Hearthstone Heritage baffle

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Dottie

Member
Jan 11, 2008
63
Virginia
I just had my Hearthstone Heritage moved to my new house and had the chimney cleaned ($575). The stove man said that the baffle was broken (had a big hole in it) and that he would order a new one ($80), I never noticed that it was burning or heating any differently. I just got word from him that the baffle and install will be $277, is this excessive? If it is, should I go ahead and have him do it and watch and then if I need one after this order it myself ($63 on line). Or should I take the baffle already ordered and do it myself, is it that difficult?
Thanks.

Dottie
 
Dottie said:
I just had my Hearthstone Heritage moved to my new house and had the chimney cleaned ($575). The stove man said that the baffle was broken (had a big hole in it) and that he would order a new one ($80), I never noticed that it was burning or heating any differently. I just got word from him that the baffle and install will be $277, is this excessive? If it is, should I go ahead and have him do it and watch and then if I need one after this order it myself ($63 on line). Or should I take the baffle already ordered and do it myself, is it that difficult?
Thanks.

Dottie


Do it yourself. It isn't complicated. If you have any questions you can always contact the dealer you bought it from. You'll kick yourself to pay $200 just to watch someone slide the baffle in.
 
$80 For the baffle isnt a really bad price. $200 to install it seems a little high. Cant hurt to try it yourself.
 
I've had mine in and out at least half a dozen times, looks like I saved more than 1200$ in labor! It is super easy. Only tools you need are pliers to straighten the cotter pins. It literally slides out from above the tubes with no disassembly required.

The question is, how did it get broken? Did the mover do it? It's not nearly as fragile as you might think. Half inch thick and pretty dense. It's not soft like a ceiling tile. Most common cause for a hole punched through is some yahoo sweeping the chimney and pushing the cleaning rod into the stove and through the baffle.

This wouldn't be the first time that the chimney sweep tries making the homeowner pay for that mistake.
 
Thank you all for your comments. I called the stove guy yesterday and he never called me back (he's going on vacation for the rest of the week). I'm tempted to go to the store where he works and pick up the baffle and "blanket" and try to install them myself. I have a picture of the baffle I found on the internet from 2006 (not too clear on instructions), but I don't know what they mean by "blanket" and I haven't been able to find anything on what that is or how to install it. Do this things come with instructions?

Thanks.

Dottie
 
There is no blanket on the heritage. The phoenix has one though.

Here's something that might shock you. The original baffle is likely held on with the three cotter pins. The new baffle may be the "upgraded" version that is held in place with stainless steel wire. So don't be surprised if the hardware looks different.

Let us know how it goes. Installation is like putting together a puzzle with three pieces. Hard to do it wrong and when you do it right it will just fall in place.
 
From me looking to see what parts that can be ordered for the Heritage I found out exactly what Highbeam said, there is no blanket. I also found out that the baffle is still under warranty. I called and the man who installed the stove first and then moved it, he looked it up and said that they had ordered two parts, both wrong. He wanted me to take a picture of the baffle and email it to him, I can't do this as I no longer have internet out there. The more I think about it, it was working just the same as ever before the move, blue flame, same temperature and everything and the hole is right where the stove pipe goes into the stove. The hole was found after they cleaned the new chimney. I don't ever remember seeing any pieces of baffle when cleaning out the ashes, maybe they burn up. I think I'm going to tire of fooling with them and just pay for the part when it comes in and put in in myself.

As always, I appreciate the advice I get from you all.

Dottie
 
If the dealer says it's under warranty, I would for sure let them pay for the part.. Do you have cell service? someone you know has a "smart phone" have them send it for you, or just do it the old way and take a picture with a digital camera and show it to him, print it out on your computer if need be.. Wherever you are posting from, you can send from there..
 
I'm assuming from their attitude about the whole thing that they are doing their very best to wriggle out of any cost to themselves. The picture idea is a good one, my grandson has a cell phone. I don't know for sure what it can do, but I'll ask. I do have a digital camera, just no internet at the new place yet; there's only satellite internet available and I've heard that it's not very fast so I've been dragging my feet on that.

