Hearthstone Heritage not producing enough heat

[Winged Pig]

is your 350 degree temp on the stovepipe or on the top?

Sorry I missed this, the temp is from the center top stone. I went back to an older pile and the wood is better but I still can't really get the temps to go much above 400. It will stay around 400 for as long as I feed it, and it's heating the house just fine, but I'm not sure why my temps don't go above that.

 

[weatherguy]

If your wood is 15-20% it's fine if that's the reading on the face of a fresh cut split at room temp.

 

[ispinwool]

Sorry I missed this, the temp is from the center top stone. I went back to an older pile and the wood is better but I still can't really get the temps to go much above 400. It will stay around 400 for as long as I feed it, and it's heating the house just fine, but I'm not sure why my temps don't go above that.

This is the type of thermometer I have...
Most of the time the temp hovers in the center of the white burn zone...but late in the burning season last year and beginning this year it was struggling to get that hot..


...but.... just last week I realized that I have a baffle broken in two places...you may want to check yours.

 

[begreen]

This is the type of thermometer I have...
Most of the time the temp hovers in the center of the white burn zone...but late in the burning season last year and beginning this year it was struggling to get that hot..
View attachment 234039

...but.... just last week I realized that I have a baffle broken in two places...you may want to check yours.

That's cool for flue temps. Has it improved after getting the baffle replaced? Have you had the chimney checked for cleaning recently?

 

[ispinwool]

That's cool for flue temps. Has it improved after getting the baffle replaced? Have you had the chimney checked for cleaning recently?

Hmmm....I was thinking 400-450 was pretty good--guess I still have some research to do! (thanks! )
As for the baffle, I'm still waiting on it... Also the chimney sweep--he's scheduled for Dec 19.

 

[Winged Pig]

I checked my baffle when I saw the post about the baffle support. Mine was laying down on top of the baffle and I put it back into position. Everything looked good. My thermometer is on the top center stone and it's about 400 or just short of that most of the time. I cleaned out my chimney and the stove pipe about three weeks before I started burning it this year and everything looked great.

A side note, last year when I cleaned the chimney I noticed about an 8th inch think or a little more of what looked like shiny black glass on the inside of the chimney near the top. It went from the top to about three feet down, from what I could see. I ran the brush over it about 15 times with almost no luck breaking it up. After checking around I purchased a granular product called Creosote Conditioner. It comes with a little scoop that you use to pour a little bit directly on the fire. As I was trying to clean up what I had found I used a bit more than suggested. When I cleaned the chimney this year everything black on the inside of the chimney flaked right off with only two or three passes of the brush. It hasn't looked this clean since we moved here. Needless to say I'm using it again this year.

Sorry to get off track...

Anyway, my baffle looks great, the support is in the proper position, and I think I'm burning wood that is pretty good, but I still can't get the stove temps much over 400. The glass is clean and the firebox looks pretty good too without much build up there either. It's heating the house good and the stove and chimney look pretty clean. I also checked the flue temps with a laser thermometer and can easily get 500 to 550 there, but the manual says to check the top center stone.

Maybe I'm making something out of nothing? I don't know, but thanks for those who responded to this thread and particularly my posts.

 

[begreen]

Hmmm....I was thinking 400-450 was pretty good--guess I still have some research to do! (thanks! )
As for the baffle, I'm still waiting on it... Also the chimney sweep--he's scheduled for Dec 19.

Sorry, it's not bad as long as the thermometer is accurate. I don't trust Rutlands, but maybe this one is ok.

 

[ispinwool]

Sorry, it's not bad as long as the thermometer is accurate. I don't trust Rutlands, but maybe this one is ok.

....I just happened to have a new thermometer on my list of "need to buy" items! As you can see from the pic, the needle
doesn't go to '0' anymore. I figure it has issues so I'll get a new one today. ....and I'll look for something other than a Rutland

 

[Highbeam]

Hmmm....I was thinking 400-450 was pretty good--guess I still have some research to do! (thanks! )
As for the baffle, I'm still waiting on it... Also the chimney sweep--he's scheduled for Dec 19.

