Hello all, happy new year eve to everyone! I went to the stove shop today to look around/kill time and I noticed that the hearthstone stove have “cats” now! Do they all have the cats or just certain models? They have my attention now with the cats, and really like the looks of the castleton. I used a WS keystone for 9 yrs and love the soapstone “heat”. Didn’t get a price on it though, is anyone here using one right now and what your thoughts are? Also looked at the BK line and not sure on the new look yet! I see the process went up $500 and i don’t know about
Looked at new stoves
- Thread starter logfarmer
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Only other stove I've owned was a old smoke dragon. I've had this BK 2 yrs now. personally if i was in the market for a stove i would get another BK. This thing works so good and simply. Set thermostat and come back 10-14 hrs later. Amazing even heat. I have nothing bad or good to say about the other stoves. I haven't owned them.
I just wouldn't have a reason to even try something else, not sure how anything else could work better. Best looking? No. I'll take function over looks any day
The Ashford was the only stove SWMBO approved the looks of.
I really don't think you can gi wrong with a BK. If you go to the BK forum lots of very happy guys there. I loved mine so much i put one in my shop. I love the familiarity and knowing I'll have coals 24hrs later
You can. If you have a situation where you need to run the stove harder a BK may not be the right choice. That said my bk is on the lowest setting 90% of the time and its nice to get 8 hours from 4 splits.
Hearthstone had cats in the old days too. There’s a difference between a noncat stove that added a cat to pass the 2020 tests and a stove designed to take advantage of all a cat has to offer.
Which will this hearthstone be? We’ll find out.
Which will this hearthstone be? We’ll find out.
I like the Hearthstone stoves looks quite a bit.
The guy I bought my Hitzer from had just bought a new $4000 (his words, not mine) Hearthstone to heat his 2200 sq. ft. home. This was I believe two years ago when we had that real bad cold snap here where we both live. He told me he loved the stove, got it sized to fit his house, but with the cold that winter being so cold he said it wouldn’t keep up with his not so well insulated home and that he had to fire up his grandma’s old wood cookstove just to help keep the place warm. All this while in his sons room sat the giant Hitzer 354 wood/coal stove that I ended up with. Was a no brained solution to me, but oh well...he thought he wanted a fancy stove. Nothing wrong with that and the problem was the weather and house that needed more insulation. It wasn’t the stoves fault. He was also trying to burn green wood in it as well, so that didn’t help things. He actually had 9 cords of wood he was trying to get seasoned that he’d stacked early that spring and had it covered. He was trying.
The point is...
That style of stove puts off soft heat they say, not the blaring radiant heat from a steel stove that he needed that particular winter. Also, the size of the home comes into play as does having a little stove left or a lot of stove left. A highly insulated home can stand a stove better that only has a littleextra heat left to radiate or to convert. An older, cut up design with little insulation will require a stove sized to have a lot of heating capability left in it.
In my mind the guy I bought my Hitzer from, he should have bought a Blaze King, King model and had the ability to turn the stove way down or run it on medium to medium-high when the house and weather conditions called for it. The Hearthstone stove he bought just couldn’t handle it by his own admission of having to run the kitchen cook stove...the Hearthstone dealer should have upsized his stove chive one model bigger for him. That was an expensive mistake!! $4000 virtually wasted.
Nit saying you need a King model for your house, but you know the size of stove you have now and what temps it takes to keep the home comfortable...or you soon will know this month. Use that information for helping to choose and size a new stove.
I am different than most on forums. I don’t feel you should have to run a stove cranked up all the time. In fact, with today’s stoves...like everything else built today...they are built to replace in a few short years rather than being built like tanks like older stoves. So in my mind get a stove to run mostly in the mid-range for your homes conditions. Use the temps you record from the stove you have, as well as your current stoves size, as a way to gauge your future stoves needs. Also keep in mind a radiant style stove or a convective type stove. Radiant will warm things in the house and will give a warmer feel...even a hot feeling in the house. Some use radiant and convective, like Lopi, Blaze King, Buck, and many others. Another thing to consider is a blower. My feeling is that it’s better to have it and not need it, than it is to need it and not have it. Blowers in stoves are like 4-wheel drive on trucks...the resale value is more and has more appeal.
