Woodstock progress vs hearthstone equinox
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Just trying to stay objective. The need for a blower or not depends on the stove location, house floor plan, heat loss. This is a longish ranch layout and a big house. Just didn't want him to get surprised at the last minute that this is not an option with the PH. The OP is already experimenting with methods for heat distribution.
That's silly. My stove at 24 hours is hotter than heck and certainly making much more heat than a stone stove at 250. I've had a stone stove, it's not all it's "cracked" up to be. Looks cool but no performance advantage.
I make all of my home's heat by smoldering a fire for 24-30 hours, that's how it works. The cat loafs along at 1200 or so. However long your stone stove makes heat, including whatever slow cool down time you have, the heat made by an active cat will still be being produced. Short burn times can not be overcome by the amount of thermal mass in a stone stove. But they look cool.
I've had both a long burning cat stove and a stone stove. Have you? The only long burning stove made by Woodstock is the IS, of course it isn't stone.
Hello. Hearthstone EQ 4th year.I had a Blazeking king non epa for20 years. I heat 2500 sq ft with 500 sq ft doors that stay closed. 3000 total
I have not had a single problem. I burn almost 24-7 when temps below 45, 3.5 months in the winter. Its is easy to tell you how much wood I use, osage orange splits. 24" long 3 splits per load. I load 7am, 5pm, 9pm.Thats it! house stays 72-75. House is very well built but lots of windows. It is in our main family room. I look at it all year long and it brings a smile to my face all year long. Yes expensive but will last a long time. I am very mechanical lifetime warranty on parts.
I am very familiar with all the dissatisfaction with hearthstone on forum, as for me I dont see it
I have not had a single problem. I burn almost 24-7 when temps below 45, 3.5 months in the winter. Its is easy to tell you how much wood I use, osage orange splits. 24" long 3 splits per load. I load 7am, 5pm, 9pm.Thats it! house stays 72-75. House is very well built but lots of windows. It is in our main family room. I look at it all year long and it brings a smile to my face all year long. Yes expensive but will last a long time. I am very mechanical lifetime warranty on parts.
I am very familiar with all the dissatisfaction with hearthstone on forum, as for me I dont see it
BuckyBeaver524
Member
Honestly, I'm just saying that my experience has been that a blower is not necessary. Perhaps if it were a steel stove clad in cast iron it would be to free the heat trapped between the layers. However, others may have had a different experience - hence my call for their input.
BuckyBeaver524
Member
First of all, we are not talking about the stone stove you have owned. It's like comparing a Buick to a BMW. Secondly, my average burn times are 12 hours on 4 to 6 medium splits. How much wood do you smolder to get 24 hours. I bet its about double the amount. During my 12 hour burns I am getting more btu's per hour then you are getting on your 24 hour smolders. I don't need to smolder wood during the shoulder season - I prefer the convenience and low cost of my high efficiency heat pump. My glass stays crystal clear and my cap never clogs on my 12 hour burns. And, I can go up to 16 hours if need be. And yes, the PH is very cool looking.
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I have a blower on the Alderlea. We went a couple years without it and until recently I only used it occasionally. This year I have used it a lot more to see the effect. I have thermometers in the far corners of the first floor to see what temp changes occur. I've found it that the far corners warm up more quickly with the blower running. The effect is so repeatable that I have started doing this on the morning startup before my wife awakes. The house is more evenly heated using the blower and I can achieve a faster room temp rise by using it. Once the house temp has risen from about 67 overnight to 71 during the day and stabilized I turn the blower off. That is unless it is cold outside, then I leave the blower on. Having a blower is also nice for knocking down the stove top temp about 100º quickly.
BuckyBeaver524
Member
I'm glad to hear that a blower helps with your Alderlea, but once again, my personal hands on experience has been that it is unnecessary with the Progress Hybrid. And the engineers at Woodstock feel the same way. I suppose if for some unusual reason a person could not live without one, it would be simple enough to place a small 10 in fan on the floor pointed at the PH to accomplish the same effect with less noise and no electrical cord lying on the hearth. Also replacement if needed would be much cheaper. I'm not sure why you are trying to make an issue with this when none exists. Have you ever heard of a PH owner complaining that the lack of a blower option was a serious downside? Maybe I'm missing something here.
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Hey blacktop, do you have the blower on your stove? How full would you say those 3 splits got it and how long do you think it would burn fully loaded?
I work 12 hour shifts and sometimes it's about 14 hours before I make it home.
