Backwoods Savage said:
The end result of us buying the cat soapstone stove is that we cut our fuel needs in half and we stay a whole lot warmer. An additional benefit is that we have one of the most beautiful stoves on the market. It is extremely easy to operate and maintain. And yes, we've heated with steel and cast stoves too. This is the best stove we've ever owned and it does everything we need it to do. And one of the best benefits is that the stove and chimney stay clean. We've burned for 4 years and have cleaned once. We got about a cup of soot and no creosote.
All good stuff. Keep it coming.
Backwoods Savage said:
Now on to your specific questions:
1. What can you tell me about your individual experiences (both positive and negative thoughts) on these kind of stoves?
a. More heat; less wood.
b. Temperature in house stays at a more even temperature rather than the more extreme highs and lows.
c. Beautiful stove. (Also, the manufacturer has a 6 month guarantee which no other company can match.)
d. Long burn times.
e. Much better to run during the spring and fall without having to worry about blackening the glass and a creosote problem (cat stoves).
2. Have you run others before?
Yes, as stated above.
3. Did you switch from another to this style, or away from soap to another?
Our previous stove was a steel stove; much larger than the present stove.
As Todd stated, you are not that far from the Woodstock factory and it may benefit you to take a drive some day for a visit. You may be very surprised by what you find and be prepared to meet some wonderful people if you go. I'm sure they will be having an Open House on a Saturday in September or October. That is a great time to get all your questions answered and if you decide to buy then, you'll get some great discounts.
Good luck.
Thanks for all this. You say discounts... like a cash and carry deal?[/quote]
Thank you. On the discount, as you've found out, Woodstock is introducing a new stove this year that will be much larger than the Fireview. It will also look a lot different if you don't like the looks of the Fireview (difficult for us to understand but each has their own tastes). It will have both the cat and the secondary and no doubt will be the most efficient stove on the market.
I do not have hard facts on this but I expect them to publicly introduce the stove at their annual open house and that date has not been set yet. Last year it was the Saturday following Labor Day. This year I sort of expect the first or second weekend of October to be the date. I'm sure Woodstock will post as soon as they know and if not, Todd or I will no doubt post it. We also expect many hearth.com members to show up there this year as sort of a mini gathering. I could not imagine a better place for a get-together.
On your house layout it begs the question of moving the air. Probably the number one thing I have learned on hearth.com is the movement of that warm air in the house. First, I had always tried to move the warm air into the cooler parts of the home. Now, we do the opposite in that our stove is more towards one end than the other. There is a hallway leading to bath and bedrooms. We found that using a small desktop fan (no more than 12" blades; smaller is good too) and sitting that fan on the floor (do not use a pedestal fan) in the hallway and aiming it towards the stove room. In effect, this blows the cooler air into the warmer air. Cool down low and warm up higher. So the cool replaces the warm and that forces some warm air out and that moves to the back of the house.
For ceiling fans we also found we were doing things backwards. Again, warmer air towards the ceiling and the cooler down by the floor so I always thought to blow that warm air down. Now we do the opposite and it works! The theory is that the coldest air will be along the outer walls. So, that, in effect starts the flow of air down. If it goes down, something has to replace it. So we go with the natural flow and the air goes down along the walls and up in the center of the room so now the fan blowing up just follows the natural flow rather than trying to reverse it.
A comment was made about finicky wood. Less than good dry wood will not burn well in any stove. If it will burn better in a secondary air type stove than in a cat it is no doubt because of burning at a higher temperature and keeping the flue at a higher temperature. In addition, moisture is the enemy of ceramic cats. Fortunately the new cats now are steel rather than ceramic. Time will tell on folks trying to burn poor fuel in them but right now I do not know if the steel will hold up better than ceramic in this situation. Regardless, anyone who burns wood should not be burning poor fuel the same as they should not burn poor fuel in their cars.