Hearthstone Heritage -- Not enough air? Cant burn hot fire!

When you start your fire, you need to built it very big and hot. In some cases with weaker draft, the door will need to be cracked open for the first 5-15 minutes to aid in getting the temps high enough. Once a hot clean burn is established, you can then proceed to close the doors. Some stoves just don't have enough air supply (or draft) when running cold to "build up" temps.

Once high temps are established through the fire box and flu, the system should have enough draft effort fuel the fire properly.

Tell us about your wood:

1. Does it test out to be less than 20% moisture?
2. Has your wood been cut, split and stacked for 12 months?
3. Has your wood pile been uncovered for most of that time?

How dry is your wood? You REALLY need a moisture meter to tell, it's the INSIDE that matters.

What are the OUTSIDE temps like? Warm outdoors temps WILL affect draft potential.

When discussing the 400 degrees on your stove, HearthStone is talking about the temp. of the top center stone, not the flue.

Put up a picture of your setup, it does help.

Because of the mass of the stone stove, it takes a while for the whole thing to get hot enough to help maintain the fire. Don't get me wrong, it will start producing some heat not long after your hot fire is raging but it won't get the mass up to 300+ for a while. These things like a nice hot starting fire to knock the chill out of the stone. They are even better once you are burning continuously since you're past the warm up phase. Dry wood helps but once it's up to temp you can mix in your not so seasoned wood. I've had my Equinox up to 700. Wasn't that hard.

Today's temperature range for Bryant Al is a high of 63 and a low of 47. Wood stoves start working real good when your high temperature is 32 or lower. Above freezing I'm better off using my furnace.

spsbama...
I am brand new to all of this too and this is just a thought. I had my stove installed last week and for 2 days, I thought there was a temp problem. I bought a magnetic thermometer for the pipe. Couldnt get any temps. Never realized that I had what's called double walled pipe, and that it will not give a hot reading on the outside. Do you have double walled pipe? Just a thought.

spsbama said:

I installed my Hearthstone Heritage a few days ago and enjoying it for the most part. Ran a new 6" flex liner in my chimney. Draws very well.

The only thing i can't figure out, is it seems IMPOSSIBLE to burn a hot fire? My pipe thermometer has never gotten close to being in the ideal zone. My manual says a 400degree fire means the stove is working properly. I can only reach about 200. The damper control set to the left (wide open) seems to not allow enough air into the stove. The only way I can get the fire to blaze is if I cheat and crack a door open. As soon as I close it up, it cuts the fire way way down. Is this normal?? It never double burns on the top unless I let the door stay open and close it, and even that will disappear after 30 seconds.

I bought this used, the previous owner looked like he never used the thing so it's basically brand new. He had an outside air kit hooked up. I do not have it hooked up to outside air. Is it possible I need to remove the outside air kit? On the back of the stove it's got a pipe hookup. Do I need to remove something? Would the outside air kit restrict air intake if only drawing from the inside of the house? This seems like a stretch but only thing I can think of?

Any input appreciated!

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Listen to "Dakotas Dad".

It sounds like it could be two things:
1. Your wood is not dry at this point
2. You might be dealing with a weak draft due to warmer weather.

Focus on the wood first. Tell us how long you have had it split and stacked. If it is wet, it is going to take more work to get the stove up to a decent temp. Do you hear a lot of sizzling when you have the side door cracked open?

woodmiser said:

Because of the mass of the stone stove, it takes a while for the whole thing to get hot enough to help maintain the fire. Don't get me wrong, it will start producing some heat not long after your hot fire is raging but it won't get the mass up to 300+ for a while. These things like a nice hot starting fire to knock the chill out of the stone. They are even better once you are burning continuously since you're past the warm up phase. Dry wood helps but once it's up to temp you can mix in your not so seasoned wood. I've had my Equinox up to 700. Wasn't that hard.

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On the contrary. Soapstone should not be heated up really fast. Best to heat slower on these stoves. As for 300 degree stovetop, it really does not take long but will take a bit longer than steel or cast.


spsbama, welcome to the forum.

I highly suggest you re-read Post #2 which was made by Shari. This sounds like the typical case of trying to burn green wood.

Yes you're right. I guess I should have worded it more like... You need to get the stove hot with a hot fire but not so hot early on to shock it. Personally I think these heavy walled soapstone stoves are pretty self controlled in the heatup phase. A really hot startup fire sends the heat up the flue since you need the air early on to get it going. During that phase you are slowly heating the stone. By the time you start loading the bigger splits you've already taken the edge off. Once the bigger splits get going you need to leave the air on the high side to get the fire working. The thing is with these stoves is from a cold start you are fighting the cold stone for a while. Once the stone warms, you find the fire starts to self-sustain with much less air. At this point I add the full load, let it get going again and then dial back. It has been really working good for me.

Once the stove is hot it's so easy to maintain. It just radiates 24/7. Very mild temp cycling. We love it.

I need to do some more experimenting but initially I found doing the full load from the start doesn't work as well. I've done a full load top-down. Works good but the load is slow to heat up the stove. From a cold start I find a smaller starter fire... build up some coals, then add the load.. works much better at bringing the stone up.

I'd like to revive this thread cause I have a similar problem and not sure I found the answer.
Even after it's in the burn zone (300+, or even 400+) I can't maintain temps with all the doors shut.
I tried ecobricks too to make sure it wasn't a green wood thing.
I can't see or feel where the air for the air regulator on the bottom left comes in but I blew a hairdryer through the air intake in the back and it moved a little ash but very little.
The salesman recommended an outside air kit but I wanted to make sure no one's ever heard of an obstruction that should have been removed before installation or something like that.

Thanks,
Dave

jazzbiker said:

I'd like to revive this thread cause I have a similar problem and not sure I found the answer.
Even after it's in the burn zone (300+, or even 400+) I can't maintain temps with all the doors shut.
I tried ecobricks too to make sure it wasn't a green wood thing.
I can't see or feel where the air for the air regulator on the bottom left comes in but I blew a hairdryer through the air intake in the back and it moved a little ash but very little.
The salesman recommended an outside air kit but I wanted to make sure no one's ever heard of an obstruction that should have been removed before installation or something like that.

Thanks,
Dave

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Here's a breakdown on how to get a Heritage up to 600 degrees with good wood:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/getting-a-hearthstone-up-to-600°.76166/

Thanks for posting that BrowningBAR. It's now very clear to me that I need a damper. I can get my middle stone to 400, but no more without without my stove pipe glowing red. For years, I've been burning 400 stove top and and equal 400 on the single wall pipe with the air closed. Looks like, if I just add a damper, I can let the stove get hotter while keeping the added heat from exiting the stove. How far up your pipe is your damper?

rudysmallfry said:

Thanks for posting that BrowningBAR. It's now very clear to me that I need a damper. I can get my middle stone to 400, but no more without without my stove pipe glowing red. For years, I've been burning 400 stove top and and equal 400 on the single wall pipe with the air closed. Looks like, if I just add a damper, I can let the stove get hotter while keeping the added heat from exiting the stove. How far up your pipe is your damper?

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Mine was just above the flue collar. But that was due to the fact that I had two 45 bends before it hit the chimney.

I do too. Mine is 20" to first elbow and then about 20" to the wall thimble. That 400 reading I get on the pipe is about 18" up the stack. Is that about how yours is?

Remember, the damper only works if you have a good draft and you use it while cutting your air down in stages. Massive air control movements will prevent you from achieving higher temps.