Woodstock Fireview or Keystone for 704 Square Feet?

[TheFlame]

I am in the late planning stages of an addition to my home, and I'm trying to zero in on which wood stove I want to purchase for it.

Specifically, the addition is going to be a second story over an unheated garage. The area (704 sq ft) will be 33x23 (outside dimensions) and will be connected to the first floor of the house via a stairway. The walls will be 2x6 (R19), R30+ cellulose in the attic. I'm not sure about the floor insulation, but the flooring is going to be laminate. The ceiling height will be 9'.

I'm being drawn to the Woodstock line of stoves for a couple of reasons. The first is the long and even burn time that the soapstone provides. The other is the ability of a cat stove to be dampered down hard, yet still burn efficiently and hopefully a LONG time. I believe that either the Keystone or the Fireview would meet my needs. The question on my mind is if the Fireview will be overkill for heating this space. I want an adequate heater, yet I don't want to be blasted out of the room.

I do have the possibility of putting in some ductwork with an inline blower to exhaust some of the warm air from this space into the main part of the house, which is heated by a Jotul Oslo. The Oslo works well in the main house but is actually a bit undersized, which is why I would like to be able to overheat the addition and pull warm air into the main house to help out the Oslo when it gets real cold.

Based on what I've stated here, how well does everybody think the Keystone and Fireview will heat/overheat this space? Keep in mind that the walls are 9', and that this room will be over an unheated garage, so it will require more heat than normal due to loss through the floor.

I am leaning towards the Fireview if possible, mainly due to the looks and the longer 10+ hour burn time. The only pro I have for the Keystone is the ash pan, and that it may be sized more appropriately for this space.

I am located in Southeastern Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. Our winters are mostly in the 30s, with a few weeks of the year dropping down into single digits at night. My Oslo heats our 2600 sq ft house quite admirably until it gets into the 20s, then it gets real tough to keep up.

What does everybody think?

Other stoves I'm considering: Jotul Castine (if I go cast iron), and the Heartstone Heritage or Homestead.

 

[Sandor]

You have people on this board (like Todd) that are heating their entire homes with a Fireview, double your square footage, in Wisconsin!

I bought the Keystone because of the large front glass, the ashpan setup, and I did not need the firepower of the Fireview.

 

[jpl1nh]

I'm heating about twice your space with the Keystone here in NH. On mornings like this with the windchill -10 to -20, it is struggling to keep up but we have a lot of mediocre quality windows. I do a 10 hour burn time everyweek day with this little firebox, no problem and I can hold coals out to 18 hours if needed. I think the Fireview would be overkill in your situation and I generally do not advocate undersizing, but in this case I think the Keystone should be plenty.

 

[Corie]

Unrelated to the stove selection (I'd go Keystone), but where exactly in SouthEast PA are ya?


I'm a Villanova grad and lived in Downingtown for the past three years, but am familiar with the WHOLE area pretty much.

 

[TheFlame]

Unrelated to the stove selection (I'd go Keystone), but where exactly in SouthEast PA are ya?


I'm a Villanova grad and lived in Downingtown for the past three years, but am familiar with the WHOLE area pretty much.

I'm about a mile off of the Limerick exit of 422. You can see the twin towers from my house.

My brother got his MBA from 'nova. I'm currently enrolled in the MBA program at St. Joe's, with the classes being taken at Ursinus. PSU engineering is my undergrad.

 

[TheFlame]

For you Keystone owners:

1. How is the ashpan setup? Does it work well? This is a really big plus for me since unlike some I find the pan setup on my Oslo to be very useful.
2. If loaded up, fired to engagement temp, then dampered down, what kind of stovetop temps can I expect throughout the burn? (I know this has been asked alot, but give me your personal experiences). My hope is that this stove will be sized large enough that I can damp all the way down and have it cruise with a minimal amount of tending. I have to tend my Oslo a bit too much since it is undersized for the space it is heating.
3. Does anybody have the grey color? How well does the stove paint clean up? I'm concerned that the grey would get soot on it and not be cleanable. Our Oslo is enamel, which is the ultimate in cleaning.

Thanks for the input so far.

 

[Corie]

Unrelated to the stove selection (I'd go Keystone), but where exactly in SouthEast PA are ya?


I'm a Villanova grad and lived in Downingtown for the past three years, but am familiar with the WHOLE area pretty much.

I'm about a mile off of the Limerick exit of 422. You can see the twin towers from my house.

My brother got his MBA from 'nova. I'm currently enrolled in the MBA program at St. Joe's, with the classes being taken at Ursinus. PSU engineering is my undergrad.

