2020 Hearthstone Heritage install, 1 month of operation, and a few Qs

[DetroitReds]

Electing for bullet points to be as thorough as possible, and maybe address some of the topics that were new to me before going down the Hearth.com rabbit hole.

FINALLY settled on the Hearthstone Heritage for a free standing wood stove. For years, I thought I'd prefer an insert - mostly bc I was concerned about our limited floor space in a small living room with small children. But after exhaustive research I determined there are simply no options that would fit in our old coal burning fireplace without extensive and likely impossible masonry work. After settling on a stove, my options were actually somewhat limited b/c of 2020 regs, rear exit that would fit under the lintel, not too big based on own floor space (bye bye Jotuls ), and of course aesthetically pleasing (bye bye Woodstocks according to my better half even though I wanted a Progress)...and of course, cost. All in all, I think the Heritage is a great fit for our home, and looks nice in place, which is no small matter. I love the soapstone.

- House layout and Install: Detroit, MI - doesn't get absurdly cold. House from 1913, 1600 sq ft with a fairly closed layout. Suffice to say we spend most of our time in living room in the winter. Got the pros to install the liner and make connections because I wanted no part of our 35' chimney on the steep roof. Comes down to a T connection in the fireplace, w/ thimble and block off plate covering the open. Short length of what I think is single wall pipe to the rear of stove.

GoldenFlue insulation liner before chimney cap.

I believe this is called a snout

Rear heat shield, short straight section, block off plate

Finished install (I did the brick work for hearth extension. Original hearth wasn't deep enough)

- Stove operation, catalyst, etc: Stove is in, had a few break-in fires (really got the glass dirty - I need to clean original soot but glass is pretty clean since then). I'm working out systems for loading/starting and maintaining fires. Generally have a good supply of kiln dried cut offs from my millwork shop. Sometimes newspaper, etc to get it going. Its my understanding the addition of a the catalyst is new for this Hearthstone to meet 2020 regs. Per the manual, I build a hot fire and usually can get the catalyst into 'active' range in 20-30 minutes, and have been leaving the air open for 45-1 hour or so to get my bigger splits to get going. Wood right now is almost exclusively ash ~15% MC. I have a small supply of white oak that's still north of 20%, unfortunately. Severely underprepared to have enough dry wood to get through the winter, but have big plans for next season! I have little experience with other stoves, but have no problem loading, watching the catalyst temp, reloading through front or side door, etc. Construction so far seems quite tight.

Because I don't have any way of monitoring stove/flue temps, this is my main gauge for paying attention to how the stove is operating. I've very cautious of overfiring, cracking stones, etc because I don't want any problems, esp in year one. But I would like a better idea how I'm supposed to be monitoring stove temps. As you can see in picture above, there's only a short section of stove pipe before it goes behind the block off plate. Suggestions for how/where to measure? I believe I've had some good fires with the elusive 'secondaries', but I'm not sure what they look like, or how long they are maintained.

- HEAT: That's what it's all about, right? Ok, so definite learning curve here. I anticipated the soapstone taking a while to warm up - and that's very true. Like 2 hours to take the chill off in the morning if I'm starting from scratch. Again I don't have much frame of reference but the soapstone is a very nice radiant heat. It never gets too warm, and really really does radiate for a long time. Afternoon/evenings are quite pleasant, never hot. We have basically not turned on our heat yet, however, it's only been in the 30s/40s - with a few overnight lows in the 20s.
Here's the thing: I want to 'push' it to kick out more heat come true winter, but not sure how to get more heat while monitoring the catalyst temp. It's pretty easy to get it up to the high end of the active range, so I haven't really loaded the stove beyond the morning's big fire. I understand using higher BTU woods would produce more heat (by definition), but I still don't fully understand how to regulate. Cutting the air of course works, but it's a dance to figure out how to keep things burning well. I did successfully load up 1 evening about 10pm, let everything catch, then cut the air and had enough coals to restart at 7am.
Apparently its quite well insulated on the bottom, because this guy goes under here every evening.

