The Equinox Has It's First Problem

[FireWalker]

Oh and I forgot to tell you, my last stove of 12 years was a Consolidated Dutchwest Xtra-large cat stove just like yours. My home is about 600 sf bigger than when I ran the DW and I can honestly say without a doubt the Equinox easily out preforms my old DW. So don't give up on that beast yet.

Another interesting observation that probably has more to do with soapstone is there are no longer big temprature swings in my home as compared with running the DW iron stove. Now instead of fighting against a space that has cooled down during a cold night, these hot rocks help maintain a more even house temprature. The flip side to this is once you get a piece of iron as big as that DW stove real hot it would really move the heat around which is something soapstone doesn't seem to do.

 

[doug60]

Ive never been a fan of oak firewood.
Its best if used in a mixed load.
All by itself , I find it to burn slow , prone to smoldering, with low flame.
This has been my experence with my previous stoves.
I havent burned full loads of oak with the Equinox so i cant comment on that.

 

[wellbuilt home]

Oh and I forgot to tell you, my last stove of 12 years was a Consolidated Dutchwest Xtra-large cat stove just like yours. My home is about 600 sf bigger than when I ran the DW and I can honestly say without a doubt the Equinox easily out preforms my old DW. So don't give up on that beast yet.

Another interesting observation that probably has more to do with soapstone is there are no longer big temprature swings in my home as compared with running the DW iron stove. Now instead of fighting against a space that has cooled down during a cold night, these hot rocks help maintain a more even house temprature. The flip side to this is once you get a piece of iron as big as that DW stove real hot it would really move the heat around which is something soapstone doesn't seem to do.

I'm going to try loading with 7 splits and see what i have in the AM . PS I cant see how it could be the wood ? I have all different kinds of wood here . I cut wood year round and some has been here for 3 years or more . I'm trying a new pile all mixed and split and stacked for 2+ years I cant remember what type .
John

 

[FireWalker]

I'll be curious to know if you get some positive results with mixed hardwood, don't forget to report back.

On a somewhat realted note, last night my now depleted front row of my wood shed has exposed the back row of now 3rd year in the shed locust. I usually refill my 14 foot long x 2 row deep x 4' high shed when the front row is gone, but this year I am going to empty it to get fresh wood in the back. Anyway, I filled the stove with just locust this morning and oh boy, I had to appologise to my wife before I left as my house was headed above 80 and with the stove turned all the way to low the only option will be to open a window! This same wood last year with this stove was a groan to start and the heat I got from it was a long time coming, as it looks now I'm going to set a few wheel barrels of this locust aside for seriously cold nights.

 

[jlow]

Been reading this thread and thought I would toss in my experience with the EQ. I keep my thermometer on the stove top and have not gotten it past 530 yet this year. I have not really tried to go to 600 or above. I burn 24/7 and am heating 2900 sq ft without the furnace. I have been able to keep the house at 74 (thermostat is in the kitchen). The family room is 80. I achieve this by throwing 2-3 splits on a good hot coal base. I get home from work and my wife has a nice slow blaze at 1/4 open. I am going to try the thermometer on the stack to see what it hits. I have been getting up in the middle of the night to toss on a couple of logs as it has been quite cold. This way I get up in the morning @ 72. My home is quite drafty and when it got down to 8 the other day it was a lot of work. I have been experimenting with fan ocation to get the best circulation.

 

[FireWalker]

I gave up on the thermometer on the stovetop mostly because I can't see it unless I get up and look.......on the pipe I can just glance over and get an idea what is going on. Our manual says on a single pipe a normal good burn should get up to 400 degrees. Just curious Jlow, how come you don't load a few more splits on for overnight burns, I go to bed at 10 and lately the coal bed is covering the whole bottom of the firebox and the stove is still heating well at 6:30 the next morning? It's my experience so far 5 or 6 splits as compared to 2 or 3 splits doesn't mean your stove will overfire, it will most likely just burn for a longer time.

 

[jlow]

I have tried it with more splits and did not notice a diff in my wake up temp. I think my house justs cools that way.

 

[FireWalker]

I have tried it with more splits and did not notice a diff in my wake up temp. I think my house justs cools that way.

My house is drafty like that too! Hey if it works for you stick with it.......it amazes me how different each and every setup performs, similar parameters don't mean similar results, each installation is unique.

