"Soapstone stove owners" How long and what temps do you cruise at?

[Todd]

Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seems like my stove has been dropping off faster than it use to. The chimney and cap is clean, firewood is 15-20% and cat is 1 year old. I've been burning full loads of Locust when it's cold outside and lately it will top off at 600-650 and in 3 hrs drop off to below 500, and after 7 hrs she's down to 250. It will hold 200 for a few more hours but there is little usable heat when it's below zero outside so I tend to reload around the 300 degree mark to keep the house temps up. Just wondering how long other soaps are holding their heat?

 

[Bobbin]

That's a tough question for me to answer off the top of my head. Our 18 yr. old home is very well insulated and generally "tight". We use the stove to heat our "apartment" on the second floor (1200+ sq.ft.) and we generally tend to burn smaller hot fires, rather than keeping the stove operating at full capacity for longer periods of time.

I lit the stove at 3:15 this afternoon, using 5-6 small/medium splits (oak and maple) and it was at or above 500 degrees within 15-20 minutes of engaging the combustor; so within 30-40 minutes. It was still burning comfortably "in the zone" when the husband tossed in a few more splits around the time we flipped on The News Hour (7PM), but I don't know what the surface temperature was at that time.

We generally allow the stove to "die down" at night unless it's going to be really cold outside. There may be some coals in it tomorrow morning (there usually are) but there won't be a bed of them and if we decide to refire in the morning, it will require some extra tinder to get the kindling to catch quickly. We have recently cleaned fly ash out of the combustor and have kept an eye on performance to determine if it's time to replace it. I'll make mental note to watch burn times over the weekend when I'm home and more likely to keep the stove burning longer. Interesting question, I'll be interested in reading other replies.

 

[Highbeam]

Wow Todd, you sure like to rub it in don't you? My soapstone is limited to 600 max temps and a "high burn" temp of 500. So 500 is about as high as I regularly run it with an occasional drift to 550. At that high temp the fuel is quickly used up but the stove kind of hovers there full of energy for an hour or so before slowly drifting down to 400 after several hours when I either reload or let it go. Keeping the stove at 500 just makes too much heat and burns too much wood for my climate.

I think the answers will be better from other cat woodstock owners vs. just the soapstone category.

You make me jealous with that cat of yours.

 

[jpl1nh]

I'd say the Keystone's max on on load on hot coals is probably more like 2 1/2, maybe longer. I haven't been home much to check. Load, run out the door, load, run out the door, load, go to bed. That's my best guess.

 

[pumiglk]

Like highbeam - never can say I crusied at 500. Get up to 500, sometimes push it to 550 (makes me a bit nervous) as overfire is 600. I monitor with with stovetop and flue therms. Usually though when I get it up in this range it is below 15 and I want heat. So these fires are on Hot coals. My wood is mostly dry oak ( I have some of my stash at abot 25% so sometimes I slip in a split or two of that; and usually there are a a few splits of very dry birch or cherry to heat it up quick), they are mostly 4 inch or so splits. I usually load abot 3/4 full, as I find if I stuff it it -is slower to FULLY catch and burn and not as predictable in the burn rate (no doubt a learning thing as this the first year with the stove). I work the air (typically about halfway closed) to get her up burning hot, at about 450 I shut down abot 7/8. It will rise to abot 500 over the next half hour then level off. It will take about 2-3 more hours to creep down below 400. Another 3 hours or so to get below 300 though the length of this second part is really dependent on the wood mix, coals, air, etc and I don't have this all worked out. It takes several more hours to drop below 200. In my experience this 200-300 is where the soapstone really plateaus. Hot coals to restart can be found whenever I want (12 hours later) - I have to plan ahead if I want to shovel just ash.

FWIW: Also have a blower installed that runs at about 1/2 max all the time unless stove temp drops (below 150??)

 

[regalflyer]

Wow - Locust is one of the highest output woods you can burn. My stove only makes it to 450 even with very dry hardwood. I had a draft problem that was killing my run time, but that seems to be solved now. With a partially loaded firebox, it runs at about 400 for maybe 5 hours then starts to drop but not fast. I hope to extend that with full size splits, 20" instead of 16".