I have no problem keeping a fire 14,15 hours towards the end enough coals to restart I use hardwood mostly Hedge Apple ,softwood there coals don't last as long I have to use soft wood because I tend to build up too many coals I know the EQ uses more wood then a catalytic my window stays crystal clear and my chimney never needs swept I dump the ashes from the chimney out I run a brush anyway almost nothing comes out you either keep all the heat into the house with colder flu or run a warm flu which also has benefits
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I have the blower but very seldom use it I have a high ceiling with a ceiling fan I run on low when I run the stove the blower is very quiet and very high quality if I would need it
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I mainly bought the blower kit so that the heat didn't soak into the back wall even without the fan the back wall has almost no heat on it
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Quad4012
Member
We have the hearthstone equinox, to give you a little idea of our set up our home is a log cabin which is approximately 2500 ft.² for us we are able to heat our entire home relatively evenly and consistently with our stove. The upstairs tenants not to get excessively hot in our downstairs bedroom which obviously just has one doorway to it is typically only 1° cooler than in the living room. The heat that it puts out is very even and consistent and truthfully we love the stove. The only issue that I have with it is the relatively short burn times. If you use the example of a 20° below zero day I will typically try to get the house warmed up to 71 or 72° by the time I leave the house at 630 in the morning. In that condition by the time I get home which would be around 3 o'clock the fires out completely and the house is down to probably 65°. Overall it's not too bad and you can get it warmed back up relatively quickly although the soapstone is slower to react. To probably more directly answer your question even the rooms that are somewhat blocked off in our house maintain a good level of heat providing the doors are left open. Obviously your home is going to be larger and getting that heat displaced would be more of an issue. Although I don't think that is necessarily going to be any different regardless of the stove you choose.
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JA600L
Minister of Fire
I have the Ideal Steel and I burn white pine all the time. With these stoves you really don't notice much difference in burn time.
I noticed the same thing as begreen with my Dutchwest. The blower definitely pulls more heat off the stove. I can recover room temp faster, and hold room temp higher in very cold conditions. Your PH may work fine, heating your particular space (I don't know the size or layout,) but the fact remains that it's possible to pull more heat off a stove, and faster, using a blower. The more warm air you produce, the better it will move into more distant areas owing to a stronger convection loop. Of course fans can also be used to enhance convection loops between rooms. That said, I would probably get the PH and, when needed, use a small fan somewhere close to the stove to pull off more heat. I'm a big fan of Woodstock quality, and I love the soapstone radiation, which is definitely more penetrating (intense?) than I get off a similarly-sized steel stove. And I'm totally hooked (since the Dutchwest) on the clean convenience of a grated ash system...high on the list of must-haves for me.
If the OP ends up with two stoves, having a fan blowing on the PH probably won't be necessary; Just ride the slow, even radiation of the PH in moderate conditions and during the day, and fire up the other stove for a night load, or all day when it's cold out.
@Joyboy, yes, cat stoves in general, and the PH in particular, are noted for sipping wood. I've run a Fireview; Guys that have had it, then got a PH said it seemed they ended up using even less wood. I think the exhaust routing in the PH makes it extremely efficient at extracting heat. Efficiencies and outputs from EPA testing are listed here: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-08/documents/certifiedwood.pdf
BTW, are you dealing with any vaulted ceilings? I don't think so, but thought I'd ask...
BuckyBeaver524
Member
Well, it seems the only people I have heard say that the PH would benefit from a blower are folks who do not own or have never operated a PH. If there are any PH owners who feel the need of a blower, please speak up. I won't be hurt either way. When I was in search of a stove I spoke with Woodstock about the blower option and was told it was not necessary and therefore not offered. And my personal experience is that it isn't. However, I will mention that I have very high ceilings in my stove room with ceiling fans running on the lowest settings. I am also in a moderate climate and usually run the stove on its lowest setting.
Even with 2-3 extra layers on my Ideal Steel (the sides have extra layer of metal and soapstone with air gap between) I don't use any fan on the stove at all and it throws way more heat than my insert did with dual blowers running full time high. And the flue temps are much less already with the Woodstock than my insert. Just depends on the stove and how much heat they extract by design already. But hard to compare them fairly. On the Ideal Steel that air gap between the layers is vented on the top and enough air convection through there naturally feels like a small blower is running. On the sides that is a total of 2 layers of stone and two layers of steel and sort of two air gaps a couple inches thick in between. With big open rooms I think radiant is where it's at, and then fans on the doorways to the other areas. The Ideal Steel is a mix of radiant and convective, the Progress will be more radiant.
Shipping is a problem if you're not in the northeast though, but you've already factored that in.
I'm jealous of some of you that run well over 2k sqft with one stove easily, and even thinking about 4k on one! Someday I'll have a tight well insulated home, but one stove only does my 2770 down to around freezing then the second one comes on that does me down to single digits or so. Much colder than 0 or windy and I'm probably heading to low 60's or less in the house unless I kick on propane. I wish I had the time and money to tear out all my walls, and roof down to studs to properly seal and insulate them but it'll never happen, would be cheaper for me to move, or might as well just build new house at that point! And I plan on doing just that once my son is through school.
