Brand New Equinox and Heritage stoves from Hearthstone.......any advice on break in, use, etc.

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Krissybelle

Member
Dec 14, 2010
9
Oregon
We finally got our Equinox and Heritage stoves installed this week, and are just starting some test fires. Anyone who has these stoves, any advice, tips, anything would be greatly appreciated. We are heating a big house, Equinox is in the basement, Heritage is in the kitchen. Very high vaulted living room, off the kitchen. So, soapstone users.........?
 
Congratulations on the new stoves!

Although we do not have the Hearthstone stoves, we do have a soapstone. Here is how we broke in the stove:

1. Built small fire using only kindling. Lit the kindling and just let it burn out.

2. Next fire was kindling and one or two very small splits. Lit the fire and just let it burn out.

3. Next fire was kindling and at least 3 splits. Get the stove top temperature to 400-450 degrees.

4. Next fire do as you please, then relax and enjoy the heat!
 
I have the Heritage and really like it. Just remember with soapstone that it takes awhile for the stoves to heat up but once they are hot, they can stay like that for awhile. Also I hope you have well seasoned wood. My stove needs wood that has been seasons for at least 1 year. I have tried semi-seasoned and she doesn't like it.

Good luck, those are both great stoves.
 
I've noticed with my Mansfield that it doesn't like small loads of wood. I read of some folks with cast or steel stove that might put in a couple of splits and it seems that they can get a good burn with secondaries and enough heat to keep the house warm on (I assume) relatively mild days. If I add only 2 splits, it seems I need to burn with the primary quite open, which seems to lead to fairly low secondaries and I'm assuming a lot of wasted heat up the flue. The stovetop never really gets much above 300* either. I'm finding that about 5 splits is minimum for getting good secondaries and usable heat from the stove. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but, this is my experience so far. Perhaps with the smaller firebox of the Heritage, you'll be able to have good results with smaller loads, but I bet the Equinox won't be worth a lick with a couple of splits burning. With the larger soapstone stoves, I think there is so much thermal mass to heat, 2 or 3 splits fires just aren't a good fit for the stoves. I'd like to know what other Mansfield and Equinox owners are experiencing with low # of split fires. BTW - when I fill the box about 2/3 full, it's a heat producing beast! Congrats on the purchase of two great stoves - quite a chunk of cash to throw down on stoves! Cheers!
 
Krissybelle said:
We finally got our Equinox and Heritage stoves installed this week, and are just starting some test fires. Anyone who has these stoves, any advice, tips, anything would be greatly appreciated. We are heating a big house, Equinox is in the basement, Heritage is in the kitchen. Very high vaulted living room, off the kitchen. So, soapstone users.........?


That's a lot of stone!

Are these your first stoves or have you had stoves before? If you have had stoves before and this is your first experience with soapstone, keep in mind temps do not move around nearly as quickly as with steel or cast iron.

With cast iron you can see temps move in seconds. Stone takes a few minutes to show the results of more or less air introduced into the fire. Be patient. If you are burning too hot and you want to shut them down, it will take time for the stone to show the difference.

On the plus side (huge plus side) the temps do not vary nearly as much as they do on a steel or cast iron stove.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Congratulations on the new stoves!

Although we do not have the Hearthstone stoves, we do have a soapstone. Here is how we broke in the stove:

1. Built small fire using only kindling. Lit the kindling and just let it burn out.

2. Next fire was kindling and one or two very small splits. Lit the fire and just let it burn out.

3. Next fire was kindling and at least 3 splits. Get the stove top temperature to 400-450 degrees.

4. Next fire do as you please, then relax and enjoy the heat!

+1 what Dennis said.
 
Hearthstone recommends the first fire to be small, just enough to get the stove warm to the touch, but not hot. In the Equinox, this may take some small pieces of wood (1-2" splits) on top of the kindling. It has a lot of mass to warm up. In the Heritage a robust kindling fire may be enough.
 
Congratulations! So far with my equinox, (I'm the knucklehead who put a 3500 sq. ft. rated stove in an 1100 sq. ft. house, thats why we have windows right?). I got it second hand only 2 years old, however had 1 burn season on it, so I was able to install it, and put it on full throttle instead of break in fires. So far, it does quite well, and the manual states that unattended burn should have your air set at the "medium low" air setting. So far, with 5 splitts or few more intit, I run at that setting and keep a consistent 400 degree stack temp, and usuall let that burn down to low coals before feeding "mongo" again. Even after the bulk goes out, the heat retetntion emitted off the stone is amazing compared to our just replaced iron catalytic stove. Great looks and great performance. Hopefully your dealer is worth a lick, the ones down here in Ohio that sell these stoves are only good at selling them, trying to get assistance otherwise has proven to be difficult. After dropping that kinda coin at the dealer, you should get some red carpet treatment! Enjoy those stoves, and post some pictures please!!!!!!
 
