Equinox, or soapstone in general operating temps??

[mackvision]

OK....so we have been using our Equinox now for about a month with pretty much 24/7 burn time. So far,I average 3 loads per day, with consistant stovetop temps from 275-300 on the low side, and 400-450 on OUR high side. I keep an eye on our stove pipe temps and seem to steady and stay at 350-400 for the duration of a medium/low burn rate setting on the damper. So,with that said, I am averaging 8 hours before reloading, and house temps from low side 70 to 76 in single digit to mid teen outside temps, and 75-81 for temps in the 20's and 30's.

So.....heres my question to all of you!! What are YOUR numbers??? I have read in some of the other posts at which some temps are what I would say, seem high, or too high to me. Thats according to the mag mount thermometers I have and judge my operations by. One post stated that they operate with stove top temps in the 600's on an euqinox??? If I recall, the highest I have had my stove top was to 500....

Reading the manual, I did not find any temperature ranges out of all 29 pages listed, just guidelines to follow....so.....let me know how you all operate your stoves.

Thanks!!

 

[pen]

By your stove temps versus your room temps, I'd say you are doing the job at least perfectly, perhaps a bit better!

pen

 

[BrowningBAR]

I can get the heritage above 550 consistently.

 

[heatwise]

we have ours run at about 350-375 with a load in and dont get it above 400. i like to think we have never had it above 475 based on the top stone temp. so many variables with wood type and size's . im sure i could get it hotter if i fed it differently. you have one great unit and seem to have it down on how to operate it.

 

[johnstra]

I agree with Pen... you're doing well. With all that mass, 450 stovetop will heat a lot of space.

My Mansfield likes to cruise at 550-575 with a full load, and it'll go to 600 without much effort if I need the heat. When it's in the 20s-30s, I just put 4 splits in an it'll run at 400 or so and that'll heat the house to 75. Single-digits and lower, I load it full and let it do its thing.

 

[Milton Findley]

Sounds good to me. As I am too lazy to get up and go over there, I just shoot the front panel above the door with my IR gun. It stays about 400 degrees, and the room temp in here is 76 and climbing rapidly after we let it die down for some ash removal this morning. We typically run the stove about 400, with a couple of excursions up into the 500 plus range.

I could watch this thing burn all day long and be happy.

 

[Todd]

My old Hearthstone Homestead had no problem reaching 600 with a full load and I use to shoot for 450-550.

My other two Woodstock stoves are different animals, the top has a thinner soapstone top than the Hearthstones and run hotter, I like to see 550-650 when I need the heat.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We are about like Todd. This morning though was another morning when it got a little cooler in the house than I like so it did not take long to get the stove top to 650 and that is where it peaked. I finally got warm so dialed it down so it is back in the 500-550 range where it will be staying most of the day.

 

[doug60]

On a 24/7 burning between 350/ 500 during cycles
I would say 400 being the average.
Highest Ive seen is 550 & that will take your best seasoned wood. That was primary with closed & pipe dampener closed.
Last years wood burns the hottest.

Its happy full load to full load or adding two splits at a time on a deep coal bed.
The dampener is key to building & controlling coal bed.
It seems to adapt to the demand. No matter how cold it gets

But doesn't like to play catch up
24 /7 works best

 

[NH_Wood]

My Mansfield like to run (with full load) at 550-600* - really throws out the heat at those stove top temps. You are right, nowhere in the manuals will you find good info about running temps - especially what temps are too high. I don't worry if I go a little over 600* (highest ever was about 630*), but it seems very hard to get the stove any hotter than much over 600* (when I'm running the stove fully closed down, which is the norm). Cheers!

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Farther south and in a generally milder climate then most responders so far..

Our stove is undersized for the space we are heating, but above 15°F or so, anything much above 400°F stove top will start to get to warm for me, taking the whole house into the mid 70's. We were down to 3°F two nights ago, 6°F the night before.. We ran it harder than usual, reloading at 300°F vs 250°F or so, kept the house at 70(ish). Down in the single digits, our house will lose about a degree an hour. We need more insulation in our attic and have an unfinished basement.. I think once we address those issues we will see lower bTu losses...

