Please help with my Heat-n-Glo Northstar

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

kary4th

New Member
Mar 4, 2006
2
Here's a copy of the email I sent to Heat-N-Glo this morning. It should explain my problem.


Hello,

I have a problem that I hope you can help me with.

A year and a half ago, we built a new house and had a Northstar wood burning fireplace installed.

A month ago, it didn't seem to turn down to a slow burn as it used to.

Three weeks ago, it started leaking in more and more smoke when I open the door.

Last week, when starting a fire, it seemed that NO smoke wanted to travel up the chimney. It was so bad, that it started leaking through a gap/hole in the fiberglass seal around the right window. Once I noticed this, I thought this might be the cause of the fire not slowing to a quite burn. I fixed this last week.

The first time I experienced this problem, it was quite windy. Not as windy as other times in the past, but still. Last week, after finally getting the fire going, I went outside to check the chimney. A good amount of smoke was visible exiting the chimney, but not as much as I had anticipated.

Today, when attempting to start a fire, the smoke was so thick behind the glass, that I had to press on the doors to keep smoke from coming into the house from every place.

My house is not too tight. I wish it were. Opening a door does not help. There is no wind today.

When attempting to learn more about how this fireplace works, I removed the front grate, beneath the doors. The lever that changes the air intake is connected to a triangular metal plate. The plate should be connected to a fixed pivot point. It is not. It seems to have fallen off the peg it should be attached to.

The outside air kit that was supposed to come with the chimney was not installed. Regardless, prior to three weeks ago, this had never happened

We have no damper to close the flue. This seems odd to me, but that's the way it was installed. Very cold air is coming into the house from the bottom of the fireplace right now. This has never happened to the extent it is right now.

Since attempting to start the fireplace this morning, it has been ticking like a clock. Playing with the slide (which I mentioned earlier, seems to be broken) seems to have some affect on this. Pushing it to the extreme right seems to occasionally make the ticking stop momentarilly. There's no fire and hasn't been for a week. It's not coolong down. It's just been ticking for 55 minutes.

Can anyone tell me what is happening to me? Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks,
Kary
 
The heat-n-glo product might have a timer like the quadrafire line does. That sets the damper wide open for a period of time.

If this is a new fireplace for new construction, where is it getting its air from if the out side air kit isnt hooked up? (question for your dealer/Installer) But if it used to work and it doenst now that probably isnt the problem. Doenst mean that its right just might not relate to this issue.

If the symptoms are getting worse it could be that you have pluged your chimney cap by not burning hot enough or using to green of wood.

If you have a combinations of issues, like warm out side temps, negative pressure in the home, green wood, and a pluged cap, it can cause the problems your having. Any one of those issues can.
This board seems slow today. Its usually very active on the weekdays. Good luck

Where is your delaer and installer? Are they not helping?
 
MountainStoveGuy said:
The heat-n-glo product might have a timer like the quadrafire line does. That sets the damper wide open for a period of time.

If this is a new fireplace for new construction, where is it getting its air from if the out side air kit isnt hooked up? (question for your dealer/Installer) But if it used to work and it doenst now that probably isnt the problem. Doenst mean that its right just might not relate to this issue.

If the symptoms are getting worse it could be that you have pluged your chimney cap by not burning hot enough or using to green of wood.

If you have a combinations of issues, like warm out side temps, negative pressure in the home, green wood, and a pluged cap, it can cause the problems your having. Any one of those issues can.
This board seems slow today. Its usually very active on the weekdays. Good luck

Where is your delaer and installer? Are they not helping?

The dealer/installer was, err... unresponsive when we were still building. It took months to get them to come back and install the electric connections. I haven't tried contacting them about this yet. I really don't want to get that angry again - unless they messed something up in the original install, I'd rather deal with ANYONE else.

The ticking does sound exactly like a timer could, I've just never heard this sound - ever - come from the fireplace.

The wood I've been burning isn't green, but it could be drier. I bet you're right about the cap being plugged. That makes perfect sense.

The other issues could be unrelated to the smoke problem. I bet I would have come up with this idea on my own in a few years - thanks! I'll look into it!
 
Hearth and Home Technologies ownes both heat-n-glo and quadrafire. There is a slide lever on the front that starts that timer. I would bet its the same design. I glad i could help. There are some really good people on this forum. And if you like politickin check out the ash can.
Ryan
 
This fireplace has delivered all the heat it was designed to produce. You agreed to the limited heat warranty plan when you opened the doors of the stove the first time, thereby agreeing to the End User License Agreement (EULA). This fireplace will now destroy itself to reduce any warranty issues you may have with this fireplace to zero. WARNING: It will produce a 3 kiloton blast when it self destructs. Please be at least 25 miles away from the fireplace in order to remain at a safe distance. We hope you will be happy with the new fireplace we know you will buy whenever you rebuild your house (approx. half life 3.4 years, approx. safe time to rebuild house 45349.12 years). This self destruct is a feature, not a bug.

Thank you,

Fireplace by Microsoft
 
Status
Not open for further replies.