Question for the soapstone converts/users

[dtabor]

I dont have the funds to change out my new stove for something newer at this point but Ive been watching the threads here about the soapstone stoves. I see your stovetop running temps are lower overall than the cast stove users. All things being equal, is a 300* top temp on a soapstone equal to a 300* top temp on a cast stove? Reason Im asking is that I wake up to stovetop temps higher than that and my house has cooled down due to its size and drafts that I havent tracked down yet. If thats all the soapstone gets to and maintains, I dont see how it would work in my situation even if I COULD switch out. If I woke up to 200* stovetop temp, my house would be in the 50s!!

When we were looking for a stove, before we found this site, we were looking at Hearthstone as their factory is only 10 miles from me. We had friends tell us to stay away from the Hearthstone/soapstone as it doesnt heat well. I thought that funny as Id heard good things about soapstone stoves. I went to one of these houses, brand new construction, well insulated and he showed me the stove in operation and he was having trouble keeping the room warm, not mentioning the whole HOUSE which was much smaller than mine. Wood was over a year old/stacked, dry.

 

[Todd]

From what I've read, soapstone pound for pound holds twice the heat than steel or iron. I think both stove materials will deliver the same amount of BTU's into your space if they are similar in firebox size, but steel will release it faster and hotter while the soapstone will release it more even and over a longer time.

My soapstone stove has gotten as high as 725 before and I usually run it between 500-650. It puts out gobs of heat and keeps my 1800sq ft house nice and toasty. After an overnight burn (9-12hrs) my stove top is around 250-300 it still seems to give off heat and my house maintains around 70 unless it's below zero and windy outside the house can drop down to 65.

 

[dtabor]

Ahh, ok, Those top temps are what I run at too. I thought I had read in another post that soapstone doesnt get that high. Didnt make sense that I could stay so low and still deliver such heat to the house.

 

[swestall]

Yeah, you're getting it now. The 250-300 is what it is at when it has cooled off after a long burn. We are keeping it at 400-500 and it blasts. As an example, we went to bed last night with the house at 71 and went to long burn, damped down. When we awoke at 6AM the house was 68 and the stove was 300. It was 18 degrees out.

I've gotten the Mansfield up to 550 and it is really hot then. It takes a lot longer to get the soapstone up to those temps VS the cast iron; but then they cool off a lot slower too. The stone just sucks the heat in and the stovetop goes up slowly.
But once up, you don't have to burn big loads wide open to keep it up.

Usually at a stove shop where they are burning one, you'll see it in action as they want it to feel hot when you stand by it.
I will tell you that it does take getting use to. (don't they all). After getting the basics down and heating the house, we are finding that we learn a little more all the time about how to get it up to temp, keep it there and get into the long burn for day/overnight burn to maintain temps.

I think we chatted about it before, but if you want to stay with steel/iron look at the Jotul 600 or PE T-6 they both impress me as being sound.

 

[Highbeam]

Careful now dtabor, you are not supposed to run a Hearthstone soapstone stove that hot. They "redline" at 600 with highburn to be 500 per the heritage manual. For some reason, woodstock stove company seems to think that their soapstone can take the higher heat. without crumbling. Maybe the bigger mystery is why Hearthstone requires lower temps.

It seems logical that a stove af any material at 500 will heat the room the same way. The soapstone benefit is that once you get to 500 and the fire starts to burn down, the stove won't cool off for a long time compared to iron.

You have to be a more aggressive burner with the soapstone to get it up to temp and then cruise with it.

 

[Todd]

Maybe Woodstocks can burn a little hotter because they are constructed with double walls of stone with an air gap between?

 

[Cath]

... We had friends tell us to stay away from the Hearthstone/soapstone as it doesnt heat well. I thought that funny as Id heard good things about soapstone stoves. I went to one of these houses, brand new construction, well insulated and he showed me the stove in operation and he was having trouble keeping the room warm, not mentioning the whole HOUSE which was much smaller than mine. Wood was over a year old/stacked, dry.

dtabor,
Roughly how many square feet is the house? Which Hearthstone was he running (how many square feet is it intended to heat)? Are you sure it is well insulated? It's true that newer houses tend to be well insulated but not if the builder skimped. Oddly enough I have heard of this happening on some pretty expensive houses but it can probably happen in any price range.

