Design Progress

For those who have been waiting patiently for further details on our new stove, here are a few new images.

Catalytic Comeback

Woodstock is often asked why we use the catalytic combustor technology in our soapstone woodstoves. The article in the February, 2011 issue of "Hearth & Home" magazine provides a relevant look at the long term benefits and evolution of the catalytic combustor. Please read below or click here for the link, Catalytic Comeback.

The article confirms much of what we have been saying for years (catalytic stoves are cleaner and more efficient than non-cats), but it also mentions some additional benefits: First, catalytic stoves perform much better at low burn rates, and second, they are likely better with cold starts because the catalyst ignites more quickly than secondary combustion ignites in a non-catalytic stove.

Designer's Scale Model

To give everyone a better sense of scale, we have a side by side rough comparison of our current Fireview stove and the Designer's Stove Model of the New Stove (both front and side view).

This is not a perfect comparison. As you may notice, the body of the new stove is currently resting on the base of a Keystone/Palladian stove to give it the correct approximate height. The stone effect is simply drawn in with the green/blue colorations and the real legs of the stove will be more substantial than what's shown.

Thanks to feedback on our first few posts, we have incorporated an arched viewing window (see below).

While we will not be using the figure head as an emblem on the stove, this will give you some idea of what we can do with new carving software (and it can be cast!).

For more information about our Progress Hybrid Wood Stove, click here.

Masonry Heater

So, we got a little carried away and ended up with a stove ten times bigger than we planned. Just kidding... but this slide show is the first glimpse of our new stealth project, a soapstone masonry heater, which we just built in concert with our soapstone supplier.

We're working on re-designing the doors (loading door, bake-oven door, and ash door), to make them a little more contemporary. (Excuse the doors in the photos!)

Masonry heaters work on the same principle as our other stoves, which use the thermal mass of the stone to absorb and radiate heat slowly. A masonry heater has serpentine flame and exhaust paths throughout the large stove body, so eventually the whole stone structure is warmed. A morning and evening fire can heat an entire home.

We built our masonry heater on a welded steel pallet so we have the ability to move it in and out of our test booth, and we can't wait to get this monster going. We expect to start selling and installing masonry heaters this spring along with the other new stove we've been promising, which is also coming along quite nicely!

CAD models of new stove with plinth

For some fireplace installations, the height of our new stove can be reduced by replacing the legs with a plinth base. An ash pan isn't available on the plinth model.

CAD models of our hybrid stove

Our new stove...

will have the same eight-sided geometry as our popular Fireview model, but will have a larger firebox and higher BTU rating. These are Solidworks models only. The cast iron frame will have more detail than shown in these models but not as much ornamentation as the Fireview.

Pictured here with a right hand door, a left hand door will also be available. The door has a large soapstone panel. Knob hardware is in the works.

The stove features a 6 inch convertible flue collar so it can be vented from the top or the rear of the stove. An optional ashpan will be available. Check back for pictures of the "short leg" model, which is designed to sit down lower for restrictive fireplace installations.

Woodstock Soapstone Open House & Mortgage Burning Celebration/2010

Design preview

New stove update!

We expect our new, larger stove to be available in the first quarter of 2011. We're not taking orders yet, but........ We do know it will have a 6 inch convertible flue collar (top vent or rear vent).

Our early design, seen below, was created by Vance Smith. Vance and Al Wilker designed all of our gas stoves, as well as many stoves produced by other manufacturers, including Vermont Castings. Just as our gas stoves are updated versions of the original Franklin stoves, our new wood stove will be an updated version of our Fireview.

Vance would appreciate any feedback on the design sketches. Please feel free to send any comments, suggestions, or reactions to us at info@woodstove.com

Our New Stove. So far...

For all of you who have been patiently waiting for news, any news, about the planned addition to our line of soapstone stoves, we are excited to bring you some early information about what’s been going on in our R & D lab! And for any of you who haven’t heard, we’ve been working long and hard designing a new stove that is worthy of our already stellar lineup. Many of the features in the design were added as a direct response to feedback we’ve received from customers, and we’ve added a few twists of our own. Our primary requirements for a new stove have been:

(1) A higher maximum heat output
(2) A very broad range of outputs and fuel conditions
(3) Very efficient

(4) Very clean
(5) Not simply to meet EPA mandates, but to far exceed them, at the highest and lowest burn rates


We aren't quite ready to show an illustration of the larger stove, but we can say that it will be approximately 32"H x 30"W x 22"D. The design plan is for the same 8-sided configuration as the Fireview, but with a decidedly more contemporary look for the castings. The firebox will be almost 50% bigger than the Fireview.

The inside design is completely different from what we have done before as a result of one of our primary goals: MAXIMIZE efficiency and MINIMIZE emissions.

The new stove is truly a "hybrid" in the sense that it has a fully developed "secondary" burn plan and a catalytic combustor. Why both? Non-catalytic designs tend not to work very well (1) with wet wood, (2) for very long burns at LOW firing rates, (3) with inexperienced operators (i.e. those who don't get the secondaries lit after a cold start or after re-fueling), or (4) over a very broad range of operating conditions. They are not so good at low burns, very effective at moderate burns, and reasonably effective (to a point) at high burns. The hybrid has a greater range of output, greater efficiency, and is cleaner. Plus it cleans up carbon monoxide, methane and other combustion by-products - not things we are being graded on by the EPA (yet) but things that matter because they INCREASE efficiency and DECREASE pollution, which we do care about.

One thing we like about secondary burning is the view of the secondary flames. A lot of secondary combustion (non-cat) stoves have tubes under the top of the firebox, or secondary combustion in an insulated rear chamber (see illustrations 1 & 2). The problem with these designs is that you can't SEE the secondary combustion very well, if at all. In "tube-type" designs, you have to almost scrape your nose on the floor, and in "rear-chamber" designs, the secondary combustion is largely hidden in an insulated box in the rear of the stove.

Many non-cat stoves use secondary air tubes

directly under the stovetop, making it difficult to view.

This is too bad, because the "secondary" event is just as much fun to watch as the "primary" event. Watching the secondary gasses burning is as mesmerizing as watching the wood "burn". So we have located the secondary combustion air outlet across a fireback sloped to make the secondary activity as visible as possible to the stove owner!

Other non-cat stoves use a hidden rear

chamber for secondary combustion.

We've lost a lot of man-hours here at the shop

while employees stand staring at the firebox

of our new stove during test burns.It's quite a show!

Please check back with us from time to time. We will add new information as we move along in our development of the new stove and other product improvements as they happen.