Replace Hearthstone Mansfield with Jotul F600

[Vic99]

MF,

Maybe you need to either 1) find someone that will swap you a couple of loads of dry wood for your wood or 2) get some kiln dried hardwood lumber (no particle board or pressure treated) and mix your wood with the lumber 50/50. Don't use all kiln dried as your stove will take off, a lot of kiln stuff is 6-10% moisture . . . make sure it is a hardwood and not southern yellow pine. I know hardwood lumber can be expensive, but it's way less than all involved in replacing a stove.

Good luck.

 

[Rich L]

Man I recently put some biobricks in my Mansfield and came back 10-15 minutes later and my stove top temp was 750.That thing was kicking.I turned the stove damper all the way down and turned my pipe damper all the way down.That's what dry wood will get you.Ya try some biobricks and a pipe damper otherwise you may not be able to tone it down enough.Biobricks go for $8.00 for a bag of 9.Put in two and a half bags.Then you'll know what your stove can do.Mine is in my cellar and you can't stay in the room it's in without sweating.Yours should do the same with the right conditions.

 

[MF1529]

Thanks to everyone that has posted here.

So I fired up the Massey hooked the splitter up and went down and dug out the elm. I split quite a bit and gave the splitter a big workout with that elm. Now I don't know for sure that the elm is dry, but when split it is dry to the touch, it does not hiss, and it ignites almost immediately when burning. This I must say is much different than the stuff I have been burning. As of now it looks like problem is what everyone has been telling me--TRY DRY WOOD!! My wood has been stacked for about a year, but that doesn't seem long enough now.

Well I loaded up the stove with the elm and after about 10 minutes I was able to shut the primary completely down and the secondaries took off. The stove temp has stayed around 425 with the primary off. Does this sound right? I have read in other posts that the most heat should be happening when the primary is off which keeps more heat in the box. How is everyone keeping there stoves at 600 on the subzero nights? Is the primary open a little to feed more air? Today in VT the temp is around 35 which is not difficult to keep the house 75. I'll be waiting for the cold nights to feed the elm and see what happens.

Now I have been able to get the stove to 600 but that is when I have the primary 3/4 open and in that case I rapidly fill half the firebox with coals. This scares me because of the extreme temps going up the chimney. I will feel a whole lot better if I can close down the primary and get these temps.

If this elm doesn't work out I will invest in a load of known dry wood and maybe a meter before I replace the stove. This site is the best!!

 

[NH_Wood]

Thanks to everyone that has posted here.

So I fired up the Massey hooked the splitter up and went down and dug out the elm. I split quite a bit and gave the splitter a big workout with that elm. Now I don't know for sure that the elm is dry, but when split it is dry to the touch, it does not hiss, and it ignites almost immediately when burning. This I must say is much different than the stuff I have been burning. As of now it looks like problem is what everyone has been telling me--TRY DRY WOOD!! My wood has been stacked for about a year, but that doesn't seem long enough now.

Well I loaded up the stove with the elm and after about 10 minutes I was able to shut the primary completely down and the secondaries took off. The stove temp has stayed around 425 with the primary off. Does this sound right? I have read in other posts that the most heat should be happening when the primary is off which keeps more heat in the box. How is everyone keeping there stoves at 600 on the subzero nights? Is the primary open a little to feed more air? Today in VT the temp is around 35 which is not difficult to keep the house 75. I'll be waiting for the cold nights to feed the elm and see what happens.

Now I have been able to get the stove to 600 but that is when I have the primary 3/4 open and in that case I rapidly fill half the firebox with coals. This scares me because of the extreme temps going up the chimney. I will feel a whole lot better if I can close down the primary and get these temps.

If this elm doesn't work out I will invest in a load of known dry wood and maybe a meter before I replace the stove. This site is the best!!

If your draft is good, it simply must be the wood. I get to 550* normal stove top temp with primary completely closed. Definitely try the known low MC wood and report back - we want to know. Cheers!

 

[DanCorcoran]

Yes, I'd say invest $10 in a couple of bundles of kiln-dried Quicky Mart wood, just for comparison. Hard to believe that elm split today would be dry enough to give the stove a fair test.