Yep, I know exactly where you are. When I lived in Downingtown we used to ride out to March Company in Limerick for firewood. Kinda surreal how desolate it is right around the power plant.

 

[TheFlame]

Unrelated to the stove selection (I'd go Keystone), but where exactly in SouthEast PA are ya?


I'm a Villanova grad and lived in Downingtown for the past three years, but am familiar with the WHOLE area pretty much.

I'm about a mile off of the Limerick exit of 422. You can see the twin towers from my house.

My brother got his MBA from 'nova. I'm currently enrolled in the MBA program at St. Joe's, with the classes being taken at Ursinus. PSU engineering is my undergrad.

Yep, I know exactly where you are. When I lived in Downingtown we used to ride out to March Company in Limerick for firewood. Kinda surreal how desolate it is right around the power plant.

I've never bought wood from March's, although I've bought other home supplies from there. Up until last year they had a big banner sign up saying "Firewood $99/cord." I a friend of mine called them up this year and they're now up to $140. I guess it had to happen. They're good folks over there. They actually stopped carrying EP Henry products because EP Henry told them they could not carry a competing product in addition to their own. How often does that happen these days?

I don't know when you were last here, but the growth has been tremendous. Nobody really cares about living next to a nuke plant any more it seems. I know I don't.

 

[cbrodsky]

For you Keystone owners:

1. How is the ashpan setup? Does it work well? This is a really big plus for me since unlike some I find the pan setup on my Oslo to be very useful.
2. If loaded up, fired to engagement temp, then dampered down, what kind of stovetop temps can I expect throughout the burn? (I know this has been asked alot, but give me your personal experiences). My hope is that this stove will be sized large enough that I can damp all the way down and have it cruise with a minimal amount of tending. I have to tend my Oslo a bit too much since it is undersized for the space it is heating.
3. Does anybody have the grey color? How well does the stove paint clean up? I'm concerned that the grey would get soot on it and not be cleanable. Our Oslo is enamel, which is the ultimate in cleaning.

Thanks for the input so far.

First, I think either could be damped down to the same burn rate - one just holds more wood, and you give up the ashpan. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

1 - for the Fireview, I strongly recommend the Pilgrim brand ashpan that lines up with the door and is recommended by Woodstock. See another recent post I made on this - if you scoop when hot, you can use the stove draft as a natural vacuum and this ashpan works very well.

2 - if you're going for long burn time, I think aiming for 400 will let you easily get 10-12 hours. Coals will still be present much longer for matchless restarts and the stove will still be 200-300 for 15+ hours. If it's really cold and I run at 600-650, I need to feed it every 4-5 hours. It's not often I run it like that, and you'd roast yourself out of the house doing that in that size room.

-Colin

 

[rmcfall]

Do you think the Fireview has significantly more firepower than the Keystone? I realize the firebox is a little larger, but is it going to produce much more heat, or just slightly longer burn times than the Keystone (which already has long burn times)? With his sq. footage being so small, wouldn't either stove be overkill, in which case it might come down to which he likes the looks of better...

Rob
Keystone owner

You have people on this board (like Todd) that are heating their entire homes with a Fireview, double your square footage, in Wisconsin!

I bought the Keystone because of the large front glass, the ashpan setup, and I did not need the firepower of the Fireview.

 

[Todd]

Yes, the Fireview is rated at 10,000 more BTU's. He could go with the fireview and just not load as much firewood in the box if he really likes the fireview's looks more than the Keystone. But I think the Keystone would be a better fit for that space.

Do you think the Fireview has significantly more firepower than the Keystone? I realize the firebox is a little larger, but is it going to produce much more heat, or just slightly longer burn times than the Keystone (which already has long burn times)? With his sq. footage being so small, wouldn't either stove be overkill, in which case it might come down to which he likes the looks of better...

Rob
Keystone owner

You have people on this board (like Todd) that are heating their entire homes with a Fireview, double your square footage, in Wisconsin!

I bought the Keystone because of the large front glass, the ashpan setup, and I did not need the firepower of the Fireview.

 

[cbrodsky]

Remember BTU ratings are peak BTUs and crude estimates at best.

I think what this user is interested in is the minimum BTU difference since he is looking to run it to maximize burn time.

And the question then becomes whether that is really any different between the two systems - I suspect that difference is much less than 10,000 BTUs - particularly given the ability to tune a catalytic stove to very slow burn rates. In fact, I think they use the same size catalyst.

-Colin