Getting a Hearthstone up to 600°

I don't know, once I see temps up in that 650 range my internal cat probe is pushing that 1600 limit and it makes me worry a bit about cat life and the stress it's putting on the cast iron parts around it. 500-600 is where I like to cruise.

Something else to keep in mind comparing WS to hearthstones is that the heat source for a WS is the cat element which lives right beneath the stove top. This can make the stove top get hot way before the rest of the stove is up to temp. This may be why WS owners claim to get shorter warm up times than us Hearthstone users that rely on teh actual fire to heat the stove.

None of us should be running our stoves at or near the max temp regularly. If you do, then you need a bigger stove. Running anything at redline will reduce the life and increase odds of an early stove death. So if you need more than 500 degrees on a stone stove then you need to consider your situation before you end up busting something.

BrowningBAR said:

Todd said:

Nope, and I ran it pretty hard in the 500-600 range.

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Which leads me to believe something aided in the warping of the part for the poster 'mtbon'.

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The airwash plate I am speaking about is the metal plate at the top front of the firebox near the front burn tube. I only noticed mine has a slight bow after seeing this thread: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/27969/. Todd even commented that the guy overfired the stove. Mine air wash plate is not as bad as what is in the thread. My chimney guy said the plate is just too thin and was not surprised I have the bow. I went to the dealer showroom and noticed the Heritage has a much thicker air wash plate. I almost think Hearthstone knows about this problem but is unwilling to fix anything b/c it requires a complete stove rebuild.

I do not use the ash pan, ever.

I inspected the bottom of the firebox and the ash grate sits flush and all gaskets seal tight.

I would just like to know if I am doing something wrong here. If I overfired, then was it a one time event or does this stove have troulbe handling the 500° cruising temps?
Hearthstone considers the slight bowing of the plate to be normal. I don't think it's normal. I may just start a new thread and call upon the Homestead owners.
Thanks.

Highbeam said:

So if you need more than 500 degrees on a stone stove then you need to consider your situation

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Hell I can hit 500 with kindling and some chunks. I regularly cruise in the 575-600 range. I ain't skeered of busting, blowing up, black holes, nuttin

While we cruise around 450 most of the time, we kick up around 600 all the time. I wouldn't want the stove to cruise at +550 though.. not because I think for a moment it would hurt it, but because I like to be able to sit in the living room with clothes on.

On getting up to temp.. start of the season I wanted to do the whole, slow/low fire to dry out the stone.. thought "gee, I will just throw a whole SC in there and burn it up.." lol, hit 275...

Dakotas Dad said:

While we cruise around 450 most of the time, we kick up around 600 all the time. I wouldn't want the stove to cruise at +550 though.. not because I think for a moment it would hurt it, but because I like to be able to sit in the living room with clothes on.

On getting up to temp.. start of the season I wanted to do the whole, slow/low fire to dry out the stone.. thought "gee, I will just throw a whole SC in there and burn it up.." lol, hit 275...

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Thanks Dakotas Dad, I have read many of your posts while researching this.
What does your airwash plate look like? When you put a straight edge on it, any bowing? I need to know if this is typical like Hearthstone says.

mtbon said:

Thanks Dakotas Dad, I have read many of your posts while researching this.
What does your airwash plate look like? When you put a straight edge on it, any bowing? I need to know if this is typical like Hearthstone says.

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Mine appears perfectly straight. If you want to know the truth, my honest guess is that if you see or have one that is "deformed", my best guess is that at some time in the past it got banged or bumped while loading.. I also doubt any slight bend will effect it's performance.. but those are just guesses.

Kind of like my baffle, I don't *remember* hitting it while reloading.. but all the dings in it beg to say otherwise..

My stove was made in late '08, and my airwash plate *looks* to be close to .125 thick. I will measure it with calipers if needed, the stove will probably be cool this afternoon. (my cheesy reloading calipers are some kind of plastic/glass material.. could melt..)

BTW, I have the mindeset of taking a very leary eye, or ear as it were, to claims of "he overfired it" or any other stove "knowledge" disspensed over the internet based on one photo, or one "my brother's stove got really hot" comment. Looking at the photo in your linked thread, that plate looks to be cast iron, mine is deffinatly not. I don't think you can get cast iron to sag like that, only "stay up" in the middle.. It may be a design change or something..

Can you post a picture of yours, maybe even start a new thread as we are dragging this one a far way off it's intended purpose..?

OK, just measured with a caliper, .135", so just a hair over 1/8th inch. 10 gauge if I remember right.

Last year I was happy if I could get my mansfield to break 400. So far this season it's been a breeze to hit 600 on almost every load and it cruised for about a half hour around 725 a few days ago.

I'm attributing it half to being more familiar with the operation of the stove and half to the fact that the wood I'm burning sat out all summer in the hottest and driest summer we've had here in decades. I'm burning mostly honey locust with some occasional green ash, river birch, sycamore, red oak, and osage orange.

Great post. I'm going to mimick this damper arrangement and see if I can do the same. One stove will do double duty for cooking. I think if I let it cool some and rake the coals, the Heritage will make a great oven.

BrowningBAR said:

Just be sure to check you liner for build up and check to make sure you do not have smoke coming from your chimney/pipe. If you have a weaker draft, or if you wood supply isn't good, or some other variable, you will end up with a smokey mess.

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Because of the damper cooling the pipe and leading to creosote?

BrowningBAR said:

There are a lot of reasons why the damper could create a problem. But, yes, this could be one of them. If I was maintaining 450+ degree stove top temps the chimney was smokeless and everything was right in the world. If I happened to hit a less dry patch in my wood supply and the stove wasn't taking off, I would leave the damper open more often.

My opinion is that the damper isn't used to limit your stove top temps. It is to limit the amount of heat going up the pipe since the Heritage tend to do this more often. Buy limiting the amount of heat escaping the firebox it is easier to achieve warmer stove top temps.

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That makes sense. I wouldn't start to close the damper until I started getting secondaries or until I had a really hot coal bed. I know what you mean. Leave it more open till you have some heat and a good clean burn.

I have been disappointed with how much heat is sent up the stack of my heritage. Once I started mon itoring theis with an actual flue temp probe meter, I realized that the flue temp is much easier to push into unsafe areas than the stove top temp. We seldom even look at the stove top temp now.

BrowningBAR said:

I forget, are you using a damper? If not, you might want to give it a try and see what the results are.

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Funny. No damper but I tried to install one in my double wall simpson pipe and it turns out that the appliance adapter with a damper in it does not fit the collar. I would have to hack my double wall pipe and try to rig something that is not approved by Simpson.

With a damper, I believe that I could get better control.

I saved the damper section and will instlal it with my next stove if it is possible.

I'm using double wall. Is a damper an option with this set-up? I sure hope so.

Oh no, that won't fit in the hearthstone cast iron collar. The crimped end is too small which allows for big time slop at the joint. The proper way to use double wall is to shove the bottom of the taper section right into the collar with no appliance adapter. I made a whole thread about this awhile back and the dealers verified that the appliance adapter in that photo is a no-go with a the hearthstone cast collar.

I really wanted it to work.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...questions-updated-with-conclusion-pics.37346/

This thread.