I believe your photo of the flue meter sitting at 200 caused concern, that’s too cool during the hot part of the cycle but fine as the coals dwindle. I really like and recommend the condar meters.

 

[Highbeam]

I checked my baffle when I saw the post about the baffle support. Mine was laying down on top of the baffle and I put it back into position. Everything looked good. My thermometer is on the top center stone and it's about 400 or just short of that most of the time. I cleaned out my chimney and the stove pipe about three weeks before I started burning it this year and everything looked great.

A side note, last year when I cleaned the chimney I noticed about an 8th inch think or a little more of what looked like shiny black glass on the inside of the chimney near the top. It went from the top to about three feet down, from what I could see. I ran the brush over it about 15 times with almost no luck breaking it up. After checking around I purchased a granular product called Creosote Conditioner. It comes with a little scoop that you use to pour a little bit directly on the fire. As I was trying to clean up what I had found I used a bit more than suggested. When I cleaned the chimney this year everything black on the inside of the chimney flaked right off with only two or three passes of the brush. It hasn't looked this clean since we moved here. Needless to say I'm using it again this year.

Sorry to get off track...

Anyway, my baffle looks great, the support is in the proper position, and I think I'm burning wood that is pretty good, but I still can't get the stove temps much over 400. The glass is clean and the firebox looks pretty good too without much build up there either. It's heating the house good and the stove and chimney look pretty clean. I also checked the flue temps with a laser thermometer and can easily get 500 to 550 there, but the manual says to check the top center stone.

Maybe I'm making something out of nothing? I don't know, but thanks for those who responded to this thread and particularly my posts.

So hearthstones run high flue temperatures. Mine would easily run past 1000 internal which corresponds with 500 on the outside. Be careful not to let your single wall skin flue temps run past 500 as that is the rated maximum continuous temperature for class a pipe.

Did you use that laser meter to check the stove top meter accuracy?

I remember it taking a long time and a lot of fuel to get the stove top up to the 500 or 550 maximum that hearthstone specified.

If your fuel is dry, split it down to 3-5 inches on the butt end and load it loosely to allow the fire to rip!

 

[Winged Pig]

Thanks, and yes I checked the stone temp with the laser and the disk thermometer seems to match up pretty good. As far as the flue temps go I have only obtained that 500 degree reading in one spot on the pipe, about two inches or so up from the stove connection. If I go up past that the temp starts to fall off pretty quickly, to as much as 200 degrees about 1 to 1.5 feet above that. I just pulled the pipe about a week ago and everything looks good on the inside of it.

 

[Highbeam]

200 on the skin of single wall is too cold during the time when you’re trying to heat up the stove or really anytime there are flames. Water (and creosote) condense out of the exhaust at 212 so you want no less than that temperature all the way up. Get that pipe up into the 300-400 range. It also tells us your fire is not burning well. Give it more air, split smaller, load fuller, and load looser until you can get that flue hotter. The stove temps will follow.

It’s getting easy to mix up the posters on this thread. Hoping all involved have their stove assembly correct and want a stone noncat hotter!

 

[Winged Pig]

Sorry, I meant 200 degrees less, not 200 total.

 

[Woody Stover]

It’s getting easy to mix up the posters on this thread. Hoping all involved have their stove assembly correct and want a stone noncat hotter!

Yeah, it would be nice to hear if @GreenLiving57 has had any better results yet..

 

[ispinwool]

So after quite a kerfuffle our new baffle is installed and awaiting a new fire!
Seems like it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

[FYI: Our local shop almost 'took me to the cleaners'--they were going to charge me $225.00 for the same
baffle I found via Amazon for $65...I'm glad I shopped around.]

 

[begreen]

Was the Amazon baffle a Hearthstone OEM baffle or one of the SuperWool baffles?

 

[ispinwool]

Was the Amazon baffle a Hearthstone OEM baffle or one of the SuperWool baffles?

I'm not sure what OEM means but the baffle I got looks exactly like the one it came with. Lynn Manufacturing
was the dealer through Amazon.

