Hearthstone Heritage 8020 or Jotul 118

[Bigkahuna427]

I am just wondering what the feedback is with these 2 very different stoves. We have been using a 100+ year old wood cook stove mostly to supplement heat but we are going to use the wood stove more this year so need something with a longer burn time. The home is a 1000SF 1970s ranch without really any substantial energy efficiency improvements located in the western foothills at Farmington Maine and we get a good winter here. There are a couple of additions to this home but the area we are heating is 1000SF closing off the other areas with interior doors. When the cook stove is blasting us out we just open those doors.

I do know these two stoves are very different the Jotul I already have and it is installed in the basement. It really only gets used when we are without power or below zero. It looks like a 118 and I am not sure how to tell if it is a variant of a 118. I have read these have a following but certainly winter is different in different parts of the country. So, the 118 might be a great stove in North Carolina but maybe not here. I really love radiant heat and have no young children to be concerned about.

The Hearthstone Heritage 8020 is available an hour from me for $700 asking. I love the look of these stoves but have no experience with them. I really have little experience with convection heat. Although I did own a Vermont castings cat stove that I rebuilt at one time. That was used in a 4500SF victorian home that was impossibly expensive to heat and the stove really did not even put a dent in it so it really wasn't a good test.

I am not new to wood I actually grew up with it on the farm. Back then (Early 1970s) it was a wood cook stove in the kitchen and a small Jotul. My father used to burn about everything we cut when opening up the fields including poplar and alder but of course also maple, oak and birch. We have ten acres here and lots of maple, ash and white birch. I have seasoned wood cut up and have been splitting on a old but tough as nails home built wood splitter. What a relief that is on my back!

I am new here and appreciate everyones comments and in advance thank you for your help....

 

[electrathon]

I have a Hearthstone Heritage. It is pretty. It takes a very long time to heat up. It burns a lot of wood. It puts a lot of heat up the chimney (soapstone is a great insulator, terrible at heat transfer).

If you are buying the stove for ambiance, buy the hearthstone. If you are buying it for home heating, look elsewhere.

 

[begreen]

If it looks like a variant of an F118 it could be an old Scandia copy, made in Taiwan. If so, pass on it. Have you considered a new basic steel stove instead? It might not be as pretty, but it will have a nice fire view and will heat using less wood. Price can be under or around $1000 for this choice. If interested take a look at the True North TN20.

 

[Bigkahuna427]

Thank you for the input! Sounds like I should pass on the Hearthstone. My wife said she is not adverse to a more utilitarian stove. Plate steel has an appeal to me as I have fabrication skills so to me any repairs would be easy. What are some good Long burning radiant heatplate stoves?

 

[webby3650]

I’ve akways been impressed with the heat output from the old 118’s. They are so simple.
I’d also encourage you to pass on the Hearthstone. Don’t get caught up in the “soft heat” and the “heat life”. It equates to a barely warm house...
Your 118 is easy to recognize if it’s truly a Jotul. Norwegian writing above the door, JOTUL on the door, lumber jack scene on the side. Here’s one I’m currently fixin up.

 

[XmasTreefarmer]

I’ve akways been impressed with the heat output from the old 118’s. They are so simple.
I’d also encourage you to pass on the Hearthstone. Don’t get caught up in the “soft heat” and the “heat life”. It equates to a barely warm house...
Your 118 is easy to recognize if it’s truly a Jotul. Norwegian writing above the door, JOTUL on the door, lumber jack scene on the side. Here’s one I’m currently fixin up.

Webby - Thanks for posting that pic! That was a trip down memory lane for me. A friend of mine had one and it reminded me of hanging out with him back in the day.

Always loved the scene on the side - the stove heated his home and was a piece of art.

 

[Rearscreen]

Don’t get caught up in the “soft heat” and the “heat life”. It equates to a barely warm house...

Wow. Could have fooled me. I guess my warm house with even temps and minimal wood usage is just the placebo effect?

 

[webby3650]

Wow. Could have fooled me. I guess my warm house with even temps and minimal wood usage is just the placebo effect?

Guess I should have clarified. I can’t speak for Woodstock stoves just yet, I have used a Hearthstone stove though. Woodstock seems to make a different critter altogether, everyone seems to be happy with them. I really think the cat is what makes the difference.

 

[begreen]

Guess I should have clarified. I can’t speak for Woodstock stoves just yet, I have used a Hearthstone stove though. Woodstock seems to make a different critter altogether, everyone seems to be happy with them. I really think the cat is what makes the difference.

Cast iron clad stoves also emit a softer heat that is gradually released as the fire dies down. There is a day and night difference from how the radiant Jotul Castine heats vs the T6. I love the more even heat and would not go back to a strongly radiant stove for our house.

 

[webby3650]

Cast iron clad stoves also emit a softer heat that is gradually released as the fire dies down. There is a day and night difference from how the radiant Jotul Castine heats vs the T6. I love the more even heat and would not go back to a strongly radiant stove for our house.

