craftsbury wood stove

[doglady]

Just want to update my Craftsbury info. I had a damper installed in the stovepipe-thanks to the person who encouraged that. It seems to have helped with the problem and I can control the stove better. So, all in all, I'm happier with the stove than I was a few months ago.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the update. Good to hear that it is working better for you. I couldn't control our old Jotul 602 well without the stack damper. It made a big difference.

 

[lchm51]

I have purchased a lovable little Craftsbury this season and so far not impressed with the performance . Its not as great as I was told it was going to be and I want to find out the reason. The total pipe and chimney is straight up and only 13 feet. The wood is hard seasoned maple , oak or ash .. I have put a damper in the pipe about 1 foot from the stove and still have too much draft after closeing the inlet on the stove . supposedly tight. I also have left the ash pan full and just clean out the stove .. on a full burn , i may get 2 hrs , but not usually .. what now ?

 

[begreen]

Welcome. With only 13' of pipe, strong draft should not be an issue. Have the door gaskets and ashpan door gaskets been checked doing the dollar bill test? If there is air leaking in from either location it will accelerate burning.

PS: Maybe good to start a new thread on this. There are some new Craftsbury stove owners now that could benefit from this info and may have some suggestions.

 

[doglady]

I had the same problem with the one I bought last year. Finally I called the president of Hearthstone who was very nice and helpful. There are 2 things you need to do:

1-remove the 2 screws of the primary air control lever. They are located at the bottom front right (stove's right) of the stove. This will allow you to close the lever completely. My stove shop was going to come and do this but I was able to do it myself.

2-while that helped somewhat, it did not solve the problem so my stove shop installed a damper in the stove pipe. That made a big difference in that I could control the fire.

Since you have already put in the damper, do step 1. It should make a difference. When I shut the stove down at night there are still embers in it so making a new fire is easy. Good luck!

 

[Jukeboxfun]

I bought a Craftsbury in October '07 because of the soapstone inside and the rich brown majolica enamel. But I am very disappointed in it. It eats wood like crazy. I also have a Hampton Regency 200 so I can compare the 2 stoves. My Hampton will burn all night. The Craftsbury has to have wood put in every 2 hours and it does not retain the heat as advertised-they say 7-8 hours. Once the fire is out and it goes out pretty fast it gets cold. So I have to decide is which part of the house I'm going to spend time in and only make a fire in that stove. I thought 5 cords of wood would get me through the winter but no way. My dealer didn't know what to think of it but said others have had the problem. The stove goes into my fireplace and the elbow on the flue bends so they can't put in a damper. I called the president of Hearthstone and he was very nice and sent me directions on how to removes the screw on the air control sider so that it goes in further but that really didn't help. The wood I'm burning is 2 years old. When I told him that he replied "Two year old dry wood may burn a little uncontrollably. These stoves are tested with 8-20% moisture wood." I don't know what that means, but if someone does, please let me know. Next year I may use Biobricks. I was thinking of trading it, but to make it worse I noticed today there are small raised bumps on left side of the door. That's a very unlikely place for it to have gotten hit with anything or for anything to have dropped on it so I don't know how they got there. Could it be the high heat of the stove? My advice, don't buy this stove until they figure out how to better control the burn.

I have a new Craftsbury and haven't really tried a long burn yet. My house is small so I needed a small stove so it wouldn't get too hot and run us out of the room. It would be nice to get a least a 5 hour burn in it. I sent a PM to you requesting the info to remove the screw on the air contol. Thanks for your help.

 

[lchm51]

I have given the dollar bill test and the stove passed it very well.. I have just removed the screw on the air control on the stove which should let it close tighter .. Warm weather at the moment is holding me up from lighting it up .. but hopefully this has helped ... thank you . will send another reply . when I do the next test of burning ..

 

[downeast]

Nice, informative, on target thread .....good job all. :exclaim:

Now, maybe we could get some of the same for the Oslo front door ash dilemma. :question:

 

[lchm51]

Ok ,, I lit it up last nite and got some good results .. Taking the screw out of the stove damper lever helped out a lot . The draft slowed considerably and didnt over fire. Wood lasted longer , but dont think i will get the "7" hrs that is advertised for the Craftsbury. About 4 , with coals to get some more going in the am.. maybe with a load of seasoned oak it could be possible .. we shall see ..