A masonry heater must have sufficient mass in order to radiantly heat a home. Without sufficient mass the surface temperatures of the heater become too hot resulting in the convection of hot air. The uncomfortable drafty effect is similar to that generated by a typical low mass woodstove, rather than the characteristic radiant sunshine of a well designed high mass masonry heater.

Over the past twenty years it has been our experience that the minimum soapstone mass required to obtain sustained radiant heat is well over 2000 pounds. This is more than 5 times the mass of a typical 300-400 pound soapstone wood stove.

Most of our projects involve soapstone heaters weighing 4000-8000 pounds. Often it is mistakenly assumed that the larger the mass of the masonry heater will overheat the room it is located in. Actually what happens is that the larger the mass, the more stable (less fluctuation) the temperature of the room in which it is located.

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