Soapstone Along w/ Firebrick??

[Rob From Wisconsin]

I believe this may have been kick around before, but perhaps not...
Has anyone ever tried adding soapstone tiles/bricks within a fire-brick lined
firebox??
I guess its the engineer in me.......

Rob

 

[Gunner]

here is a panel added to the top of an englander

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

here is a panel added to the top of an englander

Any added benefits to the slab on Englander??

Anyone add soapstone to combustion chamber, in addition to firebick??

 

[Mike Wilson]

I wondered about this, and I know we've kicked it around before. Besides for all the minor little technical things that the rule Nazis around here will certainly post below, like voiding your warranty, voiding your UL rating, and voiding your inspection certificate (none of which I personally care about), I think it might help. If someone could make some firebrick sized pieces of soapstone, and replace all their firebrick, and do some controlled testing, it would be quite informative.

-- Mike

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

I wondered about this, and I know we've kicked it around before. Besides for all the minor little technical things that the rule Nazis around here will certainly post below, like voiding your warranty, voiding your UL rating, and voiding your inspection certificate (none of which I personally care about), I think it might help. If someone could make some firebrick sized pieces of soapstone, and replace all their firebrick, and do some controlled testing, it would be quite informative.

-- Mike

No, I'm not talking about "replacing", I'm talking about
"adding" soapstone to a firebrick-lined firebox.....
...wonder what that would do.....

Rob

 

[BrotherBart]

We need our resident stove engineer Cory's take on this. He knows all of that stuff about thermal this and thermal that. Hmmm... and it wouldn't be bad if he looked at it from the standpoint of the design of the 30-NC since he will have one in the house and some coming through the burn lab.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Because the Woodstock stoves have both firebrick and soapstone it seems to me that it would work at least to a certain extent. The difference being that you no doubt are talking about putting the soapstone directly inside the stove. However, if you put the soapstone on top of the stove or on the sides, it should work.

For instance, when I was a little boy (a couple years ago) we had a large soapstone, with a handle, that we placed on the stove. Seems our old car didn't have much of a heater so we'd use that soapstone and a heavy horse blanket so our feet would keep from freezing. Yes, I also used to use it in my bed for the same purpose.

My advice is to contact one of the soapstone stove makers and see if you can purchase some and give it a try.

 

[Mike Wilson]

No, I'm not talking about "replacing", I'm talking about
"adding" soapstone to a firebrick-lined firebox.....
...wonder what that would do.....

Rob

ooooooooh... okay, I see. So, you want to add soapstone inside the firebox, or outside? Inside, I would imagine, would reduce your burn times by decreasing the amount of wood you can load it with. Outside, I would say just go buy a Hearthstone.

-- Mike

 

[jpl1nh]

I'm not an engineer but I don't see the advantage of adding soapstone to a firebrick lined firebox. First, I believe each firebox is designed to maximize combustion heat for clean burns. Stoves designed with firebrick I would think would be set up in such a way to maximize the properties of firebrick in the combustion chamber. Tampering with that probably would reduce your stoves efficiency. Secondly, soapstones main attribute is its ability to absorb large quantities of heat and therefore remain warm for a long time, moderating the relatively radical heat and cool spikes of wood combustion. I would think it would be more effective added as a stove top as Gunner did so you could take advantage of that attribute while not risking decreasing firebox efficiency.

 

[Highbeam]

A big chunk placed on the stove top isn't that much different than a big kettle full of water. They both create a relatively cold spot on the stove. How can it hurt? I would stick it on the outside as a slab and preserve the inner firebox environment for the sake of fuel load and efficiency.

 

[TresK3]

I realize that Rob was suggesting ADDING soapstone to the inside of the firebox, but what about simply replacing the firebrick with soapstone. I seem to remember that Woodstock (or someone) sells soapstone for counter tops; if you could buy some cut to the same size as your firebrick, then simply replace the brick, you wouldn't lose any firebox size. But would you gain anything? Since I have a Xtrordinaire FPX33 elite, which is flush mounted to the wall, there really isn't anyplace to add the brick externally.

 

[Highbeam]

That firebrick acts as an insulator to hold heat in and against the fire to support higher and higher firebox temps. Without the insulation effect the walls of the stove would suck the heat out of the fire and the burn would be less efficient. There are stoves designed to operate cleanly without this insulative effect but the vast majority of stoves are designed with the firebrick in place.