The Equinox Has It's First Problem

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for whatever reason - idk if it's draft due to environment, or the wood, the fact i'm rarely using any supplements, etc. - but i have to nudge the primary open just the tiniest bit to get my optimal low burn. came down this morning to a large collection of black coals, still roughly log-shaped, after a 3-split re-load last night around 11pm. raked them around, dropped a couple pieces of kindling on them, opened the damper and primary, and the poofed right to life with vigor... just couple times this year so far it's been... different.
 
We're getting exceptionally long burns too. Easily 9-10 hours with doug fir. When I load up for the overnight the flame show is too much though and I would like to turn it down some, or damper it but that didn't work out.

5/8" rope gasket seems huge. I expect a rope gasket around the perimeter of the base assembly and also around the ash pan portion of the assembly. So two different seals. Is there any reason to not reuse the rope?
 
Highbeam said:
We're getting exceptionally long burns too. Easily 9-10 hours with doug fir. When I load up for the overnight the flame show is too much though and I would like to turn it down some, or damper it but that didn't work out.

5/8" rope gasket seems huge. I expect a rope gasket around the perimeter of the base assembly and also around the ash pan portion of the assembly. So two different seals. Is there any reason to not reuse the rope?
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean, when you are on your lowest setting you think you are still getting too much flame? If you can get 10 hours on doug fir, I think that is pretty amazing. I never burn soft wood so maybe it just more willing to give it up than a piece of oak and thus more flame with little air. You tried a pipe damper? I considered one but again this thing works so well, what could I be missing?

I have a bunch of various sized ropes in a kit I bought for my Dutchwest, I bet if I'm careful I can re-use the existing as long as they didn't use sealent/cement when they put it together.
 
Yes, I load the stove to the gills at 9:30 and once the load is burning and flue at about 700 then I damper down to zero, stove temp at 400. The flames die down to a perfect secondary blue curtain along the firebox roof. Along about 10:15 the blue curtain is licking down the front of the fuel load along the window with a flue temp at about 800, stove temp at 500 and this gets bigger and bigger until about half of the front window is full of the blue ghost flames. This is when I would like to dampen down farther either by limiting combustion air or by a pipe damper. In the middle of the night, say 3 or 4 AM, the firebox is just a big pile of red logs with some ceiling flame and stove temps back to 400. In the morning at 6:30 the bottom rear of the firebox has a decent pile of the remaining red coal chunks and stove temps at 300.

Maybe the doug fir is off gassing too fast and making mucho fuel that will either be burnt or run up the flue as pollution. Perhaps this is a negative side effect of burning softwood.

The appliance adapters with the damper in them made for double wall pipe don't work on our stoves. I tried it this summer and failed. My 14' chimney is all vertical and maybe too strong sometimes.

Hey, I'm happy with the long burns but I don't like watching a stove run uncontrollably from 400 to 500 with the air shut off. When it gets colder outside this will only get worse as draft goes up.

I have checked those bottom bolts for tightness as I had heard that they can loosen up and create air leaks through the ash pan. The rope gasket was visible from outside and no cement was apparent. I bet it comes off like a transmission pan. Loosen up all the bolts and then start removing bolts so that one side of the ash pan casting drops down onto a block of wood and then unbolt the remaining bolts on the last side and set it down. Well, if you've dropped a trans pan you'll know what I mean.
 
[
Now here is the information I was looking for, thank you Doug and everyone here for that matter. To be honest I would rather fix things like this myself. In doing so, I don't have to let strangers in my home, I learn how things work and I don't have to worry if some kid didn't take the time needed to do the job right.

When I take the pan assembly apart, is there any cement or sealing materials I should have on hand before reassembly? Would the same high temp. lubricant be useful on the shaker handle or is that area too hot for lube........maybe some graphite lube?[/quote]

No the rope gasket should stay in place when you lower the ash assembly.

What I did was, disconnect the stove pipe .
Moved the stove so it could be raised
Blocked up the underside of the ash box.
loosened all the bolts.
Then used a 4 foot long 2x4and a fulcrum to lift each side of the stove & added a piece of 2x4 under each leg until I had enough room to see the sliding plate .
Lube & lower the stove in reverse steps.

Don't forget to address the sliding ash grate before trying to lower the ash box.
I had already removed the sliding ash grate Assembly prior to the fix.
 
Well, here comes the weekend report.......In a nutshell, there is a small hole underneath the side door side of the stove. A little forward of middle, forward of the air intake port, there is a small drilled hole just big enough to get the spout of the graphite lubricant dispenser into. I was able to shoot enough graphite powder in there to free up the linkage. I binds very slightly coming from full off but not every time and no where near as pronounced as before. I will need to get a better lub dispenser because the one I bought at ACE blew smoe of the dust out the side of the screw-on top making a mess on the floor and preventing me from getting a whole lot of the lube in there.

