Soapstone vs Cast Iron/Steel in 100 yr old home

[Makemecozee]

Soapstone owners- I can be patient waiting for the stove to heat (btw, how long is "long"? 40 min or 4 hrs type of sitch) but wondering if one (looking at the IS in particular) will heat two stories in a poor insulated home well or will it be best in the main room of the house being gathered around it (everywhere else staying 55 degrees)? Even our 4 star furnace has a hard time keeping up. We love the sound of the even, comfortable heating and long burn time but if we are required to sit 6 foot around it to be warm- no thanks. I also like that I can start it in the morning and by bedtime we're feeling the coals throughout the night, potentially (this was the #1 reason I wanted a soapstone) I feel uneasy about having a roaring fire all night.

Steel/Cast Iron owners- Only reason I'm moving on to this option is I'm always cold and want some warmth! I'm not afraid of it heating me out. I grew up with one that was way too big for the home and we'd have to crack a window in the winter- which I didn't mind (fresh cool air!) and I'm thinking it will be better at reaching the bedrooms upstairs with a blower and the central fan (maybe not!). However I also remember it being extra toasty in that room and very cold elsewhere. But I don't want to constantly have to feed it and it only has two temps- inferno and igloo.

We really are leaning toward the soapstone more but are scared to drop $3k + down and doesn't distribute heat very far. I"m sure it doesn't as it wouldn't be a very popular stove and company.

Others we've been considering are Hearthstone Heritage, Drolet, Englander

-Thanks for reading all the parenthesis-

 

[begreen]

How many sq ft is the house? Is the floorplan fairly open on the first floor or are there several rooms with doorways?

 

[Highbeam]

The ideal steel is not a soapstone stove. It’s a welded steel stove with some optional soapstone plates in the firebox instead of firebrick. Great stoves. I would skip the soapstone.

 

[Makemecozee]

How many sq ft is the house? Is the floorplan fairly open on the first floor or are there several rooms with doorways?

2000 that is being heated. The first floor is a closed floor plan. The stove will be in the middle of the house. We're planning on using the home's central fan to get some heat upstairs (only 1 vent upstairs) and cutting another one just through the ceiling to get more up there.

 

[Makemecozee]

The ideal steel is not a soapstone stove. It’s a welded steel stove with some optional soapstone plates in the firebox instead of firebrick. Great stoves. I would skip the soapstone.

You're right. We were going to opt for the soapstone plates instead of firebrick. You don't think the soapstone is worth it? What about the Heritage stove from Hearthstone?

 

[SpaceBus]

Your home distribution system will not move the heat the way you want it to. I think cutting vents in your ceiling will cause cold air to fall down rather than hot air rise up. Your stairwell will do a good job of convecting the heat.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

If this were me, I'd go with a cat stove. They burn long, you can regulate the heat faster. They heat up quicker. Soap stone holds the heat better than cast or steel, thats the advantage of that stove. If your always cold your not going to be letting the stove go out so thats not really an advantage in your situation. The other part is that every so often the soap on the outside can crack, I know people who this has happened to. A cat stove has a more even heat distribution, burn tube stoves tend to spike.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Former Hearthstone owner here. I would skip the soapstone if you plan to burn wood full-time. The stove require a lot more lumber to heat the house because they loose so much heat up the chimney and heating the stone.

 

[Maj92az]

Wood splitter made a good point. Depending on how you plan to operate the stove.. the soap stone won't benefit you if you plan to keep a fire going. And when it does go out. . A soapstone will shine but after a little bit further you now need to wait longer on the reheat at the relight.

 

[Makemecozee]

Former Hearthstone owner here. I would skip the soapstone if you plan to burn wood full-time. The stove require a lot more lumber to heat the house because they loose so much heat up the chimney and heating the stone.

Over the night (and before reading these) I really felt impressed to stick with a steel or cast iron. I see you have an Osburn. I've never researched them, going from a HS, how do you like the Osburn now?

