Suggestions on castiron 6"

[jarrod_ramsey]

I currently have a steel Harmon woodstove (75,000 BTU, 2,500 sq ft heating area). I'm looking at switching over to a castiron for longer heat retention.

I have a chimney size of 6".

I was looking at the Green Mountain 60 (60,000 BTU 2,000 sq ft heating area), but a little concerned with the BTU being lower.

Any suggestions, recommendations?

Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

You think the cast iron will provide some sort of significant thermal mass for heat storage? Have you done the math on that? Some stove burn technologies can just slow down the burn rate to provide the same effect.

 

[jarrod_ramsey]

You think the cast iron will provide some sort of significant thermal mass for heat storage? Have you done the math on that? Some stove burn technologies can just slow down the burn rate to provide the same effect.

How significant is a question, but yes, a straight convert to a castiron will help. Even with the existing steel Harmon's secondary chamber, fire is completely out in the morning, stove is room temperature.

I don't have experience with cast iron, but those I've consulted with cast irons rave about how long it stays warm, even when the fire is out.

One thing to note is the use of soapstone in the equation.

But back to my original question. What do you recommend, then? What's your math?

 

[bholler]

In my experience the stove material makes very little difference. If you want cast iron go for it but it isn't going to make much difference with regard to heat retention. Just get a stove that can burn all night there are many available

 

[Highbeam]

Right, a 450lb stove made of steel holds almost the same amount of heat as 450 lb of cast iron. The math involves looking up the heat storage capacity of each material.

I’ve owned a soapstone stove and I was happy to get rid of it. Any slowness of cooling off is more than made up for by slowness in warming up.

You seem to be equating long burn times with thermal storage. Thermal storage differences are relatively insignificant, you really want a stove that can simply burn at a lower rate so that it doesn’t go out over night. Keep the fire burning.

Most of the soapstone “heat life” marketing is a bit exaggerated. The dang stuff looks really nice though.

There are some very heavy iron double wall stoves matched with a decent combustion system that allows a lower/longer burn rate . Together, these might be a nice step up from your harman .

 

[jarrod_ramsey]

Right, a 450lb stove made of steel holds almost the same amount of heat as 450 lb of cast iron. The math involves looking up the heat storage capacity of each material.

I’ve owned a soapstone stove and I was happy to get rid of it. Any slowness of cooling off is more than made up for by slowness in warming up.

You seem to be equating long burn times with thermal storage. Thermal storage differences are relatively insignificant, you really want a stove that can simply burn at a lower rate so that it doesn’t go out over night. Keep the fire burning.

Most of the soapstone “heat life” marketing is a bit exaggerated. The dang stuff looks really nice though.

There are some very heavy iron double wall stoves matched with a decent combustion system that allows a lower/longer burn rate . Together, these might be a nice step up from your harman .

ok, this is helpful. Heat storage on my harman is nil. It puts out a massive amount of heat, but I can tell when the fire starts waning without even looking at it.

I'm still going to trial a soapstone-ish unit, but checking out the double-wall.

Thanks

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

I think the real question is how many square feet do you want to heat ? Most people do not want to heat or over heat the bedrooms but want to mainly heat the areas that are occupied and used 16 -18 hours a day. You are paying a huge premium for cast iron for very little benefit and even more when it comes to soapstone. There are stoves on the market be it steel or cast iron that will hold a fire longer than others, however if your present chimney and set up only offers you a 2 - 3 hour burn time in most cases you will find it difficult to increase that to 10 hours without some mods to a over draughting chimney etc. sucking all your heat out or killing your burn time. A lot of factors need to be right it is not only the stove itself.