 

[MF1529]

My draft is very strong. I will experiment with known dry wood and look forward to doing things right. I'm starting to think everyone that has contributed to my last 2 posts has saved me from making a big mistake.

NH_Wood, on the brutally cold nights do you run the primary open for more heat? I would be extremely happy with 550 with primary shut. I haven't seen that yet, but getting closer

 

[Todd]

Everyones draft can be a little different, you need to play around with the air settings more. If all the way shut is giving you a temp of about 450, try bumping it up about 1/4" and see what happens. Sometimes a very small air adjustment of 1/8-1/4" can make a big difference.

 

[johnstra]

I'll be interested if NH's stove behaves the same, but here's how I get max temps out of mine... the key for me is allowing the load to really get rolling before I shut cut back the primary air. According to my flue thermometer, I need to hit at least 800 and it does better at 900 or 1000 (this is a probe thermometer in double-wall pipe). If I wait till that point to dial the air back, I can shut the primary air all the way off in 3 or 4 increments. Following that recipe, my stove will run 550-650 depending on the size of the splits. Just today I loaded a bunch of smallish maple splits and rounds and a few oak splits. The maple is about 7% MC and the oak is 10%. I came inside 2 hours later my stovetop was 650. That's the highest I've seen.

So load it full of known dry wood, let it really get burning strong, then cut your air back and see what you get. If you have a strong draft you should be able to close it all the way down.

 

[BrowningBAR]

My draft is very strong. I will experiment with known dry wood and look forward to doing things right. I'm starting to think everyone that has contributed to my last 2 posts has saved me from making a big mistake.

NH_Wood, on the brutally cold nights do you run the primary open for more heat? I would be extremely happy with 550 with primary shut. I haven't seen that yet, but getting closer

Ah, so you HAVE had issues maintaining high temps!

Just as a reference point, I had the primary air shut and the pipe damper shut and had temps at 600° last night.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I'll be interested if NH's stove behaves the same, but here's how I get max temps out of mine... the key for me is allowing the load to really get rolling before I shut cut back the primary air. According to my flue thermometer, I need to hit at least 800 and it does better at 900 or 1000 (this is a probe thermometer in double-wall pipe). If I wait till that point to dial the air back, I can shut the primary air all the way off in 3 or 4 increments. Following that recipe, my stove will run 550-650 depending on the size of the splits. Just today I loaded a bunch of smallish maple splits and rounds and a few oak splits. The maple is about 7% MC and the oak is 10%. I came inside 2 hours later my stovetop was 650. That's the highest I've seen.

So load it full of known dry wood, let it really get burning strong, then cut your air back and see what you get. If you have a strong draft you should be able to close it all the way down.

That is how I operate the Heritage. When done right the temps will climb as you cut the air down in stages.

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

I never shut my Mansfield down all the way. I almost always left the air control at half open during the day, maybe 3/4 closed at night for a longer burn. The glass was always clean and I never had any creosote in the chimney. Maybe I would have burned less wood by shutting it down more, hard to say.

I've moved on to a Tarm wood boiler, but if I ever get another stove it will be a Mansfield.

 

[VCBurner]

I am in a constant flip flop with this stove. It seems undoubtable that my wood is probably not seasoned. All of my wood was split in the fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010 and then stacked. Maybe that's not enough time. I would be beyond happy if very dry would would fix my coal problem. I have some very very dry elm that came from a standing dead tree this fall. There is no moisture in it. I will split it today and see how that does. I will report back. I did read in a post from a while back BrowningBar wrote to another member that he may be disappointed with the soapstones heat after switching from a blaze king. I think that was an accurate statement. I'm headed out to split I will report back.

Thanks again to all

MF, why don't you just buy a couple of bags of bio bricks and really test out the stove! I don't think you could go wrong with that stuff in terms of testing out the output of a stove. It is supposed to burn hotter and longer than cord wood. I found it to be true.

 

[gyrfalcon]

My draft is very strong. I will experiment with known dry wood and look forward to doing things right. I'm starting to think everyone that has contributed to my last 2 posts has saved me from making a big mistake.

