Highbeam said:
That's some great performance gyr. How hot do you get the stovetop? You must be doing something very right.
Previous owners of homesteads have had door latch problems and specified that there is a tech bulletin and updated latch for the homestead. Nothing like this for the heritage though. It would lead me to believe that the homestead latch is or was unique to that stove. Also, we have had reports of the homesteads and even the tributes cracking but no such reports on the larger models, at all. Like none. I worry enough about cracks with a stove that has no history of cracking, I would hate to have even worse odds. Yes, lots of people have bought the homesteads as they fill a specific need for a hearth stove.
With proper expectations a small non-cat stove can be great. I know the bigger ones work exactly as advertised.
Stovetop 450 to 500 and a little above. I'm VERY careful not to let it go higher, and I've experienced no cracking.
Because I'm so definitely under-stoved here, I've had to learn every tiny little trick to improve both the performance of the stove and maximizing keeping the heat where it belongs. Also, old as my house is, it's solidly built, does have some insulation in the walls, old but good windows, and is perfectly situated on the SE side of a low ridgeso that most of the windows face south or east, and the prevailing W and NW winds in winter hit first an attached woodshed, and then an unheated storeroom addition in between that and the W wall of the living space. Also, the house has east and west-facing walls a foot thick. (Should have been north and south, but it was built elsewhere and moved to this spot around 1900, something I sure wish I could have seen!)
I learned from you guys here, too, that lots of small splits make hotter, faster heat than a few bigger ones, so that's what I use to get things up fairly quickly, and then from time to time if I miss the sweet spot for reloading. I've also learned you simply cannot get away with really big dense hardwood splits, even if they're bone dry, in a tiny firebox like this. It's just too much dead space in there. (It's purely coincidental that I really enjoy splitting stuff down from what my supplier delivers...)
I have the stairs to the unheated 2nd floor blocked off with a heavy-duty mover's blanket and a ceiling fan in the big stove room to push the heat down and around. I use thermal curtains after dark on all the windows. I figure each one of those things has gained me a degree or two of room temperature, and those 5 or 6 degrees of increased efficiency make the difference between being chilly or comfortable on really cold days (like today, 6 degrees out).
The biggest problem, though, is the short burn cycle. There's no way this baby will produce significant heat for more than a few hours, which means I still have to use the cursed money-burning boiler in the basement to keep everything from freezing up overnight.
Also, it most definitely has a latch issue. I won't rehash that whole thing, but the end result is that since it's out of warranty and replacement of the entire frame and door assembly would cost money I don't have and more than I could even sell the stove for at this point, I've had to brace the door closed with my heavy insulated ash bucket, which does make a tight seal but is a pain in the ***. If I eventually manage to save up enouh for the larger stove I need, I'll have to give this one away for free because of that door latch.
