Operating a Heartland Artisan cook stove

[SteveKG]

We just got our new cookstove, a Heartland Artisan. I've used it three days now. When I was looking it over, I noticed that the primary air inlet is tiny. I mean, TINY. It is a disc on a threaded rod, you turn the disc to open or close the intake. There is a cotter key in the rod which only allows the disc to be opened enough to maybe slide a business card between the disc and the stove door surface. So, the intake opening is effectively very, very small.

There is a secondary air supply built into the firebox door frame. Just a slot in the frame which is also very small, I assume allowing air from the grate shaker rod pathway, built into the frame also.

I called the dealer and asked whether this small primary opening was truly large enough to supply air for the large firebox. He said, well, in air tight stoves, this is the way it should be--very small and, therefore, tightly controllable air intake. This all concerned me a bit, as the firebox is large and I wondered how in heck there was going to be enough air inlet to get a new fire going adequately.

The stove manual instructs the user to build a small fire of kindling, shut the door after a few seconds of wide-open burn,let it get going a couple minutes, load up the firebox fully with the wood, then shut the doors and leave them shut til re-load. Couple hours or more.

Fine. I have found that to get the fire going well enough to not just smolder and smoke, I need to leave the firebox door cracked open, and I need to do this for at least an hour, longer is better. Once I have a real nice bed of coals, I can load it up with wood, shut the door, and be fine. The manual and the dealer say, no, shut the door right off and leave it alone, just adjust the primary intake and the damper [which is set in a box atop the stove, a box to which the stove pipe attaches].

So here is my problem. I have been using woodstoves for heat and cooking for many years. This is the first truly air tight stove I've had or used, however. My other stoves have and have had a hefty primary air source for getting the fire going really well before cranking down that air source. Some of you folks who have experience in a non-cat, air-tight burning scenario might be able to give me some advice.

If I must leave the firebox door cracked open for an hour or even two, ok if that is simply the way it should work. The manual insists I shut the door right after lighting the fire off. And leave it shut. So there is a disconnect between what the manual says and what real life is showing me, so far. I am pretty ignorant of air-tight operation, obviously.

Any ideas?

Before anyone asks, I am burning two-yr. + seasoned wood, pine and spruce, which is the only thing available to me in the central Rockies. The wood is stored in covered sheds, open on two sides for wind-drying. The wood is originally felled and bucked dead. Standing dead wood. I don't cut down living trees, no need to.

One final thing, my other stoves burn clean, at least visually. I mean, once they get going, a few minutes into the burn, there is little or no visible smoke coming from their chimney pipes. This new stove, the air tight one, sends out visible smoke as long as the firebox doors are shut tight. Unless the fire has burned down to charcoal/embers/coals, then no smoke. Also, if I crack the door open again, give it a few seconds, the effluent from the chimney then has no visible smoke. Are non-cat air tight stoves typically smoke emiitters?

 

[Dave_1]

Steve,

welcome to the forum.

Get a moisture meter & check your wood.

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-mini-moisture-meter-67143.html

Split a few splits / rounds then measure the moisture content (MC) at the center.

It should be less than 20%, if not it is considered wet.

I have a pre EPA Fisher & like you I crack the door to get it started.

But only for 5-10 minutes for by then the stove is coming on & I close the spin draft knob to 1-1/2 turns.

About 30 minutes later it is closed further to 1/2 - 3/4 of a turn.

Since my fuel is oak, hickory, ash, etc. it should take longer to get going my charge going than your stove.

If your fuel is less than 20% MC you need to locate like owners & compare notes.

Good luck with it. ;-)

 

[Chettt]

Steve something is wrong if you have to leave the door ajar for an hour with dry pine. New stoves do have very small primary air openings and starting a cold stove you may have to leave the door open for a few minutes. Do you have a real short flue or some other issue that may have changed the draft from your old stove?

 

[begreen]

If the flue damper is open the fire should ignite pretty quickly. Leave the secondary air slide wide open This is only a 1 cu ft firebox, it won't need a huge air intake. The flue is the engine of the stove. How tall is the flue? At sea level it requires at least 14' from the stove flue collar. But it will need more at higher altitude and even more if there are elbows involved. Is the flue diameter the same all the way up?

FYI, most of us here are burning modern EPA stoves that are not air-tight.

 

[SteveKG]

If the flue damper is open the fire should ignite pretty quickly. Leave the secondary air slide wide open This is only a 1 cu ft firebox, it won't need a huge air intake. The flue is the engine of the stove. How tall is the flue? At sea level it requires at least 14' from the stove flue collar. But it will need more at higher altitude and even more if there are elbows involved. Is the flue diameter the same all the way up?

FYI, most of us here are burning modern EPA stoves that are not air-tight.

Thanks to all for the responses.

The rise from the stove top to the chimney cap is 17 ft. About four ft. of DSP double wall indoor with two 45 deg elbows. From the ceiling to the top is all Metalbest. All 6". I am at 8500 MSL for altitude. I don't know how to calculate the necessary rise adjusted for altitude, so that is one point someone may be able to address. There are no 90 degree turns, only a 45 near the stove top and a run of about 18 inches at 45 degrees to the other 45 elbow, then straight up.

