Mansfield, Heritage, Phoenix...

[JonOfSunderland]

So I have a Mansfield, no complaints. But, my wife and I are buying a house in which the Mansfield would be too big in both heat output and physical size. I really like the look of the heritage and Phoenix. I would love to have the side loading capability of the Heritage.

From those of you who are HAPPY with your Heritage's and Phoenix's, what square footage are you heating? What chimney setup do you have? What burn times are you getting?

For happy and unhappy, would anyone consider a trade??? (Hypothetically, at the moment)

 

[Highbeam]

Sorry, double post.

 

[Highbeam]

I have a heritage and would recommend it over the phoenix for the side door, more soapstone, and the phoenix has a goofy blanket on top of the baffle. The front casting looks very nice on the phoenix though.

The side door is freaking excellent. We haven't opened the front door in months. It is an extremely valuable feature when you have such a great airwash system that you don't need to clean the glass. I slide the logs in one on top of the other without worry of them rolling out and the smoke stays in the stove.

I have 1700 SF rambler with average insulation in a moderate climate. I heated last year with extremely poor insulation and poor windows. I am able to adjust the output of this stove from high to low with good success. I think the soapstone helps with this.

My chimney is 13' of vertical stack. 4' of class A in the attic, 4' of class A above the roof, and a single 5' slip joint of double wall stuck right into the stove collar.

I burn softwood like cottonwood, alder, douglas fir, western red cedar, and even pine. When I load up for the overnight I load it as full as possible without touching the glass or the roof. I load the 300 degree stove at 10PM and reload at 7AM without using a match. Just stir the coals and they will light kindling. The stove is a cool 200 at 7AM but the coals are sufficient to relight. Hey, I would love a 12 hour burntime but it won't happen in the non-cat heritage.

Normal reload times during the day vary greatly depending on desired heat output. I try to always load three or more splits.

The ash pan is a joke. Plan on scooping with a shovel through the side door.

I have been really happy with the stove. We like the looks especially. The only thing we would change is the burntime and the only way to make it significantly better is to trade it for a woodstock with a cat. So have you noticed that the woodstock prices are significantly better than hearthstones? If you had a newer fireview, I might talk trade.

 

[Todd]

Sorry, can't help you with the Hearthstones, have you looked at Woodstock? 12hr burns, and heats my 1800 sq ft.

I think you have a pretty good shot at a trade, there are a few people here looking to up grade to a larger Hearthstone. We should hold a Hearth.com stove swap or temporary trade so we all can try different stoves we like.

 

[Todd]

Hey Highbeam,
If you were closer I'd trade ya TEMPORARILY just to try a different same sized soapstone as mine.

 

[JonOfSunderland]

I've read a lot of people don't like the ashpan setup on these stoves. I use mine all of the time. What I did do was take out the sliding grate so it's just an open grate. I just make sure to empty the ash pan with the loading door open so as not to create a blast furnace effect.

 

[Highbeam]

Maybe the mansifeld is different but the heritage's four sided pan is about the size of a book and significantly more work than just scooping the ash into a bucket. If the ashpan held 5 gallons or so then it would have more value. Interesting thought on removing the grate, while the ashpan drawer is sealed I would worry about the coals falling into the pan all the time and filling up the entire ash drawer before you got a chance to empty the little dish.

Temporarily trading stoves around is way too much work. These buggers are heavy and I am the kind of guy that would want permits for the new stoves.

 

[mikeathens]

I was totally happy with my Heritage - it did look nicer than the mansfield. One thing I will say is that though I really liked the side load door on the heritage, I have gotten used to mansfield's front load only.

The front load on the heritage is WORTHLESS (in my opinion) ...because of the way it is constructed, you will have ash everywhere if you try to open the heritage front door. The mansfield is made differently, and has a "ramp" in front of the door, which prevents the mess.

Both are great stoves. I am heating a 1800 SF log cabin with marginal insulation, and the heritage was too small. The mansfield does an excellent job down to about 10 or so, and then I have to feed the wood (every 4-5 hours) after that. Of course, I never have had the mansfield up to 600 F. The heritage regularly saw 550+ when it was below 20 outside.

 

[JonOfSunderland]

Most of my wood is somewhat inadequately seasoned (only since April). Consequently the secondaries don't sustain very well, a little sizzling, and I have to burn small hot fires. I keep a stack of wood drying near the stove (2+ weeks at a time) that I use occasionally and when the stove is loaded with that, I can't keep it below 500. Last night I loaded it up with the nice dry stuff and with the primary shut completely off it cruised at 600 (700 flue temps) with a firebox full of aurora borealis. I'm thinking I might need a damper.

Currently it's installed in an uninsulated basement (900sf) of a single story ranch (main floor 900sf). And it keeps the house at 62-64 (to be expected because of the basement). The stove would be installed on the main floor (1300sf) of the house we're moving to and the stove would be on the main floor, so I'm worried about being cooked out.