NH_Wood, on the brutally cold nights do you run the primary open for more heat? I would be extremely happy with 550 with primary shut. I haven't seen that yet, but getting closer

Also take into consideration what kind of wood you're burning. Black Birch and Beech, which are abundant in most of VT, are high BTU woods that burn very hot. I can get my tiny stove up to 450-475 with a full load of either, but only 350-375 with a full load of rock maple. Elm will only get me to 300. You'll do better with a much bigger firebox, but the same principle applies.

 

[snowleopard]

This is my first year w/a Heritage, and my first year with a woodstove in the house I'm in, but I've lived with several different woodstoves in the past, so have some context in which to evaluate this one. I'm heating a 2000sf house, and just to make life interesting, my boiler went down in January. Except for the night when the gyrfalcon had to talk me off the my-door-gasket-has-failed ledge, the house has been warm and cozy, and it's done a great job of making this the most comfortable winter we've had here. I have a sunroom full of plants that are still thriving in spite of the transom between the hearth room and the sunroom, and the 2 weeks+ of -20F and colder weather we've had. (I just went downstairs and found the hearthroom at 78 and the stovetop at 300. Someone--surely not my son who is sitting in front of the stove?--left the primary open . . . )

I'm burning poplar--nothing but poplar--it's seasoned, but it's been sitting stacked for several years, courtesy of PO. The wood on the tops and bottoms of the stacks were compromised by moisture, and I could absolutely tell the difference in terms of heat when I tried to burn the wet stuff. Finally came to the conclusion that this was an exercise in frustration, and now I toss that stuff aside to burn next fall after it's had a chance to dry out. I'm using about 2 cf of wood a day when the temp is around 0 to 10F (measured by monitoring my inside wood rack fillage and usage)--I figure 4 to 5 cords a winter, roughly.

She's a little particular, she is, not your-I-burn-anything-backyard-boiler-mail-order-bride type stove, but as long as I'm willing to use dry wood, and pay a little attention to the burn cycle, I could not ask for a better stove. And trust me, that stove puts out serious nap-on-the-couch rays. And as for the 24/7-rugged-almost-maintenance-free stuff? I empty ashes daily--about a quart or two--and give the glass a quick wipe because I like watching the fire through really clean glass. Personally, I don't mind that. That having been said, no boiler in January and February? You bet I'm keeping this going around the clock. I can't even imagine what this winter would be like without it. I'd have had to drain the plumbing and move out.

I put in a stack damper, and when I shut that partway, it drives more heat out into the room. It will absolutely drive me away from sitting in front of the glass if I've got a good fire in it and then shut the stack damper. I *never* go to bed with the primary open, or even cracked, yet it's keeping my upstairs almost as warm as the downstairs--maybe 2 degrees colder, which is fine, as our bedrooms are up there. I open the primary full tilt to do my `clearing its throat' burn once or twice a day, and other than that it's almost always on half-open to closed. I've learned how to lay a fire that will burn overnight or while I'm gone during the day. (Won't bore you with the details unless you want me to.) I rarely-to-never use the ashpan. I just brush the ashes to one side and the coals to another, and scoop the ashes out with a Rubbermaid dustpan and dump them into a turkey roaster that's inserted partway into the firebox, so that airborne ashes are swirled up in the updraft. I know that sounds like it's scooped straight from a `you know you're a redneck if . . . ' poster, but it's working for me. The better I get to know this stove, the better results I get out if it. It's everything I hoped for and more.

I've thought at times that it would have been nice to have gotten a Mansfield, just for those extended -40 stretches, but I hope to have the boiler back up and running pretty soon, and plan on burning that as a back-up (funny, that's what I used to say about a woodstove). I'm actually really confident that I got the perfect stove for my application. I don't mean this in a smug, ha-ha-this-works-for-me-what's-wrong-with-you way---just the opposite; hoping that you think, `okay, if it's working for her, I bet I can get similar results out of my bigger stove'. And not that I think it makes that much difference, because cold is cold wherever you go, but I live smack dab in the middle of Alaska, for what it's worth.

I hope that whatever stove you end up with, you can find as much satisfaction in living with a stove as I have, and as I believe most of your hearth-mates here have done.

Can This Relationship be Saved?

I have had a love hate relationship with my Mansfield and I have now decided that I am tired of dealing with it. . . .
I'm looking for a stove that will crank out some good heat. I also want it to be a rugged almost maintenace free that will stand up to 24/7 constant use. . . .

