Hearthstone Mansfield Trying to reach warmer temps.

[BURNER21]

I have a Hearthstone Mansfield stove with the heat shield and blower motor. I have a thermometer that sits on the top of the stove. I have been only able to reach temps. of 400-450 I have been reading that people are getting much higher temps. out of their stoves. My chimney is about 32 feet tall with an 8x8 flue all masonry. The two ?'s I have are does the blower kicking on that pushes the warm away from stove the biggest factor with me not being able to reach the high temps or do I need to put a in-pipe damper to reduce all the hot air heading right out the chimney. Dry wood and seasoned for 8 months. My first stove and first year burning. Thanks for the help

 

[edthedawg]

Popular topic lately. Gonna come right out and say it:

1 - wood probably isn't seasoned long enough, and probably has some moisture in it. Getting any hissing sound from the wood? Kinda slow getting it to fire up? Chimney smokes?

2 - 32 feet of 8x8 masonry flue? How does the pipe out the top of the stove transition to that chimney? I absolutely think you NEED a flue damper on that pipe. You will want to close it almost all the way (if not ALL the way) when cruising.

3 - there's myriad other potential things you may or may not be doing, as far as your primary settings, ash removal, loading / cooling sequences, etc. We can talk specifics on those once we define some of the basics above.


I may sound abrupt or otherwise ass-like here, but understand this is my first year with my first stove too - I've learned a TON here these last few months and you are most certainly NOT alone!

Welcome to the Hearth!

 

[mikeathens]

I have a Hearthstone Mansfield stove with the heat shield and blower motor. I have a thermometer that sits on the top of the stove. I have been only able to reach temps. of 400-450 I have been reading that people are getting much higher temps. out of their stoves. My chimney is about 32 feet tall with an 8x8 flue all masonry. The two ?'s I have are does the blower kicking on that pushes the warm away from stove the biggest factor with me not being able to reach the high temps or do I need to put a in-pipe damper to reduce all the hot air heading right out the chimney. Dry wood and seasoned for 8 months. My first stove and first year burning. Thanks for the help

Couple things to consider. First, do you have a chimney probe-type thermometer on the flue? If not, get one.

Second, 450 isn't bad. I will say that if you let the stove go through an entire burn cycle (reload it full when it's 200 degrees), then burning at a low/medium rate will likely only get you up to 450 or so (keep in mind, this is MY experience...others may have noted different results). This is typically how things go when outside temps are in the mid-20 or higher range. I can easily see 8-10 hour burn times like this.

My house insulation sucks, so when we're at 20 or less outside, I reload at 300-350, and burn at a faster rate - I'm more likely I'll see 550-600. Here, I'm relaoding every 4-6 hours.

Third, as for your chimney, this stove calls for a 6" round flue, so 8x8 might be crating a sluggish draft...another possible factor (get a flue thermometer and maybe have the draft checked by your installer).

The blower? I don't have one, but a way to check this is unplug the blower for a day and see what happens!

Finally, 8 months seasoning for your wood (especially good hardwoods) is probably not adequate. Trust me...I speak from not only learing form other on here, but from experience. My red oak has been drying in the barn for well over 1.5 years, and it is still questionable. Many on this forum will swear that two years is the MINIMUM.

Let's see what others think...

 

[edthedawg]

Rather than edit my first post, here's a new one.

Recent postings on (almost) this exact same topic:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32716/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/33609/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/33121/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32846/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/31664/

You'll see in some of these where I've commented in my (perceived?) success supplementing my questionably seasoned/moistened wood w/ compressed sawdust products. YMMV.

 

[BURNER21]

MY pipe and flue runs through the wall are 6" then turns into a 8x8 this is what was here and I installed the stove. So with the 8x8's instead of buying the metal pipe to go down the flue's that is 6" because of money you think put a damper in will help. All my wood is cherry does it need to be seasoned as long as oak and other types of wood. Thanks for all your help I need it.

 

[rydaddy]

I don't blame you for using your existing flue, but I would really consider using a 6" liner. Just my .47 cents. It should make a difference. From what I have learned, it is a much better solution for a # of reasons in the long run. This is my fourth season heating with wood. Just when I thought I had it all figured out something comes up. Don't sweat it!