Replacing an aging Soap Stone II stove

[skrebel33]

A little bit of background.


We currently have a Soap Stone II wood stove in our family room, 24' X 13' over our garage. The 24' length of the room runs north to south. The 13' walls are east to west. I positioned the wood stove along the north wall in the dead center. Two ceiling fans have move the air around the room. Along the west wall in the north is a door that leads outside, and on that same wall to the south is a door that leads into the main part of the house. We've been burning wood for the last 14 years in that wood stove. This year I was talked into trying bio-bricks. After this winter, I will be going back to burning wood again.

The Soap Stone II wood stove is more than 25 years old. My dad purchased it from a store dedicated to selling wood stoves. It's still there, and we purchased a Jotul wood stove from them. The Jotul was put in the family room before the Soap Stone II wood stove. However; the Jotul was not properly sized for burn time requirements. So we ended up moving the Soap Stone II from the first floor living room to the family room. The Jotul was sold to a friend of ours. They still have it 14 years later, and it meets their needs.

When I first started using the Soap Stone II in our family room, I was burning one cord of wood per season. 14 years later we are burning two plus cords of wood. I attribute that to the Soap Stone II needing to be repacked.

I really like the Soap Stone burn. The Mansfield would be a good replacement. Outside of that I am not sure what direction to take. A local dealer sells a brand called Country which is owned by Lennox. He touts the "flash combustion" as a wood saver. The other option I've just stumbled upon is the Jotul F55 Carrabassett. I still need to prices for each of the options listed above. If you have a different recommendation, please feel free to suggest another alternative.


One final note, the family does not have any other form of heat. Any wood stove I put in will need to be able to run overnight. Typically no more than 8 hours, but longer times are welcome.


Thank you

Skrebel33 - RI

 

[skrebel33]

Any recommendations?

 

[mfglickman]

If you like stone then Hearthstone and Woodstock seem like obvious choices...

 

[charly]

Any recommendations?

I would take the time to call The Woodstock Stove Company. Not trying to sell you a stove brand,,, but they are such nice people ,, I think you'll agree after you call,,, always there for you after the sale as well.... 6 months later you decide the stove is not right for you,,, they'll refund 100% of your money and even pay for the return shipping... You can also trade out the stove for another model. Basically you get to use a stove for the whole burning season to see if you like it.... that speaks confidence of the stove company and people there...and seeing the stoves in person,,,, the workmanship will blow you away!

1-800-866-4344

 

[skrebel33]

Just got off the phone with the HearthStone/Jotul dealer. Both the Jotul F55 and the HearthStone Mansfield are too larger for the area I am looking to heat. The sales representative suggested the HearthStone Heritage. The Heritage is the replacement for the Soap Stone II. My guess is that the efficiency of the Heritage would still over power the room, but not nearly as much as my original options. A smaller unit would not provide the burn time I am looking for. The Heritage is not a cheap option either coming in at 2769. A bit more than what I planned to budget for the replacement. However; if I can come up with a way to move the air out of the family room into the main body of the house, then it would be worth the additional cost.

 

[rideau]

You mention the FR opens into the rest of the home, but don't give detail about the size of the home, or layout, or what part of the home the FR opens into. The FR is over the garage. Is the garage below street level, or is the FR o the second story of your home? All of these things have a significant influence on your ability to move het out of the FR. How big is the door from the FR to the main part of the home?

If the FR has a large opening to the main part of the home, and/or is on a level with the living area in the home, and/or opens into an area that allows for air flow to the home, then I would go with a larger stove and put a fan in the main part of the home pushing air into the family room, to get warm air circulating out of the FR.

A Progress Hybrid is expensive, but can be burned for any heat output, so would not overheat your FR. It would have a significant inpact on cost of heating the main part of your home, if your layout is such that air can be moved. Over time, it would easily pay for itself. Don't know where you live, or how cold you climate is. Progress Hybrid is a oodstock soapstone stove. Smaller, but still good sized stoves are the Woodstock Fireview and Keystone. Since you are in no rush, I'd talk to Woodstock and see when their redesigned Fireview is going to come on the market. It will, I believe, have a larger window, and may even have improved burning qualities. A larger window alone should make it throw more heat. The present Fireview is itself a great stove. Fireview and Keystone are close to the price you have quoted above for the Hearthstone.

Since you are not in a rush, I would DEFINITELY wait until the stove of my choice went on sale. At least at Woodstock they do regularly go on sale and you can save a lot of money and often get free shipping as well.

 

[firefighterjake]

Honestly . . . if you liked the soapstone heat and woodstove I would take a look at either the Hearthstone line up as you have done . . . or Woodstock . . . and as for me personally . . . I would take a real hard look at the Woodstock line up. Great folks, great product, exceptional customer service (you cannot beat the 6 month guarantee . . . ability to pick the exact color and stones that go into the stove, fair price and they do have several models you can look at that with at least one that would suit your needs.)