Check out Regency stoves, Buck, and SBI brands like Drolet and Osborn as well as those mentioned above including Hearthstone and WoodStock. Kuma stoves are another great choice.
The guy I bought my Hitzer from had just bought a new $4000 (his words, not mine) Hearthstone to heat his 2200 sq. ft. home. This was I believe two years ago when we had that real bad cold snap here where we both live. He told me he loved the stove, got it sized to fit his house, but with the cold that winter being so cold he said it wouldn’t keep up with his not so well insulated home and that he had to fire up his grandma’s old wood cookstove just to help keep the place warm. All this while in his sons room sat the giant Hitzer 354 wood/coal stove that I ended up with. Was a no brained solution to me, but oh well...he thought he wanted a fancy stove. Nothing wrong with that and the problem was the weather and house that needed more insulation. It wasn’t the stoves fault. He was also trying to burn green wood in it as well, so that didn’t help things. He actually had 9 cords of wood he was trying to get seasoned that he’d stacked early that spring and had it covered. He was trying.
The point is...
That style of stove puts off soft heat they say, not the blaring radiant heat from a steel stove that he needed that particular winter. Also, the size of the home comes into play as does having a little stove left or a lot of stove left. A highly insulated home can stand a stove better that only has a littleextra heat left to radiate or to convert. An older, cut up design with little insulation will require a stove sized to have a lot of heating capability left in it.
In my mind the guy I bought my Hitzer from, he should have bought a Blaze King, King model and had the ability to turn the stove way down or run it on medium to medium-high when the house and weather conditions called for it. The Hearthstone stove he bought just couldn’t handle it by his own admission of having to run the kitchen cook stove...the Hearthstone dealer should have upsized his stove chive one model bigger for him. That was an expensive mistake!! $4000 virtually wasted.
Nit saying you need a King model for your house, but you know the size of stove you have now and what temps it takes to keep the home comfortable...or you soon will know this month. Use that information for helping to choose and size a new stove.
I am different than most on forums. I don’t feel you should have to run a stove cranked up all the time. In fact, with today’s stoves...like everything else built today...they are built to replace in a few short years rather than being built like tanks like older stoves. So in my mind get a stove to run mostly in the mid-range for your homes conditions. Use the temps you record from the stove you have, as well as your current stoves size, as a way to gauge your future stoves needs. Also keep in mind a radiant style stove or a convective type stove. Radiant will warm things in the house and will give a warmer feel...even a hot feeling in the house. Some use radiant and convective, like Lopi, Blaze King, Buck, and many others. Another thing to consider is a blower. My feeling is that it’s better to have it and not need it, than it is to need it and not have it. Blowers in stoves are like 4-wheel drive on trucks...the resale value is more and has more appeal.
Check out Regency stoves, Buck, and SBI brands like Drolet and Osborn as well as those mentioned above including Hearthstone and WoodStock. Kuma stoves are another great choice.
You are right hoytman, soapstone does give off a more gentle heat and back in 2014/2015 when we had months of 0degree weather my soapstone keystone had problems keeping up with the demands. But how many winters do we have like that? Now the old castleton stoves only had heat life for about 10 hrs or so, now the new ones are saying 20 hrs, so what are they saying? I really only need about a 45k btu stove, or a 60k btu that can be turned down low! My keystone was rated I think 35k which was good most of the time, my coal chubby was rated at 60k but you could run really low on it which was great. My nc30 was like 80k+ and was horrible for my application, and now another englander with a “cat” which does a lot better but still a 70k+ btu. Need a softer heat or less btu for our home.
Yea I didn’t realize they added a cat and did not know they had one back in the day. I had the nc30, first tube burner and was not impressed!!
I really like the BK thermostat, I dont mind the looks too much, I would have to get the wife on board for it though. That’s what I liked about coal, steady temperature.
I agree with you and that’s what I’ve told the wife. I’m not caught up on the looks, I want it to do it’s job.
Yes...sounds like you need softer heat and something with thump if and when you need it. You’ve had a good variety of sized/btu stoves and know how you ran them. We’re in that perfect time of year to test for this.
Start by keeping a log/journal. Start right now recording daily highs/lows of OAT’s and IAT’s you deem comfortable. Record fire box size and btu’s of every stove you’ve had as well as physical size and the daily stove top temps you average during coldest days of the year, then as it warms up.
