Unexpected new owners of our first soapstone stove... HELP! :)

[luckydoublesranch]

HI there,
We attended an auction Yesterday and found ourselves bidding on a Hearthstone Soapstone woodstove... We hadn't even had a chance to look at the stove when they put it up for bid, but the price was right so here we are... :bug: The stove seems very used, but in over all OK condition. The handles appear to be missing and from what I could quickly see, there is one broken stone on the left side above the door. There is also a little teardrop shaped cover on the right side the twirls to cover a small round opening in the side that I have no idea what is there for... :cheese: We really no nothing about these stoves and what damage we should be looking for. Does anyone know what model this is and if we will be able to get parts?? We are picking the stove up on Monday and should have a better chance to give it a good once over. We only paid $60 for it, I don't think we can go wrong, but if we can PLEASE tell us! We have always used a cast iron stove before. I have been researching the benefits and drawbacks of using a soapstone stove and have been impressed thusfar. I was able to find a picture of the actual stove off of the auction website and am going to try to post if here if I can. Any information and/or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much...Jess

 

[Lignums]

Can't tell what model it is, older though, I have a Hearthstone stove that was bought in '05, and I didn't see any models like that. It is an awesome stove, long heat times and very efficient on the wood consumption.

In so far as parts look up a local woodstove shop, I'm sure they would have, or know of somebody/company that will work on those stoves. And for $60.00, that was the steal of the century.

 

[DriftWood]

Looks like a Hearth Stone 1, a Old stove, a real wood eater and pre-EPA. Hearth Stone stoped making them because they could not make Hearth Stone 1 design burn clean to pass EPA regulations.

Contact Hearthstone about parts for your stove. And call you building inspector about installing it before you go to far as some old stoves can not be legally installed now (EDA rules).

[email protected]

http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/

 

[tradergordo]

Looks like a Hearth Stone 1, a Old stove, a real wood eater and pre-EPA. Hearth Stone stoped making them because they could not make Hearth Stone 1 design burn clean to pass EPA regulations.

Contact Hearthstone about parts for your stove. And call you building inspector about installing it before you go to far as some old stoves can not be legally installed now (EDA rules).

[email protected]

http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/

I know nothing about the stove you bought - but if the above is true, its basically worthless in my opinion. Maybe OK for a rarely used cabin or something? I would not put this in your home.

 

[titan]

Agreed,I'd hate to carry that ol' puppy into the house,only to change my mind about it after a couple burns.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Yeah, but I bet it beats that old Franklin hands-down in all categories.

 

[Corie]

The H1 has some secondary air introduction above the burning logs. No sure how well it works - I'm sure the stove wouldn't meet current clean air standards, but it is built in almost exactly the same way as current hearthstones, so from a safety standpoint, it would be fine. The H1 was an "underwhelming" heater by most standards- I believe it is rated at 40K btu, but performs like a 20K BTU/hr stove in the field.

 

[DriftWood]

Yeah, but I bet it beats that old Franklin hands-down in all categories.

That photo that takes me back to the first Franklin wood stove I saw 32 years ago at my brother in-laws . That thing was one huge air leaking fire box with no way to seal it up.

 

[luckydoublesranch]

Hmmm....I will definitely look into this further....I was raised using a big OLD Timberline cast iron...obviously made WAY before EPA regulations. My father still uses this and another cast iron stove as his only heat supply in a HUGE 1800 farmhouse. We currently also own a HUGE 1800s farmhouse and mainly use propane and supplement with an OLD Fisher Cast stove. I took a quick picture of the fisher...needs a good polish...some surface rust....Ignore my saddles and tack on the left. I was getting it ready for a sale. Don't worry, we don't even have the stove burning yet this year. Thank you for your replys, would love to hear more. Thanks again! ~~~Jess~~~


OK. for some reason my picture is WAy too big to be posted here, so when I figure out how to resize it I'll post it right away. Thanks!

 

[carpniels]

Hi Lucky,

Don't let these guys discourage you too much. That is a Hearthstone II. AFAIK, the H I was a much larger stove (3 stones deep) and yours is only 2 stones deep so that leads me to believe it is an HII. I had one for a while. It is a good stove.

The teardrop valve on the side is the valve to close the secondary burn tube that you see on the same right side of the stove. DON'T EVER CLOSE IT. you need this air for the secondary burn.

It is important that you look inside the stove. Is the baffle (large metal piece inside the firebox at the top of the stove) intact? No warped? Good, that saves you $130 plus installation. Does the air valve on the left front of the stove work? Do you hear it flap? Good, check inside to see if it fits to the baffle correctly. The chamber above the baffle is your secondary burn chamber. Important, because that gives you your efficiency.

Other than that, try it out outside with some single wall pipe (10-12 ft) and see if you like it. Saves you a lot of dragging.

Where are you located? If you are close, I can come by and show you all the ins and outs of this stove.

Carpniels

PS. $60 is a good price, I sold mine for $700 with a new baffle. You can easily turn this around and make a handsome profit. And then buy a nice modern EPA approved stove if you like.

PPS. I have the manual for this stove in PDF? Do you want it? It will help you figure out how to use this stove correctly.

 

[DriftWood]

I will second that .