Taking that ash pan down would have been somewhat hard, everything seemed straight forward enough, not taking apart the grate first linkage would have produced damage to it's parts. After that, the crawling around on the floor like a reptile and the awkward lifting angles and aligning of screw holes upon reassembly I'm sure would have been a PITA but very dooable.

So check it out people does your stove have said hole? Is it possible some designer had it placed there for this very reason or am I just wasting bandwidth because after sitting for 6 months my handle became sticky from lack of use. It sure seems like it's fixed, and it sure seems like the hole I'm talking about is in the same neighborhood as the linkage.
 
There is a pretty simple fix. I had the same problem. My dealer came out and replaced the link between the air control and air shutter. This worked perfectly. The only difference was that the top section of the linkage rod was removed. The most difficult part of the entire repair was removing the ash pan.
 
rdstewar said:
There is a pretty simple fix. I had the same problem. My dealer came out and replaced the link between the air control and air shutter. This worked perfectly. The only difference was that the top section of the linkage rod was removed. The most difficult part of the entire repair was removing the ash pan.
Click to expand...

I looked at doing just that.....removing the ash pan housing to gain access to the linkage so I could lubricate it. Unfortunately for me (and apparently not you), my 1 year warranty was up and my dealer would have charged me some bucks to fix the problem.
 
The part should be covered under the warrantee. You may be able to replace the part yourself if you are handy. My dealer came with an instruction from Hearthstone so you may be able to get your hands on that through your dealer.
 
rdstewar said:
The part should be covered under the warrantee. You may be able to replace the part yourself if you are handy. My dealer came with an instruction from Hearthstone so you may be able to get your hands on that through your dealer.
Click to expand...

I'll be doing just that if the lubrication fix I performed this weekend turns out to be false. Thanks.
 
Just a heads up, this problem is not fixed, I'll be dropping the ash pan assembly this weekend.
 
The air linkage has two shafts on it. One goes through the bottom and one goes through the ash pan and mounts to the air control handle. You can cut off the shaft goes through the bottom. This is the part that is causing the binding. The air linkage gets most of the support from the shaft that goes through the ash pan. It should then work without sticking.
 
rdstewar said:
The air linkage has two shafts on it. One goes through the bottom and one goes through the ash pan and mounts to the air control handle. You can cut off the shaft goes through the bottom. This is the part that is causing the binding. The air linkage gets most of the support from the shaft that goes through the ash pan. It should then work without sticking.
Click to expand...

So you are describing a push pull setup with two shafts connected to the air handle?

Slowly now, The shaft that goes thru the ash pan....is this visible thru the ash pan door or do I have to remove the pan housing?

The shaft you say goes thru the bottom......this is located outside the ash pan but is visible when the ash pan housing is removed?

You want me to cut off what? Your dealer provided you with all this information? Is there a parts diagram somewhere? I got nothing except my manual and it is useless.

Doug60 and my dealer suggested I am having a lubrication problem, neither suggested anything gets cut off or modified.

I sure wish there was a way for Hearthstone advise me on this problem and recommend a fix.
 
I had my dealer send this to me this morning. He was able to get it off the Hearthstone web site. You can either remove this section of the linkage yourself or have your dealer order you a replacement part.

I hope this helps.
 

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rdstewar said:
I had my dealer send this to me this morning. He was able to get it off the Hearthstone web site. You can either remove this section of the linkage yourself or have your dealer order you a replacement part.

I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Yes this helps! Thanks very much. Just how old is that stove of yours?
 
Its been a year since I had the pan down & its been working fine ever since.

If I remember correctly that upper pin sits in a pivot point .Will it work without it? I guess it could.
But without lube on the plate & plate guides rod & slot there is a potential for things to be worse without the pivot point.
The problem is the plate is so light that if is not slidding freely on a lubed surfaces it gets jacked up on one side & jams its self within its guiding channel.

That just the way I see it & remember it, no flame intended too all involved in solveing this issue.
thanks ,doug
 
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.
 
FireWalker said:
Highbeam said:
I have a spot about midway through the rang where the lever sticks and I need to jiggle it to go farther. It also dings at full open or full closed. I suspect that there is a flat piece of metal sliding in a channel and getting cockeyed in the channel. Jiggling releases the cockeye situation and it slides smoothly. You quickly get used to the jiggle.

The EQ and the heritage sure look the same I wonder if they use the same but scaled up components.
Click to expand...

I was afraid I would get this answer. I'm not particularly fond of jiggiling. Must fix.......take apart and put back together. What is in there that makes it work?
Click to expand...

What makes it work..........is love!
 
LargeHearthstoneOwner said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
wellbuilt home said:
LargeHearthstoneOwner said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
Click to expand...
Hey Wellbuilt in a recent post entitled Equinox you said your stove was working well now this.What's going on?
 
wellbuilt home said:
LargeHearthstoneOwner said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
Click to expand...


Over 3 cords since November, damn that's a lot of wood, I've heated 24/7 since late October and I've burned about half that!