Without doing extensive searching, I was wondering if folks have references for videos of what their 'big' fires look like, as well as what a good looking fire that engages the catalyst 'looks like'. Hard for this newbie to figure out what I'm shooting for.

 

[Highbeam]

So 35 feet of flue above a heritage. Whoa. The draft will be strong enough to suck a seagull off of a landfill. That little section of black stove pipe is going to become mighty important. You can install a pipe damper there. You can monitor flue temperatures there.

I'm curious about how you plan to clean the chimney. The bottom of that tee in your old fireplace is setting on a shelf which is convenient but how can you get the bottom cap of that tee off to empty the sweepings?

Is there another blockoff plate above the actual fireplace? Is the flue insulated all the way down the chimney or just at the top?

I had a heritage before the catalyst of 2020 and it would heat up my 12 foot chimney to unsafe levels very fast. Mostly because the stove, being thick stone, was so cold that it took a lot of serious chooching to heat it up.

Monitoring flue temperature is very important for you and your only choice is right there on that short piece of black pipe unless you want to go electronic.

 

[nortcan]

Electing for bullet points to be as thorough as possible, and maybe address some of the topics that were new to me before going down the Hearth.com rabbit hole.

FINALLY settled on the Hearthstone Heritage for a free standing wood stove. For years, I thought I'd prefer an insert - mostly bc I was concerned about our limited floor space in a small living room with small children. But after exhaustive research I determined there are simply no options that would fit in our old coal burning fireplace without extensive and likely impossible masonry work. After settling on a stove, my options were actually somewhat limited b/c of 2020 regs, rear exit that would fit under the lintel, not too big based on own floor space (bye bye Jotuls ), and of course aesthetically pleasing (bye bye Woodstocks according to my better half even though I wanted a Progress)...and of course, cost. All in all, I think the Heritage is a great fit for our home, and looks nice in place, which is no small matter. I love the soapstone.

- House layout and Install: Detroit, MI - doesn't get absurdly cold. House from 1913, 1600 sq ft with a fairly closed layout. Suffice to say we spend most of our time in living room in the winter. Got the pros to install the liner and make connections because I wanted no part of our 35' chimney on the steep roof. Comes down to a T connection in the fireplace, w/ thimble and block off plate covering the open. Short length of what I think is single wall pipe to the rear of stove.
View attachment 267131 GoldenFlue insulation liner before chimney cap.
View attachment 267144 I believe this is called a snout
View attachment 267142 Rear heat shield, short straight section, block off plate
View attachment 267145Finished install (I did the brick work for hearth extension. Original hearth wasn't deep enough)

- Stove operation, catalyst, etc: Stove is in, had a few break-in fires (really got the glass dirty - I need to clean original soot but glass is pretty clean since then). I'm working out systems for loading/starting and maintaining fires. Generally have a good supply of kiln dried cut offs from my millwork shop. Sometimes newspaper, etc to get it going. Its my understanding the addition of a the catalyst is new for this Hearthstone to meet 2020 regs. Per the manual, I build a hot fire and usually can get the catalyst into 'active' range in 20-30 minutes, and have been leaving the air open for 45-1 hour or so to get my bigger splits to get going. Wood right now is almost exclusively ash ~15% MC. I have a small supply of white oak that's still north of 20%, unfortunately. Severely underprepared to have enough dry wood to get through the winter, but have big plans for next season! I have little experience with other stoves, but have no problem loading, watching the catalyst temp, reloading through front or side door, etc. Construction so far seems quite tight.
View attachment 267148 Because I don't have any way of monitoring stove/flue temps, this is my main gauge for paying attention to how the stove is operating. I've very cautious of overfiring, cracking stones, etc because I don't want any problems, esp in year one. But I would like a better idea how I'm supposed to be monitoring stove temps. As you can see in picture above, there's only a short section of stove pipe before it goes behind the block off plate. Suggestions for how/where to measure? I believe I've had some good fires with the elusive 'secondaries', but I'm not sure what they look like, or how long they are maintained.