If I were in your shoes and you were starting from scratch on 4k sqft I'd be looking into the BK King. Especialy if you were burning mostly softwoods and want a long burn time. It's not much of a looker IMO though. If you didn't want to mess with 8" flue or wanted something nicer looking I'd look at the BK Ashford and the Woodstocks. I've been burning a lot of spruce in my Ideal Steel and I don't get nearly the burn times, but then again it's very irregular pieces full of knots and bulges and not the right lengths, so hard to get the firebox full. I work 12's as well, but with an hour drive each way and loading the stove 30 minute to an hour before I leave (to make sure its properly settled out and cruising) means my burns must be ~15 hrs on all my workdays. I have no problems getting this, and actually will have too many coals left on occasion. The BK's thermostat would help with that by opening up the air towards the end to maintain the burn but they were too expensive here and I needed a rear venting stove anyhow, for at least my one hearth.
Good luck on your research!
Shipping is a problem if you're not in the northeast though, but you've already factored that in.
I'm jealous of some of you that run well over 2k sqft with one stove easily, and even thinking about 4k on one! Someday I'll have a tight well insulated home, but one stove only does my 2770 down to around freezing then the second one comes on that does me down to single digits or so. Much colder than 0 or windy and I'm probably heading to low 60's or less in the house unless I kick on propane. I wish I had the time and money to tear out all my walls, and roof down to studs to properly seal and insulate them but it'll never happen, would be cheaper for me to move, or might as well just build new house at that point! And I plan on doing just that once my son is through school.
If I were in your shoes and you were starting from scratch on 4k sqft I'd be looking into the BK King. Especialy if you were burning mostly softwoods and want a long burn time. It's not much of a looker IMO though. If you didn't want to mess with 8" flue or wanted something nicer looking I'd look at the BK Ashford and the Woodstocks. I've been burning a lot of spruce in my Ideal Steel and I don't get nearly the burn times, but then again it's very irregular pieces full of knots and bulges and not the right lengths, so hard to get the firebox full. I work 12's as well, but with an hour drive each way and loading the stove 30 minute to an hour before I leave (to make sure its properly settled out and cruising) means my burns must be ~15 hrs on all my workdays. I have no problems getting this, and actually will have too many coals left on occasion. The BK's thermostat would help with that by opening up the air towards the end to maintain the burn but they were too expensive here and I needed a rear venting stove anyhow, for at least my one hearth.
Good luck on your research!
Fwiiw.. when I had a cast iron pre epa stove... I needed a fan.. on the floor not on the stove
I don't need one with the PH
I agree fans will even out the heat faster by convection.. but it really is not necessary in my case.
I don't need one with the PH
I agree fans will even out the heat faster by convection.. but it really is not necessary in my case.
No vaulted ceilings here. I did run the king by my wife when I first started looking but that was a no-go. Maybe I made the mistake of showing her a soapstone at the same time. Lol
It is a shame that blaze king doesn't make the ashford in a bigger box because it sounds like it gets long 30 hour burn times but quite a bit less heat output. It's a good looking stove in enamel. Local dealer quoted $3800 for the ashford which is what the progress would cost me.
I think I'm leaning more towards the progress. Thank you all for the feedback!
It is a shame that blaze king doesn't make the ashford in a bigger box because it sounds like it gets long 30 hour burn times but quite a bit less heat output. It's a good looking stove in enamel. Local dealer quoted $3800 for the ashford which is what the progress would cost me.
I think I'm leaning more towards the progress. Thank you all for the feedback!
To be clear...
The old pre epa had two settings.. blast furnace and stone cold
The new PH is much more controllable.. and has a bigger firebox
All of which contribute to the fan /no fan necessity
The old pre epa had two settings.. blast furnace and stone cold
The new PH is much more controllable.. and has a bigger firebox
All of which contribute to the fan /no fan necessity
I'm a hearthstone owner and while I'm not disputing the expensive part ($3300 usd) for the Clydesdale, I can say its a pretty nice heater for my set up with large cathedral ceiling (20') in the room its installed in with an open staircase next to my bedroom (also open rafter). I don't know about the reliability issues claimed against the brand unless its people jamming too much wood in the thing and breaking tubes/ ceramic baffles. I have only had it burning 2 months now but again, its everything I was promised with steady radiant heat for hours, eats a hell of a lot less wood than the smoke dragons I've run previously and isn't too bad to look at in matte black.
That is a bit silly. The same question could be asked, how many PH owners have tried their stove with and without a blower? If one hasn't tried it one won't know the difference. I am not trying to discourage the PH, just trying to objectify the OP's options. And yes, in some cases ceiling fans can help make up for the lack of a blower. It depends on several factors.
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