So didn't see any threads really talking about the Green Mountain 80 by Hearthstone. So wanted to give my input so if anyone is looking at this stove there is more information out there.
First I live in a 2200 sq ft brick ranch with a full basement under the whole house. The stove is right in the middle of the basement with the central air unit about 8 ft away. When I bought the house it had an Old Timer wood stove with an 8 in double wall chimney straight up and out the roof around 20 ft long. I was tired of the temp swings and burning around 3-4 cords of wood a year. I was able to heat the house mostly from the wood stove, but if we weren't home all day to keep loading, the house would cool off and the boiler would kick on at 66 degrees. Would get home from work fire the stove up and the house would be 72-75 by bed time then would start the cycle all over again.
I was looking at many different stoves, and liked the cat stoves for their long efficient burn times, but nearest dealer for a blaze king or regency was over an hour away from where I am located. I learned about the 26% tax credit on the 75% efficient stoves so started looking online and found the green mountain 80. It had everything that I wanted, a large fire box, hybrid cat stove, was able to utilize my 8 in chimney, takes 22 in logs and the local dealer is in the town where I work. I stopped out and talked with the sales staff and they showed me some other stoves that meet the tax credit that they had in stock, but all were 6 in flues. So after figuring up that it would be most cost effective, not to line my 8in chimney down to a 6in, we pulled the trigger on the gm80 and ordered it. This was early October 2021 and I got the stove first weekend in January 2022.
I did the install myself as it was going to cost almost $1000 for them to install the stove into my basement and remove the old wood stove. First thing I did was fired the stove outside to help with the fumes from the paint. When I did fire it up inside I did get some fumes, but just a hint of odor nothing that would chase us out of the house. They say to light a few small fires to get all the moisture out of the soap stone and they weren't kidding. The first fire outside I had to keep the door cracked as the soap stone liner was dripping water like an iced tea glass outside on a humid Ohio summer day. After the water stopped dripping I was able to keep the fire going with the door shut. I came back to it later and it had burnt all the way down to ash. Due to it going into the basement I removed everything but the cats from the stove and carried them all down to the basement. My father in law and I were able to move it down the stairs with a two wheel cart with stair sliders. I think with everything removed out the stove it was a little over 325 lbs so not terrible. That evening I hooked up the stove with some new single wall black pipe. I have a 45 elbow out of the top then up to another 45 going into a T to the main double was chimney.
So this is the first new EPA stoves I have used and one thing I have learned is the stove needs to be nice and hot (top of stove 300 degrees) before I can shut the door and the fire keep going. The only time I have had issues getting the stove going was the first time I started it cold. Since the install there has been enough coals that I rake them forward put my wood in, leave the door cracked for a few minutes and the stove is ready to go. I set the stove at around 3/4 open and easily get 8-10 hour burns out of the stove and still have plenty of coals to start the stove right back up. Today was the first day I went longer. I loaded the stove up at 6am and by 6pm when I got home still had plenty of coals to fire it back up. I think if I turn the stove all the way down I could probably get a full 24 hours easy with this stove. The stove fire box is actually a lot smaller than the old timer stove that I had. I was able to get 10 splits of wood in my old stove and can only get 4-6 splits in the new stove. (I normally have 20-22" long, and split down to 6-10"). One thing I noticed as well was my flue temps were easily 300-400 with my old stove during most of the burn. With this stove it gets around 300 when the fire is first going then when the fire goes into secondary and cat burn it averages around 200. So I am not losing nearly as much up the chimney as I was before. Also I have seen a lot of posts about back puffing on the Green Mountain line, but if i unlatch the stove and let it sit for a second then open the door slowly I don't have any back puffing issues.
With the longer more consistent burn times my boiler hasn't fired since I got the new stove running. My house has stayed around 70-74 degrees and havent had the big temp swings like with the old stove. Now my central air handler is behind the stove and has a vent I can open to pull air from the basement to blow through the rest of the house. With this I am easily able to heat the 2200 sqft upstairs and the whole open basement with this stove no problem.
