Catalytic soapstone vs. cast iron stove vs. jacketed steel

Next year we may be able to look at getting a free standing stove, not in our fireplace and I have the option to keep our Jotul Castine as a cost saving measure, but I'm looking at other options.

I've done a bit of reading on Woodstock stoves, particularly the Fireview. Another contender is an Alderlea T-5.

So with our Jotul, I get the stove up to temp, close down the primary air and let it cruise at 550 or so. We get a few hours of 500 degree heat and it cycles down. Repeat. The room really heats up and cools in cycles.

What are Fireview owners experience with the heat output? I've read btu output is around 47k or so, is the output pretty consistent through the burn cycle on whatever setting it is at? I've also read up to a 12hr burn time, does it cycle like a cast iron stove, or is it a consistent heat? The burn time is a big plus, as well as the efficiency.

I like the swing top on the Alderlea for cooking and also north/south loading for loading it up better than the Jotul.

We are probably going to be looking for a stove that will not heat us out of the room, but provide a steady, even heat over a longer time.

Jotul F-45 is also a contender.

I appreciate any thoughts on your experiences.

 

I see you beat me to the popcorn eating party Chaz. Mind if I join?

I guess I'll bring the

 

Yep, there's room over here and enuff popcorn to share.

 

I can't speak to the Fireview in particular, but our experience with Woodstock's Ideal Steel has been that it is very controllable. We can load out fully and run STT between 350 and 600 for hours at a time, based on how hot we let it get upon loading and the air setting we set it to for "cruise speed." Lower temperature desired equals a longer burn, of course. I'd imagine the Fireview, with a few hundred pounds more soapstone than the lining and side panels on my IS have, would offer an even more smooth heat arc.

 

So I'm thinking with a cat, it burns at a (s)lower rate extracting more heat from the smoke, thus extending burn times?

I'm used to cast iron and how it radiates heat. I've never been around a Fireview running in a home, so I'm trying understand what it is like burning. Alderlea is more convective is what I've read.

 

I can’t speak for the fireview yet but that may change. We have a IS now in our basement, it puts out the most pleasant heat I’ve ever experienced. My wife and I find ourselves cold if we’re not in the basement even though the upstairs will be 75. We are considering a fireview for our upstairs. I am still in shock when I go to load the stove in the mornings and stt be at 300-400 after 7-8 hours. I am sold on soapstone heat!!!


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I’m a new guy here, with a new Fireview, but I’ll add my 2 cents anyway. Im not new to firewood burning, and I’ve owned a Jotul 3CB, on this very hearth that we were very dissatisfied with due to it’s hard to control nature and inability to hold a fire overnight. The 3CB does have a small firebox but I couldn’t shut the air down on ours no matter what so it would drive us out then we would freeze. Not so with the Fireview! In all fairness to the Jotul we had an insulated liner installed in our chimney for the Fireview and that makes a difference, although it drastically increased our draft and I’m not sure that would’ve been good with a hard to control stove lol.
By comparison, it’s around freezing here this morning, I loaded the Fireview for an almost cold start at 8 last night and I still haven’t touched it at 8:05 this morning. I opened the draft control to about 1.25 at about 6 to reduce the coals before the next load. It’s still 77 in the stove room and 71 upstairs in our raised ranch.
This is a pretty typical experience so far, and we’ve had a couple days and nights already where the chill factor was well below zero with howling winds and single digit temperatures. Under those circumstances I’m still getting a good 8 hours of productive heat with plenty of coals.
Yesterday morning I decided I’d let the fire go out to clean the cat, etc, and I ended up working on a very warm stove in the early evening with a fair amount of coals despite the bypass and damper air control being open all day and me stirring the coals at least once an hour. This thing holds the heat! As I was reloading I could still see some red in the ashes and the stove temperature was around 150-175 24 hours after the last load.
You can drive yourself out of the room if you want, but we find the heat output to be much softer than any of the cast or steel stoves we’ve owned over the years, so it takes longer to get to that point it seems, and the heat seems to radiate better somehow. You can also get a nice long, low burn if that’s all you need. On warm days I’ll put a couple sticks at a time in every 4-5 hours for some nice soft heat.
During an overnight burn I’ve come downstairs 4-5 hours in and I see the STT usually around 500-550 and at 8-10 hours it’s down around 400. An hour after loading it’s at 600-675 depending on the load. I’m always impressed by how much heat the stone is still radiating even after the STT falls because 300, and it’s still got enough hot coals after 16-18 hours to not need kindling. I haven’t split much kindling yet, haven’t had to. I only used 3 pieces yesterday afternoon for my top down relight, using 1/4 super cedar.
I just can’t imagine an easier stove to run, although I believe all the new Woodstock hybrids are just that! And more efficient still, which just amazes me! So if there’s a better stove on the market than the Fireview I believe it’s another Woodstock stove, and it’s a hybrid, take your pick. But for aesthetics and functionality combined, we couldn’t find a better combination than our Fireview.
I would be happy with one of the newer stoves but my wife didn’t like the looks of them. To her it’s gotta be enameled cast iron or Soapstone if it’s in a living area. The Progress is just too big for us, and we will need to run our heat pump upstairs when it’s below zero most likely, but we’re heating almost 2100 sq ft and the stove is on the lower level at one end, so not ideal but again, it’s so far ahead of the Jotul that there’s no comparison. I know when I’m done tightening up the house we won’t need the heat pump anymore.
Last thing I’d like to mention is ease of maintenance. I cleaned the cat and iconel screen yesterday and adjusted the bypass damper door all in a matter of a few minutes once the stove cooled enough to open the top, all while standing in front of it, not on my head or some other contortion. That’s huge for an ole fart like me! I know sometime in the future I’ll be tearing it down to replace gaskets and such but the way it’s built I don’t think it’ll be that bad of a job. It’s well designed from that aspect as well imho.
I hope that helps. I’m sure some more experienced voices will chime in here soon!
Good luck with your decision!

