Would You Buy This Hearthstone Stove? (Used, Pics)

[michiganwinters]

Where are you at in Michigan. I just purchased my Pacific Energy Summit brand new last year for $1550. Im just north of Grand Rapids.

 

[rdrcr56]

It definitely has been hot! I would for sure check out the secondary tubes and baffle plate, also take a magnifying glass and check out the joints on the side stones ( could have a small hairline crack that you wont see until it gets hot and opens up ). Also pull the rear heat shield and look for any cracks in the cast iron.

 

[offroadaudio]

There is one very similar to that on Ebay right now - might check that out? -= search "woodstove"

'Frank

 

[Highbeam]

This stove suffered from a long term overheat. Meaning, it wasn't the guy trying to get instant gratification because a big fire in the soapstone stove that will just make the chimney hot. This stove was run hot for an extended period in an effort to produce heat or by accident. Nothing happens fast on a soapstone due to the thermal storage properties. That first hour blast from a new load or even a new fire will look impressive through the front glass, it will feel impressive to the chimney pipe, but the outside of the stove body won't heat up nearly as fast.

To prevent an overfire on a soapstone stove you need only monitor the stovetop temps with a thermometer and adjust the air control accordingly. You need to know the overfire temp per Hearthstone which is quite low and is available in the owner's manual for each stove. Otherwise these stoves are great for folks that are worried about runaways because they just don't do anything quickly. It takes a lot of effort to run one of these up from the normal 400 cruise temp to 500.

Oh and you will spend a lot of time with the air control completely closed. Mine purrs along at 450 with a full load and closed air control.

 

[Todd]

The back of this stove is all cast iron and has two firebricks inside the firebox in the back that are cracked. That isn't soapstone. They probably cracked just like mine did from inserting wood in the firebox. They can be easily replaced for a few bucks. I wouldn't jump so fast to the conclusion that this stove has been seriously overfired unless I visually inspected it. You cant tell everything from a few pictures. Yes the air wash is warped, but that doesn't mean the stove has been abused. I would ask for more info, like what stove top temps were run? What did they burn in the stove? How often did they burn? What do the secondary burn tubes look like? Maybe the airwash was a bad cast and is a cheap easy replacement. Who knows, I'd ask questions, take a look at it, and offer a couple hundred less if everything else checked out.

 

[LHKountryboy]

The Hearthstone Heritage is a "pretty little piece of cast iron furnature" , suitable for occasional use, it is not a real source of primary heat, go buy a real, as in STEEL BOILER PLATE, welded stove for primary or secondary heat.. or DEKA wood Furnace at Menard's if you want to force air heat a house. You can get a Deka or similar "WOOD FURNACE" new for 700 or so, used for about $350.

I just picked up the same stove, same color, for 100 bucks, the fire brick is cracked on the one I bought, just like on that one. The cracks will fill with ash, its not a hazard, unless it is actually "loose" and readily can be casued to fall in the firepit. They didnt even have a "deflector shield" on mine, it never had one as far as I can tell. They ran it for 8 seasons without one either way.

Personally for $600 and pick up and install of that 600 plus pound beast, I'd say shop a little harder, personally I wouldn't have bought the one I have, but it was sort of a favor to family member, who wanted the "evil thing" gone. They are cute as a decoration, but I would NEVER trust a cast iron stove for any sort of safe heat source. Im going to use it for occasional use on my sun porch after I cut a cast iron grate down for it, to keep the coals OFF the poor quality cast iron "spin and dump" ash dump. No grate, what a silly idea.

To me its a rich man's "toy" or a ladies decorating accessory item, not a REAL wood burner. It is messy and not airtight, so expect smoke damage to your home and furnishings.. if you truely plan on using it, ask my relatives, 8 seasons of it and they gave up, replaced all their furnature and repainted the interior of their house. It cost them a lot to erase all memories of the Hearthstone, "one of the most romantic, beautiful and satisfying ways to heat your home. " according to the manufacturer.

I use an old Shcrader Dutchess Airtight with a smoke burner to heat my 3 bedroom Fairmont, its bigger, and its BOILER PLATE welded steel, with 2 cast brass doors and a fire brick lower box liner, I've ran the thing till the S/S stove pipe glowed ( my flue thermometer reads 1200 at that point, sure cleans the flue out nicely.) It sits on a 6 inch reinforced masonry hearth topped with slate and is backed by a 8'x10' solid "REAL"brick backer wall ( requires its own foundation, to hold all that up in a "manufactured home". BUT that is REAL thermal mass.

My Schrader ACTUALLY does burn for 12-14 hours, that Heartstone thing could.. I have both a in flue thermomter and a magnetic one on the outside of the pipe, and I hawk the thing. It runs 24/7 (except for occasionally glass, stove, and flue cleaning.) from Dec till March. It burns wood to a fine white ash.. and when its half full I shovel it out.

Been running it my Schrader for 20+ years and never had a problem, other than door and glass seals, which dop require occasional replacement. I run about 4-5 cords thru it in a cold winter and use about 100-150lbs of propane for back up in 12 months in my furnace and gas appliances. My 21 ton wood splitter and 3/4 ton 1967 Ford truck (oh and me) get a work out in the process fall to stock the wood shed, But this is SW MICHIGAN. And with the lake effect snow I get, I take no chances.

 

[Elderthewelder]

I was just browsing my local craigslist and ran accross this similar stove under firewood search,
(broken link removed to http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/hsh/855221777.html)

 

[Todd]

The Hearthstone Heritage is a "pretty little piece of cast iron furnature" , suitable for occasional use, it is not a real source of primary heat, go buy a real, as in STEEL BOILER PLATE, welded stove for primary or secondary heat.. or DEKA wood Furnace at Menard's if you want to force air heat a house. You can get a Deka or similar "WOOD FURNACE" new for 700 or so, used for about $350.