First I live in a 2200 sq ft brick ranch with a full basement under the whole house. The stove is right in the middle of the basement with the central air unit about 8 ft away. When I bought the house it had an Old Timer wood stove with an 8 in double wall chimney straight up and out the roof around 20 ft long. I was tired of the temp swings and burning around 3-4 cords of wood a year. I was able to heat the house mostly from the wood stove, but if we weren't home all day to keep loading, the house would cool off and the boiler would kick on at 66 degrees. Would get home from work fire the stove up and the house would be 72-75 by bed time then would start the cycle all over again.
I was looking at many different stoves, and liked the cat stoves for their long efficient burn times, but nearest dealer for a blaze king or regency was over an hour away from where I am located. I learned about the 26% tax credit on the 75% efficient stoves so started looking online and found the green mountain 80. It had everything that I wanted, a large fire box, hybrid cat stove, was able to utilize my 8 in chimney, takes 22 in logs and the local dealer is in the town where I work. I stopped out and talked with the sales staff and they showed me some other stoves that meet the tax credit that they had in stock, but all were 6 in flues. So after figuring up that it would be most cost effective, not to line my 8in chimney down to a 6in, we pulled the trigger on the gm80 and ordered it. This was early October 2021 and I got the stove first weekend in January 2022.
I did the install myself as it was going to cost almost $1000 for them to install the stove into my basement and remove the old wood stove. First thing I did was fired the stove outside to help with the fumes from the paint. When I did fire it up inside I did get some fumes, but just a hint of odor nothing that would chase us out of the house. They say to light a few small fires to get all the moisture out of the soap stone and they weren't kidding. The first fire outside I had to keep the door cracked as the soap stone liner was dripping water like an iced tea glass outside on a humid Ohio summer day. After the water stopped dripping I was able to keep the fire going with the door shut. I came back to it later and it had burnt all the way down to ash. Due to it going into the basement I removed everything but the cats from the stove and carried them all down to the basement. My father in law and I were able to move it down the stairs with a two wheel cart with stair sliders. I think with everything removed out the stove it was a little over 325 lbs so not terrible. That evening I hooked up the stove with some new single wall black pipe. I have a 45 elbow out of the top then up to another 45 going into a T to the main double was chimney.
So this is the first new EPA stoves I have used and one thing I have learned is the stove needs to be nice and hot (top of stove 300 degrees) before I can shut the door and the fire keep going. The only time I have had issues getting the stove going was the first time I started it cold. Since the install there has been enough coals that I rake them forward put my wood in, leave the door cracked for a few minutes and the stove is ready to go. I set the stove at around 3/4 open and easily get 8-10 hour burns out of the stove and still have plenty of coals to start the stove right back up. Today was the first day I went longer. I loaded the stove up at 6am and by 6pm when I got home still had plenty of coals to fire it back up. I think if I turn the stove all the way down I could probably get a full 24 hours easy with this stove. The stove fire box is actually a lot smaller than the old timer stove that I had. I was able to get 10 splits of wood in my old stove and can only get 4-6 splits in the new stove. (I normally have 20-22" long, and split down to 6-10"). One thing I noticed as well was my flue temps were easily 300-400 with my old stove during most of the burn. With this stove it gets around 300 when the fire is first going then when the fire goes into secondary and cat burn it averages around 200. So I am not losing nearly as much up the chimney as I was before. Also I have seen a lot of posts about back puffing on the Green Mountain line, but if i unlatch the stove and let it sit for a second then open the door slowly I don't have any back puffing issues.
With the longer more consistent burn times my boiler hasn't fired since I got the new stove running. My house has stayed around 70-74 degrees and havent had the big temp swings like with the old stove. Now my central air handler is behind the stove and has a vent I can open to pull air from the basement to blow through the rest of the house. With this I am easily able to heat the 2200 sqft upstairs and the whole open basement with this stove no problem.