Thanks.

Dottie
 
Dottie said:
I'm assuming from their attitude about the whole thing that they are doing their very best to wriggle out of any cost to themselves. The picture idea is a good one, my grandson has a cell phone. I don't know for sure what it can do, but I'll ask. I do have a digital camera, just no internet at the new place yet; there's only satellite internet available and I've heard that it's not very fast so I've been dragging my feet on that.

Thanks.

Dottie

Note.. Satellite internet is faster than dial up.. and slower than most DSL/Cable.. But it will do fine for nearly any application except gaming and video conferencing. Pings will never be good enough for those. My step dad had it, once you got used to the lag, it's fine. He actually had cable/DSL and dial up available, but chose satellite because it was so "futuristic"..
 
I've not heard good things about it around here. I've heard unless you want to go for the most expensive option it gets slow and kicks you out and you can't even watch 10 minute sections on youtube, much less a movie. I think where I am they have Wild Blue, HughsNet, and something called Winchester Wireless (that's a month by month, no long contract, but it doesn't get signals everywhere and it doesn't say on their site how much it costs to install. I really miss the internet even though I only had the DSL from Verizon for a little over a year. It was lots of fun to watch things and I watched it lots more than tv.

Dottie
 
Thanks Bob,

It doesn't look beyond my ability to slide the baffle in, do you know if it has cotter pins or wires now? If it has cotter pins, do the directions show you how to insert the baffle and pins?

Thanks.

Dottie
 
OK, will I be able to see how they go before taking the baffle out?

Thanks.

Dottie
 
The cotter pins will be removed and discarded with the old baffle. Good riddance. You will now have more usable firebox with the wire system. The tails of the cotters hang into the firebox. Use your pliers to straighten the tails and then lift the pins up with the baffle.

What Bob's attachment doesn't talk about is the third cotter pin holding the front "bracket" to the air tube. It actually looks like it is missing in the pics and the procedure doesn't mention anything about the bracket being removed. I've always removed the bracket when I removed the baffle, was that required? I would love to eliminate that front cotter pin if I could.

The cotter pins, and my efforts to straighten/bend them is what has caused the damage to my baffle. Needle nose pliers are hard on the ceramic board material.
 
I don't know what the baffle instructions will be since it hasn't come in yet. I'm hoping that they are very clear. I did look inside the stove and can see the cotter pins, the bent over part is on the top side where they cannot be easily bent, not the side toward the fire, do you think that's because they did it that way and then put the top on? It seems to me that this will make it difficult to bend the pins to get them out, at least without taking the baffle out in pieces. I saw the front cotter pin, I think, but am not sure what the "front bracket" is, is this part of the stove, not the baffle?

Thanks.

Dottie
 
Your cotter pins are upside down, seriously, that is lame. You'll need to use your dykes to cut the looped end of the pins off then. Even a grinder would work but don't damage the air tubes. You can't reach above the baffle to straighten the ends. This is probably how some goofball at the factory assembled the baffle to the secondary air manifold before installing the whole mess into the stove.

If you open Daksy's attachment you can see the front bracket. It is the stainless steel plate that sits on the frontmost air tube and is held in place with a single cotter pin. The front bracket will be reused. Since Daksy's instructions are from Hearthstone I will bet that your baffle kit will come with similar instructions.
 
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I've got a little dremel tool, I'll try and bend it down somewhat out of harms way and slice through it. It sounds as though you leave the bracket alone, and just attach the baffle, or have I got that wrong? Anyway, they haven't called about the part yet. When I looked at the baffle it was perfectly clean at the broken part and seems to me that it might have gotten sooty if it had been used while it was broken, also it wouldn't have gotten hot enough for the secondary burn and the temp wouldn't have been high. I'll mention that, but as you say you can't prove anything, so if they don't want to come through with a new baffle, I pay for it and put it in myself and I won't be using their store for anything else (like the new Stihl chainsaw, that I want!). I'll also know what to look for and take a picture before and after they start cleaning!

Dottie
 
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