heat n glo northstar

[iron]

hmm. well, that sucks. drill out the rivet?

 

[oldbunk]

The threaded nut is not the problem. Look closely at your unit. The rivet goes thru the actual air channel. It acts as a spacer. The airwash/airflow is between the two metal plates. Look up into the top of the door..., you will see.

hmm. well, that sucks. drill out the rivet?

 

[oldbunk]

Exactly..! You see the dilemma now.? If you remove the rivet/spacer....( i say spacer because it keeps the space "straight and even" for thd air passage.., there me br a chance of it maybe warping. And then the doors may not seal. Its a bad design. Its like buying a new expensive 9 panel window for your house to see your beautiful back yard., and having the center piece of glass painted black. Im disappointed.

 

[oldbunk]

Especially when they told me its something northstar owners have to live with. Go figure

 

[iron]

what do other stoves look like at that location? seems like they could be replicated with the northstar. for example, with the quadrafire 7100, made by the same company, does it have the same issue?

 

[oldbunk]

I dont know.

 

[williemon]

My northstar does the same thing. Now i understand why. Maybe remove the large bolts and place a new bolt spacer in the center so the airwash is blocked at the door frame. Maybe use skinner bolts in the factory locations.

 

[oldbunk]

Believe me.., ive been thinking how to resolve the problem. But the fact of the matter is...., heat n glo engineers know its a problem. And according to technical support theyve tested their units and they admit its a problem. They should be engineering a fix., and offer a service bulletin. And supply parts and or info on how to make the airwash work as its supposed to. If i knew my glass was gonna have black soot codcles., i couldve opted to buy a unit with solid cast iron doors. They shouldve put in small knife edge spacers in that area, as to not interupt the airflow. I feel northstar owners should contact them and ask for a fix.

 

[Village Idiot]

what do other stoves look like at that location? seems like they could be replicated with the northstar. for example, with the quadrafire 7100, made by the same company, does it have the same issue?

I do not have the issue on my 7100.

 

[oldbunk]

The airwash system must be different.?

 

[mminor]

Thanks Village Idiot for your confirmation on the Quadrafire 7100.

Can those who own the "Constitution'' fireplace by Heatilator also confirm whether or not they have the same airwash problem as the Northstar, since all three models (Constitutio, 7100, Northstar) are made by the same company?

Thanks for everyone's input on the Northstar.

Matt

 

[oldbunk]

Another question to the northstar owners... The acc lever and the acc overide levers on the unit. Can you guys explain to me how they work together..? And seperatley? How do you use them on a daily basis. They seem like they work together. My brother owns an older model northstar with just one lever. Am i correct in saying the overide lever just stays in the open/ or all the way to the right position?

 

[iron]

Another question to the northstar owners... The acc lever and the acc overide levers on the unit. Can you guys explain to me how they work together..? And seperatley? How do you use them on a daily basis. They seem like they work together. My brother owns an older model northstar with just one lever. Am i correct in saying the overide lever just stays in the open/ or all the way to the right position?

i might be using the wrong terms. there are two levers - one to control the air and one to control the ACC override.

with the air lever, you slide it all the way left to "reset" it, then all the way right to engage the ACC lever (the ACC override lever moves to the right when the air control moves to the right). this is when the ACC is engaged. then, with the air lever, you set it to your desired air level that the box should go to once the inside reaches the optimal temp. you'll hear a timer ticking down.

if for some reason you decide to change your mind about using the ACC, you can just take the ACC override lever and slide it left to shut off the timer.

since i have poorly seasoned wood right now, i just manually do the air control and don't use the ACC. i think when my wood supply becomes more consistent, the ACC will be useful as burn/ignition characteristics should become more uniform.

as far as i see, the ACC is probably a little conservative in the sense that it keeps the air more open longer than i would. maybe it inherently wants to give you a cleaner burn, even if it sacrifices a bit of your initial wood supply by burning faster/hotter.

 

[oldbunk]

Ok. Still a little confused. Can the overide lever just be left in the open or all the way to the right position all the time. Or will sliding it to the left close ALL air?

 

[iron]

Ok. Still a little confused. Can the overide lever just be left in the open or all the way to the right position all the time. Or will sliding it to the left close ALL air?

override lever to right: timer is on and will slowly close down the air control to whatever you manually set the air control to.

overridge lever to the left: timer is off. all control is via the air control lever.

IF you engage the ACC feature by sliding the air control left then all the way right, you can cancel it by taking the override lever and sliding left. you cannot engage the override lever by sliding to the right.

 

[iron]

i contacted heat n glo re: the black spots on the glass. here's their generic response:

Thank you for your inquiry.

We apologize for the delay in response, it is our busiest time of year and we are trying to get back to everyone as quick as we can. Along the top where those rivets are is also where the airwash is located. The sooting that people are seeing around those rivets is caused by the fire not being burned hot enough. As long as you keep the fire burning hot enough, the sooting will be reduced to a minimum amount. You’ll still get some sooting there, but it will not cause issues with performance or safety, and will not affect the way the stove drafts or burns. Your local authorized dealer is your best resource for product information, to find an authorized dealer near you please click on the following link:

http://www.heatnglo.com/WhereToBuy.aspx

 

[oldbunk]

Their reply doesnt adress the problem.
They put two spacers in the path of the airflow. Regardless of how hot you burn.., you will always have soot circles just below them. And how hot ishot enough..? Be careful not to overfire your unit because thats almost what their advice is saying. Like the woman told me over the phone ....." Its something northstar owners have to live with". I shake my head every time i see those black circles appear when we have a fire and have just cleaned the glass.

 

[David.Ervin]

I've found that I can indeed burn off the black circles - making them greyish white circles - if I run the fire really hot at the beginning of a burn cycle. Doing so eats up more wood than I'd like, and if I don't really want a blazing hot fire in my living room, I'm out of luck.

It's funny, I've never really been bothered by the dark circles on my glass until I started reading this thread. Curse you, hearth.com!