Here is my experience with the heatilator constitution. I've had this stove for 4 full season and going onto my 5th. The first year I had creosote on the on the pipe and chase cap. I did burn some pine since I was heating my new house while under construction. So I chalked it up to that.
Year 2 I noticed brown stains running down my siding and shingles. I contacted a installer for advice (not the one I had install as they were horrible to deal with and have since stopped installing them). After a few emails we had determined that this was liquid creosote due to my chimney pipe being too cold. The original installer had not insulted the chase (and did not tell me to). So that fall, I ripped apart the exterior of my chase and instead of insulating, we wrapped the pipe with a 1" foil wrapped ceramic blanket with the equivalent of a single wall on a pipe. That winter it was hard to tell if it was working.
So before the 4th winter I painted the chase cap white to see how it faired. It was covered in creosote at the end of the season. I contacted hearth and home technologies (hht) for help. Of course they want to blame wood (which I burn well seasoned dead fall hardwoods from my woods) and not hot enough fire (but when its cold the fire is hot enough to keep the glass clean). Yes, there are times when I damper down, but that's a fireplace. They got the original installer to contact me and he said I need to clean it multiple times through out the winter. (Though they don't even offer a service like this)That's crazy since I only burn about 8 cord a year. HHT also suggested a different cap instead of the tight louvered cap. So before my 5th season I changed the chimney pipe cap to a more open design with a cone to collect creosote and direct it back down the pipe and not onto my new house. I also painted the chase cap again to see anything that drips. Well I'm through about 2-3 cord of wood and its evident the new cap is not working. Contacted HHT again and they gave me the classic response to contact a dealer. I'm out of options. I know what the problem is, my chimney pipe is too cold. I'm in upstate New York and the air insulated stove pipe is too cold for my area. I need a standard double or triple wall to keep the pipe warm and the creosote suspended in the smoke and off my house. HHT said this can't be done, so now I have thousands into this wood burning unit, thousands in damaged to my house and no way to fix it? It's a design flaw that they won't own up to and I'm out tons of money.
I will be contacting another dealer to go through the motions but I'm thinking the only way to fix it is a new stove and wood is probably out (though I love burning wood and have been doing it for over 20 years.) Probably will install a gas to never have this problem again. Would have never got this stove if I knew this would happen. Don't make the same mistake I did. I will post pictures if I figure out how.
Year 2 I noticed brown stains running down my siding and shingles. I contacted a installer for advice (not the one I had install as they were horrible to deal with and have since stopped installing them). After a few emails we had determined that this was liquid creosote due to my chimney pipe being too cold. The original installer had not insulted the chase (and did not tell me to). So that fall, I ripped apart the exterior of my chase and instead of insulating, we wrapped the pipe with a 1" foil wrapped ceramic blanket with the equivalent of a single wall on a pipe. That winter it was hard to tell if it was working.
So before the 4th winter I painted the chase cap white to see how it faired. It was covered in creosote at the end of the season. I contacted hearth and home technologies (hht) for help. Of course they want to blame wood (which I burn well seasoned dead fall hardwoods from my woods) and not hot enough fire (but when its cold the fire is hot enough to keep the glass clean). Yes, there are times when I damper down, but that's a fireplace. They got the original installer to contact me and he said I need to clean it multiple times through out the winter. (Though they don't even offer a service like this)That's crazy since I only burn about 8 cord a year. HHT also suggested a different cap instead of the tight louvered cap. So before my 5th season I changed the chimney pipe cap to a more open design with a cone to collect creosote and direct it back down the pipe and not onto my new house. I also painted the chase cap again to see anything that drips. Well I'm through about 2-3 cord of wood and its evident the new cap is not working. Contacted HHT again and they gave me the classic response to contact a dealer. I'm out of options. I know what the problem is, my chimney pipe is too cold. I'm in upstate New York and the air insulated stove pipe is too cold for my area. I need a standard double or triple wall to keep the pipe warm and the creosote suspended in the smoke and off my house. HHT said this can't be done, so now I have thousands into this wood burning unit, thousands in damaged to my house and no way to fix it? It's a design flaw that they won't own up to and I'm out tons of money.
I will be contacting another dealer to go through the motions but I'm thinking the only way to fix it is a new stove and wood is probably out (though I love burning wood and have been doing it for over 20 years.) Probably will install a gas to never have this problem again. Would have never got this stove if I knew this would happen. Don't make the same mistake I did. I will post pictures if I figure out how.
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