Please help select soapstone stove/dealer(UPDATE)

[Tink]

SEE POST AT END FOR UPDATE

Hi all,
Well, my hubby is convinced that we need a soapstone stove for our farmhouse out in the country. I liked both Woodstock and Hearthstone stoves, as a compromise. I really wanted a masonry heater, but we need to heat the second story of this house, and can't put a giant foundation there.

He likes the Hearthstone Mansfield, as he beleives we need one this size and he wants to enjoy viewing the fire. I like the pics of the stove online too.

Now, all we need to do is to select a dealer and pick the color of the enamelling. We are in the Columbia river gorge, and hearthstone has two dealers in the portland area, Lisac's and Buck's. I also was reading that some colors look worse as the stove ages, and we want to keep this stove for a long, long time due to it's expense!

I hope that this stove will provide the lion's share of the house heat over the fall/winter/spring season, as we have lots and lots of wood for our use here. (There was a wildfire that went through the area, and we have lots of wood cut, stacked and ready, not to mention many dead trees left standing, waiting to be felled and cut.)

Thanks in advance for your advice! I am so grateful I found this place!

I'll check back in here later.....

 

[Highbeam]

I selected the plain matte black color mostly to tone the stove back a bit. These stoves are pretty fancy schmancy in terms of ornate castings and the stone itself. Compared to a typical woodstove they are downright busy to look at. It is a personal choice for sure but we appreciate the subtle flat black color. Mine is rolling along right now at 350 degrees which is where it has been all day on this rainy NW Sunday. I have pictures of it and the installation process in the "perfect picture" section.

 

[Tink]

Hey thanks Highbeam. I'll go take a look at those pics. Yes, it is soaking us here in the normall dry part of the gorge today. We were so busy taking care of other things that we didn't get this stove selecting/installing done this summer when we should have. Now we'll have to rip out a heatilator fireplace and put in a proper hearth and chimney pipe before we can light the stove.....ugh.

 

[Burn-1]

Tink also check out the Hearthstone Equinox. Even bigger than the Mansfield. They won't be out until November though, but if you really have a lot of space to heat or typical farmhouse draftiness and inadequate insulation it's another choice.

 

[titan]

Very nice looking stove,glad to see they didn't use the Mansfield's feet on the Equinox.

 

[BrotherBart]

Very nice looking stove,glad to see they didn't use the Mansfield's feet on the Equinox.

The attorney for the Amalgamated Ducks Union will be in touch with you shortly.

 

[Highbeam]

Very nice looking stove,glad to see they didn't use the Mansfield's feet on the Equinox.

Me too, the feet make the Mansfield a little too special. It's the first I'd seen of that new HS stove. I must admit that I think it looks like a Heritage but double the size. Good to see the side door as we really use ours alot. Some of the ornateness is removed as well in favor of plainer castings. Our old farmhouse with minimal insulation and bad windows is running at 78 degrees right now and that's with me trying to keep a minimal fire going just to avoid having to restart it tonight. Even at the lowest possible burn rate on that huge HS you'd be putting out a lot of heat.

You's need a mansion of a farmhouse to need that Equinox on the Gorge in OR.

 

[Gooserider]

My opinion only, but I am inclined very much towards the painted finishes, mostly black, more than any of the porcelain enamel finishes for reasons of concern about durability and repairability. Seems to me like "fecal material happens" and sooner or later something will happen to mess up your finish on any stove. I have never seen a really effective "homeowner doable" repair technology for porcelain enamel. Yes, there are touchup paints, but while they may camoflage the damage, they don't make it dissappear.

OTOH, the basic black stove paint is easy and fairly cheap to touch up, or in worst case, totally redo, and come out looking good as new... It also seems less vulnerable to damage in the first place. It doesn't chip as easily, it doesn't disintegrate if liquids spill on it when hot, etc.

Even better, I think it looks good... :coolsmirk:

Gooserider

 

[Tink]

Hi Burn1, Thanks for the link to the Equinox. Very fine looking stove, but I think that would blast us out of the house. We'd get it if we had cathedral ceilings, but we are in a simpler daylight basement rambler type, where we mainly live on the top floor, and downstairs is storage etc. I think that the Heritage might even be sized better, as we do not have 2000 square feet on the floor that we live on, more like 1400 or so, and it's not the open floorplan design....

I like the frou frou with the fancy feet et al. I want something pretty, since I expect to be looking at it for many more decades here at the ranch!

I guess I'll just call both dealers and see who offers me the best deal, etc.

 

[Tink]

I am now sitting in the wonderful warmth of our Hearthstone Heritage stove. It is not only the most comfortable, gentle heat, but it is also the easiest form of low-tech heating that can be possible. We awake n the morning to coals in the stove, making it really easy to light, then after loading at 7 or so, it heats the home, then after 1:30 I'll add another large split that keeps the home warm till five-ish.

Our previous little cast iron stove required tinkering and fooling around etc. all day. If we didn't have one person at home all day to stoke the stove, we came home to a cold house.

After having this new stove in place for a little less than one month, we can't see how we ever did without it....my husband finally even admits that he really likes the new stove and think it's a smart purchase.....

a happy Tink

 

[DriftWood]

We want photos Please!!

This video helps kick the heat out.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/default.asp?lang=En&n=8011CD70-1

 

[Tink]

Hmmm. Well, I tried to upload a pic, but kept getting this....

Error Message: The file you are attempting to upload has invalid content for its MIME type

So, until I figure this out, we're stuck....

 

[Gooserider]

Hmmm. Well, I tried to upload a pic, but kept getting this....

Error Message: The file you are attempting to upload has invalid content for its MIME type

So, until I figure this out, we're stuck....

Check the filename extension - you have to have one, and it needs to match the file type - i.e. .jpg for JPEGs, .gif for GIF's, etc. You will also need to make sure it's not to big, 640x480 works well for most folks.

Gooserider