Opinion on Soapstone

[BrowningBAR]

will mcb you are 100% correct,..there is no comparison when it comes to heat transfer with iron and soapstone....i have the fireview and i really like it alot...but i bought it so i dont get cooked out of the room,it is one of 2 stoves in the house it replaced a little vc aspen that had to be reloaded every 2 hrs..but that little iron stove heated the whole house...the fireview cannot..if you need alot of heat in a large area maybe soapstone is not for that person.

I really find that hard to believe.

I have a VC Intrepid, which is larger than the Aspen. My neighbor's Fireview puts off a LOT more heat than the Intrepid.

 

[Todd]

I can't speak for anyone other than myself, and I'm really new to this, but if I load up my FV full (with 10-12 pieces) of 80-year-old, unsplit, 4"-6" diameter cedar "logs", wait 5 minutes, engage the cat and cut the air to 2.0 to 2.5, my stove will go to 700 or more in about 10--15 minutes (this is during a reload, not a cold stove!). If I leave the damper full open, it'll go to 800 and hang there for an hour or more. If I cut it to 1.0 to 2.0, the temp goes to a little over 700 and remains there for 2 - 3 hours. Maybe I'm not doing something right, but that's what it wants to do. Now if I burn the kiln-dried hardwood pallet pieces, I can't achieve and sustain those temps for very long--maybe 1/2 hour.

Yikes You better cut that air back sooner with that Cedar or your going to melt that stove into a big pile of molten iron and stone! :bug:

 

[fire_man]

I can't speak for anyone other than myself, and I'm really new to this, but if I load up my FV full (with 10-12 pieces) of 80-year-old, unsplit, 4"-6" diameter cedar "logs", wait 5 minutes, engage the cat and cut the air to 2.0 to 2.5, my stove will go to 700 or more in about 10--15 minutes (this is during a reload, not a cold stove!). If I leave the damper full open, it'll go to 800 and hang there for an hour or more. If I cut it to 1.0 to 2.0, the temp goes to a little over 700 and remains there for 2 - 3 hours. Maybe I'm not doing something right, but that's what it wants to do. Now if I burn the kiln-dried hardwood pallet pieces, I can't achieve and sustain those temps for very long--maybe 1/2 hour.

I'm in tears reading this. Those are amazing temps and burn times. So is it heating the big Texas house enough in cold weather?

 

[BrowningBAR]

I can't speak for anyone other than myself, and I'm really new to this, but if I load up my FV full (with 10-12 pieces) of 80-year-old, unsplit, 4"-6" diameter cedar "logs", wait 5 minutes, engage the cat and cut the air to 2.0 to 2.5, my stove will go to 700 or more in about 10--15 minutes (this is during a reload, not a cold stove!). If I leave the damper full open, it'll go to 800 and hang there for an hour or more. If I cut it to 1.0 to 2.0, the temp goes to a little over 700 and remains there for 2 - 3 hours. Maybe I'm not doing something right, but that's what it wants to do. Now if I burn the kiln-dried hardwood pallet pieces, I can't achieve and sustain those temps for very long--maybe 1/2 hour.

I'm in tears reading this. Those are amazing temps and burn times. So is it heating the big Texas house enough in cold weather?

I would hope so at those temps.

 

[Chad S.]

If you always get over 700 deg and up to 800 then in a few years nothing breaks maybe woodstock will refund your money for doing this new high temp research

 

[fire_man]

Gonna jump in here, at least for my stove I'm hitting 500-600 any time I want those temps. I can run 300-400 too. What is my secret you ask? It's the wood, If I want a hot fire I have to choose the right pieces of wood and what works the best is not usually all the same species. Sure, a good bet is some dry oak but to make that work the best, you need a piece of maple or birch to get thing moving along.

Bingo. Boy, is that ever my experience. With a tiny soapstone stove, the burning characteristics of different kinds of wood make a huge difference since there's really no room for error. Some of the stuff that gives off the most heat doesn't like to get started until it's got a pretty good fire under its butt. I can run up to 500 on my stove quickly and easily with the right sequence of wood-- rock maple to start, as you say, then when that's gotten going pretty good, small splits of beech and black birch, and zip, up it goes and sits. Red oak is nearly as good for that stage. But starting with beech or black birch is groaningly slow. Using all rock maple struggles to get between 400 and 450. Etc.

That's really interesting. I was just yapping in another thread how painfully slow my soapstone stove gets hot and all I have ever burned its entire 2 year life is beech and birch. Sounds like you are confirming my story! In my case I have nothing to compare with until next year since I am just this year finishing with a 2+ year beech/birch supply cut from my neighborhood. Next year is zero beech/birch and on to ash/cherry/oak and maple.Good to know there is hope!!

 

[gyrfalcon]

Gonna jump in here, at least for my stove I'm hitting 500-600 any time I want those temps. I can run 300-400 too. What is my secret you ask? It's the wood, If I want a hot fire I have to choose the right pieces of wood and what works the best is not usually all the same species. Sure, a good bet is some dry oak but to make that work the best, you need a piece of maple or birch to get thing moving along.

