It's now been several seasons with our steel wood stove, and I wanted to compare the two types of wood stove. Steel Pluses: Comes up to temperature quickly. Secondary burn very easy to achieve. Bigger stove with a great deal more room to stoke the firebox. Long burn time due to the size of the firebox. Don't have to worry as much about over firing the wood stove. On par with the soap stone consumption. A great deal cheaper than soapstone. Cons: Cools off quickly. Feed more frequently when using smaller fires. Overhear room on warmer days outside. Soapstone Pluses: More even heat. Continues to heat long after fire goes out. Find that the heat radiates further around the house than the steel. Cons: Longer to heat up from a cold start. Need to be careful you don't over fire the stove due to cast iron being unforgiving. Our soapstone was older technology with a smaller firebox, and we never saw secondary burns. (Maybe newer ones with a larger firebox would achieve the secondary burn.) Much more expensive. While I really like our steel stove, I wish I had the money to purchase a larger soapstone wood stove at the time. With the information I've learned about burning firewood from this site and my own lessons learned, I truly feel that soapstone is the better solution. That is not to say that the steel is not a good solution. It's just not the best solution for my application. In fact, I know I've written about masonry heaters should I have get the chance to build my own house. Trust me that I understand my experience is merely an opinion and not stated fact. I've done no scientific experiments to back my opinion. Simply it's from my own experience in my own house. Maybe if I lived in a more open floor plan or a better insulated home, the steel would out perform the soapstone. Also keep in mind that these are not the same size of stove. The Soapstone II stove was much smaller than the Canyon stove we have today. Not truly a fair comparison. I'd purchase the Mansfield which would be the same size, MANSFIELD - BLACK MATTE | hearthstone With all of that said, I am very happy with the Canyon, and will not be replacing it. Don't replace something that is currently working. Sorry not made of money here. Unless I should come across a situation where a friend was looking for a steel stove the size of the Canyon. Then I might consider it. Jason from RI
The stone also looks really nice. The polished stone of the hearthstone heritage I had was like a granite countertop.
Woodstock is mashing things up with their current hybrid line up, steel outside and if you want soapstone inside. And these, really aren't that expensive.
I mostly agree with your comparisons. We've had steel, cast and soapstone stoves and I can say without a doubt that the soapstone is the tops. As for worrying about overfiring, that is not much of a concern with ours but we can get the temperature right up there. And yes, perhaps the best thing is how the heat radiates so well. Before we always had a problem heating the far end of the house but not since we got the soapstone stove. One more thing I'd like to add is the "soft" heat, which we scoffed at when we started looking. But there definitely is something to this and yes, the heat is much different than it is with a steel stove. It is amazing how close one can get to the stove without feeling super hot with soapstone but not with steel.
As a new IS owner, I can definitely tell the difference between our old steel woodstove and the soapstone. The guys at work have asked me about my new stove and woodburning in general. I tell them that I soooo prefer wood heat compared to forced air furnace heat. The temp swings that you experience with forced air always drove me crazy, you can get practically cold before the furnace kicks on, and hot as he## when it does kick on. With our old stove, the temp variation was diminished greatly, and I enjoy the consistency of temp. NOW, with the new IS stove, with the soapstone, the fire can go out and coals kick down to nearly nothing, and there might be a 3-4 degree temp swing. This thing is amazing. Not sure if my brother in law will like it as much. He comes here to deer hunt, and standing in front of the stove was always his favorite spot. The new stove doesn't kick out the radiant heat as much as the old stove. At least not with the 4-5 split reloads wife and I have become accustomed to. Maybe we'll have to put in some large loads during deer season. Chaz
And the IS isn’t really a full soapstone stove. More of a steel stove with added soapstone mass. It is however a great stove at a very reasonable price. The soapstone liner and side panels do seem to make a difference and all in we are very happy with the upgrade from our prior all steel (and firebrick liner) stove. But if it was all soapstone with a few hundred pounds of extra heat mass...and someoneELSE would come and set it on the hearth...
I was going to say Woodstock, best of both worlds in one stove! If you burn 24x7 I think the the whole even heat and how quickly it warms up isnt as big of a factor. The stove stays hot most all the time. For a weekend cabin that might be a bigger deal though. If it were a small house and you were in closer proximity to stove then maybe the softer heat would be a more noticeable benefit but in my house the stove is in a large room with 18' ceilings and I don't often spend great deals of time sitting in the living room so maybe I am not a good judge there. Glad its working for you, soapstone certainly is a bit more expensive!
I guess I hadn't really thought of it as not being a full soapstone stove, as I've no experience with such a beast. But I can imagine it being a good bit heavier than the IS, which weighing in at 740 lbs, it's no lightweight. Chaz
Here is the closest relative that is a soapstone stove. There is cast iron to hold the stone slabs and whatnot, but for the most part the stove is made from pieces of soapstone. They look nicer than steel (although I do like how our IS looks), cost a bit more, and weigh a metric $%#€ ton. High Performance Soapstone Hybrid Wood Stove
Give the IS some more air and get a good secondary burn with the cat burn. It will throw heat like crazy. I bet the brother in law won't mind at all.
I went from the Fireview to the Ideal Steel. And what a difference! The temperature of the house only swings about 3 degrees in 10-12 hours (depending on outside temps, of coarse) These are some heavy stoves Fireview 475# Ideal Steel 620# Progress Hybrid 700# Absolute Hybrid 490#
I don’t trust those weight numbers from Wood Stock. After moving the IS up a few stairs and on to the hearth, it sure felt like they were missing a digit or two. Or maybe I am just getting old?
you need a better dolly! I moved both my stoves and a 900# safe on the Roll and Kari dollies. Here is BrianK and his boys putting the IS in his house. He also has a better vid taking it out.
Let’s see the video of him moving it up a flight worth of irregular steps (outdoors) without the two healthy young men helping! I strapped mine onto a furniture dolly and then made a series of makeshift ramps and a gantry crane and then I used an electric winch to power it up. There were a few spots that required reengineering or reinforcement due to the weight and it took the better part of a day to cover about 85 feet horizontally and maybe 8 feet vertically bringing the IS in and the old stove out, but I managed to do it alone without hurting myself or damaging anything. OHSA would definitely not have approved!
Makes me VERY glad my install was at ground level. Got to deliver the stove at work, used forktruck to unload it from semi, load into co-workers truck. Borrowed pallet lift from work that'll handle 800lbs of load, although the small a## casters sucked on the semi-frozen ground. Found OSB cutoffs to roll pallet lift on, then dropped onto the log cart (800lbs capacity), inflated tires and brought into house. All told, while kind of a cluster-f*** it all came off pretty smoothly. Hardest part was tearing apart the crate. They sure package the beast well. 2 car jacks and a set of home-made casters and I was in business. With the help of a good friend, it took less than 2 hours to install, and fire going. Booyah!! (For what it's worth, the shipping was for 740lbs, including crate I assume, but that still leaves roughly 710 lbs of stove and stone) Chaz
Yes I'm biased but I admit it. Its 7 degrees out with a stiff NW breeze house is 74. I believe the 640 is a bare bones IS, mine said 760 iirc
My house has a Soapstone stove and a steel stove wrapped in cast iron. They both have merit and both of them have kept my family warm. If I had to pick one stove it would be my soapstone.