It's definitely not 'superwool' --the chimney sweep
left some with me to plug up the holes in the orig baffle until the replacement got here so I know
what it looks like.

 

[begreen]

OEM = original equipment manufacturer. Was it this one?
https://www.amazon.com/d/Fireplace-...nt-Hearthstone-Heritage/B071VG7L3B/ref=sr_1_1

If so, it's not OEM. Lynn Manufacturing makes the Superwool plus baffle. That's a trademark name from Morgan Advanced Materials. I am very curious about this material. It will be great if this works as well or better that the factory ceramic baffle. It costs less and Lynn claims it performs better. Keep us posted on how it stands up.


(broken link removed to http://www.lynnmfg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DATA-TC-1114-115.pdf)

 

[Rich L]

Hi,

I have a new Hearthstone Heritage, that I have been operating for about 6 weeks now. I'm at 8500 feet, in a cold forested mountain canyon, in Northern NM near the Colorado border. I'm sitting here after cranking this darn stove all day, at a cool 59 degrees, about 15' from the stove.

This is going to be a detailed post - but my main two questions are going to be, should I take a bath financially and replace this stove with a larger, steel type stove that will CRANK the heat out. And if so, looking for advice on what to get for my situation. A large Lopi maybe?

I'm having problems keeping the Temps above 350 degrees - picture attached of my current Temp, mid afternoon, after feeding and messing with the stove ALL DAY and still under 400....... I'm having a problem heating my rammed earth home with it. I admittingly have a home that would be very tough for any wood stove - this is due to the 6' (that's SIX FEET) thick rammed earth wall on one side, a thick cold uninsulated stone floor on the bottom, and a 3' thick rammed earth wall on another side - meaning much of the heat from ANY wood stove is going to be sucked away into all this mass. To add to this equation, I have tons of glass on my south side which is great when the sun shines, not so great during cold cloudy weather.

However, my previous stove, was a small, less than a grand new cheapo steel stove, and it actually performed BETTER than this Heritage does. And this is after me spending nearly 4K with delivery and tax. OUCH!

I have read countless threads on this forum with other people with similar issues. Have tried a lot of their advice. Nothing has worked so far.

I'm not a new to wood stoves, I have lived with wood heat my entire life. I'm a total newbie to EPA soapstone type stoves.
All my wood is completely dry seasoned, verified WELL under 17% moisture - checked with a meter, although, like most folks who have been doing this for a while, I can pretty much tell seasoned wood by the look, feel, smell, sound, etc......

I have tried many different varieties of wood the past month, the typical woods of my area of the Southwest, Ponderosa, Aspen, Spruce, Fir, Cedar and the best local wood Pinon, - and my latest expense, I bought a cord of dry White Oak - which definitely increases the burn time, but has done nothing to help get this stove up to say 500 degrees, and stay there.
I find when going with a soapstone bigger is best.Start with the Mansfield and go up from there.

I have to laugh when I recall several people told me this Heritage would "cook me" out of my small home - around 800 square feet interior. I wish. Today we are having a record breaking, January type cold spell - temps supposed to fall below zero tonight, I have been carefully loading, and reloading all day, to try and keep the stove above 350. I'm struggling to keep this home above 60 degrees. I have tried seemingly every combination of the air lever, keeping the "dog house" clean, using small splits, getting it hot with door cracked first etc etc......nothing has worked for me yet.

So anyway, after 6 weeks of constant tweaking with this stove, I'm at my wits end, and just wondering if I made a huge error, in not getting a large Steel type stove that will CRANK out the heat - not this slow stuff mellow stuff I'm getting out of my Heritage.....

I so recall the wood stoves of my youth, pre-EPA, that would get blazingly hot, with any and all wood, and were a CINCH to operate compared to this Heritage which I have yet to figure out.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts, comments, or advice.

I find that going with a soapstone stove bigger is best.Start with a Mansfield and go up from there.

