Oh No What did my chimney sweep do to my Hearthstone Homestead????

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Andy99

New Member
Jun 19, 2008
159
NY
I hired a "professional" Chimney sweep to clean my chimney. Last Year was my first year with my Hearthstone Homestead (hearth stove) so I wanted it cleaned before the new burning season. I hired a sweep that owns his own company and does all the work himself. He is NFI certified. He is also a member of Chimney Safety Institute Of America. He has great reviews on Angie's list. He comes to the house and the first thing he does is come inside to look at the stove he places a vacuum in the stove then goes up on the roof. He spends time sweeping the chimney. When he comes back down he goes to the stove and proceeds to take apart the tubes at the top of the stove. As hes taking out the "cement board" that was on top of the tubes it came out in two pieces. I asked him if that would be a problem? He told me that its only in two pieces and they fit tightly together so its not on issue. He told me to order a new one from hearthstone and when he comes back next fall to clean the stove he will replace it? Does this sound OK???
Now the scary part. I went to the kitchen and he was in there for about an hour. Then he comes to me and asks if I have the manual for the stove? I see a pile of cement that he told me was extra from when they made the stove and all the tubes are still out. I had the manual and he told me he was looking for a picture with the schematic of the pieces he took out. Since there wasn't one in the manual I suggested calling hearthstone but he said he would figure it out. At this point I was getting nervous. It took him 2 1/2 hours to clean the stove. I just paid $125 and I'm not even sure if its safe to use it?

Im posting a picture of all the "extra" cement he took out of the stove and a couple of different angles of the cracked cement board thing....
 

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Wow Its hard to take pictures inside of your stove
 
"Extra from when they made the stove" eh? Hmmm... Seems you oughta be the one calling Hearthstone. Share your pix you got here. Get an "all clear" from them before firing it up.

Also recommend you change your title to include the words "Hearthstone Homestead" - might get Jim Casavant to see it here, or others more familiar w/ the stove. Lotsa posts this time of year - you wanna catch the eyes of Homestead-savvy members...

My 2c? If HS put it there, it's supposed to be there. Probably only seals up your secondary manifold a little - but I'd still want it.

IIRC, Highbeam mighta gone the other way and added cement to his Heritage specifically to improve the sealing. I might be misrememberin' that, tho...

And your cracked baffle ain't the best, but it ain't gonna hurt too much. I'd order another, yes. I'd also be REALLY careful to check next time before its swept to see if its broken before anyone touches it. IIRC, Homesteads are kinda PITA's about baffle removals. You might be able to improve your current one by removing it, adding furnace cement to the top of the crack, and reinstalling it. A SS plate across the crack, embedded in the cement, might help but I wouldn't reckon that'd last very long.
 
I'm so upset. This stove is only a year old. I thought I was doing the right thing by hiring a professional.

I just noticed this also. I can almost swear that the handle was tight against the door now there is about a 1/4 inch gap between the handles base and the door? The only reason I noticed is because it felt different. I don't know maybe I'm over analyzing because I lost all trust in this guy....
 

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Was your baffle broke before the sweep pulled it out? I bet he broke it either by trying to remove or hit it with his brush. I gave up trying to remove mine and just vacuumed it out from the exhaust collar. Looks like he glued it back together with stove cement. I doubt it will last long. I had extra cement as well, but not that much, maybe that's why the baffle was so hard to remove?
 
I have a heritage which is very similar in construction.

From the bottom up. You are supposed to have a gap between the chrome handle and the door. It is through that gap that I have dribbled 90 weight oil on the spring landing to lube it. I've never liked the hearthstone latches as they are dainty, squeaky, and feel fragile but they seem to work quite well. Your's looks like mine. There is a set screw on the chrome that you can loosen and remove the handle, you can also loosen it and make sure that the handle is shoved all the way onto the shaft. The operating shaft for that door has a single flat side that the set screw tightens onto.

On Ed's post, yes I have added cement to try and seal up little leaks which show up as small jets of flame coming from around the secondary manifold. My additional cement was added to the internal parts only and not an actual air leak into the stove through the blocks. I used rutland black stove cement which doesn't seem to hold up as well as it should, probably because I am trying to bond steel parts to the stone.

I've pulled out at least that much extra cement from my stove. They really slop it on when they make our stoves and the builders from when my stove was made were apparently known for being extra generous with it. Have you ever been on the non-finished side of a brick wall where all the grout is spooged out from between the bricks? It's kinda like that. The cement that is on the outside of the joints does not seal the stove. The cement on the inside of the joints helps the steel biscuits make the seal between blocks.

