once the stove is warm/hot the surface will be accurate but initially the stove pipe being sheet metal will get hot faster. i put 1 on the top of my stove and another 2' up the stove pipe. i have a vc defient encore that i heat a 1500 sq ft house.

just curious, i had a hearthstone stove in 1992, it was beautiful. problem was that it did not have proper air controls to regulate the stove. the max burn was about 6-7 hours. had to get rid of it, it was a stove that was exempt from emission controls. i thought all hearthstone stoves were suspect from that experience. do you like yours? how many seasons have you used it?

tom

I just got mine, and so far have only done the break in fire. I'll be doing the first good fire over the weekend. I can already tell that the stove drafts very well from the very tall flames in the break in fire. I have yet to play with the damper to see how slow a burn I can achieve.

I also had the same problem with the Soapstone stoves..I had a max burn time of 6 hours.. Never had a fire last through the night..Had it 3 years before I sold it and bought a Jotul which is a a hardworking stove that last through the night and puts off amazing heat, which I could not get from the Soapstone..