- HEAT: That's what it's all about, right? Ok, so definite learning curve here. I anticipated the soapstone taking a while to warm up - and that's very true. Like 2 hours to take the chill off in the morning if I'm starting from scratch. Again I don't have much frame of reference but the soapstone is a very nice radiant heat. It never gets too warm, and really really does radiate for a long time. Afternoon/evenings are quite pleasant, never hot. We have basically not turned on our heat yet, however, it's only been in the 30s/40s - with a few overnight lows in the 20s.
Here's the thing: I want to 'push' it to kick out more heat come true winter, but not sure how to get more heat while monitoring the catalyst temp. It's pretty easy to get it up to the high end of the active range, so I haven't really loaded the stove beyond the morning's big fire. I understand using higher BTU woods would produce more heat (by definition), but I still don't fully understand how to regulate. Cutting the air of course works, but it's a dance to figure out how to keep things burning well. I did successfully load up 1 evening about 10pm, let everything catch, then cut the air and had enough coals to restart at 7am.
View attachment 267207 Apparently its quite well insulated on the bottom, because this guy goes under here every evening.

Without doing extensive searching, I was wondering if folks have references for videos of what their 'big' fires look like, as well as what a good looking fire that engages the catalyst 'looks like'. Hard for this newbie to figure out what I'm shooting for.

Hi, just a curious question : you said on the post that you looked at the Progress but went for the Heritage. Can you give me1/us some details about that choice. I have a Heritage 2020 and a Castleton (no cat one). Being in Québec/Canada, Woodstock are quite hard to get up here... Thanks

 

[DetroitReds]

Nortcan- my decision mostly came down to price and timing, with the final push of course being weighing my loving wife's opinion - she didn't really like the styling on the Woodstocks. Oh well. The Heritage ended up about 60% the cost of the Progress Hybrid.
When I was looking back in August, Woodstock had a 6-8 week lead time and I thought about picking up from their factory. They wouldn't ship to Quebec? I assumed the border was open for trade.

 

[DetroitReds]

So 35 feet of flue above a heritage. Whoa. The draft will be strong enough to suck a seagull off of a landfill. That little section of black stove pipe is going to become mighty important. You can install a pipe damper there. You can monitor flue temperatures there.

I'm curious about how you plan to clean the chimney. The bottom of that tee in your old fireplace is setting on a shelf which is convenient but how can you get the bottom cap of that tee off to empty the sweepings?

Is there another blockoff plate above the actual fireplace? Is the flue insulated all the way down the chimney or just at the top?

I had a heritage before the catalyst of 2020 and it would heat up my 12 foot chimney to unsafe levels very fast. Mostly because the stove, being thick stone, was so cold that it took a lot of serious chooching to heat it up.

Monitoring flue temperature is very important for you and your only choice is right there on that short piece of black pipe unless you want to go electronic.

I figured the draft would be good - but I don't have any indication it's extreme (yet). For example, on some colder evenings (upper 20s) I'll close off the air completely and the fire dies down to a mere flick- no sign that it's pulling hard. But frankly, I don't have a strong sense of how the draft is possibly affecting my burns. The liner is insulated the whole way, but the flue is just insulated at the top. I thought about putting material behind the block off plate in front of the old opening, but am not sure that will make a significant difference for this setup. Open for feedback.

As far as monitoring flue temps and maximizing heat, is the following simplification accurate? 1. install pipe temp probe, 2. maintain fires in the ideal temp range through control of firewood supply, fire size, and air control, 3. heat output will be what it will be if flue temp is in the right range (??) Am I missing some other element of the equation, given the rest of the variables are fairly set (house, stove, chimney, etc)?