I do not have a moisture meter, no. However, our usual humidity here is low, often less than 20% and very unusually more than that for brief periods. The past few weeks, I've been seeing 16% outdoor humidity. So I expect my wood is pretty dry. I am currently burning wood I cut two years ago from standing dead trees and stacked under shelter.

I realize this is a fairly new model stove and there are likely few owners and perhaps even none except me on the forum, which is why my questions have been fairly general to the basic type stove and not this exact one. The tech people at Aga basically pull up a PDF of the manual when I call, so they are not too helpful. In fact, after using the stove for a week, I get the feeling I already know more about its operation than they do.

 

[branchburner]

What size are your splits? It could be you need to establish a good bed of coals with a much smaller wood size than you are accustomed to using. Perhaps try nothing but large kindling at first - maybe you can get the open-door time down from an hour to 10 or 15 minutes.

I have found softwoods to be tough for getting a quick coal bed - they tend to burn right up without coaling much if they are small splits and/or kindling. Maybe you can find some hardwood pallets or other scrap/sticks for early stages of the fire to help get some quick coaling.

 

[SteveKG]

What size are your splits? It could be you need to establish a good bed of coals with a much smaller wood size than you are accustomed to using. Perhaps try nothing but large kindling at first - maybe you can get the open-door time down from an hour to 10 or 15 minutes.

I have found softwoods to be tough for getting a quick coal bed - they tend to burn right up without coaling much if they are small splits and/or kindling. Maybe you can find some hardwood pallets or other scrap/sticks for early stages of the fire to help get some quick coaling.

You may be right about the splits. Yes, I am accustomed to placing only a very few pc of kindling in with all the rest of the wood, even large stuff, lighting it off, and the stove is roaring in moments. With this stove, I have been using more kindling and letting it go a few minutes before gradually stacking on more and larger pc of wood. This a.m., I put even more kindling on first and am so far, an hour into it, adding 1 to 2 inch thick splits. Yes, it is going better. Unlike my other two stoves, this one will require my attention for some time, until the fire is well established, rather than my customary light-it-and-go-away til next fuel addition.

This is a new stove and I know a year from now I will probably be having no trouble. I just noticed the sticky about previous posts and forum strings regarding my very issues. I should have seen that and read it first. Sorry. In any case, I realize I am among many others trying to figure out the air volume/draft/keep-the-new-fire-going issues. It may be that I need to add height to my chimney due to altitude here even though it was more than adequate for my previous RAIS range.

By the way, it is a tremendous stove and if I let it burn out by suppertime, the top is still hot the next a.m. when I get up and the oven is still pretty warm. All that cast iron.....

 

[branchburner]

By the way, it is a tremendous stove and if I let it burn out by suppertime, the top is still hot the next a.m. when I get up and the oven is still pretty warm. All that cast iron.....

Sounds kind of like a mini-version, in metal, of a masonry heater. Maybe an extra few feet of chimney will give enough draft to get less smoke and a quicker startup time.

 

[begreen]

The stove has a long smoke path to help warm the oven. On many cook stoves there is a bypass for startup that sends the smoke directly toward the flue, but that does not seem to be present on this stove, or did I miss it? It looks like instead all control is in the flue damper.

Here's an altitude chart for the VC Encore NC which is a stove that needs a strong draft. It will give you a rough correlation of flue height/altitude that may be useful. At 8500' it's calling for about 26ft of pipe. If possible, I'd pop on a temporary 5-6 ft length of 6" pipe (can be cheap warm air duct pipe) and see if that makes a huge difference. If so, make it permanent and brace it well.

 

[SteveKG]

The stove has a long smoke path to help warm the oven. On many cook stoves there is a bypass for startup that sends the smoke directly toward the flue, but that does not seem to be present on this stove, or did I miss it? It looks like instead all control is in the flue damper.

Here's an altitude chart for the VC Encore NC which is a stove that needs a strong draft. It will give you a rough correlation of flue height/altitude that may be useful. At 8500' it's calling for about 26ft of pipe. If possible, I'd pop on a temporary 5-6 ft length of 6" pipe (can be cheap warm air duct pipe) and see if that makes a huge difference. If so, make it permanent and brace it well.

Thanks a million. I shall look to try an extended chimney soon as I can safely get on the steel roof, it'll be a while with ice and some snow up there. It is sounding as if I do probably need more chimney height.

Meanwhile, today I've been limiting the wood being burned to smaller pieces and it is working better, though I still had to leave the door open a long time to get it going. The smoke path is across the top of the oven from the firebox and then up and away. Only the top. Unlike other cookstoves I've had, where the smoke traveled across the top, down the far side, across the bottom to a chamber against the back of the oven, effectively surrounding the oven(s) with hot air. I wondered how well this design would work, in comparison, and it does work very well heating up the ovens.

Thanks again. I shall post the results when I have them, though it could be some time, weather.....

 

[begreen]

Sounds like a very interesting stove. I am impressed that they manage to achieve even oven temps with a top pass of the flue gases. Not sure how they do that. How much heat is given off the stove with the lids closed vs with the lids open?

