Hearthstone Santa Fe

[Trouthead]

Had this installed in November of 2010. Thought I would update how its worked for the last six years. Pretty much other than fan noise and vibration that I never was able to fix, it has been perfect. I don't use the fan very much as my wife is very noise sensitive, and it really doesn't seems to make much difference. I do use a very small desk fan about 35 feet away to circulate the air.

A couple of weeks ago it got cold enough to finally lite the pilot so I opened the front door, took out the ceramic logs and stones and vacuumed up all the dust and dead bugs, put the logs back and closed it up. No matter how hard I try I must always miss a dead bug or twos carcass and you can always smell it for the first firing. Took one try to lite the pilot and the logs lit up after I changed the batteries on the remote thermostat. Pretty painless and six years of comfortable heat. No thermostat difficulties, no pilot or thermo-coupling problems, no gas valve problems, nothing other than the fan noise that I think is just a nature of the beast.

It really has been a great aid to having a very comfortable house in the winter, I liked wood, but I live in Wyoming with no hard woods, and it is really a different deal burning softwoods. 20 years ago I would have killed for a cord of oak or hickory each season.

The dogs love it and once it gets cold they lie near it getting baked. Although not like a buddies dog who would lay with his head under a soapstone stove. If I have to get up in the middle of the night to investigate barking dogs, it puts out a nice blue light to navigate by. All in all we are happy, and it has been like all products should be, trouble free.

 

[DAKSY]

Good to hear. I always liked the look of Hearthstone gas products.
The blower vibration can often be mitigated by loosening themounting screws &
wedging pieces of tape gasket between the blower body & the stove.
That smell at initial fire-up usually comes from the heat exchanger at the top of these units.
Dust, pet hair & dander can accumulate over the summer months & when you fire it up
that stuff DOES give off odors.

 

[Heatsource]

nice dependable nova sit 820 valve and sit pilot assy

i'm so glad hearthstone is offering a sit valve option again (they changed to maxitrol valve for most products)

 

[stovelark]

Hi Dave x2 on standing pilots.. Jotul is offering both IPI and SP, I think HS saw the logic. Their sales rep told me that its still called for, techs are more comfortable and of course, its reliable. Doesn't hurt that for Jotul at least, SPs are about 200 dollars less than their IPI sisters...

 

[Trouthead]

When we first bought this stove I was disappointed that it had a standing pilot, figuring it would use up precious amounts of gas for no reason. Then when it got to be spring and it was still cool out the heat from the pilot worked to warm the room up just a bit, and I figured there really was no wasted gas. Now all bets are off if it gets really warm really fast in the spring, then the standing pilot works against keeping the house cool. If I ever need to do it again I would want a standing pilot.