What’s Going On with Woodstock Soapstone?

So did you place an order? I'm sure they'll make you one...even if not currently making new ones.

 

They offered me a new one a couple weeks ago when I was in to ask about bringing my stove in for paint this summer- so it sounded like they hey can get them made.

 

Well, I again tried to order a catalyst and complete gasket kit online. Items out of stock. They took my name and credit card info and said the items would ship when available. Evidently there are a lot of new catalysts sitting in the facility but they need to have the flanges welded on.

This is a spitshow. Woodstock makes some of the most efficient, clean-burning stoves on the market and they apparently still can't get EPA certification for the Ideal Steel? A plague upon the house of every bureaucrat that has caused this mess.

 

Contacting your representatives about this is a reasonable path. You don't need to say anything about R/D affiliation- but you're a citizen trying to pay hard earned money to an American manufacturing company for a domestic good. Following this thread seems to point to Woodstock being prevented due to some kind of red tape nonsense and not anything they can control themselves.

 

Was there a red tape reason that they can't get a guy to weld on the flanges, or cut gaskets, to support their current stove owners?

 

Just supplier/import problems tariff related last year.. Cats were back ordered this time last year also, Lorrin gave me rough date I called got ordered and got 2 in August

 

Well, I didn't hassle them as they've got enough issues to deal with. Rutland and Grapho-Glas make most of the commercially-available stove gaskets so my guess is that Woodstock is buying gaskets from those two companies and cutting them to length for the Ideal Steel. We're coming to the end of burn season so it's not an emergency. I've got two lifetimes of house projects linked up so the Ideal Steel will be back of mind come summer.

 

I feel like I have spent half of this thread defending Woodstock; They are a Very small less than 25 employees manufacturing co. They Are not going to have IT specialists for website or Purchasing specialists for tariffs/govt certification..
They build thoughtfully engineered, common sense stoves to be used at an affordable price point. That burn very clean..

They operate in a niche market, if not in your niche don’t buy one

 

Hear, hear!

 

The good news is that yesterday I received the new Cat and gasket set. The bad news is that replacing all the gaskets is going to be a witch. I might just do one or two every weekend and sooner or later it will get done. I still have to move six cords of wood, sealcoat the driveway, clean and recoat my Ipe deck, dethatch and aerate the lawn etc etc etc etc. I swear I'm thinking of moving to a motel and just eating takeout food.

 

Lol I hear you. Just do things you can/ have to do. Always so much to do, and I feel like if I cloned myself I still might not get it all done.

 

Fireview 205 cat just doubled in price from $160 to $320! Yikes!

 

Yeah, just looked and the circular catalyst is at $260 - well, that's what it is.

 

I inquired about this increase and Woodstock’s reply


Good afternoon Todd,

Yes, unfortunately it is accurate. Tom is working on writing up an official explanation to post on our website which will outline in painful detail the reasons for the required increase. In the meantime below is a brief overview.

The cost of raw materials has been crushing and in the case of the catalytic combustors the cost of the precious metals coating alone was essentially the price we were selling the catalysts at. That did not account for the raw substrate material, the cost to heat oxidize the material, the stainless steel framing or the labor involved. Each catalyst we sold we were losing money and that is just not sustainable.

The same is true for cast and steel parts. Last year we paid 50% tariffs on all of the cast iron (plus high transportation costs) and those tariffs fees are not refundable. While the tariff amount did go down for cast and steel, it is still between 15-25%, plus even higher transportation costs.

While all the cost of raw materials have been going skyward, we have also been subjected to extreme delays at the EPA. A few years back 10 state air regulators sued the EPA (you can read about this online) and the EPA in turn revoked the cord wood test method. This is the method that the EPA pushed and actually requested manufacturers test with to achieve the new 2020 emissions limits. The loss of the cord wood method meant that any wood stove that had used the cord wood method would not be allowed to request recertification (a perfunctory task), but instead would have to retest using the crib wood method at the manufacturers expense. The loss of the cord wood testing meant roughly 100 different stoves from multiple manufactures had to go through the retesting and certification process. In the past it might take a few weeks for the EPA to review a certified test report and issue a new certificate and it is now averaging over 8 months. This delay is important because without a valid certification the stove(s) cannot be manufactured and shipped once the certification expires. As an example we tested the Progress Hybrid for the new certification in Nov/Dec of 2024 but didn't receive the Progress Hybrid certification until early December of 2025. Last year during our busiest time of year we were unable to ship our two most popular stoves, the Progress Hybrid and Ideal Steel Hybrid (still waiting for the Ideal certification).

This should give you a quick glimpse into the ugliness of being a small manufacturer at this point in time. As Tom would say it is the most difficult set of issues that he's encountered in his almost 50 years of running this company.

Please excuse any typos and my apologies for a long answer to your seemingly short question.

All the best,

 

Wow- Todd , thank you for posting this.

 

That sure is a sad story and very unfortunate. I just don't understand where this country is trying to go sometimes.

 

Just a quick comment about Woodstock. I called and talked with a girl about a stove rebuild. She said they don't do that.
I called back and Lorin answered. Lorin is the one that makes everything happen.
After a few emails, I'm ready to ship mine. Lorin is arranging the freight today.
Thank you, Lorin Day.

 

Tom - the guy in charge
Lorrin the woman who knows what heck is going on!

if you call pray Lorrin answers!

 

To be fair, their old cat prices were quite low. Of course, they were not available to be purchased either but the price was right. Can still buy BK cats, very similar size, for $240. Maybe I should buy a spare before the prices go up on those! Precious metals prices seem to really have gone up in the last few years.