Wow you must have a large house you have some real "Fire-Power" and some very handsome stoves, send us some pictures, I love to look at those beautiful stoves and the differnt hearths.



Good Luck Stay Warm
 
Hey everyone thanks for the responses! Yes our house is big, yes that's a lot of stone, and yes, it was a lot of coin! The dealer sent two guys to deliver and install them so thank goodness I have a husband with lots of muscle and a tractor! I think they should have sent at least 3 guys maybe four. The Equinox is 750 pounds! (I think that's what they said) I was pretty positive someone was going to have a hernia or something. It was quite the endeavor getting both of them in the house, placed, etc. I will try to take some pics and post them soon. Our former stoves were a Dutch West catalytic, which was replaced by a Harmon Oakwood, and we had a little Intrepid II that I loved but both the Harmon and Intrepid II needed lots of work, and weren't really heating well, so we blew the wad, took the tax credits and went for the moon.

I have to say, we burned through about 900 gallons of heating oil the first two years we lived here, before we started using the stoves, and at 3$ gallon and going up, the stoves will pay for themselves in not too much time. Hubby has a hydraulic splitter, and we live on timber property, so wood is not a problem. We would like to find some oak or madrone though, as we mostly have doug fir.

Still doing the test fires, but we should be up to speed next week. They are very beautiful.......we just have to learn how to find the "sweet spot".
 
Krissybelle said:
Hey everyone thanks for the responses! Yes our house is big, yes that's a lot of stone, and yes, it was a lot of coin! The dealer sent two guys to deliver and install them so thank goodness I have a husband with lots of muscle and a tractor! I think they should have sent at least 3 guys maybe four. The Equinox is 750 pounds! (I think that's what they said) I was pretty positive someone was going to have a hernia or something. It was quite the endeavor getting both of them in the house, placed, etc. I will try to take some pics and post them soon. Our former stoves were a Dutch West catalytic, which was replaced by a Harmon Oakwood, and we had a little Intrepid II that I loved but both the Harmon and Intrepid II needed lots of work, and weren't really heating well, so we blew the wad, took the tax credits and went for the moon.

I have to say, we burned through about 900 gallons of heating oil the first two years we lived here, before we started using the stoves, and at 3$ gallon and going up, the stoves will pay for themselves in not too much time. Hubby has a hydraulic splitter, and we live on timber property, so wood is not a problem. We would like to find some oak or madrone though, as we mostly have doug fir.

Still doing the test fires, but we should be up to speed next week. They are very beautiful.......we just have to learn how to find the "sweet spot".

Okay, I'll be the dope - what the hell is 'madrone' - oh I hope it's not something too common! Cheers!
 
thats got to be one of the finest sets of stoves under one roof. wont take you long to get to know them well. good luck with them. pete
 
I'm not sure if anyone passed on that after each break in fire allow the stove to return to room temperature. The stone will sizzle the first couple of fires until the moisture is worked out of the stone. Also break in fires are required at the beginning of each heating season. As I understand. Congrats
 
Okay, I’ll be the dope - what the hell is ‘madrone’ - oh I hope it’s not something too common! Cheers!

So far I have not found any dopes here!!!! Wonderful site, wonderful information, funny people............madrone is a tree, and the wood is supposedly awesome for burning in stoves. Better than oak, extremely long burn time, just not super common in the area I live, Portland Oregon area......unless I am mistaken. Anyone have some?????? We have a few madrone trees on our property, but not enough to cut and split. They are pretty tiny.

Yes we did know to let the stoves come back to room temp after the test fires. We are taking things very slowly..........last thing I want to do is mess up the only two stoves we hope to have for YEARS!

Thanks!
 
Krissybelle said:
Okay, I’ll be the dope - what the hell is ‘madrone’ - oh I hope it’s not something too common! Cheers!

So far I have not found any dopes here!!!! Wonderful site, wonderful information, funny people............madrone is a tree, and the wood is supposedly awesome for burning in stoves. Better than oak, extremely long burn time, just not super common in the area I live, Portland Oregon area......unless I am mistaken. Anyone have some?????? We have a few madrone trees on our property, but not enough to cut and split. They are pretty tiny.

Yes we did know to let the stoves come back to room temp after the test fires. We are taking things very slowly..........last thing I want to do is mess up the only two stoves we hope to have for YEARS!

