Mansfield and metal flue heat Info needed

[Flame]

Hello all,
What a great site! I have to say I have always wanted a soapstone wood stove since the day I saw one. Now the time is right for me to finally get one. In late February I should have a Mansfield in and working away. The last wood stove I had was at my house in MD back in the 90's. It was an older Timberline. I just loved to watch the fire through the screen and smell that oak a'burnin. The one thing was that it was in our basement. This made for a toasty temp. upstairs but in the basement it was a hot box. It would get so hot that one of the nearest lights would go out. Those memories and thoughts brought me to the soapstone. I plan on installing this one in my living room to enjoy with the hopes that it will have that "gentler heat". I have a Cape Cod with aprox 1850-1950 square feet (medium insulation). In a couple of days the installation guys are coming up to get me the installation quote and best location. I plan on having the metal flue installed inside the house going through the living room ceiling then run through our bedroom and finally through the roof. I am hoping someone can tell me if you get some extra heat from the metal flue being in your house (upstairs bedroom). I am not sure how well the heat from just the wood stove (not being extremely hot, ie cast iron) will move to our second floor. I also had seen something called Magic Heat. It is a type of heat exchanger that mounts between your flue pipes to give out heat where it is mounted. Does anyone know of this ? Any Mansfield Information would be helpful.

 

[jtp10181]

Just say NO to Magic Heat. Search other recent posts for reasons.

The pipe upstairs will be Class A and it should (I think by code) be enclosed in a "chase" structure. You will get some heat from it but not a lot. The pipe itself actually will benefit from being inside because it will stay warmer, and you will get a little better draft from that.

 

[RedOak]

I have the Mansfield as well and I would have to agree - No to the Magic Heat. You won't need it with the amount of gentle heat that will be pumping out of 550 pounds of soapstone. I live in central MA as well and have an 1800 sf Cape that is kept very toasty. I actually have to block off the upstairs so it won't get too warm.

 

[Flame]

Thanks RedOak and jtp10181. I did some more research on other posts and now understand how the Magic Heat is not a good thing for your flue. It is encouraging to hear how well the house gets heated upstairs with the Mansfield. From the research I have been doing, it sounds like the only major bad feed back I have seen on the Mansfield owners is the ash clean out tray. I have read that it is too small and messy. Everyone seem to preffer just using a scoop to clean out the ash. These feed backs were a bit old. Does anyone know if they have since modified that ? Also do you recomend having the installer place a valve in the flue to close off or partially block the draft in case it is needed or is it better not to be installed and only install if I need it for overdraft or emregency shut down?

 

[RedOak]

My stove was manufactured in late 2006 and the ash pan is completely useless. Every few days I empty the ashes through the door into a five gallon covered metal ash bucket. Keep the sliding grate closed and nothing will fall into the 1/2 cup capacity ash pan.
As far as the damper - I would install it just for peace of mind, it's nice knowing you have an E-brake if needed. I had an issue of not being able to hold a fire for any length of time and with the help of some great people on this forum found that I had excessive draft. Installing the damper and a probe stack thermometer gave me the tools I needed to properly regulate the fire and give me the burn times I needed. If you do a thread search on Hearthstone or soapstone stoves you will find a ton of information on how to get the best results from your stove. As a former twenty year veteran of Vermont Castings products I quickly realized that I knew nothing about burning wood in soapstone.......

 

[swestall]

Hey Red! How about posting some information on your burn times, temps., etc.?

 

[RedOak]

This is my first season with the soapstone, so take what I post with a grain of salt. I am still fine tuning my technique and am trying to break many old habits like throwing wood into it every time I walked by like I used to do with the VC Defiant.

Initial reload when I get home will bring the stove up to 400 or so after about an hour while monitoring the stack temps - I have insanely good draft and have to keep an eye on the stack temp and regulate it with an in line damper. After the wood is good and charred I will crank everything down and let the secondary burn kick in, stove top temps will be 450-500 depending on the wood and the stack will run about 600. Reload once before I go to bed (10:30) let that load settle in and shut it down for the long burn. When I get up (4:30) the stove top will be down around 200 and I will just toss a few splits on the nice deep coal bed - get that going and the wife will load once more before she leaves for work at 7:30. House temp will be in the low 70's when I get up depending on how cold it got that night - usually no problem until it gets well below zero and windy.

As I said, still fine tuning my technique. I must be doing a few things right, I haven't needed kindling since October and my propane bill for December was $67

I also opted to go for the blower - this has helped move the air around along with the ceiling fans as I have high ceilings and a very open floor plan.