Hearthstone Heritage operating question

[mikeathens]

Thanks everyone...great to get experienced user advice. FYI, I did the boiling water test with my magnetic thermometer. At 212 F (boiling point for water), the mag. therm was read about 25 F high. Then, I added cold water and took four more readings at different lower temperatures vs. an accurate candy thermometer. I also added my oven reading (where I set the oven at 475 F and put the thermometer on a cookie sheet - that particular time, it read 75 F high).

My wife and I then made a scatter plot and analyzed the points - with an R^2 value of .97 or something - yes, we are a couple of big nerds. I think I was on my 6th beer and doing statistical analyses for fun. Anyhow...if I remember correctly, when we extrapolated the data using the equation of the line, the two plots diverged as temperature increased, and it came out to something like the mag. thermometer reading about 100 F too high (or 650 F) at an actual temperature of 550 F.

OK, so some of you might be rolling your eyes by now...what I am wondering is if the steam bath enveloping the thermometer in the water, and the hot oven gasses completely surrounding the thermometer in my oven test, are actually making the thermometer inacurate under those conditions? Maybe when it's on a stove top or stuck to a flue pipe the way it's supposed to be used, the cooler air circulating around it actually brings the temperature down and makes it more accurate? Oh, well. Probably not important based on what others are saying. The stove doesn't have an out-of-control fire in it when I'm getting 600 F readings. It is a very gentle, slow burning fire with nice blue flames propagating down from the tubes. Air control set to about 10%-15%.

Oh...should I really be able to feel a ton of heat radiating from this stove when it's up to temp? Maybe a stupid question, but I've only burned cast iron up to this point, so I'm still trying to get accustomed to the qualities of the heat this stove produces. When the thermometer is reading 500 F stove top, it feels like it's not really putting out a lot of heat. Also, what sort of flue temperatures (specify surface or probe) are you all getting when things are set and burning nice and steady? I'm seeing about 400 F- 500 F on my surface thermometer.

 

[rudysmallfry]

Mike, your killin' me. I'm at work laughing out loud. There's not too many things as funny as people who get more analytical as they get drunk.

Anyway, I can answer the heat question. My Heritage gives off that nice even heat when the stone is between 300 and 450. Once it's over 450 and particularly at 500, it radiates the heat so much that I can't be within 6 feet of it. My kitten manages to park herself right on the hearth somehow and not burst into flames. I've never been over 600 with my stove and only then as a result of adding too much wood at the wrong time. As you have noticed, it generates a tremedous amount of heat at 500, so there's really no reason to overfire it.

I've actually been making good use of the excessive draft that seems to happen with this stove in cold weather. Instead of loading the stove up 75% full or so with large splits, I fill it only about 1/3 full with much smaller rounds, no more than 2" or so in diameter. I shut the air down almost completely and let the hyperactive flames from the little logs heat up the firebox as if it were full. It keeps my stack and soapstone around 400, and the smaller logs make an overfiring or runaway fire almost impossible since they burn out more quickly. Obviously it doesn't work if you don't want to be loading up the stove every hour, but it's a great way to save on wood.