We each have our preference. That’s what makes this site so much fun!

My BK will rock out 900 degree stove top if I want. Or I can run 300 degrees easily, hour after long hour. In my opinion it’s the best of both worlds. I am very curious how my Woodstock will do this winter. Can’t wait!

 

[begreen]

I think this is why the Ashford is proving popular. I now can dial in a comfortable room temp and keep the house within 2-3º of desired temperature all day long. Closer clearances are nice too.

 

[Rearscreen]

Last time I looked at my soapstone stove, there is plenty of cast iron surrounding it. And that big glass. Tell this "soft stuff" to my burning blue jeans right around the knees when I'm close and cooking stuff on the cast iron top. Yowsa...

I think this is why the Ashford is proving popular.

That looks like a great stove.

 

[BlackBetty06]

Was looking at an Ashford 20.1 today. The dealer wanted 3650.00 plus tax for the thing. Is he out to lunch?

 

[Bigkahuna427]

OK just a follow up on this post that I originally started. My wife and I decided to buy a Woodstock Progress Hybrid. We drove to their factory on Thursday spent the night in Lebanon New Hampshire and brought the stove back on Friday. Friday night we had it in the house and Saturday morning we had it burning wood.

For anyone installing one of these, yes, it is a 700 pound stove. Getting it in the house was not that bad. From a pick up truck to a deck we just skidded it on the pallet down some oak planks. The rest of the way the stove stayed on the palate and was rolling on some 2 inch PVC pipe that I had bought and cut up. They have some very nice directions about disassembling the pallet and transferring the stove from the pallet to the floor. Basically you take a couple of pieces of wood off of the pallet which are screwed down then you can tip the stove up on two legs and slide the pallet out from under.

The build quality of the stove is quite evident as is the performance. Our first firing on Saturday I brought the stove up to about 300° and engaged the cat. Kindling is slow to get started compared to other stoves I have used At that point we just let it run until most of the fumes coming from the paint etc. were burned off. Of course we had a window open and a fan pushing air out from another window for ventilation.

After cool down the stove has been running past two days constantly. It does put out an incredible amount of heat and seems to burn for a very long time. The first overnight burn I just put 4 sticks of wood on a few inches of hot coals. This was no where near capacity in fact maybe 20% capacity. I woke up at 3 AM and just had to look. The stove after raking the ash had some hot burning coals but not really a bed of coals. I put some kindling and 6 sticks of wood down. Let it run with the draft open for a while then engaged the cat. When I got up the stove was really throwing heat with a mix of burning wood and hot coals. One of the things I have noticed with this stove is it seems to run a VERY long time with just hot coals. In the past with other stoves I would add wood once I got to hot coals. The next night I added wood loosely arranged in the fire box so maybe 50% capacity and these were small round sticks average 2 and 3”. In the morning the stove had a 4” bed of hot coals after raking which has really impressive for an 8 hour burn considering the wood I was using. I have heard from many users this stove easily does 12 hour burns and more. Looking forward to see those 12 hour burns. I have also read 6 or 7 hour burns are quite possible with soft wood. I have a few standing dead white pine and some dry Norwegian Pine so I am going to experiment with burning some soft wood.

At this point I am very impressed with the performance, quality and customer experience with this stove and Woodstock. I will update later with more impressions.

 

[Bigkahuna427]

Another update to this post. The Woodstock Stove Company Progress Hybrid has run nearly non stop since we installed it. I have a mix of wood I use that I have scoured from our property here in Maine. I had 4 large ash trees I took down so this was about 1/3 of what I put up for the wood pile. I cut my wood to about 19 inches as my splitter will do about 20 inches. The fire box is slightly longer. Filling the stove with ash to about full meaning I did not try to stuff every void I have experienced burn times that are over 16 hours. The stove will run for a very long time with just hot coals in it. In fact I had to get people in the house to wait until it has a flat bed of coals 2 or 3 inches deep after raking before adding wood. I have hardly gone though any of my kindling because it takes forever for the stove to go completely out. It is unregulated heat so there are times when we have to open up an unheated entry area or a window when it gets too hot.

The design and quality of this stove are quite evident. I did not realize this when I first started looking at this stove. It is not a typical cast-iron/soapstone stove. The walls inside and out are soapstone which is set into a cast iron frame. The ash pan alone is worth the extra money we spent on this stove. It is incredibly well thought out and works perfectly and even has a cover to slide over the ash so when you dump the pan outside in the wind ash isn't going all over the place. It is also a "hybrid" stove meaning it has both a catalytic converter and a secondary air system both of which work very well. The ash is very fine with little unburned coal. You can do a little cooking on top of the stove by lifting up the soapstone tiles on top of the stove and there are three surfaces which vary in temperature. I was not sure if I had put up enough wood expecting to buy a cord and I am very sure I will have some left at this point. The long burn times was one of the main selling points for me as less wood means less work! This stove in design and quality is just a level up from anything else we looked at. I just cannot say enough about how happy we are with this stove.