New stove: Woodstock vs. Hearthstone?

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MegCog

Member
May 2, 2022
50
Michigan
We are considering adding a stand-alone wood stove to our living room. We own a property up north where we inherited a Woodstock Fireview Soapstone Wood Stove and we love how much heat it kicks out as well as how long the coal bed lasts and just overall we’ve really liked it. We wanted to put one in our main home but it seems like it will impede more in the room due to the rear pipe connect (instead of the top pipe). Would Hearthstone give us a similar experience as our Woodstock Fireview? What Hearthstone stove should we consider? Our house is probably 2200-2300 sq ft not including the basement. We are ok with somewhat supplementing the heat if needed too. The beauty of the stove is important to me.
 
The Woodstock Fireview is a pure cat stove. The Hearthstones are hybrids. They have different burn characteristics.
Tell us more about the house and the area where the stove will be located like its age, one or two story, etc. How open is the floorplan? High ceilings? How is the insulation?
 
For that sq ft in Michigan I would go a step up from the Fireview to the Progress.
 
And for Hearthstone the Mansfield for that size area...
 
Before suggesting size, it would help to have the stove room and house info.
 
Begreen I agree.

I WILL say though after living with my Mansfield for a while you can run small loads to really back down the output. It comes down to managing the ember bed. Once the big rock is up to a solid temp there is a lot of leeway in controlling the output based on loading and air all while staying up on the cats.

It does hit the beauty part as well.
 
I don't have a dog in the fight, and have not personally used either brand, but I don't see near as many happy Hearthstone owners as I do with Woodstock stoves...
 
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I don't have a dog in the fight, and have not personally used either brand, but I don't see near as many happy Hearthstone owners as I do with Woodstock stoves...
Brenndatomu I can agree with that. Most problems I see here with the HS stoves are ones I experienced. Once I got my arms around mine the "issues" fell away. After decades of running a large Dutchwest VC I had to completely change how I burned.
 
Hearthstones were much maligned by the fact that their handles gave people trouble. If the handle was used correctly, they were ok. But if closed turning the wrong way (and it would kinda lock that way too), they would not hold up. The design could have been better. In my own experience, the Phoenix I had was an awesome stove, I had just decided I wanted a side loading stove (then I moved to the F500 Oslo). It was a fantastic heater, but not as easy to get up and run, like a steel bodied stove. Looks wise, Hearthstones and the Oslo (like VC) are nice to look at.
 
I’m not sure I like the position of the cat in the Hearthstone’s, looks to be a maintenance nightmare. I was talking to a local dealer about these stoves a year ago and he said they do get a lot of maintenance calls on them and he has even recommended taking the cats out and running them like the old non cat models. The Woodstocks are nice to work with, just lift the top lid and the cat is right there.
 
I'll let you know on the cats. Last cleaning I popped the telescoping double wall loose to do a damper mod. I'll decide if it's simpler to take them out the front when I pull the baffle to run a soot eater up or take 2 screws out of the cover plate off the rear of the cat chamber.

I would guess the rear cover is simpler since they aren't shoulder deep from there. They come out the top 6" hole so they should the back as well.

As far as the gnashing of teeth about them being under the stack I can say last cleaning there was no chimney debris on the center one.
 
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I've owned 2 Hearthstones in my life, both I loved. I own a Progress now and love it more. Today I just installed the updated
air intake control and I know that, well, I'll love it even more. I made a video on how easy it is to check your cat on a Progress.
 
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