Update on Hearthstone Homestead heating problem

[rocheck]

Stove top temp is now 550 and damper is about 70% closed and fire is a good
secondary burn. My wife is sitting in the room reading her Kindle and she says
she has not felt any real impact on room temp. Will stay with it and see what
happens over next little bit.

 

[Todd]

Do you have a block off plate in the old fireplace damper?

 

[BrowningBAR]

Do you have a block off plate in the old fireplace damper?

He does:

"Stove is mounted on the hearth of a fireplace, the rear vent of the stove is piped through a sheet metal shield into the fireplace where it goes into a triple wall pipe and up the chimney. "

 

[rocheck]

Stove top temp is just below 550F, good bed of red glowing coals with small secondary flames.
Damper is about 85% closed. Temp in room has gone up 1 deg to 72, first time it has increased
since we started all this about two hours ago.

I wonder if the stove itself is too small for the area we are trying to heat. Its rating says it should easily
heat the room but it just isn't raising the temp in the room even with the stove top at 550F.

 

[rocheck]

Stove top temp has dropped to 475F, never could get it over 550. Room for one log in the stove,
damper still at 15% open. Room temp finally came up to 72 deg. Outside temp is 22F at 10:23pm.

I am going to bed now, will check the stove, temps, etc during the night and post updates.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[rocheck]

Time is 1:42am, stove top temp is 375F and room temp is 72F. Fire has burned down to a solid bed
of glowing red coals, no flames. Outside temp is 17F. Temp of stove top has dropped but stove has
maintained room temp at 72F. Reloaded stove with three pieces of mesquite and going back to bed

 

[rocheck]

Time is 6:06am and stove top temp is about 250F. Room temp is 66F and outside temp is 19F
Glowing bed of red coals, no flames.

Just refilled the stove with wood and will try to bring stove temp back up.

 

[Todd]

Do you have a block off plate in the old fireplace damper?

He does:

"Stove is mounted on the hearth of a fireplace, the rear vent of the stove is piped through a sheet metal shield into the fireplace where it goes into a triple wall pipe and up the chimney. "

Yeah but how far does the stove sit back into the fireplace? Is the whole stove out on the hearth and just the pipe go through that sheet metal shield? Just wondering if the rear cast iron part of the stove which throws a ton of heat is exposed to the room or sits back behind the shield in the fireplace?

 

[rocheck]

The entire stove sits on the hearth in front of the old fireplace. A sheet metal shield covers the fireplace opening and the rear discharge of the stove is vented through this metal shield into fireplace.

The non soapstone metal back on the stove sits about 1" in front of the metal shield that seals off the fireplace opening. The discharge vent coming from the stove is about 6" long before it goes through the metal shield into the old fireplace.

There has been a BIG fire going in the stove for almost an hour, with the door cracked open, and the stove top temp has gone from 250F to a little less than 300F

The main heat "discharge" that you notice coming from the stove is from the glass door in the front. It is where heat is most obvious.

 

[rdust]

There has been a BIG fire going in the stove for almost an hour, with the door cracked open, and the stove top temp has gone from 250F to a little less than 300F.

Close the door, all you're doing is sending room air up the chimney! If you have to run the door open for an hour something else is going on. As soon at the flame is established you should be able to close the door.

 

[NH_Wood]

Stove top temp is 525F, damper at about 50%, wood is well charred, and good secondary burn
going on right now.

There you go. Keep it at 50% a little longer and then take two or three more stages of slowly reducing air, waiting several minutes (5-10) between reducing stages.

You should peak out between 550 and 600 when you are all done.

I'd have that primary lower than 50% at this point in the burn. 1/2 open at 525* is too much. Cheers!

 

[rocheck]

Its now 8:36 AM and the stove has been burning with the door closed for about hour and half. Stove top temp is just over
500F. Room temp has risen from 66 to 68 deg.

It seems to me that with stove top temp over 500F and a couple of hours of heating time that room temp should have increased more than 2 deg.

 

[Vic99]

I had a homestead for 2 seasons. What a great fire show!

