Hearthstone Manchester

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Okay, a bit of an update: I still need to put the finishing touches on the hearth but my table saw crapped out on me so my shelving is on hold but I've had a few fires in the stove and so far so good.
I had a little hiccup yesterday morning, I burned a small break in fire Wednesday evening as noted and Thursday I woke up to find that my air control lever wouldn't move past the halfway point. Another person on the forum noted that after the first fire they were also having trouble getting their air control to move. I did end up getting mine to move freely again and haven't had a problem since (cold or hot). I spoke with Scott at Hearthstone regarding the issue and we both assumed this was temperature related and he assured me that it was most likely a product of the break in and shouldn't happen again. I've since had a couple of fires in the stove and have not had a single issue with the air control.

Now onto my take on the stove so far: It hasn't been very cold yet(mid 40's) and I've only had the stove running for a couple days so this is a bit premature but I will say that this thing throws out some heat! I will be heating approx 2800sf of a 3100sf old farm house. I've installed new windows, exterior doors, and attic insulation to help seal things up but it's still a fairly large old farm house so it's been fun to heat. Last night I decided to put a decent sized load of wood in. I didn't load it to the gills but I did have about three medium/large splits and one small split in it. At the point that I fired it up the temp was only down to the low 50's outside and I quickly found out that a medium/large fire at those outside temps was a bad idea, the living room was pretty steamy even with a window open. The stove top got up to about 580f according to my IR thermometer and after closing it down settled in and cruised right around 515-520 for a couple hours. I started the fire right at 7pm and when I headed up stairs at 11 the stove top was around 470-80. At 7 this morning the top was around 190f and you could feel a bit of heat if standing next to the stove but not a lot. I opened it and found a pretty decent bed of coals and a good sized charred chunk of one of the splits in a back corner. I moved things around a bit, threw in three more chunks, closed the door, and opened up the air. A couple minutes later I had a good sized fire and not long after the top was back up around 500. I then closed it down and it's been cruising in the low to mid 400's ever since with a nice glow of coals inside and a dance of flames in the top and the bottom every so often.

On a side note, the stove has some holes in the convective top and I'm getting the previously mentioned temps by shooting my IR thermometer down through them to the actual top of the stove itself.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the update. It sounds like the stove is perking along nicely.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Closing in on noon, 5hrs since reloading on hot coals, been running low and slow and the stove top is now at 350-360 with about half of the three medium sized splits I threw in burnt.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Looks like it's going to get into the 30's tonight , might try a full load on a low and slow burn and see how long I get out of it.

 

[izzyq]

How did you get the air control back moving freely when it got stuck?

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

How did you get the air control back moving freely when it got stuck?

I gave it a couple good thumps back and forth with the side of my fist. Not real hard but hard enough to get it moving.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

It was 24 degrees out when I got up this morning....Brrrrrrr!

I loaded up the stove to the Gills at 9 last night and woke up to a nice bed of coals and a warm stove. Thinking of adding a second stove, maybe a BK for those looong burns. I just wish they had a better looking stove. I'm not really even digging the looks of their new Ashford.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Finally got a little free time today to start on the cabinet that will hold the A/V equipment in the corner below the TV. It will be stained to match the rest of the woodwork.



The stove tools will hang on the right side on these nifty hooks I found at Menards and Painted to match everything.

 

[cableman]

Nice work

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Another step towards getting done with the whole thing. Got my cabinet stained, installed, and just about complete. I have two more hooks on the way to hang a bellow and coal rake, as well as a door to go on the cubby at the lower-right of the cabinet. This area was previously going to be used for wood storage but I decided to use it for power strips, my bright orange welding gloves, and other items that need to be stored out of sight.

 

[izzyq]

Looks good! Are you enjoying it for burning?

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Thanks, yeah so far I'm really liking it. I can't wait for the real cold to set in so I can run it through it's paces. We've had one windy night that it got down to 24 but I want to see how it does when we get into the teens and below and stay there for a while. We have a fairly large old house so I'm probably going to install a second stove just for those really cold times, that way I can run both of them low and slow and reload less often.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Chance of snow here tonight with a low of 25. Tomorrow the high is only 37 and the low is 17. I put in my first load of good 3 year seasoned oak. For the most part I've been burning uglies and not-so-dry stuff up until now. I just loaded it to the top on a hot bed of coals.

 

[Stihl-ing Trees]

Does the ash pan have a open or closed back? We are getting the Chester installed in a couple of weeks. How is it performing so far?

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Does the ash pan have a open or closed back? We are getting the Chester installed in a couple of weeks. How is it performing so far?

The ash pan has an open back which has it's ups and downs. It does make it easier to poor the ash out with less mess.

So far so good, we're planning on putting a second stove in due to the size of our house and the layout but The Manchester is outperforming my expectations as far as heating ability. It was in the single digits last week with wind chills in the high negatives and the house was warm and cozy.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

It all looks great, but I'd be a little concerned about what the excessive heat from the wood stove might do to the life of you TV.

 

[izzyq]

Have you found a good reliable place to use your IR thermometer to get a reading? I'm not sure where I will get the most accurate reading from the stove. If I shot from up above the stove into the holes on top I get a higher reading than anywhere else.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

It all looks great, but I'd be a little concerned about what the excessive heat from the wood stove might do to the life of you TV.

I was a little worried about that as well but it actually stays fairly cool where it's at.

Have you found a good reliable place to use your IR thermometer to get a reading? I'm not sure where I will get the most accurate reading from the stove. If I shot from up above the stove into the holes on top I get a higher reading than anywhere else.

Yip, I take my readings through the holes on top. The hottest spot on my stove tends to be directly to the front right of the pipe.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

Whiteout conditions outside


Toasty inside.

 

[Stihl-ing Trees]

PYRO, I've been running the Chester since Christmas. I am really enjoying the stove and has already saved us hundreds of dollars.I was wondering if you have a damper installed in your pipe? I had to install the double wall on the inside of home because of clearance reasons. I am just thinking I can get way more out of my stove if I had the damper? The installation guys said they would not recommend it, stating that they hardly ever put the damper in. The IR reading on the top by the chimney pipe outlet never really exceeds 190 degrees.

 

[Papa-Yankee-Romeo-Oscar]

PYRO, I've been running the Chester since Christmas. I am really enjoying the stove and has already saved us hundreds of dollars.I was wondering if you have a damper installed in your pipe? I had to install the double wall on the inside of home because of clearance reasons. I am just thinking I can get way more out of my stove if I had the damper? The installation guys said they would not recommend it, stating that they hardly ever put the damper in. The IR reading on the top by the chimney pipe outlet never really exceeds 190 degrees.

At the moment I don't have a damper in the pipe but have considered installing one just to see if it would extend my burn times any.