Hearthstone Mansfield owners HELP!!
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RedOak, I have a Mansfield as well, and like Highbeam am burning primarily red fir, hardwood isn't readily available in these parts. My observations on burn times are about the same as yours, after 8-9 hours I might have some charcoal with a few bright spots; a little kindling and some splits, along with an open ash door, has it blazing again quickly. Soapstone will still be warm to touch and drawing well. Now, my question is in how you burn, moreso than how long. Once I have the stove hot, I typically load the firebox and close the damper, either fully or to no more than 20% open. These things seem to let in more air than some stoves even when fully closed. Soapstone holds and continues to radiate heat so well that I typically only load it every 6-8 hours (assuming the house and stove are up to temp), and when I do so I load the firebox pretty full. I run somewhat like a thermal mass stove, run a hot fire, then let it cool and radiate heat to the room, once the room cools noticably I reload/fire. I find the stove to burn far less wood than my last stove; I load a firebox full at 5:00 pm, toss in 2-3 good size splits in at 10:00 or so (bed time), and then start her again around 5:00 am, temps in the house are usually in the 60's when I get home at 5:00 pm. I've been burning since mid SE this year and have gone through maybe a cord or a bit more so far this year. The above is with daytime temps in the 20's and 30's, teens at night, 2100 sf.
IMO, trying to chase stove temperature and maintain a constant fire might not be an efficient way to run these stoves, the're a different animal than a steel or iron stove. One way I found to go through a lot of wood is to run a small-medium size fire with the intake air pretty well open, seems like way too much heat goes up the chimney. I don't have a thermometer on mine (and I should pick one up), I let good secondary combustion be my guide as to when it's burning properly. A full firebox keeps more heat in the box and runs well dampered imo.
IMO, trying to chase stove temperature and maintain a constant fire might not be an efficient way to run these stoves, the're a different animal than a steel or iron stove. One way I found to go through a lot of wood is to run a small-medium size fire with the intake air pretty well open, seems like way too much heat goes up the chimney. I don't have a thermometer on mine (and I should pick one up), I let good secondary combustion be my guide as to when it's burning properly. A full firebox keeps more heat in the box and runs well dampered imo.
After raking the coals, I threw in 3 small splits just to get the stove hot again, Initial readings were .4 wc which gradually went up as the chimney warmed. The top was reading 400 and the draw had settled to between .1 wc and .12 wc. When the damper was closed or the primary air was shut down there was no immediate appreciable drop in draft. Is this normal or does it take time for the draft to come back down? I know this is on the high end of draft, but not in the insane range - I don't know what the stack temp was as I was using the 1/4 inch hole to monitor the draft.
I stuffed the stove with some prime 2 year seasoned oak and let it char before shutting the damper all the way. Stack temp was
areound 650 until the secondary kicked in fully and the stack went up to 1000 and stove top was 600. The high stack temp went back down into a more reasonable range after an hour or so but the log mass seemed to have been consumed - I had a huge pile of coal. House temp was 77 at 10pm, outside was 12 degrees. This morning at 5am the stove was 250 and the house had dropped to 62
If I could just hold the log mass for a longer period I thing this would take care of my problem. 2 dampers needed? Relining a fairly new 8" SS chimney this time of year is not a practical option......
I stuffed the stove with some prime 2 year seasoned oak and let it char before shutting the damper all the way. Stack temp was
areound 650 until the secondary kicked in fully and the stack went up to 1000 and stove top was 600. The high stack temp went back down into a more reasonable range after an hour or so but the log mass seemed to have been consumed - I had a huge pile of coal. House temp was 77 at 10pm, outside was 12 degrees. This morning at 5am the stove was 250 and the house had dropped to 62
If I could just hold the log mass for a longer period I thing this would take care of my problem. 2 dampers needed? Relining a fairly new 8" SS chimney this time of year is not a practical option......
