I've never had a tube stove, but everytime I've looked inside one, those tubes looked beat up, fragile, rotting away or just plan not connected. The plate system Woodstock uses is as solid as a rock. Do any manufacturers still make/sell the tube types?
Yes Vermont soapstone does, friend has their Mansfield beautiful stove.. chimney cleaning company destroyed them 2x year 1 and 3 cleaning chimney. That year model most be removed to clean
Not sure if "tubeburners" is the correct slang but aren't there all sorts of that type of stove still available?
My wood saving is easily 30% and house is warmer. Uncle loves his mama bear. Easily 6-7 cord year! My home is larger; harder to heat with levels and vaulted ceiling’s. He still has hard time wrapping his head around my 4.5 cord average. Been heating with wood 45 years I know of
Almost all noncats use the perforated tubes with a very fragile fiber baffle on top of them. Only a couple of brands have embraced the perforated stainless steel baffle/secondary manifold concept which I think is superior. I have a standard tube noncat now and in the past and have not had any problems with the tubes. The stupid fiber baffle boards are way more fragile.
I just measured the pallet my Ideal Steel was shipped back to me on in July, and it measured 28"x30". Smaller than I thought it would be.
Everyone I know has the tube stoves, and for the most part I think they're ok, but the bigger issue is almost everyone I know burns wood that's maybe a year old but usually less than that. If you've followed any of my comments the last couple of years on here, I have been getting myself in gear to achieve the 3 year plan (and think I'm there now) but I've supplemented my less than dry wood supply with compressed wood bricks. --> Also got my inlaws to go in on a pallet of wood bricks / we each took half. They were burning mostly oak, but it was terrible. I mean like 9 months cut stacked and split. Even still they made do. All that said- I have a catalytic stove and like Oldhippie was saying The plat/baffle system in my stove is really sturdy and just looks awesome when it is burning. I think this year I'm going to have perhaps my best insight into how well this stove performs accounting for drier wood, and less user error than before. Not no user error, just less haha. I'm actually kind of excited to see how this works for oldspark when you get it installed. I think you'll be happy and I doubt you'll have any buyer's remorse with that liner.
Not all woods take 3 years for me to get to 15% which is as low as it gets here in my neck of the woods no mattet how many years I dry it. I cut down a large Pin Oak (live tree) and it's gonna take 3 years to get there. I plan on letting the site know how this goes, cant wait to see how it all turns out.
Looking forward to see how well your new Woodstock will compare to your previous stoves. I remember your frustration with the PE. I’ve burned a lot of stoves cat and non cat and I always seemed to burn 3-4 cords, maybe a bit less with a cat but not much. The most wood I went through was with my Blaze King probably just because I was so amazed at the long burn times so I was burning during the shoulder seasons when I really didn’t need to lol.
Where might I look into the stainless steel baffle that you mentioned ? My Mansfield is in need of a new baffle.
I don’t think you can outfit a stove to use a SS baffle if it wasn’t originally designed to use one. PE and WS both have designed their stoves with SS parts instead of the fire board.
Not to hijack or anything, but the baffle/tube discussion is a common topic at my local shop these days. My favorite stove company, Travis Industries, used to always use a steel bracket system with firebrick for a baffle. It was awesome. Ive heard their newer stoves (most recent Liberty models?) have gone to a baffle board instead. I really hope that it’s not prone to failures like other brands.
Hearthstone advised me against the stainless baffle saying their baffle is in accord with EPA guidelines and the stainless may alter emissions and clearances.
If you’re careful, the ceramic baffles last many years. It only takes just the slightest bump to gouge one or crack it. When I had a heritage from hearthstone I replaced the baffle once in 7 years. Always packing it full is the risky behavior.
I ran a lopi freedom bay with that firebrick baffle setup. Had to replace a couple of the steel supports but it worked great. I’m sure it wasn’t clean enough.
Don't hold your breath. My ship date was 09/10, and it's looking like my stove won't ship before next week, which will in turn likely lead to me having to cancel my installation appointment on October 5. If I can't get it in then, it's unlikely I'll be able to before April. Considering I ordered the stove before July 4, I am both disappointed in and frustrated with Woodstock. I guess my options are to eat the $250, cancel my order and tell them to shove the stove they built me where the sun doesn't shine, or to deal with their wildly inaccurate timeline and have the distinct possibility of not being able to burn at all this winter. Lovely. Should have just gone with a Regency or PE from a local dealer. At this point, how the stove performs is irrelevant, the run-around I've gotten with regards to when my stove will actually be ready is enough for me to never recommend a Woodstock to anyone.
Its not just WS...EVERYBODY is struggling to do what they do in a timely manner right now...supply chain ("labor shortage") issues from A to Z
