Woodstock Soapstone Blog

The Air Control Damper is simple, intuitive, and conveniently located on the radius of the ash lip.  You can easily slide it open and closed with your foot!  As you move the air control damper, a link moves the damper plate across two openings; one for primary air and one for secondary air.  The rat..

For the Design Challenge Stove, we wanted our leg height to be adjustable for fireplace installations; the stove sides to be customizable (with or without stone, or owner requested artwork).  Plus, we needed a place to put a Thermoelectric generator, a place to hang accessories, and a way to attach ..

On the Design Challenge Stove, we position the operating catalyst right under the cooktop, tilted slightly toward the front of the stove (it slides back when not in use).To capture the radiant heat of the catalyst, we install a simple radiation plate above the catalyst.  The radiation plate has a la..

We haven’t posted much this week because we’ve been so busy!  It’s getting cold and we have to take care of our customers (who all wait until the first frost to order stoves, ask for advice, or order parts).We are scheduled to send our Design Challenge stove out for EPA testing at the end of next we..

The Woodstove Design Challenge has focused our attention on questions that we hadn’t really addressed before:1. Can we make a really high performance woodstove that is completely affordable?2. We don’t have the chutzpah to think we can produce a stove design that will make everyone happy.  So, how d..

The Design Challenge Stove is carefully engineered for smoke-free loading even under marginal draft conditions:1.  The andirons tilt forward to reduce activity in the coalbed (see Blogpost:  Under the Hood 3: Andirons - movable, removable, customizable).2. We added an air foil nose on the front of t..

The Design Challenge Stove has a sloping secondary combustion chamber, which has two big advantages:1. You can easily see the secondary flames because the sloping fireback is clearly visible below the height of the door opening, and2. You can easily vent into a fireplace opening. Because the seconda..

First, one of our young customers recently sent us a note and some pictures that we just had to share.Second, an Email from a Progress Hybrid owner:Dear folks,I had to write to tell you how pleased we are with our Progress Hybrid Woodstove. First of all, it is so beautiful to see in my hearth. But w..

On our design challenge stove, we have added “catalyst air” - an air intake controlled by a self adjusting bi-metallic coil which feeds a perforated stainless steel tube located behind the catalyst. Here’s the dilemma “catalyst air” is designed to solve:The hybrid is very clean and efficient. On a v..

Our andirons are custom cut from 1/2” plate steel, and mounted on a thick hinged plate.  When the loading door is closed, the andirons are locked in place by a security tab on the door.Your choice of andirons- or you can design your own! A small sample is shown above.Moose Andirons in one of our tes..

The catalyst bypass lever has to be lifted before the front loading door can be opened, otherwise the door cannot be opened more than a few inches.The catalyst  is mounted on the bypass damper (the “sled”).When the catalyst is engaged (bypass lever down), the sled is right under the cooktop, in the ..

 Thanks to everyone who offered to be a beta tester!  We are moderately swamped.  Initially we will keep the stoves close to home (NE/Eastern NY).  Our focus is on testing under different draft conditions (and both top and rear exits) to focus on front window cleanness,  smoke-free loading, and ease..

The Steal Hybrid has a firebox design with both a catalytic combustor and secondary combustion. We’ve been testing it all winter, and are pleased with both efficiency and emissions results (more on that later). The test units don’t look like much, but we have been more interested in performance than..

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When we entered the Alliance for Green Heat Woodstove Design Contest, we  (naively) thought we had to design something new to enter.  We didn’t realize that we could enter our (relatively new) Progress Stove which was, after all, the first hybrid stove sold in the US.  So we went about designing a N..

Calling all friends and owners of Woodstock Soasptone Company Stoves!In February, Woodstock Soapstone's Union Hybrid Woodstove design was chosen as a finalist in the international Wood Stove Design Challenge.The challenge, put forth by the Alliance for Green Heat, was to develop and build an afforda..

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is coordinating a program aimed at replacing older, inefficient, and polluting wood stoves with modern EPA certified wood stoves that offer much greater efficiency and are far cleaner burning.Woodstock Soapstone Co. firmly believes that the future of wood burnin..

The Alliance for Green Heat has listed the finalists for the Wood Stove Design Challenge, an international competition to build an affordable, cleaner-burning wood stove for residential heating.Our Ideal Steel Hybrid, has been chosen among the 14 finalists for this contest.The testing and judging wi..

We are working on another new high-efficiency stove (and a few “accessories”),  which should be ready to preview before the end of the year. We’re postponing our Annual Fall Open House/Pig Roast till late November or December so that owners who come for the festivities can get a good look at..

After much delay, the Progress Hybrid has finally made it's debut on page 10 of the EPA's Certified Wood Stove List!  The Progress is listed as a Catalytic-Hybrid (the only hybrid on the list) and has the highest listed efficiency rating of 81%.  Now put that in your pipe and smoke it! Click on ..