 

[edthedawg]

Ok i'm still a Qualifying Newbie, I admit it, and a total rook at woodburning, storing, splitting, etc... but despite that, we love our Heritage! Our house is way too big for it and we heat far more of it than we ever thought possible, while battling crappy, wet wood (just finished a nice dry stack and got into some wet stuff ). Having good luck supplementing the marginal wood w/ an occasional Eco-Firelog - really burns nice and hot w/ a good few hours of secondaries when you bury one inside a full load...

I guarantee it is entirely our poor wood and lack of skillz that makes it take awhile to warm up, but once all heated, it's a thing of beauty. Neighbors love it - it's redefined where we spend our time together as a family. Weekends when we're home more consistently are the best to keep it hot. On work days, we routinely are gone about 9 hours. Not much to rebuild with after that unless we pack it full, and I kinda hate burning a full box for an empty house... Just feels like a waste. Overnight I usually fill it up good around midnight and it'll still be a nice bed of coals at 6am.

Definitely agree w/ the front door and ashpan comments from HighBeam and Mike From Athens. They are both never used unless i feel like doing a real solid cleaning. I'll add that even without having an ash-spill out the front door, it also tends to really pour smoke out whenever opened for loading.

Details: 1885 Victorian w/ many windows, high ceilings, lots of leaks, and marginal insulation. About 2800 sq ft total. 1200 sq ft 1st and 2nd floors, attic is about 400 sq ft finished space. Center chimney is 35' w/ 6" SS uninsulated liner, sheetmetal blockoff plate down below, and I honestly don't recall for sure what's up top sealing the flue. I added a flue damper in the horizontal section straight out the back (we couldn't easily adapt a top-exit setup. Stove will keep the downstairs at 68-74, and upstairs at 60 - even the other day when it was like 12 out. I considered maintaining a 60 degree delta, without using hardly any oil, pretty darn good.

 

[Todd]

The Mansfield may be too big for 1300 sq ft, but why not give it a try since you already have the stove? Just don't pack it full, try 1/2 or 3/4 loads.

 

[JonOfSunderland]

Ed,
By any chance does your house have a Rumford fireplace?

 

[edthedawg]

No I don't believe so. It's very narrow and shallow, and tall only in comparison to the width and depth. It's also wide-open at the top (well it was, before we built the sheetmetal blockoff plate around the liner). The hearth is only about 3" tall, and the horizontal rear exit pipe is the only arrangment that clears the top of the firebox. Vertical wouldn't work unless we did massive mods.

Pix show the original hearth/mantel, then the stove on its new hearth, and then a detail of the exit pipe (pre-damper addition - we fixed the male-female connection to aim properly toward the stove).

 

[DAKSY]

Hey, Ed...
Is the fluting witht he rosetees around the FP opeing wood?
Sure does look like it...If that's not double wall connector pipe, it oughta be!
You need 18" from single-wall connector to combustobles..If that trim is ceramic or non-combustible, NEVER MIND!

 

[edthedawg]

Thx for the concern! The narrow fluting/rosette patten is brass. Then 6" tile w/ the sunburst pattern, and then the white trim is all combustible. And the clearance is all 1/2" over the stated minimums for single-wall pipe as laid out in excruciating detail within the Hearthstone manual.

 

[JonOfSunderland]

By the way... I'm planning on putting in a pipe damper. Above or below flue thermometer?

 

[Todd]

Below

 

[Buck1200]

I'm heating a recently insulated (cellulose and foam), 1700sf balloon framed 2 story colonial revival here in northern VT with a heritage and dry mixed hardwoods. We burn about 4 cord a year, split between 3 fires a day and always have coals in the morning. I have an interior Excel chimney with two bends and a total height of about 30ft.

I'll second what others have said: side loading door is great (if a little small for night chunks... and impatient wives), front door is nice to look at but otherwise worthless, as is the ashpan. And had I not gotten such a good deal on it, as well as been unfairly biased against catalytic converters, I would have bought a Fireview for the easier operation, somewhat longer burns, and even prettier looks. That said, I'm quite happy with this stove.

 

[Harley]

Jon:

I think you would be fine with the Heritage, depending on the actual setup. If you are used to the way the soapstones stoves heat, I wouldn't expect you would be "cooked out" of any of the rooms. The total sf here is about 2,000. There's 1 room on the NW corner of the house that would not get heat by any stove, so the total heating area is about 1,750, and the Heritage does a fine job of keeping everything warm and not too hot in any one place. I think the Phoenix would do as well. That's just going to depend on your preference.

We're not too far apart as far as weather, so I can say pretty confidently that it should work fine (obviously depending on the actual layout and where the stove is situated)

 

[KeithO]

The answer is the damper goes above the flue thermometer. The flow below the damper is fairly predictable, but the damper has a huge effect on the flow for 2-3ft above the damper. So trying to measure above the damper is a crap shoot. Also, if you have high draft you are likely to have air leaks above the damper where the depression (vacuum) is highest, including around the damper shaft. Any leaks introduce additional error in measurement.

By the way... I'm planning on putting in a pipe damper. Above or below flue thermometer?