This is my first year with the Mansfield and we love it last nite i loaded it up with a 6-8" round and 3 smaller splits at around 7 (sorry wish we had oak I have to burn pine) it was suppose to get in the low 20 last nite not sure if it did but the house is at 77 right now. I load it up with some coals and it takes right off I let it burn an rage for 1/2 hour or so and shut the door, we have left the outside air at half way and never touch it. I have only completely filled it twice and the house got way to hot (lower 90's), after shutting the door my flames dye way down and then in a bit flare up again. I think you may be trying to keep it running too much if the stove is at 200 or so degrees 10-12 hours after the fire is gone it is still putting out heat and you may just need to find a way to move it. The thing I found was it is better to move the cold air and not the hot. When we put a fan next to the stove the heat was sucked away and and the fire did not last the house actually seemed cooler because of the draft. I went to radio shack and bought a couple of computer cooling fans and place vents in the wall between the back bedrooms and the living room to suck out the cold air and between those and the ceiling fan the whole house stays nice and toasty.
Sorry about the rambling just got up and the cobwebs are still fresh
Sorry about the rambling just got up and the cobwebs are still fresh
Thanks for everybody's input / opinions- they all have added a different view on this problem.
I have dumped this on my dealers lap. He agrees that the draft is not insane and the stack temps are too high.
He will contact Hearthstone and hopefully resolve this.
Tonight I have a small fire going that I can easily keep under control.
I have dumped this on my dealers lap. He agrees that the draft is not insane and the stack temps are too high.
He will contact Hearthstone and hopefully resolve this.
Tonight I have a small fire going that I can easily keep under control.
On the advice of my dealer, I installed a second in line damper yesterday.
Struggle was right, I should have listened to his advice and tried two dampers a while ago, what a difference.
The fire was much easier to control and I could bring the stack temp to within a 100 degrees of the stove top without much of a problem. I loaded it to the rafters last night, got the top to 450-500 with the stack at 550-600. Nice lazy blue secondary burn in the top of the firebox with a mound of wood that was not consumed within a few short hours. The top was still 200+ this morning and the house was still 71 (outside temp 16) I have only one night under my belt to go by, but I think things are much better.
The only thing I noticed was I am getting more smoke out of the stack than before. Of course I realize that I am not burning the
insane stack temps, but can I rely on the probe thermometer to prevent creosote build up?
Struggle was right, I should have listened to his advice and tried two dampers a while ago, what a difference.
The fire was much easier to control and I could bring the stack temp to within a 100 degrees of the stove top without much of a problem. I loaded it to the rafters last night, got the top to 450-500 with the stack at 550-600. Nice lazy blue secondary burn in the top of the firebox with a mound of wood that was not consumed within a few short hours. The top was still 200+ this morning and the house was still 71 (outside temp 16) I have only one night under my belt to go by, but I think things are much better.
The only thing I noticed was I am getting more smoke out of the stack than before. Of course I realize that I am not burning the
insane stack temps, but can I rely on the probe thermometer to prevent creosote build up?
That sounds great! I am still debating on putting asecond dampner on mine as well but I am so on the edge of not needing it.
As for creosote last year I burned only half a season and when I brushed the liner I had under enough powder soot to fill a pop can. So as long as you do a high temp burn off on reloads as in getting up to 6-800 degrees for a while and the wood chars good I really doubt you will have any issues. I seem to find my probe stays above 400 degrees during burning and while full secondary is going it is always around 100 degrees above the stove temp so near 600.
Now you will find your stove becoming so predictable and alomst feel bad for those that have to constantly tending thier stoves.
This thing after you figure it out you could train a 5 year old to run them :cheese:
As for creosote last year I burned only half a season and when I brushed the liner I had under enough powder soot to fill a pop can. So as long as you do a high temp burn off on reloads as in getting up to 6-800 degrees for a while and the wood chars good I really doubt you will have any issues. I seem to find my probe stays above 400 degrees during burning and while full secondary is going it is always around 100 degrees above the stove temp so near 600.
Now you will find your stove becoming so predictable and alomst feel bad for those that have to constantly tending thier stoves.
This thing after you figure it out you could train a 5 year old to run them :cheese:
I didn't see anyone mention the fact that the soapstone external temp is 500 degrees and that it stores the heat within intself.
I am thinking of going to the Equinox...many of you know that I have the VC Defiant NC with the Everburn feature. I have "kind of" figured out how to get it going but am also feeling that I have more to do than attend a stove in all my off work time.
The thing I am wondering, because the Equinox is a bit over my requirement, is how the soapstone will perform with a bit smaller burns. I'd go with the Mansfield but I want the side door...
What do you think? Hope the info on the external temp item helps some...