We have had the stove top to 600°F a couple times, with a really full load of hickory or oak, but it was pretty uncomfortable to be around.. I cant imagine what the people with steel stoves running 7-800°F plus feel when they are near the stove, but I will admit I bet my wife would love it.

 

[wellbuilt home]

Im heating 3000 sf with my Equinox .
We are burning 4 loads of oak in 24hrs. My stove runs with the chimney damper closed and 1/2 air 300 low to 450 high .
The EQ isn't cutting it in this cold snap.
Now im at 68 in the kitchen the stove top is 450o its 5 o out side if the wind starts blowing its going to get cold in here .
Im burning alot of wood . John

 

[FireWalker]

Im heating 3000 sf with my Equinox .
We are burning 4 loads of oak in 24hrs. My stove runs with the chimney damper closed and 1/2 air 300 low to 450 high .
The EQ isn't cutting it in this cold snap.
Now im at 68 in the kitchen the stove top is 450o its 5 o out side if the wind starts blowing its going to get cold in here .
Im burning alot of wood . John

You should come up here and get a wheel barrel load of the wood I'm using with my Equinox! Just leave me some of your oak.

I've got two supplies this month. One is newly split good sized 3yo oak rounds that were stacked in rows and left uncovered to rot by my neighbor. He planned on an outdoor furnace but that was a no-go so just after christmas I asked if I could have it. He even helped me load and unload it! Anyway, I split it and have been burning it daily in my Equinox. I just added a pipe damper so we are a match. The best I get from the oak is a lazy burn in the beginning with air open full to get an agressive burn going which takes a while. If I want heat I have to keep the air open at least 1/4 for the whole burn. I can expect 450 max on the stove top with this wood. I also burn more loads with it.

My other supply has no oak, not a stick. It's all beach, maple, ash and birch. It was split and dilivered to me last fall and was stacked and covered over the winter/summer then moved to my shed for this winters use. When I use this wood and nothing else and want a hot fire like this morning at -20, I spread the coal bed flat across the whole stove bottom and fill the box NS (ends in to the back) thru the front door, I get a stack in there two rows high (about 10 medium sized splits). Now the fun starts, with practly no air and the pipe damper shut, within an hour I have full blue flame secondaries and not a lick of flame coming out of the wood load. With the air shut to full closed this is when I get hot rocks, I've seen just over 600 and my pipe will get to 800. When the load is all coal about 3 to 4 hours later and I'm there to do it, I'll open the air supply all the way and blast the remaing coal bed which brings the now 400 stove top back up to 500 or so and allows me room for more fuel. I did this last night and again this morning, it works great for heating our whole 2200 sf drafty old log home.

I won't use the oak for this cold snap anymore even though my son keeps bringing it in, I have told him to bring me the shed wood! My Dutchwest XL was tough to use with oak but with that stove you could make it heat by not engaging the cat. With the Equinox, all you can do is give it full air and wait.

My new wood guy is a old local boy.....been selling firewood for 30 years and he won't touch oak anymore, too many complaints. I have a bunch of it I've cut myself and it will be split and stacked seperate from the rest.......two years seasoning and if I don't burn it then it will be that much better after three.

Anyway, come on up and grab some wood, I'm dying to know if you get the same results.

To the OP, yup 3 loads a day unless it's real cold then 4. Sounds like your house is pretty tight, if mine was I'de never need to push the stove as hard as I do. I can tell I've been using a lot of wood lately, I'm doing ashes every other day when usually it's once a week.