If you're not back in love by Monday, you can't say you didn't try.
But before you ship your Mansfield, just make sure you've let her fry.
Put some seasoned wood together, watch the secondaries play.
If you're not back in love by Monday, Ohio's just three states away.

 

[MF1529]

Thank you for the information. There is no doubt the wood I have been burning is not up to snuff. I'm working on lining up a nice load of dry stuff and also picking up a moisture meter. I've already noticed a world of difference with the elm so I am very encouraged. The higher BTU wood will be even better.

 

[snowleopard]

Good luck--keep us informed.

 

[NH_Wood]

I'll be interested if NH's stove behaves the same, but here's how I get max temps out of mine... the key for me is allowing the load to really get rolling before I shut cut back the primary air. According to my flue thermometer, I need to hit at least 800 and it does better at 900 or 1000 (this is a probe thermometer in double-wall pipe). If I wait till that point to dial the air back, I can shut the primary air all the way off in 3 or 4 increments. Following that recipe, my stove will run 550-650 depending on the size of the splits. Just today I loaded a bunch of smallish maple splits and rounds and a few oak splits. The maple is about 7% MC and the oak is 10%. I came inside 2 hours later my stovetop was 650. That's the highest I've seen.

So load it full of known dry wood, let it really get burning strong, then cut your air back and see what you get. If you have a strong draft you should be able to close it all the way down.

Johnstra has nailed by stove's behavior - we must have bought twins from the factory. I let the load catch very well - probe therm. gets to 900 or so before the first time I dial down the primary air, but I watch the fire more than the temp. Then, 3-4 adjustments down to fully closed. I run fully closed every time and always get to 550-600* unless I'm not using a full load. All of my wood is good BTU wood (almost all white ash), but I've loaded a bunch of ~ 2-3" soft maple rounds and got the stove to 450-500*. I've seen my stove top at ~ 630* - never higher. Seems to usually cruise at 550-600*. Let us know how that good wood works for you. Also, keep a close eye on those kiln dried loads - you are likely used to how poorly seasoned wood catches - stay near the stove - I think you'll find a big difference in how fast the load will get roaring on a good bed of coals. If you dial down the primary and the load starts to lose good flame, open back up and let it catch again - just aim for good lively flame each time you step down the primary, until you can fully close. Good luck! Cheers!

 

[shawneyboy]

I'll be interested if NH's stove behaves the same, but here's how I get max temps out of mine... the key for me is allowing the load to really get rolling before I shut cut back the primary air. According to my flue thermometer, I need to hit at least 800 and it does better at 900 or 1000 (this is a probe thermometer in double-wall pipe). If I wait till that point to dial the air back, I can shut the primary air all the way off in 3 or 4 increments. Following that recipe, my stove will run 550-650 depending on the size of the splits. Just today I loaded a bunch of smallish maple splits and rounds and a few oak splits. The maple is about 7% MC and the oak is 10%. I came inside 2 hours later my stovetop was 650. That's the highest I've seen.

So load it full of known dry wood, let it really get burning strong, then cut your air back and see what you get. If you have a strong draft you should be able to close it all the way down.

Johnstra has nailed by stove's behavior - we must have bought twins from the factory. I let the load catch very well - probe therm. gets to 900 or so before the first time I dial down the primary air, but I watch the fire more than the temp. Then, 3-4 adjustments down to fully closed. I run fully closed every time and always get to 550-600* unless I'm not using a full load. All of my wood is good BTU wood (almost all white ash), but I've loaded a bunch of ~ 2-3" soft maple rounds and got the stove to 450-500*. I've seen my stove top at ~ 630* - never higher. Seems to usually cruise at 550-600*. Let us know how that good wood works for you. Also, keep a close eye on those kiln dried loads - you are likely used to how poorly seasoned wood catches - stay near the stove - I think you'll find a big difference in how fast the load will get roaring on a good bed of coals. If you dial down the primary and the load starts to lose good flame, open back up and let it catch again - just aim for good lively flame each time you step down the primary, until you can fully close. Good luck! Cheers!

Yep sounds right... Ditto for my Mansfield.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I'll be interested if NH's stove behaves the same, but here's how I get max temps out of mine... the key for me is allowing the load to really get rolling before I shut cut back the primary air.

