Soapstone is WONDERFUL. It really does hold the heat and radiate it to the room in a very gentle manner. Our stove isn't a Hearthstone, but the really intense heat you often feel standing next to a metal stove is not present with soapstone. Sure, it's warmer close to it, but it's not blasting heat.

I doubt we'd have any other sort of stove ever again. It's that nice!

Chelone, thanks for the input. What brand soapstone stove do you have?

Linda,
You might also want to check out Woodstock Soapstone Stoves. I do not have one but I am seriously thinking about purchaseing one of thier gas stoves.
The company has an excellent reputation and so does their products, wood and gas stoves.
Fire Bug

Thanks, firebug, I will do that. I now need some ideas regarding installation. I am planning on putting the stove in a corner and thought I'd have a raised hearth built, maybe slate or ceramic or possibly brick...I can't really decide. I would also like to do something to the walls directly behind the stove using one of these same materials. I'm not really good at coming up with a design idea, however, and I can't seem to come up with a good source of help in this area. Have looked at lots of magazines and even in stove pamphlets, but the stoves are usually pictured sitting on a ceramic pad and that is about it. Any ideas?

Hi Linda,
I don't see why a raised hearth won't work if that is your like. Most stoves can be installed into existing fireplaces which have raise hearths. I bet a field stone back in the corner behind the stove would look great if you want a rustic look or brick if you want a more traditional look.
Woodstock Stove Co. has a free video and information backage which you can order for free of charge on their website,(www.woodstove.com/). This will show you all their stoves, which are first class in looks and quality. They also will show the installation options which includes installing their woodstoves into raised hearth fireplaces. They have a six month money back guarantee if you do not like the stove for any reason and also thier stoves are on sale if you order by the end of March.
You can also check the reviews of many stoves including Woodstock Soapstone Stoves on Hearthnet.com.
Fire Bug

Friends have a Woodstock Soapstone, and it is truly a wonderful stove.

Does a great job of heating their great room in the house.

We have a Woodstock Soapstone, too. We've had it for nearly 14 years now. And we love it. We've replaced the catalytic combustor one or twice (I can't remember!) and it's functioned perfectly season in, season out.

We have a Fireview.

Chelone,
How do you get your room warm if the fire has gone out? I'm not sure I like the fact that you have to warm the stone up.

This will be my second winter with a Woodstock Soapstone stove, and I love it! The fire only completely goes out if I forget to add wood in the morning before I go to work, but I usually just have to stir up the coals and add wood to get it going. It does take about 45 minutes for a cold stove to start producing heat.
Tara

That's one of the nicest aspects of soapstone... it really holds the heat for a long time. The fire may be pretty nearly out, but there will be a nice bed of coals and the soapstone will remain warm long after the fire has died down.

I agree with Singleton's assessment of the time required to really get the stove up and warming the room. These are terrific stoves.

We've had a Hearthstone soapstone stove for seventeen years. It isn't our primary heat source so I don't recall our needing to get it hot quickly. I do know that a really cold house will take a lot of time to heat up what ever the heat and I do know that our stove will start warming the area immediately around it as it is lit. Even if we do forget to restoke in the morning it will still be warm when we get home. We love its even consistent heat in the winter and good looks all year round. We have it on a slate floor with a white subway tile fire screen (per code) behind it.

Not to open the can "o" worms here, but does Woodstock make any non-cat stoves yet? I thing Woodstock are more attractive than Hearthstone, but don't want the catalytic converter.

Rudy,

Pull up their website; I don't believe they do, but perhaps they've introduced a new model that doesn't.

We've made our choice. The Hearthsone Phoenix in seafoam enamel. Really a sharp color. They call it a hybrid since it has cast iron on the front.

We sold our VC Encore for $400. I could've gotten more for it, we had a lot of calls. I was completely honest when I sold it. I let them know that the reason for getting rid of it was due to catalyst failures. Used stoves, pardon the pun, are a hot market this year. Probably for obvious reasons.

Here is a link that might be useful: Phoenix

jplant, I didn't see your 8/8 post until just now (silly me). You have to warm the stone up the same way you have to warm up the iron on any other woodstove. The bonus is, once the stone is hot, you have something that won't remove your skin if you accidently touch it, and it holds the heat and continues to radiate it long after the fire is essentially gone.

You set the fire, wait until it registers a certain temp on the stove top thermometer and then you shut the vent and let it burn until it hits about 300 degrees... then you engage the combustor. That's it! The stove performs reliably, efficiently, pollution is minimized and you actually burn less wood to achieve the same heat.

Nice system. BUT, you can't burn painted wood, trash, etc. without compromising the effectiveness of the combustor. As with any major appliance... follow the directions!

I like the Pheonix too. The combination of soapstone and cast iron is great. Iron to heat it up fast, soapstone to hold the heat.

Are you putting it on your main floor, or basement? I'm just curious because the install price I was quoted was almost as much as the stove itself. They said it was because I was putting it on a lower floor.

Rudy,
I'm putting it on our main floor on an existing hearth. The hearth is located in the middle of the house and a wood stove heats our house evenly with the help of a ceiling fan.
Chelone,
I just saw your post today. I thought the more resent replied posts were put to the top of the forum. Anyway, Hearthstone does not use a catalyst. The biggest reason I got rid of the VC.

