Just wanted to say hi to everyone. My name is Rob, I'm 34 from Cleveland, Ohio. I just recently had a Hearthstone Craftsbury installed with a 6" Duravent chimney and double wall flue pipe.
Hi Rob. My name is Jake and I have a problem. I enjoy burning firewood a little too much . . . oops wrong session/forum, let me try again . . . Hi Rob. My name is Jake. I'm 30 and from Unity, Maine. On my days off I enjoy ATVing, snowmobiling in season, long walks on the beach and cutting firewood . . . 
All kidding aside, welcome to the forum.
I did some searching here and it sounds like I'm having performance issues
I sometimes have performance issues too . . . but we won't get into that now similar to those that have shorter than expected burn times.
OK, OK . . . I'll get serious again . . . first off you probably realize by now that the burn times listed in the brochures and websites are not really all that precise . . . I mean to say the manufacturers when they come up with a burn time of 5-6 hours say are basing this on lab tests in ideal conditions with ideal wood . . . they do not factor in the size of a home, insulation, species of the wood, etc. . . . On top of this everyone's definition of burn time may be a bit different . . . is your definition of burn time based on the time you see flames to the time the flames are no longer seen . . . or maybe it's based on the time you get meaningful heat -- say 350 degrees stove top temp -- to the time the coals no longer deliver this meaningful heat . . . or maybe it's the time from when you light the kindlng on fire until there are no glowing coals left in the stove . . . as you can see there are many different definitions. I live on top of a windy hill and have a 15' flue/chimney and an outside air adapter to the stove. I have a strong draft once the the stove gets heated. In approx 3.5 hrs I burn about 4 to 5 12" pieces of birch with the air control about half open.
Hmmm . . . not bad considering the small size of the firebox . . . however once you get your stove up to temp you should be able to close the air control even more . . . to the quarter mark or even fully closed . . . definitely get a stove top thermometer . . . it will let you know when you can start closing the air control and better achieve secondary combustion (which hopefully you have experienced already). Do I need a damper installed?
Some folks do need dampers when they have to deal with windy conditions or very tall chimneys . . . I would get the thermometer first though since this will let you know when and when you should not close off the air to achieve secondary combustion . . . and then once you reach that temp and can achieve sustained secondary combustion see if you can close the air control less than the halfway mark . . . and see if that helps any . . . before installing a stove pipe damper. That said . . . dampers are typically pretty easy and cheap to install if you decide to go that route. Also I noticed that the window stays clean except near the corners- is this normal?
The key to keeping your glass clean in my own opinion and experience is three-fold: 1) Burn seasoned wood -- burning green wood = black glass, 2) Burn at the proper hot temps -- without a thermometer you'll just be guessing if your stove is hot enough and 3) Keep wood from falling up against and resting on the glass -- this blocks the airwash and it will blacken. Oh yeah, I guess there is a fourth possibility . . . your gaskets could need replacing . . . which is easy to check with the dollar bill test. Thanks.