Thanks!

Just looked it up - pretty cool - NEVER heard of that species. It's in the heath family. One photo from the web had bark that had sycamore-like characteristics. I'm at least happy that it appears to be a fairly uncommon tree! Cheers!
 
When I had my Heritage delivered, two men wrestled it down the stairs (can't even imagine it being an upstairs delivery) of my deck, and on another day, it took two men and me to get it gently settled onto the hearth. If two men delivered and installed the Heritage and Equinox on the same day, then now I know what all those NFL players do in their spare time to stay in shape.

I was fortunate enough to be able to pick the stove I wanted out of the selection they had at the stove store, and I picked the one where the stones seemed most carefully matched for color and grain, and the signature of the builder was done in a careful Spencerian script. I figured if he was a detail guy on the outside, the same probably held true throughout. It turned out that the stove I picked had been built a few years earlier, thus stone was cut earlier, paint had cured longer. I don't know if that would make a difference, but I got virtually none of the `new stove' smell I had expected. Didn't have a thermometer at time of break-in, either, so I seat-of-my-pantsed it. (I'd been told I didn't need one w/soapstone, but I ended up going back for one later, and consult it regularly throughout cycle.)

In terms of ease of operation, this is the easiest stove I've ever lived with. I was almost swayed by the `soapstone takes so long to heat' concern, but I've wanted soapstone for many years, and I find it's nowhere near as long heating up as I'd thought. I find that it's throwing off enough heat to warm me within very short order, while I'm still in the kindling-to-splits process, because a lot of heat is radiated through the glass, and the stone starts to warm up shortly thereafter. It does take a bit of awhile to heat a room, and longer to heat the whole house, but that's almost part of the charm--I appreciate the ebb-and-flow pattern. I can plan ahead for warming the place--I mean, it's not like I don't *know* that it's winter--I'm not burning fires on sudden impulse.

Was very swayed by the Fireview stoves, but since I'm not the only one operating it, it's probably for the best that I am not going the cat route. Teenthings on the whole tending it very responsibly, but I'm still thinking this is for the best.

You're going to enjoy the view--beautiful large window, hypnotic afterburn viewing. I like it enough to clean it whenever needed--sometimes that's just a quick dusting of ashes, sometimes a wipedown with Rutland glass cleaner and paper towels. I've heard lots of people use ash with no problem, but have seen other people posting questions on here about small scratches in glass. I tried the ash, and felt a little grittiness in it, so wasn't feeling lucky, and didn't try that again. A bottle of the glass cleaner lasts me a long time, so I just chalk that up to maintenance costs that I can live with--prefer to err on the side of caution, if err I must. Once I got a creosote kind of buildup on the glass, and white vinegar took it off easily.

Resist the addictive temptation to use the ash-drawer door as a fire-started booster. It looks like a flame-thrower in action, but I was cautioned that it functions like a bellows, and that's what smiths and farriers use to bend metal, yes?

I was told that the way to burn this (and manual says essentially the same thing) is to `load it up, heat it up, shut it down, let it burn'. Alack, I went through a lot of wood before I realized that for my uses, a moderate fire heated stone, and then the stone heated the downstairs, and gradually circulated heat upstairs. I have learned that on moderate fires I can now maintain the upstairs and downstairs at about the same temps, which is a handy trick.

Hoped for supplemental heating and a warm zone in the stove room and a bit beyond, but instead I am heating a 2Ksf, two-story house with the Hearthstone in Interior AK, to my happy surprise. House is still comfortable upstairs at 8 a.m. from yesterday afternoon's fire (had a very sunny day, too, though, so that probably helped with heating). Will probably amble downstairs shortly and fire off the stove again. Or go back to sleep for awhile--undecided at this point.

I've got a boiler I run for supplemental heating when the floor seems extra chilly, to heat the garage, and to heat domestic water. I've burned 150-ish gallons so far this year, and hope to use only another 150-250 for the rest of the winter, if my wood supply holds. This is my first winter with it, so still learning. It's also hands-down the most comfortable winter we've spent here. With two stoves, I assume that you're using that for 100% of your heating needs.

I put in a granite hearth, and it works very like the soapstove does--soaks up heat and releases it slowly. Works out well. FWIW.

If you don't have one, I'd encourage you to consider a fan in the vaulted ceiling if it will help with circulation to room below. But having stove offset into kitchen rather than directly under the vaulted ceiling will help with circulation, warming rooms above, etc. I'd wait and see what's needed.