You can check them out at woodstove.com.

 

[begreen]

From what I'm hearing, a Woodstock Fireview sounds like it would be a nice replacement. Tell us more about the size of the area the stove is in and the rest of the connecting rooms in the floorplan. Post some pics and a sketch if possible.

 

[skrebel33]

You mention the FR opens into the rest of the home, but don't give detail about the size of the home, or layout, or what part of the home the FR opens into. The FR is over the garage. Is the garage below street level, or is the FR o the second story of your home? All of these things have a significant influence on your ability to move het out of the FR. How big is the door from the FR to the main part of the home?

If the FR has a large opening to the main part of the home, and/or is on a level with the living area in the home, and/or opens into an area that allows for air flow to the home, then I would go with a larger stove and put a fan in the main part of the home pushing air into the family room, to get warm air circulating out of the FR.

A Progress Hybrid is expensive, but can be burned for any heat output, so would not overheat your FR. It would have a significant inpact on cost of heating the main part of your home, if your layout is such that air can be moved. Over time, it would easily pay for itself. Don't know where you live, or how cold you climate is. Progress Hybrid is a oodstock soapstone stove. Smaller, but still good sized stoves are the Woodstock Fireview and Keystone. Since you are in no rush, I'd talk to Woodstock and see when their redesigned Fireview is going to come on the market. It will, I believe, have a larger window, and may even have improved burning qualities. A larger window alone should make it throw more heat. The present Fireview is itself a great stove. Fireview and Keystone are close to the price you have quoted above for the Hearthstone.

Since you are not in a rush, I would DEFINITELY wait until the stove of my choice went on sale. At least at Woodstock they do regularly go on sale and you can save a lot of money and often get free shipping as well.

If you know of a simple program I could use to create my second floor layout, I'll glad put up a drawing. The original house was built in 1869. The garage/FR were added in the late 70s. The doorway leading from the FR to the main part of the house is a 77" X 31", and it opens into a hallway along the front of the house. A stairway leads to the third floor, and another doorway leads into a bedroom. At the end of the hallway is a playroom which connects to the another hallway with the bathroom and the master bedroom. Not your typical layout by any means.

I'm not sure how I would put a fan in the hallway blowing air into the FR in order to push air from the FR into the main part of the house. In the past, I've put a box fan on a table to draw air from the room and down the hallway. To be honest, I did not notice a major difference.

We live on the south shore of Rhode Island. Our winters range from single digits to as much as 45. Average temps would be around 36ish. The house including the family room is around 2000 sqft.


Thank you

Skrebel33

 

[mfglickman]

PowerPoint, word, gimp, visio, Paint, any of these can be used to make a basic box and line drawing.

 

[Rich L]

If you know of a simple program I could use to create my second floor layout, I'll glad put up a drawing. The original house was built in 1869. The garage/FR were added in the late 70s. The doorway leading from the FR to the main part of the house is a 77" X 31", and it opens into a hallway along the front of the house. A stairway leads to the third floor, and another doorway leads into a bedroom. At the end of the hallway is a playroom which connects to the another hallway with the bathroom and the master bedroom. Not your typical layout by any means.

I'm not sure how I would put a fan in the hallway blowing air into the FR in order to push air from the FR into the main part of the house. In the past, I've put a box fan on a table to draw air from the room and down the hallway. To be honest, I did not notice a major difference.

We live on the south shore of Rhode Island. Our winters range from single digits to as much as 45. Average temps would be around 36ish. The house including the family room is around 2000 sqft.


Thank you

Skrebel33

2000sq ft.means that the Fireview is too small.Your dealer is wrong.Go with the Mansfield.Mine is heating my unfinished down drafting cellar as well sending heat up the cellar steps to the first floor.The Heritage won't be enough also.Maybe Woodstock's PH will do the job and if not you can send it back within six months(you pay for the return shipping).I had the Hearthstone II.I only burn the wood long enough to get the coal going.With the coal it was a great heater.The wood heat was far less effective.Since the stove will be your only source of heat don't go undersize.My vote is the Mansfield.Have you tried burning coal in the Hearthstone II yet ?

 

[rideau]

Will have to think about this one. Sounds like a challenging area to heat from the FR. Have you ever tried putting a small fan at the top of the third floor stairway, pointing down the stairs? Then a fan on a table in the hall, or on the floor, the far side of the stairs, pointing toward the family room, with the family room door open; might work to force some air from the room.

So, the FR is on the second floor, and you are hoping to heat the bedrooms and playroom to some extent with the FR stove, and are not worrying about the first floor? Is that correct?