I bought a hearthstone soap stone stove 22+ years ago and used it daily as a primary heat source. I did not like the fact that it took over 30 mins to "heat up" before adding heat into my 2500 sqft home. Also the stone is soft and will scratch and two of them cracked and you can't get replacement stones in the same color. Also the metal inside the burn area burned out so now the stove is useless.
I now have a Harman Mark III rated at 92k btu and blows away the soapstove in performance. It's definitly is not as pretty but that is not what I bought it for. I want performance and the Mark III excels. The fire bricks and cast iron grates are replaceable so I expect long life from it.

jjplant, I wish I had been able to locate my stove in a central location like that. I would have loved to get that little Tribute model and put it on my main floor where I could watch the fire. There was just no place to put it.

You'll be a lot better off than me by having an interior chimney. I've run into the cold exterior flue thing where I have to use more wood to keep the flue sufficiently hot to avoid creosote buildup. Your interior stack will provide heat that mine cannot as well.

If you want to reduce the time it takes to get the soapstone up to a good heat, try starting your fires backwards. By that I mean, put a few large split logs on the bottom with a space between them, put medium to small logs across those, kindling of top, light a stick of fat wood and stick it under the kindling. The kindling will ignite the other stuff below as the coals fall down. I got my stove up to 400 within 30 minutes using this method. You also don't have to keep running back to build up the newly started fire with this method. I'm loving it.

Just make sure that you'll have the adequate chimney height for the stove you choose. I love my Heritage, but it takes a minimum 13' chimney. You're going straight up, so you should be good to go no matter what you get.

By the way, I believe Hearthstone discounts their stoves in January each year for a few weeks.

The best stoves/fireplaces are masonry heaters. They can be finished in soapstone. No other wood-burning appliance even comes close to matching their efficiency or their beauty!

SR

Here is a link that might be useful: how-efficient-is-it-magazine.com

We have an older model Oakridge stove made in the 80's, want to go clean burning and are looking into the Keystone made by Woodstock. We have 1500 sq ft to heat in a rancher, the website says it heats up to 1300 ft. But reviews on it says most people heat two story homes at 2400 sq ft with the Keystone and the Palladiam models. I talked to Woodstock and they tell me they also hear from customers about how good they heat over their estimated BTU's. The Fireview model is the size I think we would like to have, but it has a rear pipe outlet going to the top, we need one just out the top only. Any other people heating more than 1500 sq ft with the smaller models?

To me the SF rating depends more on where you live and the quality of insulation of your home. I have a small Vermont Casting "aspen" and a 2250sf home which is about double the SF the stove is rated for as VC considers it a "room heater". I have been using it for 3 years with the only supplemental heat being radiant tile heating in the master bath. We use ceiling fans to circulate the heat throughout the house. The only issue is if it was a little larger it could burn longer during the night. I live close to Houston, Texas where our lows hardly go below mid 20's and the normal daytime temps are usually 60's during the winter. Once the house warms up, even on the coldest, icy, non-sunny days it will keep my house very warm.

Hi

We are looking at a Phoenix Hearthstone wood stove. We have never had a wood stove before. Will it really heat the rooms upstairs as well? (it will be in the kitchen on the main floor of an 1800 sq ft house) Will the kitchen get too hot? Any suggestions/advice appreciated!

I am considering the purchase of a Hearthstone II wood stove. It's been very lightly used and is in wonderful condition. Does anyone know anything about this stove? It's no longer manufactured and I've been told that it has a long burn time but I'm interested in hearing about it from people who have one or who have had that model.
I'm wondering about it's efficiency as well as anything else someone would want to tell me.

Thank you.

The big problem with the Hearthstone II is the bi-metal damper control. The control reacts to the outside temp of the stove not the inside temp. This results in both over and under firing. The damper just doesn't react fast enough to what is happening inside the stove. I started to operate the damper manually in response to what the fire looked like and it worked fine after that. In spite of that, I ended up replacing it with a Woodstock Fireview because it put out too much heat for my needs. The catalyst in the Fireview allows me to damp back the fire without causing creosote buildup in my chimney. Both of these stoves are better suited for 24/7 use than an occasional fire.

We have had the Mansfield soapstone stove for 5 yrs, the stove it's self is absolutely beautiful. That said I will never have another soapstone soap. This stove is suppose to be able to heat a 2500 sq ft house & it does not. If the temp is down below 30 degrees we are lucking if we can get our temp in the house up to 65. We have ceiling fans so that should help get the heat down. Also our damper handle comes off the bracket & we are continually having to get under the stove to put it back on. The latch on the door has also loosened up & if you are not careful the door does not latch all the way. We are going to have to replace it. So this spring the stove will be replaced & I will never have another one again. Grew up heating our house with a wood stove & this one has got to be one of the worse I have ever been around. Would never recommend this stove.

I have a Hearthstone model 30, old timer, and I love it. Can no longer get parts for it.....can anyone help?

I purchased a soapstone stove two years ago. I absolutely love it. I hate is not blaring heat lock a cast iron stove though it does get extremely hot. The first several weeks I used the stove I thought to myself what the heck have I done and spent a crap load of money on this thing. After research and educating myself on how to use the stove properly, I absolutely love it. I can put wood in it about 11 o'clock pm when I fall asleep and at 9 o'clock the next morning it's still making heat with plenty of coals to restart easily. I have the step down from the largest heater that they make. It was expensive, but I think it's worth it. Through the day I burn 3 to 4 logs at a time and it keeps it going very hot. I have a 5000 plus square foot house in my wood burning heaters in the basement. We leave the stairs open and the heat comes upstairs. Inless the temperature drops below 35 the fire places is all we use to heat our entire house. When it's below 35 we use a small plugin heater toward the back of the house to help keep the bedrooms warm