We visited some friends at their camp in the Adirondacks this weekend. First thing in the door I notice there is a new Hearthstone sitting where an old, unused Franklin-type stove used to be. They were very pleased when I commented on it, and the wife started to talk glowingly about how happy they were with it. The small room it was in was nice and toasty with a small fire in the early coaling stage. The husband is a pretty bright guy, but didn't know that much about it, couldn't even remember the make or model, just that it was recommended to him and he bought it and had it professionally installed and was very happy with it.
We partied outside by a big bonfire until about 2 AM, when the frosty cold froze our backsides enough that we called it a night. We went back into the house and were expecting the house to be warm, but our room was cold as ice. We snuggled our drunken bodies under several comforters and passed out until morning.
When I woke up at 8:00, the fire was already going, but the room had dropped to 56ºF by the big digital thermometer they had on the wall. Puzzling, because even though there was a hard frost, there was no wind to drive the heated air out of the house. OK, whatever... let's get it warm again. The stove had a small bed of coals started, and every now and then the wife would come out and put a fresh split on. Every time she did this, smoke came pouring out of the door opening. An hour later, the room was all the way up to 59º. Then by 10 AM it was up the 63º. 2+ hours to raise the room temp 7º.
I started to play with the thing. I found the air control on the left side and pushed it all the way back to see what would happen. After about five minutes I couldn't see any difference. I opened the door a crack to let in more air. Nothing. I slowly opened it up more and smoke came billowing out. I then downloaded the owner's manual to my phone and saw that the draft had been in the open position the entire time. I grabbed a couple splits of some very seasoned cherry they had on their enclosed porch and threw them on top. This time there was enough fuel in there and you could see it was starting to take off. I waited about 5 minutes and then pushed the air lever back. For the first time, I saw some secondary action going on, but it was short lived. I opened the air back up all the way, but the fire failed to respond.
By 11 AM I finally got the stove percolating away. No jets of flame coming out of most of the manifold holes, but some nice purplish ghost-like flames dancing several inches above the wood and sliding up the slope of the manifold. So now... where's the heat? It was nudging up to 70º by then, and it was up to 73º by noon... a full four hours after it was first lit.
So what do you think is going on with this stove? I know it has a marginal chimney, but the stove was started when the outside temps were in the upper 20s. It actually seemed to draw a lot better later on in the morning when the outside air was 30º warmer.
The most disappointing thing for me was the heat output. Even when I finally had a decent fire going in it with OK secondaries, there was no feeling of 50K BTU coming off this stove. The room it is in is actually quite tiny and I thought the stove would be way over-sized for it. Wasn't the case while I was there. Four hours to get that small room up to 73º? My 50K BTU stove would have gotten that room uninhabitable in less that 1/2 hour.
What could be wrong? Why wouldn't that thing throw out heat? Unfortunately, no stove or flue temps to report (no thermometers), just my experience with what a stove that size should do in a small room. Any Hearthstone users have a similar problem? Are the air passages that restrictive in these stoves?
Chimney is a short (maybe 16') exterior masonry chimney with a 8" clay-tile flue and a cement block chase. There is a short vertical run of double-wall pipe (for clearance reasons) and one 90º elbow before it goes into the thimble. This is considered adequate in the owner's manual. I think another 4-5' would help a bit, but I wouldn't think that would provide a night and day difference. Again, even with a decent amount of wood and flame in there, there wasn't a lot of heat cranking out of it. I'm puzzled.
We partied outside by a big bonfire until about 2 AM, when the frosty cold froze our backsides enough that we called it a night. We went back into the house and were expecting the house to be warm, but our room was cold as ice. We snuggled our drunken bodies under several comforters and passed out until morning.
When I woke up at 8:00, the fire was already going, but the room had dropped to 56ºF by the big digital thermometer they had on the wall. Puzzling, because even though there was a hard frost, there was no wind to drive the heated air out of the house. OK, whatever... let's get it warm again. The stove had a small bed of coals started, and every now and then the wife would come out and put a fresh split on. Every time she did this, smoke came pouring out of the door opening. An hour later, the room was all the way up to 59º. Then by 10 AM it was up the 63º. 2+ hours to raise the room temp 7º.
I started to play with the thing. I found the air control on the left side and pushed it all the way back to see what would happen. After about five minutes I couldn't see any difference. I opened the door a crack to let in more air. Nothing. I slowly opened it up more and smoke came billowing out. I then downloaded the owner's manual to my phone and saw that the draft had been in the open position the entire time. I grabbed a couple splits of some very seasoned cherry they had on their enclosed porch and threw them on top. This time there was enough fuel in there and you could see it was starting to take off. I waited about 5 minutes and then pushed the air lever back. For the first time, I saw some secondary action going on, but it was short lived. I opened the air back up all the way, but the fire failed to respond.
By 11 AM I finally got the stove percolating away. No jets of flame coming out of most of the manifold holes, but some nice purplish ghost-like flames dancing several inches above the wood and sliding up the slope of the manifold. So now... where's the heat? It was nudging up to 70º by then, and it was up to 73º by noon... a full four hours after it was first lit.
So what do you think is going on with this stove? I know it has a marginal chimney, but the stove was started when the outside temps were in the upper 20s. It actually seemed to draw a lot better later on in the morning when the outside air was 30º warmer.
The most disappointing thing for me was the heat output. Even when I finally had a decent fire going in it with OK secondaries, there was no feeling of 50K BTU coming off this stove. The room it is in is actually quite tiny and I thought the stove would be way over-sized for it. Wasn't the case while I was there. Four hours to get that small room up to 73º? My 50K BTU stove would have gotten that room uninhabitable in less that 1/2 hour.
What could be wrong? Why wouldn't that thing throw out heat? Unfortunately, no stove or flue temps to report (no thermometers), just my experience with what a stove that size should do in a small room. Any Hearthstone users have a similar problem? Are the air passages that restrictive in these stoves?
Chimney is a short (maybe 16') exterior masonry chimney with a 8" clay-tile flue and a cement block chase. There is a short vertical run of double-wall pipe (for clearance reasons) and one 90º elbow before it goes into the thimble. This is considered adequate in the owner's manual. I think another 4-5' would help a bit, but I wouldn't think that would provide a night and day difference. Again, even with a decent amount of wood and flame in there, there wasn't a lot of heat cranking out of it. I'm puzzled.