Soapstone Stoves vs Everything Else?

[Backwoods Savage]

...So my question is this - from a heating stand point, is soapstone a gimmic? If the point of a stove to impart heat into a space, does the soapstone impede the full heat potential of a stove?...

LOL I always thought so and would never own one. You hear all the Madison Ave hype ..."even heat" talk. Good folks have 'em so I don't press it just like the Amish heater fireplaces on TV. Here in CNY we want a nuclear pile type wood stove ...one that will make your eyes water with discomfort and that's a metal stove only.

As far as the extra soapstone's I suppose once heated you could put it at the foot of your bed to keep the feet warm...folks have been known to do that.

Savage, we used to do that a lot when we were kids. Used to also take it in the old Model A which had no heater.

 

[Renovation]

Here's another demonstration that soapstone has both thermal mass and insulation and, though those features are excellent in a stove designed for it, randomly adding it to an existing stove is no proof of its usefulness, and a recipe for unintended consequences:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/749874/

I think I might have just figured something out. I had some random pieces of cast iron and soapstone on top of the stove, because thermal mass is good, right? wrong. I took that crap off and the cat temp immediately dropped to 50%, allowing me to turn up the t-stat and the room is already getting warmer. duh.

HTH, and happy burning!

 

[greg124]

Greetings to everyone, you ve just got a newbie in your community.

Let me get straight to my questions.
Last few days I'm reading about soapstone, but havent found any comparisons to granite, marble and fire-clay, so I hope you could give me some advices what to buy for my needs.


1. Soapstone, fire-clay or ... ?
I have a little fireplace, which is made of iron housing, and has fire-clay inside. But the problem is fire-bricks have cracked and now I'm thinking to replace it with soapstone. Bricks are now 3centimeters thick.
So what do you think about, should I put back the fire-bricks, soapstone or anything else which wouldnt crack so fast?
Which material is more heat-resistant and better for fireplaces?

2. I also have another fireplace (grill) outside for roasting meat, vegetables and stuff. Now it has commonly steel mesh for roasting, and I want to replace it with stone (soapstone, marble, granite or ..?) plate which would be 3-4centimeters thick.
Testimonials I've heard are different, some like marble, some perfer granite. Some say marble cracks, some say granite cracks, and now I really dont know what to choose.
Please advise me what should I put in; marble, granite or soapstone?

3. Which material is best to choose regarding to price and quality?



P.s. Sorry for my bad grammar, english is not my first language.

Best regards!

 

[fire_man]

I can't answer the last post questions but I have my own:

If Woodstock builds their stoves using two layers of stone with an air space between, and Hearthstone does not, how can the Woodstock design reach a similar external stove temperature as Hearthstone? I think the stove temps are similar, but I think the air space would be like a huge insulator, kind of the opposite of the thermal conductive grease that Slow1 was talking about earlier. The heat must be getting thru the narrow air space and heating the external stone, just taking longer. It would be interesting to get side temps on both stoves for comparison.

Taking it the extreme, if an air space between stone panels does not significantly hamper the transfer of heat to the room, then the soapstone itself must not hamper the transfer.