So there's my `all about me' post--lol--just trying to share what I know, will leave you to sort out what might be useful to you. I know you'll enjoy these very much. Welcome to the world of warm . . .
 
Welcome to the "Stoners" Club. I have the Mansfield, the baby brother of your monster. I and wife absolutely love the stove. Break her in, fill her up, shut her down, enjoy. Any questions not stove specific I will be more than happy to help you with. This is an awesome site, I am sure most any question you may have will be quickly answered here. Enjoy the stove.

Shawn
 
We have an equinox, known here as stovezilla. Stovezilla does really, really well with top down fires. We've had a nice run of minus 20 and zilla kept the whole house warm. Use top down as your start up fire and we get more warmth, quicker. My kids tease me about my love for this stove, but we had several days with no power and were nice and warm. I love family evenings around the stove. The cold drives the kids from their retreat to hang with us. We get their company, they get warm, and when wood runs low they get more. It's the circle of life. Anyhow, I love stovezilla..
 
tlingit said:
We have an equinox, known here as stovezilla. Stovezilla does really, really well with top down fires. We've had a nice run of minus 20 and zilla kept the whole house warm. Use top down as your start up fire and we get more warmth, quicker. My kids tease me about my love for this stove, but we had several days with no power and were nice and warm. I love family evenings around the stove. The cold drives the kids from their retreat to hang with us. We get their company, they get warm, and when wood runs low they get more. It's the circle of life. Anyhow, I love stovezilla..

Days with so much bad news, That is A nice story of something that keeps familys together.

Does anyone Remember Andy Griffith, Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Hariet???????
The Good Old Days
 
i own the heritage. the thing about this stove is it's wonderful when you have a nice coal bed and it's been burning for a while. on start-up, she doesn't bring much to the party for a good 3 hours or so. after half a day, it is a constant radiating device for my room. i have it in an office building, and i love it. i open and close rooms as i'm using those spaces, and it's a constant heat pump all day long. i seem to burn more wood than i'd like, but i have no damper on the pipe itself which may choke it down. i try to avoid the fire going out and it cooling down whenever possible.
 
I spend a fair amount of time here looking for all things Equinox....I'm in the fan club! This is our third year with the big box of rocks and I'm still learning how to best use it. I can tell you this, with good draft and seasoned wood this particular stove can throw some real heat. If it doesn't seem like it's heating well something is not right. Could be wood, draft, leaky windows......many different things. Post up your observations here and you will get the help and advise you need, lots of smart folks here.

I was timid at first and you should be as well but the cold day will come when you fill it with choice peices and let it do what it will with the them. This season I've found the need for a pipe damper and it helped the stove tame full loads of wood and make even more heat, maybe not for all installations but for me it was a big win. My latest theory on heating with this stove has me pushing it harder in the mornings and evenings with full loads and hour long heatups with higher than what I used to allow flue temps (700-800) then backing down to 1/4 air for continued stone heating. Remember the whole stove is made of these big slabs of stone, it's not just the top of the stove acts as a heat sink, get them all hot. On cold days, I want the stove at or near 600 before I shut down the air to zero then it just burns the rest of the day all lazy like. By doing this I keep the stack clean, and I make big heat early in the day and again after the sun sets (when I need it) after which temps slowly drop and the stones do what they do.

The thing I see you are going to have to be careful with is the beast in your basement......unattended stoves loaded with 50lbs or more of fuel can act differently from one load to another. One day you may load it for heating up, leave it for 15 minutes only to find that it is just getting started while other times you may find that in 15 minutes your stove approved of its given fuel load and decided to compete with the sun. When I'm tending to my daily burn, I'm right there watching and waiting for right time to close down the fire. No showers or trips to the shop while the damper is open.

Don't do what I do with mine until you are comfortable with your own setup, nothing wrong with starting out with 4 or 5 splits and shooting for consistant 350-450 stove top temps, you will develope your own cycle. Come late winter/spring a whole different cycle will evolve, mine is less fuel (3 splits) with the damper open giving short hot fires that burn out quick taking full advantage of those magic stones.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Congratulations on the new stoves!

Although we do not have the Hearthstone stoves, we do have a soapstone. Here is how we broke in the stove:

1. Built small fire using only kindling. Lit the kindling and just let it burn out.

2. Next fire was kindling and one or two very small splits. Lit the fire and just let it burn out.

3. Next fire was kindling and at least 3 splits. Get the stove top temperature to 400-450 degrees.

4. Next fire do as you please, then relax and enjoy the heat!

Do it exactly like this. enjoy those stoves. I'm very jealous. Maybe check in and let us know how the big boy in the basement does.
 
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