 

[NH_Wood]

Im heating 3000 sf with my Equinox .
We are burning 4 loads of oak in 24hrs. My stove runs with the chimney damper closed and 1/2 air 300 low to 450 high .
The EQ isn't cutting it in this cold snap.
Now im at 68 in the kitchen the stove top is 450o its 5 o out side if the wind starts blowing its going to get cold in here .
Im burning alot of wood . John

I'm heating 3000sqft as well, but with the Mansfield. I'm surprised you are as cool as you are - why not get the stones hotter? If you get that mass to 550* or so, man, you'd be packing some HEAT into that place. Cheers!

 

[joshlaugh]

I have a Heritage. I routinely burn around 450* and finally got it up to 500* twice this week. I think draft is affecting it since my smaller stove with the same wood hits 550* pretty easy

 

[shawneyboy]

I run my Mansfield at 500 to 550 consistantly peak temp. with full loads. Cools down to 300 or so then reload and back up to 500 again. If you are happy with your temps in the house it seems like you are running it perfect for you.

 

[doug60]

Oak needs to be added to the mix with other hardwoods . All by itself not so good.
1 or 2 splits per load.
IMO

 

[doug60]

My Equinox kicked ass this cold snap. 2 below 0 F
52 foot bi level / stove in lower level.
Bedrooms over garage
Over night burn 5 hours, temps were perfect 67/ 66 /65 in bedrooms over cold garage.
Burning last years wood.

 

[burnham]

Im heating 3000 sf with my Equinox .
We are burning 4 loads of oak in 24hrs. My stove runs with the chimney damper closed and 1/2 air 300 low to 450 high .
The EQ isn't cutting it in this cold snap.
Now im at 68 in the kitchen the stove top is 450o its 5 o out side if the wind starts blowing its going to get cold in here .
Im burning alot of wood . John

I'm burning the same stove. With some apple wood that is a little past prime I run the stove around 400-450. With some great 2-3yr seasoned oak it runs at 550. The difference in heat output seems like it doubles when I get the stove from 400 to 550. For me, the wood makes all the difference. It's been pretty cold here, I'm only burning oak and trying like hell to keep the house 70-74.

 

[FireWalker]

[/quote]I'm burning the same stove. With some apple wood that is a little past prime I run the stove around 400-450. With some great 2-3yr seasoned oak it runs at 550. The difference in heat output seems like it doubles when I get the stove from 400 to 550. For me, the wood makes all the difference. It's been pretty cold here, I'm only burning oak and trying like hell to keep the house 70-74.[/quote]

I"ve heard this before about the hearthstone (maybe all soapstone) stoves and can say for myself this is the truth. Heat output from these stoves seems to increase exponentially as the temp rises. Wait until you feel the difference between 450 to 600! I assume at 600 the stove is making it's rated 120,000 btu's/hr, thats a lot.

 

[jlow]

I heat 2900 sq ft burning 24/7 in a not so tight two story house. My wife is home during the day and she tosses on smaller splits as needed to keep the temp @72 -74 degrees. This usually means stove temps between 450-500. In the morning I will burn wide open with a full load to clean out the pipe and temps will get to 600. This will bring the overnight temp up to 72 for the wife to maintain. Since our stove is in the middle of our family room, we place a small fan behind it to move the heat to the north end of the house. When it gets to 5-10 degrees out it takes more wood to maintain temps. This past week I was going through a wheelbarrel full per day ( 15- 20 medium splits, mostly ash, birch and maple). We do not use the furnace. Family room is usually 80 degrees and thermostat is in the kitchen. I will go through 8 cords per year. I never burn oak to be able to give an opinion. It is true on my end that @ 600 degrees the EQ will roast me out of the family room.