 

[ispinwool]

OEM = original equipment manufacturer. Was it this one?
https://www.amazon.com/d/Fireplace-...nt-Hearthstone-Heritage/B071VG7L3B/ref=sr_1_1

If so, it's not OEM. Lynn Manufacturing makes the Superwool plus baffle. That's a trademark name from Morgan Advanced Materials. I am very curious about this material. It will be great if this works as well or better that the factory ceramic baffle. It costs less and Lynn claims it performs better. Keep us posted on how it stands up.

View attachment 238241
(broken link removed to http://www.lynnmfg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DATA-TC-1114-115.pdf)

yes, it's the one in the Amazon link. I had a bit of head-scratching trying to get it to seat properly...but once I figured
it out, it's fine.

 

[ispinwool]

Hi,

I have a new Hearthstone Heritage, that I have been operating for about 6 weeks now. I'm at 8500 feet, in a cold forested mountain canyon, in Northern NM near the Colorado border. I'm sitting here after cranking this darn stove all day, at a cool 59 degrees, about 15' from the stove.

This is going to be a detailed post - but my main two questions are going to be, should I take a bath financially and replace this stove with a larger, steel type stove that will CRANK the heat out. And if so, looking for advice on what to get for my situation. A large Lopi maybe?

I'm having problems keeping the Temps above 350 degrees - picture attached of my current Temp, mid afternoon, after feeding and messing with the stove ALL DAY and still under 400....... I'm having a problem heating my rammed earth home with it. I admittingly have a home that would be very tough for any wood stove - this is due to the 6' (that's SIX FEET) thick rammed earth wall on one side, a thick cold uninsulated stone floor on the bottom, and a 3' thick rammed earth wall on another side - meaning much of the heat from ANY wood stove is going to be sucked away into all this mass. To add to this equation, I have tons of glass on my south side which is great when the sun shines, not so great during cold cloudy weather.

However, my previous stove, was a small, less than a grand new cheapo steel stove, and it actually performed BETTER than this Heritage does. And this is after me spending nearly 4K with delivery and tax. OUCH!

I have read countless threads on this forum with other people with similar issues. Have tried a lot of their advice. Nothing has worked so far.

I'm not a new to wood stoves, I have lived with wood heat my entire life. I'm a total newbie to EPA soapstone type stoves.
All my wood is completely dry seasoned, verified WELL under 17% moisture - checked with a meter, although, like most folks who have been doing this for a while, I can pretty much tell seasoned wood by the look, feel, smell, sound, etc......

I have tried many different varieties of wood the past month, the typical woods of my area of the Southwest, Ponderosa, Aspen, Spruce, Fir, Cedar and the best local wood Pinon, - and my latest expense, I bought a cord of dry White Oak - which definitely increases the burn time, but has done nothing to help get this stove up to say 500 degrees, and stay there.

I have to laugh when I recall several people told me this Heritage would "cook me" out of my small home - around 800 square feet interior. I wish. Today we are having a record breaking, January type cold spell - temps supposed to fall below zero tonight, I have been carefully loading, and reloading all day, to try and keep the stove above 350. I'm struggling to keep this home above 60 degrees. I have tried seemingly every combination of the air lever, keeping the "dog house" clean, using small splits, getting it hot with door cracked first etc etc......nothing has worked for me yet.

So anyway, after 6 weeks of constant tweaking with this stove, I'm at my wits end, and just wondering if I made a huge error, in not getting a large Steel type stove that will CRANK out the heat - not this slow stuff mellow stuff I'm getting out of my Heritage.....

I so recall the wood stoves of my youth, pre-EPA, that would get blazingly hot, with any and all wood, and were a CINCH to operate compared to this Heritage which I have yet to figure out.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts, comments, or advice.

ya know...one other thing that just popped into my memory... friends of mine also have a Hearthstone Heritage
and I noticed that the inside of their firebox
was white hot the whole time I was there (5 or 6 hours at a time; several different days) .
If the house hadn't been so huge, we probably would have melted!
They seemed to burn it with the air wide open at all times.
Is that "allowed"? I'd always heard it wasn't a good idea to do so...
I would think they'd go through a heck
of a lot of wood really quickly. Or maybe have an overfire? (but they didn't)
They had a really tall chimney and the house sat on top of a hill so draft was as perfect as you could find.
One thing for sure is the window was SPOTLESS!
Maybe Begreen can chime in.

