have the side loading door like the Heritage does. I don't know if that was mentioned or not. My father in law has been burning a Heritage the past two years. He is going to switch it out for a Leyden when they're available. He's always burned VC's and loves the top loading, so he's decided to give the Lopi top loader a shot. He has no complaints about the heat output but thinks the side loading is messy.

 

[hearthtools]

Rod: Waiting for the Astoria was a bummer. I'm really happy they have the ZC kit for it now though.

The Mansfield doesn't have the side loading door like the Heritage does. I don't know if that was mentioned or not. My father in law has been burning a Heritage the past two years. He is going to switch it out for a Leyden when they're available. He's always burned VC's and loves the top loading, so he's decided to give the Lopi top loader a shot. He has no complaints about the heat output but thinks the side loading is messy.

BUT YOU DONT HAVE TO LOAD FROM THE SIDE IN THE NEW H1 They took away the dumb anirons.

I never used a top load. Seems like smoke would come out?

 

[Shane]

Never had any problems with the top loading on a good drafting chimney. And honestly I don't think there's a huge difference in smoke spillage from front/side loader vs. a top loader in a situation where the chimney doesn't draft properly. And that is a good point that you don't have to side load. I guess I was trying to make two points that got garbled into one. The first was that the side load option may be beneficial for the poster. The second was that the messy side loading was the only complaint my father in law had about the stove, and the mess was in comparison to a top loader not a front loading stove.

 

[lanos]

Here goes with more specifics on my set up and house. Ten year old house, 2x6 construction R19 blown in insulation in cealing. Brick and vinyl exterior. There is 1600 sq ft main floor and 400 sq ft up stairs. ( bedroom and bath). Full basement downstairs of witch 500 sq ft is finished. The main floor is open except for the bedrooms down hallway. The stove will sit on the north wall of house in a 16X 25 room . 16 feet away from foyer leading to the upstairs, all open. The stove sits in a elcove area witch I took out old fire place and relaid masonary 8 inch round flue. There is also a small centry steel stove on the same wall down stairs in the basement. In the same chase with a clay flue all very well insulated and built . I've got a masonary backround built like a bomb shelter. Don't want to run stove in the basement all the time, just when it's real cold.

 

[lanos]

and live in southern wi

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Honestly, it sounds like the heratige is plenty, you dont realy count upstairs for heating capacity.

 

[jabush]

Honestly, it sounds like the heratige is plenty, you dont realy count upstairs for heating capacity.

Really...that is the first time I've heard that. So you only figure the square footage of the floor the stove is on??

Just curious.

joel

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Heat will rise up there anyway, even with homes without zone heaters, the uptairs is toasty. You dont want the bedrooms in the back to be that hot, so you can deduct some squares off of that to. If you want to buy the mansfield, it wouldnt be outrageous, but i think the Heratige is plenty. You have great insulation, and 2x6 walls. The important point here is that you cant go wrong either way.

 

[Todd]

I'd go with the Mansfield if your trying to heat your upstairs also. I think you should buy a little larger stove than what the manufactures specs call for. It can get cold in WIS, you will appreciate the larger fire box.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

When i got to work this morning, i checked my stock. I have two seafoam Mansfields, so they are definatly shipping them. Mine came in two weeks ago.

 

[Rhone]

As an FYI I think regardless which you pick the room it's in will be uncomfortably hot often. It sounds like the wood stove is going to be at one end of your house. In order to get it to heat 1600 sq ft and upper floor being placed on one side, my guess is the room with the stove will reach 80-85 plus add some radiant heat. If the stove was in a central location, the heat coming off of it will spread in every direction helping the heat be balanced. Having the stove on one side of your house, all the heat is created in one room, and it has to create enough heat to split between floors, and each room on each floor. So, expect that room with the stove to get occasionally or frequently hot and that's a common situation. You'll adjust.

With that said, your location & house I'm almost positive the Heritage isn't going to cut it. I think our house insulation & windows, how cold our climates are, are somewhat comparible when you add & subtract the pluses and minuses. I have a 60,000 btu unit that is a perfect size for my house, but my house is only 1300 sq ft! There's no way a 55,000 btu unit be able to keep up if my house were 1600 + 400 sq ft instead in my area. So, I recommend the Mansfield because I simply don't think as cold as where you live and as windy, that the Heritage can keep up with a 1600 + 400 sq ft house.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

You can burn a heritages worth the wood in a manfield, so if you go with the larger stove, you will cover your butt. Different homes heat different ways, in Rhonemas case, his 60k stove heats his home, my 55k heats mine. One thing to remeber about soapstone, the output is steady, where cast and steel will vary. You will get the btus out of a stone stove hour after hour. Close the the same principal that gas stoves need to be sized smaller then wood stoves because they put out x amount of btus as long as there in operation. Good advice Rhonemas.

 

[rudysmallfry]

I have the Heritage. I love the side loading door. My stove is on the lower level in a room that is about 600 sq ft. Even though the soapstone is an even heat, when this puppy's cooking, it gets very hot in that room. I wish I'd had room on my main level to put it. The heat would have been more than sufficient for my 1200 sq ft main floor and wouldn't blow me out of the room like it sometimes does now. If you're going to be sitting in the room with the stove, get the Heritage.

 

[DonCT]

MSG, do they make a blower kit for the Mansfield. I know they make them for the heatshield option on the Heritage. I couldn't use it as I'm rear venting my Heritage, but if it's a top vent he could get the heatshield/blower and use that to help disperse the heat.

I live in a 3 story Townhouse with the stove on the middle floor. The room it's in is about 200 sq. ft. and our couches are about 8-9 ft. from the stove. That room was about 83 while the rest of the floor was in the mid 70's. The upstairs was around 72-73. And that was with a decent sized fire going. Yea, I wore shorts sitting in the living room with the stove. But it definitely wasn't baking me out.

.02

 

[wg_bent]

To give you perspective, my Osburn with a 1.8 cuft firebox heats my home in NY with insulation that is not as good as yours. With a 2.3 cu ft box on the Heritage, I think you'd be covered.

 

[suematteva]

MSG, do they make a blower kit for the Mansfield. I know they make them for the heatshield option on the Heritage. I couldn't use it as I'm rear venting my Heritage, but if it's a top vent he could get the heatshield/blower and use that to help disperse the heat.

I live in a 3 story Townhouse with the stove on the middle floor. The room it's in is about 200 sq. ft. and our couches are about 8-9 ft. from the stove. That room was about 83 while the rest of the floor was in the mid 70's. The upstairs was around 72-73. And that was with a decent sized fire going. Yea, I wore shorts sitting in the living room with the stove. But it definitely wasn't baking me out.

.02

There is a blower kit available for the mansfield..Our old battle wagon sherman tank stove had a blower on it and when we bought our mansfield we said we would try without first..add later....Very glad we did..didn't need it..