What’s Going On with Woodstock Soapstone?

Todd · Jun 3, 2026

At $320 I won’t be buying an extra. I still have my cast iron cat frame with a slightly used ceramic cat so when my steely goes bad I’ll go back to ceramic. The ceramics should hopefully be a little cheaper but I’m not sure if they last as long?

RGrant · Jun 3, 2026

Highbeam said: ↑

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.
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I bought 2 last season when mine unspooled. I think I'm going to follow your lead here and have a couple on hand going forward. The odds of prices dropping seems impossible.

Fisher · Jun 11, 2026

Woodstock called me yesterday and they have sled assemblies for the Ideal Steel ready to ship.

billb3 · Jul 18, 2026

All stoves appear to be repriced and yet sold out/out of production for 2026.
Have they closed down completely for vacations before ?

Todd · Jul 23, 2026

billb3 said: ↑

All stoves appear to be repriced and yet sold out/out of production for 2026.
Have they closed down completely for vacations before ?
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I can’t recall ever seeing this happen before. Doesn’t look good, they should be busy building stoves for the upcoming season not on vacation.

RGrant · Jul 23, 2026

Todd said: ↑

I can’t recall ever seeing this happen before. Doesn’t look good, they should be busy building stoves for the upcoming season not on vacation.
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I could have sworn this was an annual summer break.

brenndatomu · Jul 23, 2026

RGrant said: ↑

I could have sworn this was an annual summer break.
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I was kinda thinking the same thing...could be wrong though

billb3 · Jul 23, 2026

The no more stoves for 2026 is disheartening.
I hope they are doing some subcontracting work to keep their guys busy and not enduring layoffs.

golf66 · Jul 25, 2026

Todd said: ↑

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,
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This is heartbreaking.