What I would do is try with your present stove every concievable reasonable way to try to move heated air out of the FR. If you come up with a method that works, then I'd get a bigger stove, like the Progress Hybrid, or at the least the Fireview of Keystone. . If you find that no matter what you do, you cannot move heat effectively to the other areas in your home, then there is no reason to oversize for heating the one room, and I'd go with a smaller stove. If you are really only heating the FR, you can probably go quite small, and use a good deal less wood.

You mention that you have gone from one to two cords per year with your present stove. If the stove is suitable for you in every other way, you might want to check and see what would be involved in refurbishing your stove. Do you only need gaskets? Recementing? Woodstock rebuilds Woodstock stoves, they might rebuild your stove for you. Don't know what it would cost, but might be worth inquiring. Nothing lost. If the stove is a good one (I know nothing about the Soapstone II), it would be a shame to retire it.

 

[rideau]

Rich and I were writing ata the same time. It really does not sound to me as if you are going to be able to realistically heat a lot of that 2000 square feet, as it sounds as if a lot is down some hallway and then downstairs? So I don't think you should be necessarily be thinking in terms of your total square footage. That FR is not located at all centrally, or where it will be easy to move a lot of air. Again, try mving air in your current set up. A new stove will not change your ability to move air, although it may change the quantity of heated air available. How big is the Soapstone II?

 

[charly]

2000sq ft.means that the Fireview is too small.Your dealer is wrong.Go with the Mansfield.Mine is heating my unfinished down drafting cellar as well sending heat up the cellar steps to the first floor.The Heritage won't be enough also.Maybe Woodstock's PH will do the job and if not you can send it back within six months(you pay for the return shipping).I had the Hearthstone II.I only burn the wood long enough to get the coal going.With the coal it was a great heater.The wood heat was far less effective.Since the stove will be your only source of heat don't go undersize.My vote is the Mansfield.Have you tried burning coal in the Hearthstone II yet ?[/quote

you pay for the return shipping)

My Fireview owners manual stated that Woodstock pays for the return shipping. Nice of them.

 

[Rich L]

Charly when I returned my Fireview I was charged for shipping it back.If they were wrong then they owe me some money.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Just got off the phone with the HearthStone/Jotul dealer. Both the Jotul F55 and the HearthStone Mansfield are too larger for the area I am looking to heat. The sales representative suggested the HearthStone Heritage. The Heritage is the replacement for the Soap Stone II. My guess is that the efficiency of the Heritage would still over power the room, but not nearly as much as my original options. A smaller unit would not provide the burn time I am looking for. The Heritage is not a cheap option either coming in at 2769. A bit more than what I planned to budget for the replacement. However; if I can come up with a way to move the air out of the family room into the main body of the house, then it would be worth the additional cost.

Welcome to the forum skrebel33.

A coincidence is that when we last looked at a new stove the Heritage was one of our top choices along with the Lopi Leyden and the Woodstock Fireview. We bought the Fireview and have never been sorry. After taking with a couple owners and seeing posts here on hearth.com, we are doubly pleased we got the Fireview. Also, the Fireview is a more efficient stove than the Heritage. For us, it cut our wood needs in half! We stay a whole lot warmer burning half the amount of wood. Before we used to close off part of the house but no more. In fact, we've added on to it. The Fireview does great. In addition, we now don't have to worry about dirty chimney because now we are into our sixth year and still have no creosote! Super clean and very nice. In addition, the Fireview would save you some dollars compared with the Heritage.

Now on moving that air. You can come up with a better way! Instead of trying to move the warm air toward the cooler part of the house, do it the opposite. It works! Set a small desktop fan (or a box fan) in that hallway and using the lowest setting, blow the air toward the stove room. You will be amazed at how quickly the temperature comes up in those other rooms.

In addition to this, check to see how those ceiling fans are. Are they blowing the air down? If so, reverse them! Suck the air up which will go with the natural convection of the air in the room. That is, the walls will be the coolest and that means the air will tend to go down. If that is so, then the air will want to go up in the center of the rooms. So if you suck the air up you are going with the natural flow of the air; sort of working with Nature rather than trying to reverse it. Give it a try.

 

[skrebel33]

So, the FR is on the second floor, and you are hoping to heat the bedrooms and playroom to some extent with the FR stove, and are not worrying about the first floor? Is that correct?

Not really looking to heat the playroom. Some heat does go up the stairs to the third floor today. It's not a major requirement. The first floor is out of the question. As soon as I can draw the layout of the second floor, you'll see my challenge. Only reason I put the total square footage is someone asked.