I am thinking of going to the Equinox...many of you know that I have the VC Defiant NC with the Everburn feature. I have "kind of" figured out how to get it going but am also feeling that I have more to do than attend a stove in all my off work time.
The thing I am wondering, because the Equinox is a bit over my requirement, is how the soapstone will perform with a bit smaller burns. I'd go with the Mansfield but I want the side door...
What do you think? Hope the info on the external temp item helps some...
That new monster from Hearthstone looks awesome to me. I went from a VC Vigilant to the Mansfield and I cannot say enough great things about it. Uses way less wood and is so easy to run once a person gets it dialed in on how to operate it.
I would never consider any other type of stove now. It seems to me you just have to own one to understand how much of a joy it is to use. I paid $2599 out the door for the Mansfield when I could have bought a much less expensive stove. It was worth every penny to me after using it now starting into our second season with it.
If I had the house for the new monster Hearthstone stove that is out now I would have one in a heart beat.
A week or two ago I decided that I was going to run the upstairs fireplace as in my wood piles I have larger/longer pieces of wood that will not fit into the Mansfield so the Mansfield had its last fill on say Wed. at 9PM and the Thurs. we ran the fireplace and Friday afternoon I went to start the Mansfield back up and I sifted the ash as the stove still had plenty of coals in it to restart a fire 36 hours later. That is pretty hard to beat in my opinion. Think of all the money we save on matches :lol:
It just works that great.
I would never consider any other type of stove now. It seems to me you just have to own one to understand how much of a joy it is to use. I paid $2599 out the door for the Mansfield when I could have bought a much less expensive stove. It was worth every penny to me after using it now starting into our second season with it.
If I had the house for the new monster Hearthstone stove that is out now I would have one in a heart beat.
A week or two ago I decided that I was going to run the upstairs fireplace as in my wood piles I have larger/longer pieces of wood that will not fit into the Mansfield so the Mansfield had its last fill on say Wed. at 9PM and the Thurs. we ran the fireplace and Friday afternoon I went to start the Mansfield back up and I sifted the ash as the stove still had plenty of coals in it to restart a fire 36 hours later. That is pretty hard to beat in my opinion. Think of all the money we save on matches :lol:
It just works that great.
swestall said:
The reason that the side door is so very important on the heritage is that you must load the wood in east-west and the side door is hugely advantageous there. On a stove like the mansfield that can be loaded north south I am not so sure that the side door is as important. The soapstone is more of an on/off burner in my experience so far. It really likes to be stuffed full and then dampered down fully for a long and low burn of about 350. We keep the stove 350-400 all day for an ambient room temp of 70-75. If I need to run the stove up to 500 or 550 it takes a lot of air/wood and will make a lot of heat.
My previous steel insert ran much hotter at 550-650 to make heat plus it used a blower.
My little 2 year old kid touched my stove yesterday. It had been running all morning at a surface temp of 350 for most of the morning and the girls hand isn't even blistered. Imagine if she had touched the old 550 degree stove!
I load our stove both ways N/S and E/W. I just depneds on how the coal bed is. I would see no advantage at this time for a Mansfield to have a side door. I actually like the idea of just one door as it is one less gaskets and moving parts.
I have MUCH better control over the stack temp. Now I have to learn to run it all over again....
Get it up to temp and reload around 9:30 - last night when the wife came home from work at 11:30 the stove was still cranking along at 500 - when she went to bed at 1:30 it had dropped to 200+ and that is is pretty much where I found it this morning.
Better control but I am still not getting the extended burn time I was expecting. Both dampers are closed down and the primary is shut down as well. The stack has been running about 100 over the stove top.
I have run into a long string of white ash in my pile - I assume oak would have gotten a longer burn.
A 100% improvement over what I had before. Any other ideas to improve my burn time?
Get it up to temp and reload around 9:30 - last night when the wife came home from work at 11:30 the stove was still cranking along at 500 - when she went to bed at 1:30 it had dropped to 200+ and that is is pretty much where I found it this morning.
Better control but I am still not getting the extended burn time I was expecting. Both dampers are closed down and the primary is shut down as well. The stack has been running about 100 over the stove top.
I have run into a long string of white ash in my pile - I assume oak would have gotten a longer burn.
A 100% improvement over what I had before. Any other ideas to improve my burn time?
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