 

[wellbuilt home]

O man you guys are killing me ! Ive never seen 80o with my EQ . Its 22 out side and the house is about 70 stove is at its regular temp 300 o I can lay my hand on it? The damper is open and the air is a 1/2 way . I think this weekend I'm taking the stove apart and checking the flue top . I haven't been up on my roof in 14 years Its a 17"/ 12" pitch . I did notice I'm missing a small piece of side door gasket 3" I replaced it an will check out the burn . After burning wood for years i finally use my MM on a split . It was in the green around 16% i think . It was the same as a 2x4 that was in my shed for 2 years . The reading was from the middle of a average split .
tomorrow i will buy a few bundles of wood from the Quick Check .
My house is new with maximim insulation in walls floor windows . There is insulation in every wall and floor inside and out . John

 

[FireWalker]

O man you guys are killing me ! Ive never seen 80o with my EQ . Its 22 out side and the house is about 70 stove is at its regular temp 300 o I can lay my hand on it? The damper is open and the air is a 1/2 way . I think this weekend I'm taking the stove apart and checking the flue top . I haven't been up on my roof in 14 years Its a 17"/ 12" pitch . I did notice I'm missing a small piece of side door gasket 3" I replaced it an will check out the burn . After burning wood for years i finally use my MM on a split . It was in the green around 16% i think . It was the same as a 2x4 that was in my shed for 2 years . The reading was from the middle of a average split .
tomorrow i will buy a few bundles of wood from the Quick Check .
My house is new with maximim insulation in walls floor windows . There is insulation in every wall and floor inside and out . John

Something just dosn't sound right here, That gasket issue is something that needs work but that sounds like something that would cause an overfire not low burn issues like you are describing. Definitely check your vent top to bottom. Here is something, when I cleaned my connector this past fall, there was some real fine ash and black flake buildup on top of the baffle, maybe this buildup on your stove is restricting air out the vent (chimney), get in there with a vacume and clean that out real good. Is your glass clean? What does the inside of your stove look like....nice and gray?

 

[wellbuilt home]

No rich i wish some one was robing my wood , I could fix that easy .
My kids handle the fire wood so i have not looked on the side of the house lately

 

[wellbuilt home]

O man you guys are killing me ! Ive never seen 80o with my EQ . Its 22 out side and the house is about 70 stove is at its regular temp 300 o I can lay my hand on it? The damper is open and the air is a 1/2 way . I think this weekend I'm taking the stove apart and checking the flue top . I haven't been up on my roof in 14 years Its a 17"/ 12" pitch . I did notice I'm missing a small piece of side door gasket 3" I replaced it an will check out the burn . After burning wood for years i finally use my MM on a split . It was in the green around 16% i think . It was the same as a 2x4 that was in my shed for 2 years . The reading was from the middle of a average split .
tomorrow i will buy a few bundles of wood from the Quick Check .
My house is new with maximim insulation in walls floor windows . There is insulation in every wall and floor inside and out . John

Something just doesn't sound right here, That gasket issue is something that needs work but that sounds like something that would cause an over fire not low burn issues like you are describing. Definitely check your vent top to bottom. Here is something, when I cleaned my connector this past fall, there was some real fine ash and black flake buildup on top of the baffle, maybe this buildup on your stove is restricting air out the vent (chimney), get in there with a vacuum and clean that out real good. Is your glass clean? What does the inside of your stove look like....nice and gray?

I fixed the gasket last night and did not have any change .
I just cleaned my chimney before Christmas and the baffle had about 1/4" of stuff on it . ( It looks like it fell from the flue when i removed the pipes )
The chimney was packed with creosote Gallons of stuff maybe more then Ive ever had in the DW all the years i burned it .
The fire box looked clean with no build up at all .
My glass has some black on the bottom with ash on the sides and top , I did just burn 4 cords in it .
I talked to HS today and all the guy wanted to know about is a draft reading .
He told me the chimney was to high ( to much draft ) and my wood was also to dry and not smoking enough to get a good secondary burn .
He also told me he runs his stove at 300o and its plenty of heat ? I ran next door and took a few arm fulls of wood from my neighbor to try ,but it doesnt look and different then mine . John

 

[VCBurner]

We bought a hearthstone equinox last summer (summer 08) and had it professionally installed. We love the stove but YES WE TOO had problems with the air intake valve handle getting stuck especially when the stove is running hot. It gets stuck at the two extremes and in the middle too. (BTW jiggling worked early on but now if there's a fire going 99% of the time jiggling does not work. Last winter it got progressively worst and then got stuck semi premanently even when the stove was cold with no fire. We complained regularly to the store while still under warranty and had the store's and a hearthstone worker here last spring and they did something......filing it down (I think) and we thought it was fixed but now another winter and guess what?......now the problem is back and we're no longer under our warranty. This is a pain and a bummer since we complained about it all last winter while under warranty and they took until spring time to get the right people available to come out. Looks like the fix effort in the spring was not the true test we needed or else this is a very annoying recurring problem in the design that everyone should know about. I'll plan to reread through these comments in more detail to see if maybe we can do something ourselves.