Are you sure your damper is not stuck/broken in the closed position? Does the wood you add light up right away or does it take an hour or so to catch and get raging in there? I'm burning some really nice wood right now and it catches right away....if left unattended on 50% air supply this stove will get super hot! If you can run your stove for a full load at with the air supply at 1/2 or more, your wood is not dry enough. I have some oak I chunked up last spring and didn't split until fall and I can get no heat from it. The wood I split and left to season over the summer is kicking butt!

I just spent a week of vacation at home and I learned some things about my Equinox:

1. It does not need to be stuffed full to heat well and long. In fact I think it's a waste of wood, 2/3 to 3/4 full is good for 6 to 8 hours of cold weather heating, after that it's still throwing a lot of heat but not like it does 2 hours into a load.
2. If it's particularly cold and you need big time heat, make sure you have a stash of wood you know is truly seasoned. Fortunately most all my wood fits into this catagory.
3. Wood species is not that important. I have a bunch of basswood mixed into my supply and at first I was pissed but now I've found it doesn't matter as I would rather burn dry basswood than not so dry oak. Partially dry oak sucks, give me dry birch, ash and maple any day of the week, you can keep the oak! Thats something I thought I would never say.
4. This stove can get very hot and throw a ton of heat but not the kind of heat that traveles very far like hot steel or iron, when they say soft heat this is what they mean. I have yet to make the 2 gallon flat oven pan on my stove top boil, steam yes but it simply will not boil.
5. Never mind the surface/stovetop tempratures and put that magnetic thermometer on the pipe (single wall) 16 or so inches above the outlet. According to our manual, that reading should run normally at 400, I let it go over 500 each morning. I held 450 for most of the day yesterday as it was really cold here. I heated my 2100 sf up from 70 up to 80 but it took 3 hours with my air damper set at about 1/4 open. If you can't make the pipe run right up past 500 with full air something is wrong. My wood will flare right up and if left alone the pipe temp will rocket past 600 in a matter of minutes. I flared the build-up in my connector two weeks ago, I herd the crackling sound and watched the thermometer pass 700 as I hit the air to off, scary stuff.

As for my sticky damper........I have done nothing, It's not as bad as it was earlier in the season and I'm living with it. My wife is pissed that our dealer won't come and fix it and I agree. She is also pissed I haven't fixed it. It's funny, I take care of the stove in my home and I really don't want anyone else messing with it, especially my teenagers we would be living in the street in a matter of days if my 16 yo son had to tend the fire. My wife will throw in a couple of pieces but does not take the time to rake the coals and load it properly so it smolders. She did figure out the damper wiggle but twice now has reported she left the room and came back to a hot hot stove and doesn't seem to get it that you should not do that.
 
I have lived with this same problem with my Heritage. It hangs up mid-open, and with a little jiggle, moves. Do I have to worry that I am slowly wearing something down that will break at 2 a.m. on a three dog morning? I think we are looking at an eye-opening cold winter here in the Northeast, and would rather not get caught up in a problem that needs attention at night or anytime when I depend on the stove.
Thanks
Doug
 
Rich L said:
wellbuilt home said:
LargeHearthstoneOwner said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

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
 
wellbuilt home said:
Rich L said:
wellbuilt home said:
LargeHearthstoneOwner said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

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
Click to expand...

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.
 
It's gonna turn out to be the wood. On your behalf, I tried an experiment last evening, I sorted through one of my stacks and pulled an armload (5 big pieces) of just red oak and brought it inside. This wood was dilivered log length in the fall of 08. It was chunked up and stacked that fall but not split and stacked until spring 09. Now with my test load inside, I raked a good base of coals forward I filled the box with biggest pieces tight to the back of the stove. I gave full air and just as I expected, an hour passed before I had to consider turning the damper down. After an hour I started to get good heat and as it was cold out I decided to let the load burn hot to get the place toasty before bed so that load was mostly gone in 4 hours at which time I added some mixed wood and went to bed. This morning I took off my pile one big basswood round, two big pieces of yellow birch and two nice clean splits of oak. The round went in back with the oak next and then with the birch up front I was burning for no more then 10 minutes before my stack was shooting past 500 degrees and I was throttling back on the air. After 30 minutes I shut the air off and left for the day. This was at 6:30 this morning and when I get home at 5:30 a nice coal bed will be waiting.

If your burning full loads of all oak you are going to want to try mixing it up. You should not have any problem sending that stove top beyond 600 degrees with the right wood. The old woodchuck from Thurman I got my last load of wood from said to me he will not sell oak "it takes 2 years minimum to season oak and even if just the ends get wet with rain, the wood soaks the moisture right back in." This from a guy in the firewood buisness. I used to sware by oak and now I believe it's the one thing that I have been struggled with all these years of wood burning. It is just not that good unless you have 2 or 3 years to wait and a good woodshed to store it.

Come on up and I'll trade you some brich, maple mix for some of your oak and you will see what you have been missing with your Equinox.
 
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