A new guy with a question thread. Hearthstone Clydesdale specific.

[MikeinNH]

Let me start out by saying hello to everyone! This is a great site and I have been lurking around for about 5 months now. I found the site very helpful and all the posts have been a great read. Thanks guys!

Now a little background I guess would be helpful. I own a 1600sft home in central NH. We have been heating with oil for the two years we have been here and this year me and the wife decided it was time for a change. So stove shopping we went. With help from searching the forum and our luck of finding a good deal on a floor model at one of the local stove shops we decided to purchase a Blue/Black Hearthstone Clydesdale insert for our Fireplace. The insert has never been fired and was delivered last Friday.

It will be going in here:

Unfortunately it did not come on a pallet so me and the installer will have a fun time next weekend lifting it up onto the hearth. But for now it is sitting in front of the fireplace

The Blue looks a lot more pronounced under the light of the flash. Under normal light conditions it is much darker.

Now a bit about my question. The insert has a blower (not pictured.) and the heat galleys that wrap around the insert have gaps in them on both sides. Here is a picture for reference of the area I'm talking about:

Closer up view shows that the gap is about a 1/4" on one side and a little under a 1/4" on the other side:

You may also notice that the metallic (steel or SS?) plates that guide the air are a little dented this is not a problem as I can put some stove cement on it to seal it up before the install. My question is about the rather large gaps on both sides. I'm no engineer or thermal flow dynamic expert (if there is such a thing ) but it seems to me these gaps will cause the blowers to loose a bunch of air flow and efficiency.

So can anyone else with a Clydesdale insert chime in and tell me if these gaps are normal or not? I tried to check the Owners manual but every picture of the insert shown has that area either 1/2" out of the frame or is zoomed way out so it is impossible to tell.

Thanks in advance for any input you guys have!

Mike

 

[ClydesdaleBurner]

Hey congrats on the new stove. You'll enjoy heating your home with it, as it works well and with one of the largest windows you get an amazing view of the fire and the secondary combustion.

As for the gaps in the vents/air ducts around the firebox, they are normal. However I read a thread somewhere last year, possibly posted by Rhonemas, that mentioned putting some stove cement on them to make them air tight. I never did do this to mine and I don't notice any major problems with the design. Of course sealing these gaps would just make for better efficiency in moving of the heated air to your living room.

So its a judgement call. If they bother you definitely try to cover them or fill them, if it doesn't bother you leave them be and you'll still get plenty of heat from the blowers, even at half speed...

One idea might be to hook up the blower plug it in and run it and see how much air comes out those gaps... I should've tried doing that.

Good luck!

 

[JPapiPE]

I don't know much about inserts, but welcome to the club. Every member that joins our club reduces our dependence on foreign oil....so hence the demand goes down and the price per barrel follows....Good Luck and good fortune to you and your wife

 

[SteveT]

Sealing the gap with something flexible won't hurt. But I very much doubt it would make a noticeable difference. There has to be some gap to account for the difference in thermal expansion (or a flexible seal if there is no gap) and I don't think that gap is excessive. My insert looks the same and I didn't seal it.

My reasoning is that the blower is a "squirrel cage" design. Therefore it produces a lot of air velocity but little static pressure. Therefore the airflow path design, and not the sealing of the path is most important. Second, any miniscule leakage that occurs is going into an area that is sealed to some degree by the block-off plate.

The previous poster mentioned Rhonemas. Search for his posts.... very good stuff for us new Clydesdale guys!

 

[MikeinNH]

Cool thanks for the advice guys. It puts me at ease a bit because I though that the plates were possibly assembled incorrectly.

I'll Also give Rhonemas a search and see what comes up and maybe I'll hook up the blowers and give them a test run. I'll let you know what I think.

Mike

 

[ClydesdaleBurner]

Mike in NH - Here is a link to a pretty good Clydesdale thread.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/12316/

 

[MikeinNH]

Mike in NH - Here is a link to a pretty good Clydesdale thread.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/12316/

Thanks for the link ClydesdaleBurner. That is a good read.

We got the insert installed yesterday and everything came out looking pretty nice.

For now we are using a black metal hearth extension pad. We will probably replace it with some type of fireproof rug but it is going to have to get us through this season untill we find something nice we can afford.

I also performed the break in fire after the installers left. I'm glad they outline it like the do because the inset had a lot of moisture come out of it and the stones on the inside. After it cooled down I got a change to get a good fire going in it later on in the evening.

Seeing as it was my first time doing this "inside" a house I was a bit nervous and once the fire started going good I lowered the air control (probably to much). I didn't get a chance to see any secondaries burning yet but it'll probably come in time when I start getting used to how it runs and where it likes to run.

I'm using a thermometer on the insulated heating surface and the highest I got it last night was @ 200F. From reading the link it looks like Rhonemas like to run the thermometer @ 360 or so being measured from the same place. I guess I have to take the training wheels off and let the fireplace get up to a good temp. Still learning it but I'll get it figured out.

Anyone else have and advise on what to run the stove at taking readings from the insulated heating surface?

Mike

 

[ClydesdaleBurner]

Hi Mike,

Congrats on the install. Insert looks great. I think the Clydesdales are such good looking stoves. I love the all black look. We have a very similar set up to yours except the insert is not on a step up hearth. Anyway we purchased the same hearth pad and I think you'll like it better than a rug because it cleans up very easy. Either a quick sweep or a quick pass with the vacuum/dustbuster and its clean, whereas a rug is a little more work to get small splinters and dust out of.

Anyway about the stove temps 200 is good for starting/break in. And don't worry about the moisture in the soap stones my did that when I installed it. I think it will do it again in a month or so when I get it going for the first time. I read somewhere, maybe in the manual, that you should do a break in fire at the beginning of each burning season. This gets the moisture out properly.

As for stove surface temps I took this from one of my past posts regarding surface temps...

"Hey fellow Clyesdale owner… I’ve noticed that the air control is very sensitve, at least on mine. I can have a roaring fire going with the air control down about 75% and I’ll nudge it down a little more and the flames will start diminishing. I realize a lot has to do with the outside air temp and the draft, but lately I haven’t been able to get the air control closed more than 75%. Any more and the fire will die.

So lately I just get it going good 100% open, then start turning it down… 75% for 10 minutes, 50% for 20 minutes and then when I get to 75% closed I stop there. Sometimes I can get it closed down to say 90%, but other times I can’t and the fire suffers. So I’m happy with it 3/4 shut down. But every stove is different based on the draft, so you might have to find that sweet spot on yours. From your post it sounds like your sweet spot might be like mine, maybe around 75% closed. Give that a try.

As for the secondaries I don’t have any explanation for that. I can get secondaries on each burn, but on a restart in the morning it might take a while longer because I have to get the stove temp back up to 1100 degrees (inside the firebox). Also the warmest I’ve had my stove top is 440 degrees and that’s only happened a few times. I can usually get it to about 400 and it coasts there for a while. But sometimes if the wood is wet I’ll notice my stove temp will struggle to get to 400… "

If this is your first insert you'll find it will take a full season to really get the thing figured out. Try not to get frustrated when you're learning. And feel free to PM me with any questions. I only have 1 season under my belt, but I learned a lot, both trial and error and from this site. Good luck!