That dude broke your baffle and owes you 100$ for the replacement NOW. A new one for my heritage would cost like 60$ if needed. I've patched up dents and dings with great success using the furnace cement but a broken board, one broken by a professional shop, should be replaced immediately by the careless sweep. It is not "fine" as is, your baffle was one piece when he got there and now it's broke. That's like getting an oil change done and getting your car back with a broken windshield.

I think Jim C from Hearthstone will agree that only the baffle board is a problem. He's a good guy to talk to regardless.
 
He prob smashed the baffle with the brush and broke it in half. The proper way to do it is to remove the baffle BEFORE you start. And leave the stove door shut. Then all the junk just falls into the stove.

Does this unit have an insulation blanket above the baffle also? I would be wondering about the shape of that if there was one.

Technically there is no problem with using the baffle when cracked as long as no chunks are missing. But now you have a crack where chunks may start to fall out, which would not have happened if it was not broken.
 
It's hard to tell and doesn't really matter but looking at how the crack runs diagonal I suspect that he broke the board while trying to get it out. Impatience. You can smack the baffle pretty hard with a pointy object (like the end of your brush or needle nose pliers) and simply dent it or punch a hole in it. Breaking the whole board takes more force.
 
Andy, you have a PM.
 
I agree with the rest of the posters that the extra cement is not a issue. The baffle is a different story. If he broke it, he should be replacing it. Does your dealer do sweeps? If so, consider calling them next time. The dealer would replace this part without hassel because all he has to do is order the part. The sweep will have to go to a dealer, order the part, then come out to fix your stove. Most sweeps i know that only sweep do NOT like visiting the dealer.
JMO.
-Ryan
 
The dealer I bought the stove from doesn't do cleanings. They don't even do the install they subbed it out to a guy how also doesn't do cleanings. I suspected he broke it during the cleaning, but when I asked him about it being cracked he said it had a hair line crack in it and when he pulled it out it just came apart? What was I going to do?
 
There wasn't anything you could do. The guy broke it when he jammed the brush down into it but he will never admit it. Any sweep worth his soot pulls the baffle out first. You could claim it on your homeowner's insurance and get a replacement baffle but most deductibles are twice or more the cost of the baffle.

Were it mine I would just reach up and make sure the board is pushed back when I started up the stove and when I did reloads. It looks like the design isn't gonna let it move and open the crack up when you are burning.
 
Seems all you can do is offer him your theory that he broke it in process of cleaning, see if he'll make it right. If not, provide feedback through the same channels you checked when choosing him - you mentioned Angie's list - just be sure and make your comments very objective and factual "I believe he broke it by ..." as opposed to "He broke it by..." so that you aren't at risk of any defamation suits then move on and find someone else for next year.
 
all the cement globs look like the overkill the guy putting it together gave it when assembling... some hearthstones have so much of it, it shows thru on the finished outside parts of the stove... the baffle is one piece, but that being said, in order to remove the baffle from a homestaed (or to replace one) you either magle it or cut it in two... i even talked to a factory tech on how to replace a baffle in a homestead (i had spent 1/2 hr at customer's house trying to remove it to clean the fireplace connection without smashing the baffle) and was told to remove the entire stove top (via the rod runnin all the way to the bottom of the stove) then clean out the old cement and reapply to the top when done replacing the baffle, or to cut the baffle in half on the diangle and piece it back in.
 
Andy,

I had a similar problem with the handle with my old Homestead. I went back to the dealer and they said it is known defect. They gave me a new handle free of charge. The metal latch is a bit longer and sits nicely in the latch groove. When you upgrade, you won't see that coil. Handle is an easy fix.

Good luck.
 
Vic99 said:
Andy,

I had a similar problem with the handle with my old Homestead. I went back to the dealer and they said it is known defect. They gave me a new handle free of charge. The metal latch is a bit longer and sits nicely in the latch groove. When you upgrade, you won't see that coil. Handle is an easy fix.

Good luck.

Waddya mean it's a defect, it looks just like mine. Well, maybe it is a bit further out on the shaft but that can be fixed by loosening the set screw and pushing it on all the way. I didn't thnk the issues was with the actual latching mechanism.
 

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Vic99 said:
Andy,

I had a similar problem with the handle with my old Homestead. I went back to the dealer and they said it is known defect. They gave me a new handle free of charge. The metal latch is a bit longer and sits nicely in the latch groove. When you upgrade, you won't see that coil. Handle is an easy fix.

Good luck.

Me too.
 
So far the stove is working as well as last year. I don't notice a difference with the cracked baffle but I have it put together nice and tight. I have been keeping a close watch on the stove top temperature and so far it seems ok.
 
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