You mention that you have gone from one to two cords per year with your present stove. If the stove is suitable for you in every other way, you might want to check and see what would be involved in refurbishing your stove. Do you only need gaskets? Recementing? Woodstock rebuilds Woodstock stoves, they might rebuild your stove for you. Don't know what it would cost, but might be worth inquiring. Nothing lost. If the stove is a good one (I know nothing about the Soapstone II), it would be a shame to retire it.

I've spoken to the dealer in Ct where the stove was purchased. It can be rebuilt to almost as good as it started at. However; you are talking $900 to start, and with the stove being so old, he cautioned me that parts will most likely break and need to be replaced. I'd much rather get a new wood stove that meets my needs.

From a sizing standpoint, I have two concerns that offset each other.

• The burn time. I want (really need) a stove that can go 8 hours. There is no other heat in the family room.
• I am concerned about a new stove heating us out of the room.

I put together a rudimentary drawing, but it failed. Standby for a drawing.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

skrebel, I think I forgot to mention that it is easy for us to get a 12 hour burn with the Fireview. The house is usually around 80 when we get up in the morning and we keep it in the 80's all day as a normal thing. One exception to this is when my wife does the laundry. She loves drying the clothes near the stove (a temporary mess to me) and that really shoots the humidity up so the temperature has to drop on those days else I have to be very busy outdoors!

 

[skrebel33]

 

[skrebel33]

A large majority of you are pro Woodstock. I've really only dealt with HearthStone to this point. Are the Woodstock supporters more vocal? Or is there something wrong with the HearthStone product?


When I go to the WoodStock site, I don't see on either the Fireview or the Progress Hybrid where you control the air from. Unfortunately they don't offer a 360 degree view. Although I could be looking at it, and just don't see it in the picture.


Thanks for all of your help.


Skrebel33

 

[BrotherBart]

Not one thing wrong with Hearthstone stoves. The Mansfield would be a winner in that application. Even after the fire burns down that big rock will give off heat for a long time. And with that famous "soft" heat of soapstone its size isn't gonna hurt. It will help.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yes, a lot of us are pro-Woodstock and it is because of the type of company they are and their stoves are fantastic. But you have me here. I looked through my pictures and can't seem to come up with a decent picture showing the controls. On both the Fireview and Progress the draft control is to the right of the firebox door. That is, toward the rear of the stove. I can see our stove from where I am sitting and the control is set at about .75 (draft goes from zero to 4) and the lever is just about even with the top of the firebox door.

You can choose many different colors for the trim and the one pictured is a bit plain. Ours is metallic brown. Charcoal really looks nice too. But there are many colors to choose from. If you are lucky enough to visit the factory they will show you how they are built (which is impressive) and you can also go as far as picking the exact stone you want for your stove. Hope this helps.

 

[charly]

A large majority of you are pro Woodstock. I've really only dealt with HearthStone to this point. Are the Woodstock supporters more vocal? Or is there something wrong with the HearthStone product?


When I go to the WoodStock site, I don't see on either the Fireview or the Progress Hybrid where you control the air from. Unfortunately they don't offer a 360 degree view. Although I could be looking at it, and just don't see it in the picture.


Thanks for all of your help.


Skrebel33

I can tell you the one guy who works at Woodstock told me the other day, he rebuilt is older used Fireview he bought in 4 hrs and for 300 dollars in parts... The Fireview is a very plain Jane straight forward great simple design in my eye's.. Easy to service, clean the cat, just lift the top up, lift the cat out, brush the cat off, set the cat back in, close the top,,, done!! Not one tool needed, that's why I bought the stove... A cat stove you can get very low heat output if you want , yet yielding low emissions at the same time , so you won't have a stove pipe loading up with creosote. You get the stove up to 250 degrees, close the by pass lever, and set your draft to 1 or less, and walk away. Set it and forget,, a very, very simple stove to run... Here's a picture of the draft controls, by pass lever is up to engage the cat, draft lever goes up to slow the draft, you can see the numbers... Draft lever down, by pass handle down to load, easy to remember. Go look if you can, you'll leave owning a Woodstock stove!

 

[firefighterjake]

HehHeh . . . I don't know if I would call the Fireview a "plain Jane" stove Charley . . . if anything is quite ornate . . . simple to use I am sure . . . but far, far from being a plain Jane steel box of a woodstove to be sure. For me, the Fireview looks was always the turn off as it would be far, far too fancy for my humble home . . . now if I had a Victorian perhaps. . . .

 

[gmule]

HehHeh . . . I don't know if I would call the Fireview a "plain Jane" stove Charley . . . if anything is quite ornate . . . simple to use I am sure . . . but far, far from being a plain Jane steel box of a woodstove to be sure. For me, the Fireview looks was always the turn off as it would be far, far too fancy for my humble home . . . now if I had a Victorian perhaps. . . .

I agree the Fireview is probably the nicest piece of furniture in my house.