 

Yeah you can put the flames out in the box and only see the cat glow at the top of the glass and the STT will be over 500, and if it’s set just right you’ll see occasional ghost flames fill the box, then die down, and repeat. It’s the coolest thing to watch! Very mesmerizing! Of course you know this is with nice dry wood only, but I’m preaching to the choir here I think.

 

Thank you for these posts Maina. They are very helpful. The next stove will be for supplemental heat and I'm not looking to use it as a primary heat source because of the location where it is going.

I also believe the heat retained in the soap stone will be nice compared to cast iron giving up the heat quicker.

 

I have a T5. It is a great stove and completely simply. You are right though that the temp/heat output cycle is more extreme tham a cat stove. I would also add that the cast iron is purely decorative. You can touch the iron on the sides when the stove is running. The Super 27 is the same firebox without the cast iron.

 

Thank you Mike. The swing away cook top appeals to me quite a bit, but that is secondary to a stove that distributes even heat. I do love some home made soup that I could simmer on the stove top. There is a local dealer not too far from here, but they did not have any Alderleas on display.

 

It absolutely holds and radiates the heat longer than cast iron. I just decided to reload mine after 13 hours and I took a few pictures for you to give you an idea of what I’m seeing.
When I first opened the door...

Pulled the coals to the front...

What I put in...

STT

Pipe temperature

Within 5 minutes I closed the bypass and engaged the cat and set it at 1.5. I’ll close down to about .75 over 10-15 minutes and we’ll be cruising again. It’s still 76 in the stove room and 70 upstairs.

 

Thank you Dennis. Lots to consider here and great information. My only exposure to soapstone was my neighbors non-cat Hearthstone. It cooked us out of his stove room. I'm sure it can't even be compared to a Fireview.

I'm surprised reading how the Fireview uses only a few splits for the burn times being posted. The cat technology really shows in that aspect. It also sounds like the draft can be controlled easily and precisely with numbered settings.

 

Very impressive coal bed after 13 hours Maina. How often do the ashes have to be removed? It looks like plenty of room for more splits on a cold day. This leads me to the next question.

If you have say 5 splits in the box, can the heat output be controlled like having 3 splits in the box? Does having more splits extend burn times without throwing a lot of heat out?

 

I find I’m removing ashes about weekly so far. It’s very easy to keep them burned down by just opening the draft setting after the load gets down to coals. That keeps the heat output up nicely as well.
I’m still learning how to run this stove properly mind you, but so far I’ve found if I want less heat I need to put less wood in. I can load it completely and turn it way down and it takes longer to reach 600+ STT but it does eventually, and for a few hours before it starts to slowly drop off. With 3 splits like I just loaded an hour ago it’s reached it’s peak at 550 and it’ll be there a couple hours then start slowly dropping. I find this is great on these days just above freezing. This definitely puts out less heat with a smaller load for me. I can’t get it to stay below 600 on a full load, not with dry wood at least. I haven’t really tried to see how low I can run it though. I prefer to see a little flame even if it’s on and off but a lot of people talk about black box burning and I haven’t gotten that far yet. I’m not sure that’s the way I want to run it anyway.
TurboDiesel might be able to shed some light on the long low burn capabilities vs the hybrid IS. And I think Oldhippie has his old FV?
What’s working for us on warmer days is just building a small fire whenever we need a little heat and I did have to open a few windows until I learned what a small fire really is for this stove. It doesn’t take much

 

I don't really do anything but full loads. Maybe on one of those 40' degree days in late march or early October, but I just usually do a full load, get it up to 250STT and then engage the CAT, wait another 10 to 15 mins and then set t to 1 on the draft. Come back and do it again 8 hours later.

I also have an Absolute Steel in the downstairs (basement) finished off family room. That stove will burn from 10PM at night through to noonish the next day before it needs wood again when I fill it. But I'll usually replenish the the load about 9AM. it's downstairs so no rush to go tend to it.

I deal with my ashes in the Fv at more frequently than I need to, but I've got a decent system worked out with using a small camper shovel and a 5 gallon galvanized bucket. If I burn down the coals I rake the coals to the rear and the ash to the front of the stove and then one or 2 shovels full and I'm done. Pretty easy to do before loading up and prevents me coaling so much in the really cold weather. I'm not in love this one down side to the Fv, as compared to the killer ashpan system in the PH, IS and AS, but I love the Fv so much that I forgive it this one pita.