 

[Highbeam]

You're right. We were going to opt for the soapstone plates instead of firebrick. You don't think the soapstone is worth it? What about the Heritage stove from Hearthstone?

Soapstone actually has negative value in my experience. I’d pay extra to not have it.

I bought a new hearthstone heritage in about 2006 and burned 30 cords through it over about 6 years. The thing looked great and kept us warm but I was glad to see it go. For me it was very inefficient, very slow to warm up, but looked great and glass stayed clean. New heritage stoves starting this year have a catalyst so they might perform better but that stone will always hurt performance.

Since the IS is only lined with stone in the relatively unimportant firebox (cat chamber and top are bare steel) I believe no significant harm is done by the stone liner.

I would recommend the IS over the heritage any day of the week!

 

[Makemecozee]

If this were me, I'd go with a cat stove. They burn long, you can regulate the heat faster. They heat up quicker. Soap stone holds the heat better than cast or steel, thats the advantage of that stove. If your always cold your not going to be letting the stove go out so thats not really an advantage in your situation. The other part is that every so often the soap on the outside can crack, I know people who this has happened to. A cat stove has a more even heat distribution, burn tube stoves tend to spike.

My husband really wants to go with a cat stove so thanks for the vote on that one. Thanks for your insight on the Soap stove. Having never owned one, I didn't know what the heat would be like after it goes out, sounds like not enough. I wanted the fire out during the night but wanted that heat to hold but from what it sounds like, just the residual heat after the fire goes out in the soapstone won't be enough to keep the home comfortable

 

[Makemecozee]

Soapstone actually has negative value in my experience. I’d pay extra to not have it.

I bought a new hearthstone heritage in about 2006 and burned 30 cords through it over about 6 years. The thing looked great and kept us warm but I was glad to see it go. For me it was very inefficient, very slow to warm up, but looked great and glass stayed clean. New heritage stoves starting this year have a catalyst so they might perform better but that stone will always hurt performance.

Since the IS is only lined with stone in the relatively unimportant firebox (cat chamber and top are bare steel) I believe no significant harm is done by the stone liner.

I would recommend the IS over the heritage any day of the week!

Thank you I loved to hear from someone who had one and what their experience was! Very good to know. I've looked at the BK but didn't know any had windows lol, awesome! How do you like yours? Or the Englander?

 

[Highbeam]

A well designed cat stove will burn 12-30 hours making heat. The combustion of fuel makes the heat instead of the stove material. Stone or cast iron don’t make heat so like your house, things will all cool off if you choose to let your fire go out before bedtime. That’s fine, lots of part time burners out there letting the furnace pick up the slack when they don’t want to burn.

Especially since you just want occasional fires, I would steer you away from stone and really you don’t “need “ a cat stove if youwant the thing going out before bed.

Fast heat, lots of it, with short burn times and reasonable efficiency is the reason I bought a plate steel noncat stove for my shop.

 

[Makemecozee]

A well designed cat stove will burn 12-30 hours making heat. The combustion of fuel makes the heat instead of the stove material. Stone or cast iron don’t make heat so like your house, things will all cool off if you choose to let your fire go out before bedtime. That’s fine, lots of part time burners out there letting the furnace pick up the slack when they don’t want to burn.

Especially since you just want occasional fires, I would steer you away from stone and really you don’t “need “ a cat stove if youwant the thing going out before bed.

Fast heat, lots of it, with short burn times and reasonable efficiency is the reason I bought a plate steel noncat stove for my shop.

Thank you again for your insights. Very, very helpful. As well as answering my question about your NC-30. I think our plan is burning all day in the winter months, I just wish I could find a better solution for the upstairs bedrooms at night

 

[Highbeam]

Thank you I loved to hear from someone who had one and what their experience was! Very good to know. I've looked at the BK but didn't know any had windows lol, awesome! How do you like yours? Or the Englander?