 

[Todd]

Wow Todd, you sure like to rub it in don't you? My soapstone is limited to 600 max temps and a "high burn" temp of 500. So 500 is about as high as I regularly run it with an occasional drift to 550. At that high temp the fuel is quickly used up but the stove kind of hovers there full of energy for an hour or so before slowly drifting down to 400 after several hours when I either reload or let it go. Keeping the stove at 500 just makes too much heat and burns too much wood for my climate.

I think the answers will be better from other cat woodstock owners vs. just the soapstone category.

You make me jealous with that cat of yours.

Not trying to rub it in, I think the Woodstocks run a higher stove top temp from the cat being right under the top panel. I can run a 600-700 stove top temp while the firebox will be smouldering and much cooler than a non cats fire box. So maybe it evens out some.

I know it's normal with colder weather, just seems like my burn times and heat output have gone down lately no matter what weather. I wonder if my OAK is cooling the stove down sooner? I installed it last year about this time and since it's a basement install I have an 8' run up the wall to the sill plate and I bet that cold air may naturally flow too hard down into the stove? Can you feel cold air being sucked up your OAK?

 

[Todd]

I edited the title since there is a difference in over fire temps between the two soapstone manufactures. Wondering how long your cruising temps will maintain on a single full load?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Todd, as of late we've been burning more cherry and elm but most of the winter we've burned mostly white ash that has been cut 3 or 4 years ago. If we load the stove, the first split that goes at the front will be soft maple and the rest will be ash. A loaded stove will get the temperature up over 600 pretty fast with the draft set from .25 to .5. That temperature will hold for about 5-6 hours easily and sometimes longer. After about 9 hours the stove top will be down to around 300-325 with a big coal bed. We do not have an OAK but definitely an OAK will tend to cool the stove just a little faster but should not be a huge difference. Still, when the outside air is zero, it takes energy to raise that temperature and that energy comes from the stove.

 

[pinewoodburner]

Have you cleaned your catalytic combustor lately? The reason I ask is I cleaned mine last weekend and now my burns are like you described, not as hot and alot shorter. I am going to recheck mine tonight to see if I did not seat the cat correctly or if the top gasket is leaking.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

Wow.....500+ degrees !!??

I recently "upgraded" to a soapstone stove, and I have to
virtually "nuke" it just to get it into the 400 degree range.
Hottest I've gotten it so far is 475 degrees.
My normal "cruising temp. seems to be about 300-350 degrees.
Even replacing stove thermometers verified my temp.
Placing it where mfr. recommends.

You all must be generating real "firestorms" within your fireboxes.

 

[Highbeam]

I edited the title since there is a difference in over fire temps between the two soapstone manufactures. Wondering how long your cruising temps will maintain on a single full load?

Okay, now we're talking. My cruise temp is 450 and the stove will climb to that temp on a full load with the air shut off. I'm burning my last two cords of cottonwood right now and a full load of cottonwood loaded into a 300 degree stove will climb to 450 within an hour and hover there for about three hours (checked in the middle of night while sleepwalking) before slowly coming down to 200 by morning. I also observe that the soapstone spends a lot of time getting from 300 to 200.

The productive heat time is not that great but the stove doesn't get cold and the fire is easy to restart. I would rather the stove sit at 350 or 400 for a long time than have a stove that runs to 500 and then drops to 300. The low and slow quality of a cat stove is why I am jealous of them.

On the OAK issue, my OAK is blowing air into the stove all the time. Even when disconnected from the stove, the OAK pipe flows a healthy volume of air. When I am loading a cold stove, setting up kindling, I can actually feel the blast of outside air from the doghouse vent on my stove injecting air into the stove. I don't think that it is a factor in burn temps or times. My Oak is pretty ideal though, straight up from the vented crawlspace as seen in my sig pics.