This may be a characteristic of Hearthstone stoves generally because my Tribute behaves the same way. I don't have a stack probe, but the load does have to be fully involved before I start cutting back the air for it to get its best temperatures.

 

[gyrfalcon]

talk me off the my-door-gasket-has-failed ledge

Hah! That's very funny!

Impressed that you can have a sense of humor about it. I can't imagine the terror of facing a stretch of -20 temperatures with a dead boiler and what you thought at the time might be a damaged and untrustworthy stove, and I don't have kids to worry about.

Huge props to you for working through it, figuring it out piece by piece and coming through blazing on the other side with a warm house. Whew!

 

[snowleopard]

Thanks for the props--especially since you saw first hand what shape I was in.
me: "Looking for some support in this situation."
gyrfalcon: "I'm sure everything will be okay."
me: "CLEARLY YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION"
Even at that point, I could see I was being a *tad* unreasonable.

Erg. Let us kindly draw the curtain of forgetfulness around that night.

No, let us revisit briefly (THREADJACK ALERT!) what you and I have learned for the benefit of all the Hearthstone owners that are dropping in. Door gasket material is sold by lengths in the stove store, or sold as a propriatary kit by Hearthstone. Someone here mentioned that they paint their gaskets, and as a result, the paint sometimes sticks to the door upon opening. I know not whereof that. I do know that a week or so prior, I'd dumped some papers and envelopes in the stove to burn off, and a few started to slip off the log and exit. I slammed the door on the pile, and let them burn up with some caught in the door. An envelope was facing outwards, and I think it may have melted some glue on the gasket--because that was the part that stuck when I pulled the door open that fateful day. I stuffed it back in, checked for leaks, let it burn. Stopped at stove store on the way home (w/teenthing #2 complaining endlessly about what an unnecessary stop that was) and got some gasket cement and, upon reflection and the suggestion of Stove Store Guy, some gasket material. Arrived home that evening to a burned-out fire, no idea of how hot temps had gotten that day--did I overfire it? how do I tell?--and a gasket that just flopped when I opened the door. That night I learned how to:
*get the stove door off the hinges,
*get the groove cleaned out
*bunch the gasget material in tightly enough to do the job, but not so tightly that I couldn't close the door..
I also got to know my stove a little better by pouring over it carefully examining it for possible overfire.

Really, a 20-30 minute job, but it took me hours to work through it. Gryfalcon hung out with me when I sent out that Help! Is anyone still awake out there? post. Thanks to his advice, I did not assume that I needed to use all the gasket that spec called for, and break the stove door in the process. He's got his own story, and if you want to know more, ask the falcon. I also heard from someone here that the Hearthstone propriatary gasket kit is the wisest way to go. Just wasn't an option for me that night, as I had no backup and it was getting cold.
Okay, okay, I'm done threadjacking now.

Just dropped in to report that I was thinking of OP this a.m. when I went down to tend fire. It was 67F upstairs, 69 in hearthroom, and I still had sufficient coals for the next fire. I raked ash and coals away from the right wall, moved the coals over, scooped the ash out, brushed out the groove along the back for secondary air, took the ashes out, cleaned the window a bit, since it's a weekend and we might be hanging around the fire. Was getting ready to do my burnup fire, and realized I wanted to let the room cool off a bit before I did that. So I raked the coals to the front of the stove to ash over, shut the primary air supply and the stack damper, and came upstairs. All of it took less time then the telling--maybe 5-10 minutes. Stovetop temp was about 150, and the rock was still radiating heat.

This is what you should be getting from your Mansfield. Soapstone bliss. Time to go down and do my run-up fire now.

 

[Renovation]

Well I loaded up the stove with the elm and after about 10 minutes I was able to shut the primary completely down and the secondaries took off. The stove temp has stayed around 425 with the primary off. Does this sound right? I have read in other posts that the most heat should be happening when the primary is off which keeps more heat in the box. How is everyone keeping there stoves at 600 on the subzero nights? Is the primary open a little to feed more air?

NH_Wood, on the brutally cold nights do you run the primary open for more heat? I would be extremely happy with 550 with primary shut. I haven't seen that yet, but getting closer

Hi Folks,

I've seen this question asked a couple of times, but haven't seen an answer. Can you help him out?