We run 24/7 for two months of the winter so at least we're luck its mostly been stuck to the right. Suggestions? jane.

I have no problem with air control yet . I'm still sliding smooth .
My problem is out put , It seems like i need to keep my fire box full to keep the stove top temp above 450o .
My stove will burn at 300o stove top temp but to get hotter i need to keep the stove full.
Ive burned up 31/2 cord of wood since November ? seems like alot .
I heated my house with a Dutch West cat stove and had no problem . 3000sf 24/7 burn 31/2 to 41/2 cord a year .
its 12o now and I'm at 67 in the center of the house . I'm sitting 5' from the stove and its cold .
any one having a problem with heat ? John

Hey Wellbuilt in a recent post entitled Equinox you said your stove was working well now this.What's going on?

I don't know if I'm having a problem ?
The thing is i just looked on the side of the house where my wood supply ( was) and its all gone .
I had all dry oak that was standing dead for years with the bark gone cut and split last winter stacked with the top covered .
Ive stacked wood in the same spot for years and always had lots of wood left over .
My problem is I'm burning way to much wood and the family is fighting over the blankets wile watching TV.
The house seems to stay around 65/67o when its 20 out side.
I'm sitting in a room 5' from the stove with one outside wall 2 2'x2' windows ( room size 16x22 10' ceiling )with the stove in the center of the house and my feet are freezing .
Ive heated this house with 6 different stoves and was never cold in my chair.
Ive used a fisher that i could burn logs in .
VC vigilant wood and Cole units 1980s
VC defiant 1980s and newer cat stove .
Consolidated Dutch West
Every thing being equiel i think the DW gave better heat with less wood .
Im adding a large famly room this year and i swaped out my DW for a larger stove to heat the extra space but the way it looks i will be getting a second EQ for in the new room. John

Yo,is your wood gone due to theft or burning it up.And why would you get another Equinox when you haven't got the first one figured out.I mean according to what your saying 6 other smaller stoves provided better heat than the Equinox? Something is way off.I don't know what to tell you however your feet shouldn't be cold with all that stove.Ask Hearthstone for some advice for getting more heat from the stove.

"I guess if you have almost $4,000 to buy a stove that just doesn't seem to work the first time why not try again? It could work better the second time, LOL The Equinox does look like a good stove. There's something amuck."

 

[FireWalker]

Now there is a new one......your wood is too dry! I could understand this if the stuff was punky but if we are talking about wood splits that are showing no signs of rot how can this be. If you are getting creosote in your connector, you are not getting hot enough burns. What happens if you run that thing with the pipe damper wide open?

 

[wellbuilt home]

Ya i was feeling like i was getting the run around . Chimney to high ? sucking the heat out ? Wood to dry ? not gassing enough to make heat ? Its kinda like having a girlfriend with to much boob ? Now how is that possible. I really need to figure this out . I really don't care about burning the wood but it has to get warm .
I have the stove cranking now its 15o out side 70 o inside I'm 4' from the stove and my nose is cold . I have a fan blowing on the stove and 2 ceiling fans running on the first floor with all the drapes drawn tight . John

 

[doug60]

O man you guys are killing me ! Ive never seen 80o with my EQ . Its 22 out side and the house is about 70 stove is at its regular temp 300 o I can lay my hand on it? The damper is open and the air is a 1/2 way . I think this weekend I'm taking the stove apart and checking the flue top . I haven't been up on my roof in 14 years Its a 17"/ 12" pitch . I did notice I'm missing a small piece of side door gasket 3" I replaced it an will check out the burn . After burning wood for years i finally use my MM on a split . It was in the green around 16% i think . It was the same as a 2x4 that was in my shed for 2 years . The reading was from the middle of a average split .
tomorrow i will buy a few bundles of wood from the Quick Check .
My house is new with maximim insulation in walls floor windows . There is insulation in every wall and floor inside and out . John

Hey John, do have a damper in the flue ? Just curious

 

[FireWalker]

O man you guys are killing me ! Ive never seen 80o with my EQ . Its 22 out side and the house is about 70 stove is at its regular temp 300 o I can lay my hand on it? The damper is open and the air is a 1/2 way . I think this weekend I'm taking the stove apart and checking the flue top . I haven't been up on my roof in 14 years Its a 17"/ 12" pitch . I did notice I'm missing a small piece of side door gasket 3" I replaced it an will check out the burn . After burning wood for years i finally use my MM on a split . It was in the green around 16% i think . It was the same as a 2x4 that was in my shed for 2 years . The reading was from the middle of a average split .
tomorrow i will buy a few bundles of wood from the Quick Check .
My house is new with maximim insulation in walls floor windows . There is insulation in every wall and floor inside and out . John

Hey John, do have a damper in the flue ? Just curious

Yea, he has one.