After you finish getting to know your set up and how the stove responds, you might want to aim for a stovetop of ~550 F. Since the homestead overfires at 600 F, I often got nervous if it continued to climb. If you can get an infrared thermometer, use it to check the accuracy of your metal disk thermometer. Those can be off by as much as 50 degrees in my experience. Good luck.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Stove top temp is 525F, damper at about 50%, wood is well charred, and good secondary burn
going on right now.

There you go. Keep it at 50% a little longer and then take two or three more stages of slowly reducing air, waiting several minutes (5-10) between reducing stages.

You should peak out between 550 and 600 when you are all done.

I'd have that primary lower than 50% at this point in the burn. 1/2 open at 525* is too much. Cheers!

I'd normally agree, but the poster was having a hard time getting the temps up and was a little too eager shutting the air down which resulted in very low temps. We were trying to establish the fire and make sure the temps held before adjusting the air further.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Its now 8:36 AM and the stove has been burning with the door closed for about hour and half. Stove top temp is just over
500F. Room temp has risen from 66 to 68 deg.

It seems to me that with stove top temp over 500F and a couple of hours of heating time that room temp should have increased more than 2 deg.

I still suspect that your home is more drafty than you think.

 

[woodmiser]

Its now 8:36 AM and the stove has been burning with the door closed for about hour and half. Stove top temp is just over
500F. Room temp has risen from 66 to 68 deg.

It seems to me that with stove top temp over 500F and a couple of hours of heating time that room temp should have increased more than 2 deg.

I still suspect that your home is more drafty than you think.

It does sound like you need a bigger stove or a tighter house.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

Time is 6:06am and stove top temp is about 250F. Room temp is 66F and outside temp is 19F
Glowing bed of red coals, no flames.

Just refilled the stove with wood and will try to bring stove temp back up.

In all sincerity, this is pretty good performance for your stove taking into consideration all
of the variables. Low temps in the low teens - are you used to seeing these temps where you
live? Perhaps your house may be a bit drafty, or perhaps you have quite a bit of thermal mass
to overcome (masonry)? Several nights ago we got down into the single digits, and I woke up to
house temps right around 60F (too much pride for me to kick-in the boiler).

 

[rocheck]

Temps in this area and altitude (7800' ASL) vary greatly during the winter. We have already had two major snow storms. Temp during the first one was down to 3F and last week temp was down to 1.4F. Last winter we had much colder than normal temps, went down to MINUS 27 and was 10 below or colder for over a week. Forecast for this next week is mid 40's during the days and down into mid 20's at night.

I want my stove to keep the house reasonable temp (60-70F) regardless of outside temp. It just is not doing that.

With the help of all the stove GURU'S, I now have the stove working where I can consistently keep it in the 500-550F area
on the stove top. I never was able to do that before all the help that you guys have provided.

Even with the stove top at 500-550, it is not really heating the house. Someone has suggested that there is some type of
thermal image device that will allow you to look at the house outside and determine areas of heat loss. Anyone have info on
this and where I can locate one?

Also, what is everyone's opinion about the stove that I am using? Is it time to consider something different, something larger, or ??? Would appreciate input on that subject.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

Temps in this area and altitude (7800' ASL) vary greatly during the winter. We have already had two major snow storms. Temp during the first one was down to 3F and last week temp was down to 1.4F. Last winter we had much colder than normal temps, went down to MINUS 27 and was 10 below or colder for over a week. Forecast for this next week is mid 40's during the days and down into mid 20's at night.

I want my stove to keep the house reasonable temp (60-70F) regardless of outside temp. It just is not doing that.

With the help of all the stove GURU'S, I now have the stove working where I can consistently keep it in the 500-550F area
on the stove top. I never was able to do that before all the help that you guys have provided.

Even with the stove top at 500-550, it is not really heating the house. Someone has suggested that there is some type of
thermal image device that will allow you to look at the house outside and determine areas of heat loss. Anyone have info on
this and where I can locate one?

Also, what is everyone's opinion about the stove that I am using? Is it time to consider something different, something larger, or ??? Would appreciate input on that subject.

Wow, I would never think it would get so cold somewhere in New Mexico!!