 

[Doctuh]

I have a hearthstone homestead and thought I was the crazy one. I cannot seem to get this guy above 400 no matter what I try, damper full open, damper full off, kiln dried wood, my own (prob not so dry wood), just kiln dried kindling. I feel like I must be doing something wrong. I have only had it going for a week but am starting to really worry about creosote given that it takes three to four hours to get the thermometer on the soapstone to read 300. Here is a picture of my setup. The chimney is a 8x8 masonry chimney ~ , drafts are feeling really powerful from the stove. I added a second thermometer on the stovetop. Chimney comes out near the peak of a two story cape. Chimney is probably total ~35 feet high (from basement to above the roof), stove comes in about 12 feet up halfway on the first floor.

Am I missing something obvious here? Could I be getting a bad reading from the horizontal line of pipe?

 

[karri0n]

I have a hearthstone homestead and thought I was the crazy one. I cannot seem to get this guy above 400 no matter what I try, damper full open, damper full off, kiln dried wood, my own (prob not so dry wood), just kiln dried kindling. I feel like I must be doing something wrong. I have only had it going for a week but am starting to really worry about creosote given that it takes three to four hours to get the thermometer on the soapstone to read 300. Here is a picture of my setup. The chimney is a 8x8 masonry chimney ~ , drafts are feeling really powerful from the stove. I added a second thermometer on the stovetop. Chimney comes out near the peak of a two story cape. Chimney is probably total ~35 feet high (from basement to above the roof), stove comes in about 12 feet up halfway on the first floor.

Am I missing something obvious here? Could I be getting a bad reading from the horizontal line of pipe?

Is your masonry chimney lined? That horizontal pipe is definitely slowing your draft, and if you have a pipe damper, that will also be slowing your draft even when open. If you have a full liner on that 35 feet of chimney, however, I wouldn't think your draft would be an issue with the horiz and the damper. If, however, it is going from 6" of stove pipe to a near 90 degree bend into an unlined 8x8 masonry chimney, it's time to get a chimney liner right away. That's a really large cross section to go from 6" round to 8x8 square.

edit: is that an 8" flue collar going into a reducer to a 6" pipe?

 

[rydaddy]

A little late in the game here, but I can "cruise" at 500 no problem. In fact that is my usual crusing temp. Be aware, though.. that the termo's (rutland, condor, etc.) will not read that closely. I had a situation a couple weekends ago where I was "crusing" well over 600 for too long. Played around with my thermo's over the next few days and realized that one inparticular reads much higher than the rest.

my 2.37 cents

 

[Doctuh]

The chimney is lined with terracotta flue tile I believe. (The inner material looked (broken link removed to http://www.inspect-ny.com/chimneys/ChimneyCrown010DF.jpg) in the middle of that chimney). I took a measurement when they were installing it and it looked to be about 7x7 inside. It uses the 6" oval-to-round flue collar that came with the stove.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

I have a hearthstone homestead and thought I was the crazy one. I cannot seem to get this guy above 400 no matter what I try, damper full open, damper full off, kiln dried wood, my own (prob not so dry wood), just kiln dried kindling. I feel like I must be doing something wrong. I have only had it going for a week but am starting to really worry about creosote given that it takes three to four hours to get the thermometer on the soapstone to read 300. Here is a picture of my setup. The chimney is a 8x8 masonry chimney ~ , drafts are feeling really powerful from the stove. I added a second thermometer on the stovetop. Chimney comes out near the peak of a two story cape. Chimney is probably total ~35 feet high (from basement to above the roof), stove comes in about 12 feet up halfway on the first floor.

Am I missing something obvious here? Could I be getting a bad reading from the horizontal line of pipe?

Looks like you are getting your temp from the stovepipe. Manual says you should be measuring
from the stove top - front/center. Looks like you have an internal flue - should draft well.
Slight verticle slope on stovepipe should help also. Try measuring on the stove top & see what
you get.

Rob

 

[Doctuh]

Looks like you are getting your temp from the stovepipe. Manual says you should be measuring
from the stove top - front/center. Looks like you have an internal flue - should draft well.
Slight verticle slope on stovepipe should help also. Try measuring on the stove top & see what
you get.

Rob

I have another thermometer on the stovetop. Getting 300-350, 400 is a best effort. Right now Ive been burning since 8am, have put 5 logs in there throughout the day (two burning now), air fully open and I have 325 on the stove, 250 on the pipe.

