Trading up a Heritage to a Mansfield?

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Im working on trading my heritage for a mansfield,other heritage owners who have moved up to the mansfield ,have you noticed enuff of a differance to justify the expense....Im dealing with -20 temps and -50's wind chill and its been steady for weeks and more of the same forcasted...im thinking the extra 20-25 k btu output should let me sleep all night with out a reload going to bed at 9:00 pm up at 5:00 am heating a 1500 sq ft ranch top floor only..any thoughts???ZZZim
 
Hi Zim, We've been getting temps that are well below average here too and I have been running the heritage hard to keep the house warm. Especially hard when trying to warm the house up. This is a time when the inside of the stove is nice and tan colored from the hot burns. The stove is much better at maintaining temps. We feed lots of wood every few hours to keep the top near 500. This is truly a test for the heritage and I would agree that with a larger stove it would be easier to sustain the output. The problem with getting a bigger stove to handle the abnormally cold storms is that the rest of the time you will have too much stove.

It's better to have too much stove than to not have enough. Have you thought of a second stove? For use in weather extremes? Should be a good market for a used heritage right now. Might be hard to find a mansfield.
 
NO help here but you may want to edit the title to 1] get more folks with info interested and 2] so it will show up in a 'topic only' search for future generations to come...

No back to the game...
 
dont really follow yah cd bub anyway highbeam i found a mansfield,but the price i paid and what ill get in trade ill loose 900.00 in the 3 months ive burned ,but i run all electric and have saved about 450.00in 3 1/2 months and our power company sent out infgo 6.9% increase in 09 and a incress in all of the next 5 years to pay for a new power plant...im heating ok while im home but when i get home from work ,the electric forced air is going....I think ill bite the bige one and up size before the eleceric company can put me in the poor house..what do yah think..the trade to upsize will be about 1700.00 no second sotve to be added...ZZZim
 
zim said:
dont really follow yah cd bub anyway highbeam i found a mansfield,but the price i paid and what ill get in trade ill loose 900.00 in the 3 months ive burned ,but i run all electric and have saved about 450.00in 3 1/2 months and our power company sent out infgo 6.9% increase in 09 and a incress in all of the next 5 years to pay for a new power plant...im heating ok while im home but when i get home from work ,the electric forced air is going....I think ill bite the bige one and up size before the eleceric company can put me in the poor house..what do yah think..the trade to upsize will be about 1700.00 no second sotve to be added...ZZZim

Zim, what he is saying is mention both stoves in the thread title so it comes up when people search for info. on the two stoves in the future (i.e. trading stove A for stove B)
 
got cha ZZZIm thanks just looking for the house to be a little warmer a little longer...for ever...
 
Instead of trading why not sell it? Put an add on Craigs list or the local newspaper.
 
I would also try to sell it outright since the new retail prices on the heritage are really high like 3000$ you ought to be able to get most of your purchase price back. I feel pretty confident that I could at least break even on my stove after two years of use. These stoves are very impressive to look at and touch. Women even like them!

Then look for a bigger stove. I couldn't stand to have the electric heat come on either.

You can try to sell it while still using it and then make a quick change out. I would rather not get a mansfield, due to personal taste, if the heritage wouldn't cut it. Instead I would probably go to an alderlea. If only woodstock made a bigger stove. If only blaze king made a soapstone stove.
 
If you can get the Mansfield get it.The Mansfield kicks.If you have a strong draft install a pipe damper for more heat and longer burns.
 
I ran a heritage for about 1 season (I think) and then sold it with an ad on Hearth.com for $500 more than the dealer would give me trade in. I had a lot of inquries from my craigslist ad, too. I listed mine at $1400, sold it for $1200. (FYI, I got a really good deal on it when I bought it, so I only lost a little bit of money on it when I sold it).

Now, for the answer to your question: YES!!! There is a HUGE difference between the two stoves. I used to have to reload my stove every 4 hours when it was 10 or so (even a little warmer). Now, I can go easy 7-10 hours. What you will find is that the Mansfield works in much the same way as the heritage as far as cycles. I had to keep the heritage at 400+, which meant reloading often. Now, the Mansfield will give me the same results at 275-300. The "bigger rock" at a lower temp did the same job. I also have noticed that to bring the house up from 60 to 70 when temps are in the teens is doable in a matter of a few hours when starting with a relatively cool (or cold) stove. The heritage could never really achieve that, it would bring it up a few degrees and then take forever to get the temp back up to 70 in the house.

It is a totally kick-ass stove, and I'm sure that I won't be buying or trading any more stoves for a long time. I am glad I made the choice to "upgrade", and it sounds like you would be, too.
 
I've got a Mansfield that I bought new 3 years ago. On it's third winter. Never had the older model so can't compare. What I did have is an old, huge, cast-iron, pot-belly coal/wood stove. That thing would burn hot, and burn out - in 3-4 hours.

The Mansfield - when we turn it down when going to bed, easily holds a fire all night - maybe 11 p.m. to 6-7 a.m. But, I wouldn't want to be trying to heat our house full time with it when the temps outside drop below 10-20 F. Once it's turned up to "full fire" setting, I'd be feeding it wood every few hours, all day long if we really wanted the house warm. We only use it early, and late in the heating season. When it gets the real cold - down to 30 below - we have our wood furnace going. In your case - if you're only heating the upstairs - whole different story. I've got a two story, sprawling, 1820s farmhouse.

I'm pretty impressed with the Mansfield - except I don't like how small it is. When I went shopping for woodstoves - I was kind of surprised that this thing is their largest model. I used to work for company making air-tight stoves in the 70s - and our big model (Thermocontrol 500A) was twice the size of this Mansfield.
 
Last month I posted about switching from a homestead to a mansfield. Very likely I will do that this summer, after burning with it for 2 years. Probably take a loss as well, but I will have gotton 2 years out of the homestead and I figure better switch sooner than later so I can start enjoying benefits of upgrading immediately . . . in fact, I'd do it now except that it will coincide with a home improvement project in the summer.

Same situation, when outside is below 20 F I have trouble keeping up. Great stove, just sized it wrong. I have high expectations for the mansfield.
 
Good post mike (from athens). I could really use a heritage that was the size of a mansfield when it gets really cold. It takes far less attention to keep these soapstone stoves at 300 than it does to keep them at 450.

jdemaris: the mansifeld is not the largest hearthstone anymore. They heard from folks like you and made the equinox. I find it to be a very handsome stove which isn't a stretch since it pretty much looks like a huge heritage. Right down to the side loading door which would be sorely missed if I ever have to change stoves to one without the side door.
 
thanks for the ifo guys and gals, i ve sent the 1000.00 deposit to get the mansfield,I will miss the side door ,but i think the biggest model would be way to much ,and being the dealer will switch now and do the install right away i dontr want to mess with trying to sell myself...dont have the time to mess with it..im just happy to see the other mansfield owners are happy with there stoves,,, thank you all for the info bbbbbeeeeerrrrrrrrr its cold hear,,,gota get some crown........ZZZZZim
 
Where are you located Zim? Where is Buchanan? I'm in the market for a Heritage.
 
i live 10 miles north of Jamestown north dakota kinda central dakota...if intrested contact me @ [email protected] follow up first with a post as i read hear more than check my e-mail ZZZim
 
I was hoping you were going to say you were somewhere in New England...ufortunately you're a little to far. Good luck though. I hope the Mansfield works out for you.
 
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