In regards to your heating issues, a photo of where your stove is placed would be of great help
in figuring what may be the problem/solution........

 

[rocheck]

Outside temp today got up to 47 and it is 27F at 8:00pm. I finally got the stove to maintain the 500-550F area after you guys explained what I was doing wrong. The stove has basically been operating in the 500-550 area for the last 12 hours. Late this afternoon temp inside the "stove room" finally got up to 74F and the outside temp was in the 40's.

I will try to posts pictures of the stove and its installation tomorrow....

 

[BrowningBAR]

Outside temp today got up to 47 and it is 27F at 8:00pm. I finally got the stove to maintain the 500-550F area after you guys explained what I was doing wrong. The stove has basically been operating in the 500-550 area for the last 12 hours. Late this afternoon temp inside the "stove room" finally got up to 74F and the outside temp was in the 40's.

I will try to posts pictures of the stove and its installation tomorrow....

I have a legitimately drafty old home with stone walls and little insulation. I can get the room with the heritage in it over 80 degrees if day time temps are that high. The heritage is slightly larger. But not by much.

 

[BrowningBAR]

The Heritage has been lazily burning all day with temps sitting at around 400 or so. I just now went in to reload with the surface temps at around 300°. High today was 39° and it is currently 20° right now. Opposite side wall temps in that room is 75°.

And I am dealing with a butt-load of draftiness.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

It almost sounds like to me there is a "thermal mass" issues here.
Slow to heat up......slow to cool down.....

 

[ditchrider]

I've been burning my Heritage model 8021 for about a month now. Page 20 of my owner's manual States "The thermometer could read as high as 500deg F on high burn and 200-300 deg F on low. Maintaining temperatures in excess of 600 deg F will cause the stones to crack and other damage to the stove. ...ANY DAMAGE DONE BY OVER-FIRING WILL VOID THE WARRANTY."

Didn't want to overfire my stove and void the warranty. I started a fire with cottonwood and elm one night on coals left over from the day and temp of less than 200, it got going well and I shut the air down to ~40% open 20 mins after startup and stove temp of 350 and fell asleep watching the secondary burn. I am not kidding when I say I woke up after a 25 minute nap to find the stove nearly 600 deg F. I nearly s#$t my drawers and shut down the air all the way. All this in about an hour. It then dropped to maintain a temp of 550-500 for several hours. I'm not sure how many I checked it periodically after going to bed.

I guess my question is.. was it as serious an issue as I was worried about? My other point in posting is that I am around the house enough that the stove is nearly always at least 150 degrees, and it is a fairly quick startup to get to 350-400.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I've been burning my Heritage model 8021 for about a month now. Page 20 of my owner's manual States "The thermometer could read as high as 500deg F on high burn and 200-300 deg F on low. Maintaining temperatures in excess of 600 deg F will cause the stones to crack and other damage to the stove. ...ANY DAMAGE DONE BY OVER-FIRING WILL VOID THE WARRANTY."

Didn't want to overfire my stove and void the warranty. I started a fire with cottonwood and elm one night on coals left over from the day and temp of less than 200, it got going well and I shut the air down to ~40% open 20 mins after startup and stove temp of 350 and fell asleep watching the secondary burn. I am not kidding when I say I woke up after a 25 minute nap to find the stove nearly 600 deg F. I nearly s#$t my drawers and shut down the air all the way. All this in about an hour. It then dropped to maintain a temp of 550-500 for several hours. I'm not sure how many I checked it periodically after going to bed.

I guess my question is.. was it as serious an issue as I was worried about? My other point in posting is that I am around the house enough that the stove is nearly always at least 150 degrees, and it is a fairly quick startup to get to 350-400.

You are fine. Over 600 is when you can worry. But even then, if the stove occasionally gets over 600, you will be fine. They is a chance you will warp internal parts or crack a stone if you have sustained 600+ temps.

I routinely get the Heritage over 500 and occasionally get it over 600 for very short periods of time. My burns are controlled and the temps peak when my damper is closed, the air controls are full right, and the fire box contains only secondary flames.