After five years and more than 25 cords of softwood, it was time to pass the Heritage on to someone else. I bought it new for under 2000$ and the new ones are 3500$ so I was able to get all of my money back!
I do not plan to buy another hearthstone in my lifetime due to this inflation. The stove worked exactly as promised delivering plenty of heat and overnight burns. The 2.3CF listed firebox was only actually 1.5 CF but it could still do the job of heating my 1700 SF. I had just replaced the baffle (Thanks Tom Oyen) that was damaged by me loading it too full and nothing else was done to the stove. The gaskets are all original, the ashpan was never used.
The biggest reason (excuse) I chose to unload it was that the doors were all beginning to sag. The pins were not worn at all, it was the cast iron hinges. Since the gaskets on these stoves are very small with a knife edge engagement, the alignment of the doors was critical. Related to the failing hinges was the door latch which is a slot cut into the same door frame casting as teh hinges. The slot was wearing quickly and was worn to a razor sharp edge and thin. This will break at some point and I don't want to be the guy rebuilding a stove to replace these components. The stove still works great and this sagging might be normal. I regularly lubed the hinges and latches.
So I ran an ad in CL. Within a few days I sold it and loaded it into a VW pickup yesterday.
This bugger weighs between 500 and 550 depending on who you ask and I had to move it alone to the back door. Members here had suggested methods that mostly included a dolly which I happened to own and normally use to roll my genset around. My elevated hearth was just about the same height as the dolly so I figured I would slide the stove right out onto the dolly. I have regular tile from HD. It is labeled porcelain but it might be ceramic, the color is painted onto the base clay. I was able to wet the tile liberally with water and then slide the stove without scratching anything. This took considerable strength but was doable.
Well, the dolly needed a little extra depth to support the feet of the stove so I needed to use some plywood strips which meant I would need to lift the stove 3/4" inch. No big deal but this stove is very heavy. I could lift one side and in an act of hernia challenging stupidity I would kick a board under the legs. Then slide the stove onto the dolly. Cool. Now I just rolled the stove towards the door. My finished concrete interior floors are way easier to roll across than carpet BTW.
In the daylight I could see that my stove needed some paint pretty badly. The buyer was about an hour away so I busted out the stovebrite and used some junkmail to mask the stone. A few shots of paint and the stove looked exceptionally great. Needed to vent the fumes quickly.
I also took this opportunity to shoot wd-40 up the stove's intake tube onto the primary air control slider. Man, that is awesome. Worked excellent to eliminate the catchy adjustment. Previously I had to wiggle and jiggle the handle to get the control to move. Now it's super smooth. A member on this site recommended this and I very much endorse it now. WIsh I had done it years ago.
Stove showed very well and was bought quickly.
I race motorcycles and have a pair of ramps made of 2x10 lumber and those metal board end things that hang on your tailgate to provide a smooth transition from ramp to truck. I load my 300 lb bike on one of them so I assumed the stove weight distributed across both ramps would be fine and it was. We rolled the dolly right into the VW pickup. VW, by the way, decided that you don't need any tie down points in the bed. It's just like a bathtub and I hope the stove made it to the guy's house.
So now my hearth sits empty. I have been convinced by members here of the superiority of cat stoves for heating 24/7 and so I do believe that I will be installing a BK princess ultra. It's ugly. Has a pedestal, and the flame show won't be as nice but I'm betting that the operational advantages will make up for that. Second in line is the alderlea t5, the super firebox is the top non-cat in my opinion. Hope to pick up the BK on Friday.
The little pug dog in that last picture could use a cat for company.
I do not plan to buy another hearthstone in my lifetime due to this inflation. The stove worked exactly as promised delivering plenty of heat and overnight burns. The 2.3CF listed firebox was only actually 1.5 CF but it could still do the job of heating my 1700 SF. I had just replaced the baffle (Thanks Tom Oyen) that was damaged by me loading it too full and nothing else was done to the stove. The gaskets are all original, the ashpan was never used.
The biggest reason (excuse) I chose to unload it was that the doors were all beginning to sag. The pins were not worn at all, it was the cast iron hinges. Since the gaskets on these stoves are very small with a knife edge engagement, the alignment of the doors was critical. Related to the failing hinges was the door latch which is a slot cut into the same door frame casting as teh hinges. The slot was wearing quickly and was worn to a razor sharp edge and thin. This will break at some point and I don't want to be the guy rebuilding a stove to replace these components. The stove still works great and this sagging might be normal. I regularly lubed the hinges and latches.
So I ran an ad in CL. Within a few days I sold it and loaded it into a VW pickup yesterday.
This bugger weighs between 500 and 550 depending on who you ask and I had to move it alone to the back door. Members here had suggested methods that mostly included a dolly which I happened to own and normally use to roll my genset around. My elevated hearth was just about the same height as the dolly so I figured I would slide the stove right out onto the dolly. I have regular tile from HD. It is labeled porcelain but it might be ceramic, the color is painted onto the base clay. I was able to wet the tile liberally with water and then slide the stove without scratching anything. This took considerable strength but was doable.
Well, the dolly needed a little extra depth to support the feet of the stove so I needed to use some plywood strips which meant I would need to lift the stove 3/4" inch. No big deal but this stove is very heavy. I could lift one side and in an act of hernia challenging stupidity I would kick a board under the legs. Then slide the stove onto the dolly. Cool. Now I just rolled the stove towards the door. My finished concrete interior floors are way easier to roll across than carpet BTW.
In the daylight I could see that my stove needed some paint pretty badly. The buyer was about an hour away so I busted out the stovebrite and used some junkmail to mask the stone. A few shots of paint and the stove looked exceptionally great. Needed to vent the fumes quickly.
I also took this opportunity to shoot wd-40 up the stove's intake tube onto the primary air control slider. Man, that is awesome. Worked excellent to eliminate the catchy adjustment. Previously I had to wiggle and jiggle the handle to get the control to move. Now it's super smooth. A member on this site recommended this and I very much endorse it now. WIsh I had done it years ago.
Stove showed very well and was bought quickly.
I race motorcycles and have a pair of ramps made of 2x10 lumber and those metal board end things that hang on your tailgate to provide a smooth transition from ramp to truck. I load my 300 lb bike on one of them so I assumed the stove weight distributed across both ramps would be fine and it was. We rolled the dolly right into the VW pickup. VW, by the way, decided that you don't need any tie down points in the bed. It's just like a bathtub and I hope the stove made it to the guy's house.
So now my hearth sits empty. I have been convinced by members here of the superiority of cat stoves for heating 24/7 and so I do believe that I will be installing a BK princess ultra. It's ugly. Has a pedestal, and the flame show won't be as nice but I'm betting that the operational advantages will make up for that. Second in line is the alderlea t5, the super firebox is the top non-cat in my opinion. Hope to pick up the BK on Friday.
The little pug dog in that last picture could use a cat for company.
).
