Hearthstone Heritage Owners

[rydaddy]

Calling all fellow Hearthstone Heritage Owners. I have been reading here a while and trying to soak in as much info as I can. Would like to start giving some input and possible get some responses as well.

I have a Hearthstone Heritage. This is my third season. It sits in front of my existing fireplace in the middle of my house. Full 25' re-line with flexible stainless. No damper. Uses the rear exit, not top. 1400 sf main floor. 700sf Upstairs (currently closed off and not used/heated). Stove heats the house just fine, and sometimes too well. Since day one I have struggled with getting the 8+ hour burntimes that are spec'd on the stove. Have learned to accept the fact that it simply isn't the case. If I have the stove filled at 11:00 with oak, I am hard pressed to have a stove with coals worthy of starting a fire at 7:00. In all reality I would say it is a 6 hour burntime at best. Over the years I have fine-tuned my ability to get the stove hot as quick as possible and maintain good heat producing fires without it eating wood. On average I would say I have burned 3 cords a year. I don't burn 24/7, I would love to - but during the work week I would have to devote a good deal of time getting the stove ready to be left for the day. I would SOOOOOOOO love a longer burn time.

Would love to know if those here with a Heritage are having similar results. Overall I am happy with the stove.

Thanks!

 

[Highbeam]

I have been burning non-stop since September 15th this year. Well, it went out once or twice while away for the weekend. I'm on course for about 6 cords of softwood consumed for the 07-08 winter.

My stove is top vented, free standing, no damper, vertical stack of 13-14 feet, 8 of which is class A and the rest is the double wall slip joint in the living room. 1700 SF home with poor insulation that requires constant btu input when the outdoor temp is below the desired indoor temp.

I fill the stove for the night at 10PM with 3 or 4 large cottonwood splits on top of whatever coals are left. I fill right to the tubes. Seriously, to the top. I have worried about bumping the baffle even. I keep the wood off of the glass though. Let it char at wide open throttle, then half throttle for a few minutes and then shut to zero by 10:15. Sometimes the flames get snuffed for a few minutes but they come back to a nice rolling secondary only fire by 10:30 which is beddy by time. The stove top might be 400 or 450.

Wake up at 6:30AM, stove is at 150 or so stove top, stir the coals, load on small 1-3 inch stuff topped with 3-5 inchers to the tubes and off she goes, I refill the stone kettle, and let it run at 70% up to 400 and then go to work. The wife keeps it running all day.

The cottonwood doesn't have as many btus as some other wood types but it does make some ash which covers up and seems to hold coals pretty well. I empty the stove ashes by scopping every week or so when the ash level is about as deep as the little inlet hole in the doghouse. Leave about an inch of ash or this stove is a totally different animal, it likes the ash bed.

So I get 8 hours of burn time but I do not get 8 hours of productive heating since the stove is so cool in the morning.