I just picked up the same stove, same color, for 100 bucks, the fire brick is cracked on the one I bought, just like on that one. The cracks will fill with ash, its not a hazard, unless it is actually "loose" and readily can be casued to fall in the firepit. They didnt even have a "deflector shield" on mine, it never had one as far as I can tell. They ran it for 8 seasons without one either way.

Personally for $600 and pick up and install of that 600 plus pound beast, I'd say shop a little harder, personally I wouldn't have bought the one I have, but it was sort of a favor to family member, who wanted the "evil thing" gone. They are cute as a decoration, but I would NEVER trust a cast iron stove for any sort of safe heat source. Im going to use it for occasional use on my sun porch after I cut a cast iron grate down for it, to keep the coals OFF the poor quality cast iron "spin and dump" ash dump. No grate, what a silly idea.

To me its a rich man's "toy" or a ladies decorating accessory item, not a REAL wood burner. It is messy and not airtight, so expect smoke damage to your home and furnishings.. if you truely plan on using it, ask my relatives, 8 seasons of it and they gave up, replaced all their furnature and repainted the interior of their house. It cost them a lot to erase all memories of the Hearthstone, "one of the most romantic, beautiful and satisfying ways to heat your home. " according to the manufacturer.

I use an old Shcrader Dutchess Airtight with a smoke burner to heat my 3 bedroom Fairmont, its bigger, and its BOILER PLATE welded steel, with 2 cast brass doors and a fire brick lower box liner, I've ran the thing till the S/S stove pipe glowed ( my flue thermometer reads 1200 at that point, sure cleans the flue out nicely.) It sits on a 6 inch reinforced masonry hearth topped with slate and is backed by a 8'x10' solid "REAL"brick backer wall ( requires its own foundation, to hold all that up in a "manufactured home". BUT that is REAL thermal mass.

My Schrader ACTUALLY does burn for 12-14 hours, that Heartstone thing could.. I have both a in flue thermomter and a magnetic one on the outside of the pipe, and I hawk the thing. It runs 24/7 (except for occasionally glass, stove, and flue cleaning.) from Dec till March. It burns wood to a fine white ash.. and when its half full I shovel it out.

Been running it my Schrader for 20+ years and never had a problem, other than door and glass seals, which dop require occasional replacement. I run about 4-5 cords thru it in a cold winter and use about 100-150lbs of propane for back up in 12 months in my furnace and gas appliances. My 21 ton wood splitter and 3/4 ton 1967 Ford truck (oh and me) get a work out in the process fall to stock the wood shed, But this is SW MICHIGAN. And with the lake effect snow I get, I take no chances.

Boy oh boy are you going to hear some flaq from Hearthstone owners. To each his own, if you prefer steel, more power to ya. But I prefer a good looking piece of furniture that heats my house and I have no problem heating my 3 bedroom home with my soapstone stove 24/7 all winter long and only go through 3 cord.

What do you mean by "smoke burner"? Does your stove have some kind of secondary burner?

Running your stove til the stove pipe glows is not a good idea. Just because you dodged a bullet for 20 years doesn't mean you won't catch one between the eyes this year. Be safe and have a good one.

 

[Highbeam]

You also threw a decent jab at the cast iron stove users which are high in number as well. Nice first post, you really demonstrated your knowledge level.

 

[relax]

looking foward to your 2nd post here,maybe you will have learned a little by then, or when the epa shuts your smogger down and you have to heat with candles and a steel nail...burn baby burn...ZZZim

 

[bcnu]

My Homestead, purchased new last year, is well worth the cost. It was part of our home remodel and I'd say the 4k price for stove and complete install is pretty accurate. Money is almost always an issue but I saw it as a long term investment. If you can't pull it off right now look for a less expensive stove. There are so many choices you're sure to find one in your price range.

PS: BB good to see you online - and I'd vote for u ;-)

 

[LHKountryboy]

My apologies to the "cast iron" crowd. I guess now that I have one, I am in the cast iron furnature crowd also now.
My only complaint about the cast iron "clad" stoves is that they have so many fragile parts, screws, nuts, bolts, and refractory cemented seams. I have seen many a cracked, warped, srew loose rusty cast iron stove clad in "stone" running merrily towards disaster like a ticking time bomb.

I guess just prefer a simple 1/2 thick welded steel stove for a primary heat source. I can very easily inspect every part of it and know exactly what is going on. Its not a ugly sqaure box, by any means, has lots of brass rails and solid cast brass doors and hinges. So atleast I dont have to worry about ever breaking anything on it, other than the glass.

Once upon a time my family heated with coal in "Round Oak" tin can stoves, and once there was even a very shady "franklin stove" or two was used in my family. So I approach cast iron burners with extreme trepidation. As for my glowing chimney comment, it was only once that that happened in the middle of a blizzard, I was being foolishly sarcastic with that comment. Trust me I was very worried, and shut it down instantly, and have never reapted that incident.

I will try to respect the community of cast iron and not make disparaging comments in the future.

But to "Burning Chunk" my stove is not a Smogger, yes it does have a secondary burner. And I do keep a close eye on whats coming out of the chimney.
Relax man, go have a Crown on the rocks, living in Buchanan you deserve one.
I can certainly understand your environmental concern with the the ground, water, and air contamination problems over there. So many former industial sites, Electro-voice, The defunct hospital, Clark, and Carbon's, the emissions from the US 31 freeway, and Redbud trail mud boggers constant soil and air contamination.. The contamination in McCoy Creek and the river. There have been approximately 87 EPA recorded Incidents in the 49107 area within the last 20 years. WOW. I bet you shuddder everytime you take a breath, or turn on your tap water.