new to this forum and looking to update current stove thinking soapstone any sugg.

[elfsmachone]

hello everyone i am completly new to this forum and it looks great. well here is the deal i have a cheap wood stove know, it has however done the job it was intended BUT is slowly starting to give more and more issues.
i am going to replace stove with a new one. i am looking to burn 24/7 but am to darn lazy to get up in the middle of the evening to load. done some reserch and i am thinking hearthstone mansfield. i know there are a lot of you out there that are going to say to go with a woodstock but not big enough to do complete house. (and dont have enough cash to get two). i am also thinkign about the jotul 600 but are about the same btu's but the soapstone seams to be better due to the even heat. would like to here from others that have these stoves or any input about the two stoves. thanks in advance for all your help. also what are people paying for the two diff stoves.

 

[Wood Duck]

hey elfsmachone, welcome to the forums. Unfortunately I think you have selected the wrong forum for your post. There are several forums here, and I think The Hearth Room is the one you need, not The Wood Shed where you posted. No worries, I expect a moderator will move you post over there where you should get more replies. I really don't know much about your topic - but if you have a tree to identify I'll give it a shot if you post pictures.

 

[elfsmachone]

your correct told you i was new to this forum tks for the help. and if i have a tree to identify i will let you know. but one question, what is the best tree for burning?

 

[mdphilps]

your correct told you i was new to this forum tks for the help. and if i have a tree to identify i will let you know. but one question, what is the best tree for burning?

My favorite is a "FREE" one!!

 

[North of 60]

what is the best tree for burning?

Pine of course. :cheese: Any free wood after it has been seasoned will be the best.= DRY WOOD

 

[gyrfalcon]

your correct told you i was new to this forum tks for the help. and if i have a tree to identify i will let you know. but one question, what is the best tree for burning?

You're going to have to work that out for yourself, since how well a particular wood performs for you depends on so many different things-- size of your firebox, how dry it the wood is, how small you split it down, etc.

In upstate NY, if you're buying your firewood, you'll almost certainly get "mixed hardwoods." Get the wood guy to tell you which wood he's brought you and help you to identify it. Then just play with it and find out. One thing for sure, the smaller your stove, the more important your choice of wood is. In a larger stove, the sheer mass of wood means you get great results even from a less than highest BTU wood, and you can build up enough of a hot coal bed that pretty much anything dry will ignite quickly.

My stove is very small, and there's no question for me that the higher-BTU wood I can easily get, Beech and Black Birch, occasionally Hophornbeam and Shagbark Hickory, give me the hottest fires and highest stove temps. With Red Oak, Red Maple, even Rock (Sugar) Maple, I get a nice fire, but the stove won't get hot enough to keep me warm in the really coldest Vermont winter weather. On the other hand, the beech and black birch are a little more reluctant to get started, so I like to have some of the maple and oak to get things going before throwing them on the fire.

But everybody's mileage on this stuff varies, and there's no shortcut to experimenting and finding out what works best for you.

Here's a superb chart of BTU content of the most common hardwoods. (broken link removed to http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm). Stick to the top 15 or so (in red) for serious winter heating. The ones lower down can be terrific in "shoulder seasons" of spring and fall when you just want to take the chill off, but they won't keep you warm in deepest NE winter.