 

[Badapple]

Hoping to get some advice concerning some of the issues addressed in this thread. Upon cleaning my Heritage 1 8021 i noticed that the baffle although in good shape was not secured. As well the baffle support was hanging down . Is this issallation normal?
Regards
Dan

 

[TOHICAN]

Hi,I would LOVE to see that list, as there has been no change.......

I'm not sure at this point if it's my altitude, too short of a stack, being in a canyon with little wind, placement of my stove in a back corner with two walls and the floor to deal with, or just the design of this stove itself for my funky home and location with very thick walls that tend to suck most of the heat from a stove. Possibly a combo of ALL of the above!

If I was starting again, I would have gotten a GIGANTIC cast iron stove - the type that everyone warned me would "cook" me out of this place, (I wish!)......as I was told the Heritage might do - as I only have about 800 square feet of interior space (over 1200 exterior due to thick walls).......It is taking me HOURS of constant feeding small splits to get the stove to anywhere over 400, and I have never gotten it to 500......

Hi, the Heritage 8023 has low oxygen in the lower stove and higher amounts around the tubes in the upper stove. All oxygen in the lower stove comes from the air hole in the front middle of the stove. When starting a fire with the main stove door cracked to get more air(oxygen) to start the fire, most of this air goes up and over the "baffle" in the front of the stove. This makes it more difficult to even burn combustibles(news paper, firesticks) especially when there are a few live coals left as they use the precious air themselves. The lower air hole does not provide enough air to start the fire. There are two ways to make the fire start easier. 1)if you have the ash pan option, crack the ash pan door slightly. This will allow oxygen to enter the lower stove box around the small gaps in the rocker grates. Monitor closely as your stove will seem as it has a forced draft now and burning is quite easy at this point. Try to find the right crack width for the ash pan door so the fire does not burn too wild. In order for this method to work, the ash pan has to be emptied daily so as deep ashes will block air flow from the ash pan area or the stove with the ash pan door cracked. 2)(theoretical-I use option 1)add wood to the bottom of the stove and build the fire on top of this wood near the front of the stove so to get more of the air entering the front cracked stove door to help start the fire. Do not block the lower air hole as you will have problems after.

After you get your fire going, the stove itself has to heat up substantially to burn and heat efficiently. Let the fire burn substantially then close the front stove door, do not push the handle down yet. Monitor for a few minutes to make sure the fire does not go back down, if it does, crack the door again and repeat. When the fire burns hot(flames flying out from the air tubes in the top of stove), then close the front door latch. Monitor for continued hot fire. If hot, adjust air hole regulator appropriately. If fire goes down, open latch and possibly crack door for a brief moment and repeat.

Some good tips in this thread. Dry seasoned wood(a must). Use smaller splits.

Larger pieces can be used for ongoing hot fire. Do not reload until flames go down and major coals present(this prevents smoke leaving stove).

The heritage model does not have a lot of depth, therefore a fair amount of heat goes up the chimney compared to a stove with more depth. The soapstone does hold on to heat longer, but takes longer to heat up also.

The above listed stuff make shoulder season more of a heating pain than it is already. During cold days and nights, heating is easier as the fire is ongoing most of the time. Hope this helps.

 

[rudysmallfry]

I have an older Heartstone Heritage. I had similar problems with my stove. No matter how well the wood was burning, I could not get the stove above 350. A few years ago, I added a damper to give myself some more control over the flue temperature. I was very happy to discover that I gained about 50 degrees of stove top temperature just turning the damper down 1/4 turn. Once I started playing with it both the damper down and the air control on the stove, I was able to get it up to close to 500. The radiant heat that comes off the stove is fantastic. I still have much shorter burn times than most everyone on this forum, but with the soapstone so hot, the fire can be down to coals for quite some time before it loses heat. Dampers are cheap and easy to install It's worth a shot.