It almost sounds like you could be served well by a bigger soapstone stove that the one you had, but not too big. You can burn loads and re-loads hot at first to get stove back to running temps and hold it there with a mid to low burn. A soapstone stove with a thermostat would also serve you well if they make one.
Oh yes you can, and I did. Bk's are very draft sensitive in my experience. They require a perfect chimney setup and bone dry wood. Mine turned into a creosote bomb lol
Nealm66
Minister of Fire
I’m a new blaze king fan. To me it would be between the king or princess and then it would be really cool to try both and see where the most efficient reload cycle ended up but the reality slap is real. I listened to BKVP and it’s been spot on advise although if given the ability, I’d sure like to try the king just to see
Not sure how big logfarmer’s home or how well insulated, the layout, etc., but judging by the btu’s he thinks he needs a Princess may fit his home perfect. However, the engine of the entire system, the chimney he has, is likely totally wrong.
He currently has high flue temps now after the CAT, if I recall correctly, and everything is clean in the chimney and so is the CAT. That is all good so long as no other issues.
The lower flue temps of the BK will likely give him fits without rebuilding his chimney...which again, if I recall correctly is tall, clay lined, and rectangle in shape, not to mention an outside the home chimney and that alone with a BK (and their low flue temps) spells, constant fussing and cussing.
Going from memory from pm’s, so I may have gotten some of this info wrong.
He currently has high flue temps now after the CAT, if I recall correctly, and everything is clean in the chimney and so is the CAT. That is all good so long as no other issues.
The lower flue temps of the BK will likely give him fits without rebuilding his chimney...which again, if I recall correctly is tall, clay lined, and rectangle in shape, not to mention an outside the home chimney and that alone with a BK (and their low flue temps) spells, constant fussing and cussing.
Going from memory from pm’s, so I may have gotten some of this info wrong.
Nealm66
Minister of Fire
That’s a bummer. I wonder if there’s something that could be done to the chimney that would make it work? I guess if a guy is retired and has the time for the reloads then it might not be worth it but on the other hand, if something could be done, I’d definitely be investigating
Nealm66
Minister of Fire
The chimney and lower heat needs were bkvp’s concern with me getting a king . I was pretty bummed but hard to complain with the outcome
He has a pretty good handle on what needs to be done. I think he’s starting a process trying different things. That’s all anyone can do is try things to help before starting over.
Begreen,
How inflated, if at all, do you think WS’s burn times are in their stoves? Their stoves seem to have quite the turn down capability given what I’ve read from comments.
I am tempted to suggest Osborn stoves because according to their brochure and listed sq ft ranges they to seem to have quite the turn down capability as well as the capacity to throw some serious heat from relatively small stoves and small fire boxes. He could also step up to a larger stove with quite the turn down capability, yet burn times are still limited. However, their maximum burn times of 8 to 10 hrs may not meet logfarmers wants/needs. For that reason I am hesitant on suggesting a “tube only “ stove. Might be important if watching a fire is important. Sure are well made stoves though with impeccable customer service and reviews.
A WS, Hearthstone, BK, VC (great burn times not real good reviews these last few years), or another CAT stove. Lots of good options I suppose. Super long burn times are nice if watching a fire isn’t important.
How inflated, if at all, do you think WS’s burn times are in their stoves? Their stoves seem to have quite the turn down capability given what I’ve read from comments.
I am tempted to suggest Osborn stoves because according to their brochure and listed sq ft ranges they to seem to have quite the turn down capability as well as the capacity to throw some serious heat from relatively small stoves and small fire boxes. He could also step up to a larger stove with quite the turn down capability, yet burn times are still limited. However, their maximum burn times of 8 to 10 hrs may not meet logfarmers wants/needs. For that reason I am hesitant on suggesting a “tube only “ stove. Might be important if watching a fire is important. Sure are well made stoves though with impeccable customer service and reviews.
A WS, Hearthstone, BK, VC (great burn times not real good reviews these last few years), or another CAT stove. Lots of good options I suppose. Super long burn times are nice if watching a fire isn’t important.
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I did have the keystone in this house and served me well all winters but the 2 really crazy cold winters we had here but wasn’t bad though. The wife and I both loved the look of WS line of stoves, we just went to coal is why we sold it but that’s another story lol
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