 

[wellbuilt home]

I dont know whats going on ?
We have all talked about this before . The big rock doesn't get hot here . Its kind of a bummer .
I hit 600o twice and could not control the heat at all, and cant duplicate the burn cycle .
I added the damper so i can load the stove close the damper and go to bed .
My secondaries only burn for 11/2 hrs tops and the rest of the time we have coals and temps around 300/350 o
I have all kinds of wood here some burns better then others but i have gone thru 70 cord in the last 21/2 years and there are alot of other people burning the wood and im not getting any complaints . My wood is 3+ years old
Ive installed other H S stoves and could reach 550 easily .
Ive checked my baffle cleaned the flue cleaned the top of the stove , checked the door gaskets ( the side door gasket did have a space on the bottom and i fixed it and dont open the door ) .
If i run with the air wide open stuffing the stove with the damper open my temp maxes out at 300/350.
If the damper is closed with half air i can see 400/450 with a occasional 500 for a wile.
Ive burned 31/2 cord of wood this year so far .
I sit 5' from the stove and my feet are cold . A fan helps alot .
To keep the stove at 450/500 i would double the wood consumption.
Wood comes easy for me but it would be nice to figure this out .
Ive been heating the house with wood for years .

 

[FireWalker]

Kind of a bummer........I'd say that is an understatement!

You burning big splits?

Is your wood short enough to load NS and still shut the front door?

Do you leave any ash in your pan, any ash bed in the stove?

I will say this, if I want to get to 600, I have to do all the right things........NS load of 8 or more medium sized well seasoned non oak splits. Once this lights off there is little I can do to keep the stove top south of 550-600, the air supply is off and the pipe damper shut. The light show lasts 2-3 hours, then wood starts flaming and then it's coal bed time.

 

[wellbuilt home]

My splits are 3x4 4x5 22" long +-
Ive never tried N/S burn .
My ash pan is full i dont use it at all .
We have some ash in the stove .
I do mix my wood .
I tried raking my coals to the front, stacked 10 splits in the stove .
I let it get cooking and closed the air and damper and nothing no heat 300o
If i dont have a secondary burn my stove is at 300o.
secondary burn only lasts 11/2 hrs tops .
If i open the damper and up the air i can burn 10 splits in 2 hours and still not get to 400o
John

 

[FireWalker]

John, I'm gonna ask you to do an experiment, unfortunately it will envolve cutting some of your splits from 22" down to regular firewood lenghts of 18", but remember it's an experiment, all in the name of science. NS burn, the only thing you have not tried is the key......I have never had a hotter fire than when I burn NS!

In your stove when you look thru the front door there is a lip that from the front drops down a couple of inches to the stove floor the air supply openings are in the middle of this lip. Go get 20 splits of wood that are just short enough to fit ends all the way to the back (NS) and clear the "lip" so that the whole piece lays flat on the stove floor front to back. Clean up your ash bed and if you have a lot of coals, spread them flat across the whole floor, if only some coals, make a front to back heap in the middle of the floor (see zipper method, it works). Now fill the wood in a neat stacked row thru the front door from left to right.....use the 4" cut ends to fill in the 2 sides or anywhere in between. I fill mine like this and when I'm done the stack is tight, 2 rows high 5 splits bottom and top, it looks like no flame can find its way thru the stack of wood, this is what you want and it will make a great secondary light show. Now hit the air open full, close your pipe damper and see if the load takes off. If it does, over the next 1/2 to 1 hour work the air supply to full closed in 1/4 stages.

This for me was the scary part because if your stove does what mine does, after an hour maybe a little longer you should be looking at a full blown secondary inferno that you are powerless to slow down. I said this was scary for me because the 1st time I did this I got it going and went to work.....a little later my wife called and said the pipe thermometer was pegged and the stove was cranking, the air was off and no flames were coming from the wood but blue flames were spraying out the holes in the pipes at the top of the stove like on a gas grill. An hour later she was too warm, opened the door. I had her move the pipe thermometer to the stove top and it was running just over 600.

There you go, give it a try! You may be temped to load NS with longer pieces letting the ends rest on the lip, this places the end of the split real close to the glass. It won't hurt anything but will spill ash when later opening the front door. The longer pieces also won't fit along the sides leaving gaps that would otherwise fit in more wood if the pieces were shorter.

Sorry for the long read!