I'd hate to see him running his damper air and primary combustion too low to get the most heat.

 

[NH_Wood]

Well I loaded up the stove with the elm and after about 10 minutes I was able to shut the primary completely down and the secondaries took off. The stove temp has stayed around 425 with the primary off. Does this sound right? I have read in other posts that the most heat should be happening when the primary is off which keeps more heat in the box. How is everyone keeping there stoves at 600 on the subzero nights? Is the primary open a little to feed more air?

NH_Wood, on the brutally cold nights do you run the primary open for more heat? I would be extremely happy with 550 with primary shut. I haven't seen that yet, but getting closer

Hi Folks,

I've seen this question asked a couple of times, but haven't seen an answer. Can you help him out?

I'd hate to see him running his damper air and primary combustion too low to get the most heat.

I don't think the OP has a pipe damper. But, in my case, I never need to leave the primary air open even 1/4 to produce more heat on cold nights. Regardless of outside temp or heat I want to generate, the primary air gets completely shut down. Perhaps in the OP's case, the primary air will need to be left open a bit (perhaps if he has slower draft than some of us that have responded). I think the OP will learn a lot from his experiment with well seasoned (or kiln dried) wood. Sorry - I thought we had answered those questions. Cheers!

 

[shawneyboy]

Well I loaded up the stove with the elm and after about 10 minutes I was able to shut the primary completely down and the secondaries took off. The stove temp has stayed around 425 with the primary off. Does this sound right? I have read in other posts that the most heat should be happening when the primary is off which keeps more heat in the box. How is everyone keeping there stoves at 600 on the subzero nights? Is the primary open a little to feed more air?

NH_Wood, on the brutally cold nights do you run the primary open for more heat? I would be extremely happy with 550 with primary shut. I haven't seen that yet, but getting closer

Hi Folks,

I've seen this question asked a couple of times, but haven't seen an answer. Can you help him out?

I'd hate to see him running his damper air and primary combustion too low to get the most heat.

I don't think the OP has a pipe damper. But, in my case, I never need to leave the primary air open even 1/4 to produce more heat on cold nights. Regardless of outside temp or heat I want to generate, the primary air gets completely shut down. Perhaps in the OP's case, the primary air will need to be left open a bit (perhaps if he has slower draft than some of us that have responded). I think the OP will learn a lot from his experiment with well seasoned (or kiln dried) wood. Sorry - I thought we had answered those questions. Cheers!

x2... I have the same setup as NH and run my stove the same way, except I never have closed my flue damper... Well one time, but that was my own damn fault. But I load her up, flame on, shut her down in stages completely (primary air) stove top reaches 525-550 or so. 3 cycles a day, every 8-10 hours. Longer if heating needs are lower. 20 degrees or -15 doesn't matter, as long as wood is seasoned, almost Shawn proof.... er um idiot proof.

 

[Renovation]

I don't think the OP has a pipe damper. But, in my case, I never need to leave the primary air open even 1/4 to produce more heat on cold nights. Regardless of outside temp or heat I want to generate, the primary air gets completely shut down. Perhaps in the OP's case, the primary air will need to be left open a bit (perhaps if he has slower draft than some of us that have responded). I think the OP will learn a lot from his experiment with well seasoned (or kiln dried) wood. Sorry - I thought we had answered those questions. Cheers!

x2... I have the same setup as NH and run my stove the same way, except I never have closed my flue damper... Well one time, but that was my own damn fault. But I load her up, flame on, shut her down in stages completely (primary air) stove top reaches 525-550 or so. 3 cycles a day, every 8-10 hours. Longer if heating needs are lower. 20 degrees or -15 doesn't matter, as long as wood is seasoned, almost Shawn proof.... er um idiot proof.

Ah excellent--very helpful, as expected.

In my usual, asking-seven-ways-from-Sunday style, could you clarify what the flame display looks like at best heat, since damper setting can vary by setup?

I think the OP reported he sets his for little if any primary burn, but good secondaries, with the intent of sending as little heat as possible up the pipe. What sort of primary and secondary flames do you aim for when you're setting your stove for best heat?

Thanks, and happy burning.