 

[Highbeam]

Doctuh,

If your wood is right and your fire is raging then your only remaining problem is overdraft. 35' of internal flue is huge! Once warm it will suck harder than a 6" flue, and suck all the heat out. Good that you have a flue damper there. It was unclear if you tried using it. Shut the flue damper with the primary air wide open and see if the raging fire dies. If not, slowly reduce the primary air with the closed flue damper until the fire is healthy and active but not a raging inferno.

I can get my cold heritage to 400 during the manual's required 30-45 minute full throttle run. Always measure temps on the stove. Flue temps are for fine tuning.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

[/quote]

I have another thermometer on the stovetop. Getting 300-350, 400 is a best effort. Right now Ive been burning since 8am, have put 5 logs in there throughout the day (two burning now), air fully open and I have 325 on the stove, 250 on the pipe.[/quote]

Yes! That's just what I'm getting!
Even got a second thermometer to verify temp. Ended up keeping the higher reading
thermometer. The couple of times we got it up over 450 degrees the fire was really
raging, and my I was worried that I would potentially damage the soapstone
(the firebox was totally engulfed w/ a raging fire).

Maybe it is OK to have the appearance of a "nuke" fire, with the thermometer lagging
in temp. behind???

Rob

 

[Todd]

Todd, as of late we've been burning more cherry and elm but most of the winter we've burned mostly white ash that has been cut 3 or 4 years ago. If we load the stove, the first split that goes at the front will be soft maple and the rest will be ash. A loaded stove will get the temperature up over 600 pretty fast with the draft set from .25 to .5. That temperature will hold for about 5-6 hours easily and sometimes longer. After about 9 hours the stove top will be down to around 300-325 with a big coal bed. We do not have an OAK but definitely an OAK will tend to cool the stove just a little faster but should not be a huge difference. Still, when the outside air is zero, it takes energy to raise that temperature and that energy comes from the stove.

That's what my stove use to do. Seems like it would burn in the 500-600 range for at least 4 hrs or sometimes longer, then gradually go down to 250 after 10-12 hrs. I rigged a damper in my OAK to see if that makes a diff. Also have noticed a difference in my draft settings, I use to run like you at .25 to .5, now it's more like .5 to 1. I also changed out my damper and cat gaskets and I don't thnik that made a difference. Maybe it's just the wood I'm burning?

 

[Todd]

Have you cleaned your catalytic combustor lately? The reason I ask is I cleaned mine last weekend and now my burns are like you described, not as hot and alot shorter. I am going to recheck mine tonight to see if I did not seat the cat correctly or if the top gasket is leaking.

Yes, cat is clean, but I have noticed with burning this Black Locust that I get alot more fly ash accumilated than other woods, so I brush it off every 2 weeks or so.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Danged cold last night, today and will be again tonight. I put 3 splits of cherry in around 9:00 this morning and another 3 around 3:00 this afternoon. The stove has been around 575 all day. We'll be cooking it at 600+ tonight though.


Rob from Wisconsin wrote, "You all must be generating real “firestorms” within your fireboxes."

Again he wrote, "The couple of times we got it up over 450 degrees the fire was really raging, and my I was worried that I would potentially damage the soapstone (the firebox was totally engulfed w/ a raging fire). Maybe it is OK to have the appearance of a “nuke” fire, with the thermometer lagging in temp. behind???

Rob, my answer to that is, YES! It may look like the pits of Hades, but it will give you heat. Usually if you watch the flue temperature and the stove temperature, you'll be surprised to see the flue temperature actually go down during those times of the big fire...if your draft is set right. So, enjoy the heat and also enjoy watching those pretty flames. That is what the stove is designed to do.

 

[Doctuh]

So far dropping the damper all the way made a big difference. 525 is a new record.

 

[Highbeam]

So far dropping the damper all the way made a big difference. 525 is a new record.

Great news! Getting from lows 500s to upper 500s takes a long time. Check the redline on that homestead, it might be lower than 600 andif you hit the redline you can crack the stove. 525 is really close to getting the most out of a hearthstone.