Bingo. Boy, is that ever my experience. With a tiny soapstone stove, the burning characteristics of different kinds of wood make a huge difference since there's really no room for error. Some of the stuff that gives off the most heat doesn't like to get started until it's got a pretty good fire under its butt. I can run up to 500 on my stove quickly and easily with the right sequence of wood-- rock maple to start, as you say, then when that's gotten going pretty good, small splits of beech and black birch, and zip, up it goes and sits. Red oak is nearly as good for that stage. But starting with beech or black birch is groaningly slow. Using all rock maple struggles to get between 400 and 450. Etc.

That's really interesting. I was just yapping in another thread how painfully slow my soapstone stove gets hot and all I have ever burned its entire 2 year life is beech and birch. Sounds like you are confirming my story! In my case I have nothing to compare with until next year since I am just this year finishing with a 2+ year beech/birch supply cut from my neighborhood. Next year is zero beech/birch and on to ash/cherry/oak and maple.Good to know there is hope!!

Beech and birch (black birch, that is) are fabulous woods that burn really hot and the beech hot and fairly slow. It's just that you've got to get the fire going first. The standard "mixed hardwood" people sell around here is usually beech, black birch, rock maple and ash, and now I know why that's such a good mix. I've only had a very little ash, but that seems to light up quickly, too, and like maple, burn hot enough to get the harder stuff going.

But here's the big key for me: Start with smaller splits! I don't know if that's more important with soapstone overall, but it sure is in my very small stove in any case. I really struggled, even with very dry wood, until I tried cutting the splits down a bit, and that made all the difference in the world.

If I were you, I would definitely not turn up my nose at beech/birch. But hey, if you've got some you don't want, send it over here and I'll give it a really good home.

 

[willmcb]

Burning 24/7 does not take full advantage of a soapstone stoves most efficient feature, it's storage capability, the release never happens if you are reloading the fuel regularly.

So are you saying that basically soapstone can only absorb or retain so much heat and constant reloading in a soapstone is wasting wood?

 

[Todd]

Burning 24/7 does not take full advantage of a soapstone stoves most efficient feature, it's storage capability, the release never happens if you are reloading the fuel regularly.

So are you saying that basically soapstone can only absorb or retain so much heat and constant reloading in a soapstone is wasting wood?

I don't really agree with that statement. The release is happening during 24/7 burning too, the extra mass and heat retention releases the heat in a more even way over a longer period between reloads. Steel or cast will release more heat sooner and also cool off sooner between reloads.

 

[willmcb]

Take for example two houses, one made of soapstone the other made of steel. Both houses are of the exact same design with a vent in the bottom of the house and a pipe at the top of the house. An equal amount of Heat is pumped into each of the houses. The heat causes the air to move. Air flows in at the vents at the bottoms and out the pipes at the tops at the same rate in both houses.

Soapstone Properties: Poor conductor of electricity and heat, higher specific heat capacity (compared with steel), and high heat retention(properties somewhat resemble insulator)
Steel Properties: Excellent conductor heat, moderate conductor of electricity, and lower specific heat capacity(compared with soapstone)

Considering the properties of each of the materials from which the houses were built. Not including the heat lost through the pipes, Which one of the houses released more heat into the surroundings? These houses represent stoves of the experiment I can't perform flawlessly, but I feel like I know what the outcome would be.

 

[willmcb]

I don't really agree with that statement. The release is happening during 24/7 burning too, the extra mass and heat retention releases the heat in a more even way over a longer period between reloads. Steel or cast will release more heat sooner and also cool off sooner between reloads.

I didn't really agree with that statement either. I agree that the release does happen on a 24/7 burning cycle too. But I do believe that the maximum heat-BTU storage capability of soapstone can be easily attained and once the maximum is reached the slower (all relative) conduction of heat results in less heat being absorbed to be transferred. Where faster conduction of heat in steel (again relative) allows for more heat to be transferred.

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

How could his experiment be flawed? If what he says is true I find the input and the outcome undeniable...he put more wood in the soapstone stove, a bigger stove, and it heated the house 2 degrees less over a certin period of time. Both stoves recieved the same wood seasoned the same...so regardless of his correct or incorrect impressions of fuel quality, both stoves are operating on the same source. He has come to the only logical solution possible... Could it be that the soapstone on the exterior of the stove actually has insulated the heat from radiating into the room at some temps? If so, the perhaps his conclusion is sound...I find his biggest mistake was admitting his age, unnecessary and unrelated, yet perhaps making it easier for us negate his research. I'd like more of the raw facts, first of all, the oakwood is a downdraft, were you running it with the bypass closed or open?

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

I'd be willing to bet that with the exact same partial load of wood, the soapstone would outperform the cast. Maybe perhaps the issue here is the fact he's fully loading the stoves and operating them at high temps. I would think the soapstone would lend itselft to medium fires over l