Quick start this morning on soapstone stove

[Backwoods Savage]

This is for the soapstone stove owners on lighting a fire in a cold stove.


Because we were basking in 59 degree temperature late yesterday we let the stove go out. Later some thunder showers moved through and then the temperature started going down. They still are and presently it is 32 degrees.

So, my wife had an early doctor appointment today. When we get up it is a bit cool in the house but when I stick my head out the door I find it is definitely different than yesterday was. Then it stuck me. I'd better get the stove going or it will be cold when we get back and I much prefer walking into a warm house. I need to get a fire going, but it is said it takes a long, long time for a soapstone stove to give heat. I look at the clock and if I hurry, we'll have 40 minutes before we have to leave.

So, get some wood from the porch. I then placed 2 splits on the bottom and formed a slight vee. Then 1/4 Super Cedar and I lit it right then. On that was placed 6 pieces of soft maple kindling. On top of that I put 2 real small splits. Then the door was closed and I ate breakfast. I forgot to look at the time but had to turn the draft down before breakfast was finished. The draft was turned down to about 1.5 with the flue temperature close to 600. At just a couple minutes before the 40 minutes mark I flipped on the cat because the stove top was about 270. The draft was turned to .75. We put our coats on and headed out the door.

We got home around 12:30 and walked into a very toasty warm house. Just what I wanted. Sweet!


For certain, one can get heat from a steel or all cast stove sooner but we do not have a problem waiting just a little longer for the heat. Besides, once we turn the cat on, the temperature then goes up really fast. The stove top was at 350 when we got home.

 

[kayakkeith]

almost sounds like how we run our stove - last night didnt go below 47 and the stove had a couple of small splits in at bedtime - set the cat and damper to 1 and it kept house warm all night. let it die today as its low 50's and cloudy - is supposed to be in the twentys tonite so will wait until early evening to start fire - should probably burn next few days and its getting colder and we are supposed to have snow Fri thru Sat

When it is in low fortys I have just been putting a couple small splits in and getting it up to able to engage cat - then just let it ride for a couple hours - usually around 300 degrees or so - heats house nicley. When it gets colder just jack up the wood load and let it ride around 400. This sopstone and cat combo is sweet for heating and it really doesnt use alot of wood

 

[Todd]

Yep, I've done a few quick starts like that as well. Kind of a modified top down method and gets that stove temp and draft going quick.

 

[Highbeam]

That's great Dennis. Do you have any experience with the major stone brand, the hearthsones? Perhaps you should consider the differences between a fireview and the standard non-cat stone stoves when making posts like this that try and generalize all stone stoves. In my hearthstone I have found that I can quickly get flue temps up to 800 but the stove itself won't get to 300 for a long time, more than an hour. Stone stoves, the common ones, take a long time to heat up and make poor "quick burn" stoves.

 

[Slow1]

I've been routinely getting my cat engaged about 30-40 minutes after first light of the super cedar. I think that with a bit of experimentation and observation folks can learn how to get their stove up to cruising state in pretty short order. I have noticed that on my stove at least that there is a difference between getting the stove top (where the cat is) up to temp and getting the rest of the stove fully warmed up. It simply takes time to get it all good and hot - i.e. 400+. However, when I'm not doing 24/7 I accept that it won't be hot all the time.

I imagine it could be done faster but the statement somewhere in the manual cautioning against building a raging fire in a cold stove haunts me.

I am curious though - how long does it take in other (i.e. non-cat) stoves to be in a stable "comfortable to walk out of the house/go to bed" state from first light of the match in a cold stove? I know my downdraft stove was a nightmare here - it would take an hour and a half for me to get there if I was lucky.

 

[Highbeam]

Interesting question slow1. The answer will depend on just how tolerant of pollution you are. At any point during the burn of any load of wood, I can shut the draft to zero and go to bed or leave the house with full confidence that nothing bad will happen. Unless it was really early in the kindling stage, the fire will eventually take off and burn the fuel. That isn't good for pollution, wood utilization, flue cleanliness, or any of that so it is better to close the draft in stages so as to prevent snuffing.

 

[Slow1]

I suppose I should qualify the statement then to say "stable, safe, and burning clean" then. This thread isn't the best place for the question so I'll open a new one as I really am curios about the answer across different stoves.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That's great Dennis. Do you have any experience with the major stone brand, the hearthsones? Perhaps you should consider the differences between a fireview and the standard non-cat stone stoves when making posts like this that try and generalize all stone stoves. In my hearthstone I have found that I can quickly get flue temps up to 800 but the stove itself won't get to 300 for a long time, more than an hour. Stone stoves, the common ones, take a long time to heat up and make poor "quick burn" stoves.

Highbeam, although I do not have any direct experience with Hearthstone, we did seriously consider buying one before we got the Woodstock stove. However, it seems to me that a Hearthstone could be managed very similar to the way we do things. One big key to heating up the stone is to cut the draft back fairly early in the lighting up process. Better to keep more heat in the firebox rather than sending it up the chimney as always been my feelings.

So rather than a cat, you have secondaries to send your stove temperatures up and I'd think there is some difference but not a huge difference. It might be interesting for me to try out a Hearthstone some day but what I have seen so far has not been impressive. That does not mean they are bad stoves at all because they are not bad. It simply means what I've seen has not matched the Woodstock results.