My Bk has been fantastic. I made the upgrade in 2012 because of advice on this forum. It is dang close to perfect for my application. I reload once per day for more than 95% of my burn season. We are 100% wood heat so long burns are important. This stove isn’t pretty but it is about the highest performance stove you can get. Like the marketing for a stone stove, this thing just stays warm all the time to keep home comfort very high with minimum fuss.

The Englander is much cheaper and in my application it gets run hard to bring a large, cold, building up to temperature as fast as possible. I reload that thing every 3 hours several times per day when it needs to. It’s been very durable and can hang at 750 really well. Clean burning, clean glass, durable, cheap to buy. I don’t regret the purchase.

 

[cabinwarmer]

To answer the OP question on heat up time. I have a new Hearthstone GM 60 with a stone lined firebox and the CAT comes into range after 45 minutes or so with a conventional kindling on the bottom cold start. I have yet to try the top down start method, which is recommended by Hearthstone, they even post a video, which is suppose to bring the flue and CAT temp up faster. The next light will be a top down. I am enjoying the heat being thrown off by this stove. I am coming from a smaller baked enamel cast iron Waterford, and have not noticed any negative radiant of heat. All depends on how you use the stove I suppose.

 

[Highbeam]

Thank you again for your insights. Very, very helpful. As well as answering my question about your NC-30. I think our plan is burning all day in the winter months, I just wish I could find a better solution for the upstairs bedrooms at night

Electric heaters. Wall, baseboard, even plug in heaters work. We prefer electric blankets to keep the beds warm and also preheated!

 

[Makemecozee]

My Bk has been fantastic. I made the upgrade in 2012 because of advice on this forum. It is dang close to perfect for my application. I reload once per day for more than 95% of my burn season. We are 100% wood heat so long burns are important. This stove isn’t pretty but it is about the highest performance stove you can get. Like the marketing for a stone stove, this thing just stays warm all the time to keep home comfort very high with minimum fuss.

The Englander is much cheaper and in my application it gets run hard to bring a large, cold, building up to temperature as fast as possible. I reload that thing every 3 hours several times per day when it needs to. It’s been very durable and can hang at 750 really well. Clean burning, clean glass, durable, cheap to buy. I don’t regret the purchase.

Highbeam, you're making my day today. I've wanted a BK but couldn't find one I like around here but looking at that Princess I really like it. We're not looking at a show piece, just a performer. In Northern Utah mountains we can get pretty cold here and we want to run it at about 75% of the day (maybe I should look on here for overnight burning and I'll feel better- my biggest fear in life is a house fire- ptsd... anywho) and don't want to spend our day reloading like a maniac. That's the reason we liked the BK's story. My husband has always liked the Englander as well

 

[Makemecozee]

Electric heaters. Wall, baseboard, even plug in heaters work. We prefer electric blankets to keep the beds warm and also preheated!

Heating blankets make my heart sing Currently we use space heaters with no problem. In the event of an outage (which occurs often) I guess that's when we'll stoke up the stove!

 

[Highbeam]

Highbeam, you're making my day today. I've wanted a BK but couldn't find one I like around here but looking at that Princess I really like it. We're not looking at a show piece, just a performer. In Northern Utah mountains we can get pretty cold here and we want to run it at about 75% of the day (maybe I should look on here for overnight burning and I'll feel better- my biggest fear in life is a house fire- ptsd... anywho) and don't want to spend our day reloading like a maniac. That's the reason we liked the BK's story. My husband has always liked the Englander as well

Here’s my Englander right now doing what it was bought for. It’s 29 outside, shop at 56, and I have to paint a stack of 12’ baseboards in here today. Latex paint.

yes, the meter is passing 725 as we speak. This is not ideal for a Bk but the Englander is happy to run hot.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

My husband really wants to go with a cat stove so thanks for the vote on that one. Thanks for your insight on the Soap stove. Having never owned one, I didn't know what the heat would be like after it goes out, sounds like not enough. I wanted the fire out during the night but wanted that heat to hold but from what it sounds like, just the residual heat after the fire goes out in the soapstone won't be enough to keep the home comfortable