Re: sweeping - the T is actually just attached to a bracket/support stud, not a shelf. The cap can be accessed right at the bottom. Hoping it will be a straight forward process.

 

[Highbeam]

I figured the draft would be good - but I don't have any indication it's extreme (yet). For example, on some colder evenings (upper 20s) I'll close off the air completely and the fire dies down to a mere flick- no sign that it's pulling hard. But frankly, I don't have a strong sense of how the draft is possibly affecting my burns. The liner is insulated the whole way, but the flue is just insulated at the top. I thought about putting material behind the block off plate in front of the old opening, but am not sure that will make a significant difference for this setup. Open for feedback.

As far as monitoring flue temps and maximizing heat, is the following simplification accurate? 1. install pipe temp probe, 2. maintain fires in the ideal temp range through control of firewood supply, fire size, and air control, 3. heat output will be what it will be if flue temp is in the right range (??) Am I missing some other element of the equation, given the rest of the variables are fairly set (house, stove, chimney, etc)?

Re: sweeping - the T is actually just attached to a bracket/support stud, not a shelf. The cap can be accessed right at the bottom. Hoping it will be a straight forward process.

Thats how I use my flue temperature meter. The entire output range of the stoves occur between the too cold and too hot limits. Doing this prevents excessive creosote if too cold and chimney/stove damage if too hot.

Running your flue temperatures near the cooler limit but still without chimney smoke is usually the peak efficiency. Up near the top is peak output.

I really use the flue temperature as the primary guide for operation.

These new model cat stoves will behave differently than their old noncat ancestors. I owned the hearthstone noncat and that thing would run hot with the air fully shut down when you had enough fuel in it on my short 12’ chimney.

 

[nortcan]

Nortcan- my decision mostly came down to price and timing, with the final push of course being weighing my loving wife's opinion - she didn't really like the styling on the Woodstocks. Oh well. The Heritage ended up about 60% the cost of the Progress Hybrid.
When I was looking back in August, Woodstock had a 6-8 week lead time and I thought about picking up from their factory. They wouldn't ship to Quebec? I assumed the border was open for trade.

Hi DetroitReds, the Progress Hybrid from Woodstock is $3,810.00 US, I dont know how much is the Heritage in your location. The PH has double soapstone walls, has easier access to the cat, has a more heavy duty door's latches , has andirons to keep the wood away from the glass, has cast iron cooktop with 3 distinct burner surface, a cast iron heat exchanger with fins.
But the PH has no enameled colors to be selected, has a non opening front door ( not practical at all...), metalic handles so you need to wear gloves to operate the stove when hot, so there are many things to consider when comparing both stoves , price to price...
To me and that is only my opinion, the Progress Hybrid is one of the most beautiful stove, my Heritage truhybrid had only 3 small fires in it so quite brand new and if I could I would exchage it for a Woodstock Progress Hybride anytime. I love my Heritage but the PH is a loving obsession...LOL. Salutations from Québec.

 

[Poulet01]

Hi DetroitReds,

We installed a new heritage last year. I'm heating a 2000 sq ft house near Montreal, it's -15 celsius now (5 fahrenheit). It's a split level. The woodstove is on the lowest floor, then there is a few stairs to the main floor, then a few more stairs to the bedrooms.

It's not the official way you should use the stove according to the manual, but here's how I get the most heat out of it:

I let a big fire burn without engaging the cat and with the air flow completely open for about 30 minutes. When the stove is at least at 300f (thermometer on center stone), then I close the air about 2/3 and wait for another 10 minutes. Then, I finally engage the cat. If your fire is strong enough, you should see nice hellish flames hovering near the top. The temp on top of the stove should rise to 450-550 depending on how much wood you put in and how dry it is. You can then close the air even more, but if you close it too much the flames might die out and you'll get backpuffing, at least I do!

That's my method at least, it works great for me. According to the manual, you should engage the cat as soon as you can, but I never managed to get high temperatures that way.

Try it out, get used to the stove, you'll get the hang of it.