Keep us posted on progress and the learning experiences. We don't get many cook stove experience stories here. They used to be a daily part of American life, so it's great to hear of folks learning about them anew. I was lucky enough to have an old one in a cottage many years ago. Loved that stove once I got the hang of it. Wish we had room for one in the house now.

 

[SKIN052]

If you have good seasoned wood, as it seems you do, draft has to be the issue. You should not have to leave the door open that long or even leave the air on full constantly. A recent thread on here had a fellow poster running a red hot flue doing something similar and wrapped his baffle plate. I do not know anything about this stove but you have some issue with your set up that should be addressed. Hope you figure it out and truly start enjoying your stove.

 

[SteveKG]

Sounds like a very interesting stove. I am impressed that they manage to achieve even oven temps with a top pass of the flue gases. Not sure how they do that. How much heat is given off the stove with the lids closed vs with the lids open?

Keep us posted on progress and the learning experiences. We don't get many cook stove experience stories here. They used to be a daily part of American life, so it's great to hear of folks learning about them anew. I was lucky enough to have an old one in a cottage many years ago. Loved that stove once I got the hang of it. Wish we had room for one in the house now.

Yes, the oven seems to be fairly evenly heated. I have only baked things twice so far, plus some general stuff like casseroles, which are not picky. But my bread did not need to be turned, and I've used extensively three other cookstoves and had to set a timer to turn things every fifteen minutes or so to get even cooking. I am impressed. Of course, Aga has a rep' for very high quality and very easy cooking. The lower oven is a warming oven, not directly heated, and so far [early days] it has risen to 200 F. after several hours.

I first used a cookstove in an old miner's shack/cottage I rented for 11 years. Very old stove, tiny firebox, the usual. But it worked ok, if the labor to bake was a bit intensive. Then 20 yr of using a couple others, including a RAIS cookstove which I don't believe is made any more, since EPA rules. Works great, large firebox, but very small oven.

The Heartland, while still a wood cookstove, seems to be on a different level all together. So far, any way. The top plate, that portion beneath the lids you referred to, heats up remarkably fast. I boiled tea water a few minutes after lighting the morning's fire. After it came up to temp', I boiled more tea water in just a couple minutes, far faster than on my propane burners. At our altitude, I don't get as much in the BTU dept from the gas as I would down lower, but, still, my other cookstoves took a fairly long time to come up to temp. I had that top plate off to move the stove indoors, and on the bottom side, over the firebox, is a set of deep fins through which the smoke passes. No doubt this adds a lot to the rapidity of the heating process.

I haven't yet compared the heating rate of the top with the lids raised and lowered. I have only used it with the lids up. I will do so soon and post the results. I've wanted the heat for the room, though that will change with summer.


Thus far, too, I am seeing less wood usage than other cookstoves, once the temp is up and the bed of coals established. I add a couple small to medium splits every 2 to 3 hours. You just maintain the heat level with a little additional wood. My other cookstoves would retain heat a long time, but they definitely hungrier for wood.

 

[thechimneysweep]

Hi Steve,

We've got several Artisans in the family by now, and I've run your situation by a couple of "power users." Here's the consensus:

When starting from room temperature, it can take awhile to heat this 800 lb. beastie up, even at sea level. At your altitude, it is bound to take even longer, as the combustion air will be less oxygen-rich, and the chimney updraft will be weaker than optimal. To compensate, cracking the door a bit to provide "boost air" during lightup makes sense, as long as you're there to monitor the fire. One user suggested you remove the keeper pin from the spin draft to enable you to supply boost air with the door closed: not sure what AGA might have to say about that, but it is something to consider.

During lightup, make sure the slide damper in the stove flueway (the box where the stovepipe plugs in) is pulled out all the way until the fire is well-established. Both the primary and secondary air should be wide open. Keep the cooktop lids closed during the lightup process, to help keep the exhaust gases as hot as possible. Burn lots of very small pieces instead of just a few large ones, until you get the chimney drafting. Gradually add larger splits as the draft continues to increase, until you can sustain a fire with the loading door closed. At that point, open the cooktop lids to release heat to the room.

Once you get the engine going, slide the flueway slide damper inward a notch or two, and monitor the results. Re-adjust and observe over the course of several fires, until you find your "sweet spot." Just a guess: at your altitude, you'll probably get best results with the slide damper not fully closed. Use the marking lines to note the position of the slide damper, so you can return to your ideal position easily.

One customer advises that, for best operation, the morning fire should be refueled just often enough throughout the day to maintain a good coal bed. This keeps the cast iron reasonably hot and the kitchen toasty warm, and enables her to bring the oven up to temperature rapidly whenever she needs to.

 

[SteveKG]

Thanks, Tom. I did consider removing the cotter pin from the primary shaft. As it is set up, the primary air control, a wheel on a threaded shaft, can only be opened one quarter turn, period. It barely opens at all. I will give it another look when the stove is cool. There is no adjustment available with the retaining bolt and cotter pin. I'll check it out further. Opened fully, I can slip a piece or two of typing paper in the space, and that simply seems too small an opening even for an air tight.

Thanks for the other info'. This appears to be an incredibly high-quality and useful stove.