I would not rule out over night burning. I personally thought that when my stove was put in that I would be burning on the weekends and some days that I was home during the winter. All of that quickly changed as I got comfortable with the stove operation. By early winter I was burning around the clock, day and night. The part that made this choice possible was having a stove with a longer burn time. The longer the burn the less you have to do to the stove. You don't want to be a slave to your stove and have to tend to it all the time, this takes the joy out of wood burning really quick. I get my stove up to temp and load it up for the night around 8pm I dont touch the stove again intill 7am or so and there's still plenty of coles in the stove to get it going quickly. Im not saying you should buy my brand of stove. What I'm suggesting is keep you options open because... you never know.. you might become addicted like the rest of us...

 

[ispinwool]

WELCOME TO THE HEARTH You'll love it here !!

We really like our Hearthstone. Our house is roughly 180 years old. Built of brick (even the interior walls) and
a barnstone foundation. 3 stories. It's a bugger to heat in the winter We have our burner out on the porch which
is NOT my first choice. But we make it work. It is not and was never intended to be our only source of heat--but it
has reduced our gas cost by half. We have the old 'hot water radiators' which are pretty efficient to begin with...unfortunately
the farther the water travels, the cooler it gets; so the rooms farthest away from the boiler are lukewarm at best.
[I love to quilt and knit/crochet so we have LOTS of blankets! LOL]
I learned thru this site about circulating the heat we get from the woodburner; a few open interior windows and well-placed
fans have helped a lot.
*which was something I'd never thought of...I thought a woodburner gave off heat and there was no controlling that
heat--I was wrong.
Read through the site...it's a treasure trove! (p.s.--I also agree with @Woodsplitter67 --as you get more comfortable
with your woodburner, the more you'll use it. I see an addiction to wood heat in your future! LOL)

 

[Makemecozee]

I would not rule out over night burning. I personally thought that when my stove was put in that I would be burning on the weekends and some days that I was home during the winter. All of that quickly changed as I got comfortable with the stove operation. By early winter I was burning around the clock, day and night. The part that made this choice possible was having a stove with a longer burn time. The longer the burn the less you have to do to the stove. You don't want to be a slave to your stove and have to tend to it all the time, this takes the joy out of wood burning really quick. I get my stove up to temp and load it up for the night around 8pm I dont touch the stove again intill 7am or so and there's still plenty of coles in the stove to get it going quickly. Im not saying you should buy my brand of stove. What I'm suggesting is keep you options open because... you never know.. you might become addicted like the rest of us...

I have a feeling I will end up doing that as well. I think it's because I haven't owned a stove of my own yet and the more I become comfortable with it I'm sure there's a good possibility I'll do the same. Thank you for the point about a stove with a longer burn time so you dont have to tend to it around the clock.

 

[moresnow]

Highbeam, you're making my day today. I've wanted a BK but couldn't find one I like around here but looking at that Princess I really like it. We're not looking at a show piece, just a performer. In Northern Utah mountains we can get pretty cold here and we want to run it at about 75% of the day (maybe I should look on here for overnight burning and I'll feel better- my biggest fear in life is a house fire- ptsd... anywho) and don't want to spend our day reloading like a maniac. That's the reason we liked the BK's story. My husband has always liked the Englander as well

You may as well consider purchasing a stove (that can) burn 24/7 easily in case you decide to pursue fulltime burning. Tough to make a part time stove fulltime! Betting you will burn around the clock in a jiffy after getting used to the nice heat.

When we started using a wood stove I spent many nights on my couch nervously watching the stove. After reassuring myself of the setups safety many times ( climbing into the attic to check my class A chimney external temps etc.) I finally got comfy burning overnight.

I also had been beating a path back and forth feeding/tending that stove. It was not a long burn model. A couple years of that nonsense was all it took. I bought a Cat equipped BK and it has exceeded our expectations and needs. Research is your most important tool here. Plenty of valuable info to be learned. Have fun!