Where is the stove placed? Is it on an inside or an outside wall? Is it in the basement? If so, is the basement finished and well insulated? And if so what if anything does he do to move the heat upstairs?

Regarding your visit while he was running it, how long had it been running when you got there? Because of the soapstone it takes awhile for them to "get up to temperature".

Also, it's possible that he just hasn't gotten the knack of running it. It may be a simple matter of him running it a little hotter, as some of the other postings here seem to suggest.

Finally, it may just be that he is looking for the "blast furnace", "knock you out of your socks", "bring the room up to temp fast" heat that non-soapstone stoves offer. And that the gentler, time released heat of soapstone is a disapppointment to him.

~Cath

 

[dtabor]

Cath, I dont really have all the specifics for you. The guy has his own crew of builders who do houses and condo units for him and he was in on the building as well so I guess I am making the assumption that it was well insulated as it was his own place not some he had done for sale. Square footage I dont know the number. My two living floors are 2500 and the main area he was trying to heat was much smaller. The main area was an addition on to an existing house. All open and one floor. More like an open living/dining/kitchen area all in one big area. The stove sat in the middle of this room. We were freezing to death as the existing insert our house had just didnt work at all so we were looking for heat and asking about Hearthstone etc. This guy piped right in and said stay away, nothing but headache (guess he never owned a VC NC!!). My first guess after being on this site and reading on everything, would be that he wasnt being aggressive enough initially to get it up to heat and then keeping up with it so wasnt seeing the true benefit of the stove. This was mid winter and I believe he had been burning constantly but if that was the case he should have gotten that thing up to temp.

I cant complain too much on my stove other than the babysitting part when Im home. I put her to bed around 10 with a full load of wood, damper down and in the am I have a ton of hot coals (like 1/3 the height of the firebox) and my temps are 400+ at 5 am and the house is at 66 +/-, outdoor temps 2*. Im not tracking wood usage as I go as its in 2 different places, I'll know what I have left in the spring and be able to calculate what I used. My furnace has not come on for heat yet this year, only water.

D

 

[jpl1nh]

Maybe Woodstocks can burn a little hotter because they are constructed with double walls of stone with an air gap between?

Reasonable speculation Todd. My experience is the same, even been up to 725 though I typically like it between 500 and 600. Don't really have to be "aggressive" to burn it that hot, just load it on hot coals, get it blazing a bit, shut it down in 2 or 3 stages to abarely burning and the cat will kick it up there. Funny thing is that the stove just feels warm when your standing around it, its' nice, but not the type of skin searing heat a cast can give. Yet my house is always warm, like 72-73, even though the stove never feels hot. Like Todd's experience, last night, loaded about 10, packed well but not the best I could do, house was 72. Overninght down to 16 with wind 5 to 10, gusts to 20. Got up at 6, house was 68 and stove top about 275. Lots of coals, loaded and off for another day. It does take an hour or 2 to get the house back up to 70 on a morning like this one though. dtbor, your friend may have been on the low end of the learning curve too. Soapstone is a whole different mindset. You load for the future, not now. Also you load to keep your house steady. If you let the temps drop down 6-8 degrees below where you want, it's gonna take some time to get your house warm again. Once it's warm, it's easy to keep it that way.

 

[ms440]

You really need to look at all of your variables. I have broken a few rules in my house. I have a Mansfield. My house is new with R25 walls and R40 ceiling with good windows. BUT I face north on a north slope and my stove is on a back wall with interior chimney and lots of glass, 9 foot ceilings. I have a very open floor plan I designed to heat with wood. So it is good and bad. Right now it is cruising at 550, but took a while to get there. I can heat my 2500 square colonial solely with my stove. When it is SUB ZERO it gets in the low 60's upstairs. This doesn't bother me, it might you. It IS a learning curve. I have been burning my stove continuosly since late October. I keep finding things out. I added an OAK to my stove and it made a HUGE difference. I was getting ice between the sashes of my Low e argon windows from the house sucking air. Now it heats the upstairs much better. I have a blower on order. In my situation by putting the stove on a back wall, I feel it will help push the heat to the opposite side of the house and then up the stairs. I think I will burn 4 to 5 cords of wood this year 24/7 late October to April. I love this stove. It really excells in that you can have it run hot, or cruise when it is above 30 degrees out with mininal effort. I am sitting four feet from it right now. I also do believe that it is hard to push heat north if your stove is on a south wall and you get a lot of north winter wind. Good luck.