Hearthstone Green Mountain 60- Burn Times

[JDeere19]

Hi there,

Long time reader, first post.

I had a Hearthstone Green Mountain 60 installed last year and this is my second season with it. Great stove, throws off a lot of heat and heats most of my 2500 sq foot house nicely, no complaints there.

The Problem I have with it is the burn times. I get the stove going pretty easy (unlike a lot of people and many complain about this step with this stove) and get a bed of hot coals relatively quickly. I have truly seasoned hard woods (ash, red oak, locust mostly) in the single digit to mid teen moisture readings. I will load up the stove as much as I can with 3-4 nice sized pieces (as you know its an east-west fire box), let it catch, engage the bypass and at times get it down to the air flow almost completely closed. I, at best, get 2 to 2.5 hour burn time with coals in sometimes as little as an hour and fifteen minutes and no flame. I had the installer come out, inspect the stove, clean out the piping etc and he told me fully loaded I could be getting 6 hour burn times. Im getting a third of that.

Without Knowing the specifics, I have an elbow inside to the outside of the house and then a t that goes straight up to over my house. Again, I don't know the specifics other than it meets all the dealer required specs and it's all double wall pipe.

I am not new to wood stoves, just new with these EPA Catalytic Combuster stoves. Im open to all feed back. Thanks. Happy burning.

 

[alexno]

Hey JDeere19,

While I'm definitely not a woodstove expert and still consider myself quite green, I had a GM60 installed in my 2300sq century-old fully renovated house last week in QC, Canada, and have been burning a few fires with it after the break in fires, so I can give you my limited perspective.

I'm burning hardwood that could be a bit more seasoned (I'm around 20-25% humidity), which is not great but it is what I have on hand until next season. As the outside temp is still relatively warm, I did not burn a full load up to now, I only go for half loads or less. My main issue is getting the stove hot enough to engage the cat given wood humidity. It takes longer and is a bit more messy, but I end up getting to proper cat temps as indicated on the side temp gage, shut the bypass and after a little while, shut the airflow down to about 1/4 open or less.

With this setup, I get quite long burns given my small loads (around 6-8 hours and I do have coals at the end), so I'm quite surprised at your numbers.

I'm also double wall but fully straight 15' + chimney and believe I have a not so bad draft.

Hope you find some answers! Happy burning season!

 

[Todd]

Those 3-4 splits filling the whole fire box? Try raking the coals forward and placing a large split in the back then tightly pack it as full as you can. This should give you a somewhat front to back burn.

Also play with shutting the air down sooner. The cat thermometers tend to lag behind a bit. May also want to monitor flue temps.

 

[neverstop]

Those 3-4 splits filling the whole fire box? Try raking the coals forward and placing a large split in the back then tightly pack it as full as you can. This should give you a somewhat front to back burn.

Also play with shutting the air down sooner. The cat thermometers tend to lag behind a bit. May also want to monitor flue temps.

Not raking the coals forward will definitely cause you to burn through a load very quickly. you'll also reach very high temperatures because of the rate that the load burns at. The cat thermometer / cat are shielded decently from direct heat from the fire as well as the flue gases so it's not surprising that it takes awhile to read "at temp". The probe for the thermometer is also very long (~12 in) so there is a lot of thermal mass adding to the lag.

reading the fire/using the flue temperature is a much better way to run the stove.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How tall is your chimney?

 

[JDeere19]

Pretty much. It is a smaller fire box and I've never been able to fit more than 4 pieces of wood. They are a good size. I tried shutting down the air sooner and it seemed to help some

 

[JDeere19]

How tall is your chimney?

It is quite tall. It goes straight up from the stove about 5 feet. From there, there's an elbow, it goes straight to the outside of my home. Then there is a T where I can easily access/clean it and it goes straight up meeting that minimum clearance over the house. I have a 2 level Colonial home. It has to be 30-40 feet? Just a guess

 

[Todd]

Pretty tall chimney, pipe damper may help.

 

[JDeere19]

Pretty tall chimney, pipe damper may help.

Yes I don't have one. Just the air flow control. There's nothing I can do about the tall chimney. Could the draft be too strong, accelerating burn rate and thus be leading to these short burn times? Is this something a damper may help with?

 

[Todd]

Yes, sounds like it

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Agreed. It sounds like it’s certainly at least contributing to the issue.

 

[Hoytman]

Dryer wood produces the high intense heat and being able to reach high temps quickly, with far less smoke. Catalysts like to eat smoke…so slower burning wood (higher moisture content) will smolder more and produce more smoke.

You could load less wood, full load a mix of %MC wood, or small load of mix %MC wood, as well as have too much draft for all combinations in which case a stove pipe damper might benefit you…and a manometer would tell you if draft is much too high.

 

[JDeere19]

Thank you for the replies. Im trying to fit more wood each load, pack it together with less gaps for air and lowering the air flow sooner in the burn.

 

[JDeere19]

Does anyone have a picture of the manner in which they load their stove up once loaded?

 

[BigSlimmy]

Good evening all, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
I am brand new to this forum, and love what I see because tomorrow I am going to be putting a hefty down payment on a brand new Green Mountain 60. I am replacing a 40yr old Kodiak Beast of stove, which burns both coal and wood. But it is time for a total replacement from the stove to the roof. I have a total of 23’ of stovepipe that will go through our cathedral ceiling, with 3000sq feet of space that I would like to heat. Please let me know if my quote from a local dealer recommended the right stove with the pictures I sent him.
Thank you

 

[Hoytman]

Good evening all, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
I am brand new to this forum, and love what I see because tomorrow I am going to be putting a hefty down payment on a brand new Green Mountain 60. I am replacing a 40yr old Kodiak Beast of stove, which burns both coal and wood. But it is time for a total replacement from the stove to the roof. I have a total of 23’ of stovepipe that will go through our cathedral ceiling, with 3000sq feet of space that I would like to heat. Please let me know if my quote from a local dealer recommended the right stove with the pictures I sent him.
Thank you

Cathedral ceiling, 3000 sq ft?

You might want to rethink that. I doubt if that stove is anywhere near big enough but for high burns all the time…and even at that in deep New York winter it likely won’t provide enough heat.

You might want to start your own new thread asking what size stove would be better suited for the size home you have. You’ll get better detailed responses in your own dedicated thread.

Welcome aboard!

 

[BigSlimmy]

Cathedral ceiling, 3000 sq ft?

You might want to rethink that. I doubt if that stove is anywhere near big enough but for high burns all the time…and even at that in deep New York winter it likely won’t provide enough heat.

You might want to start your own new thread asking what size stove would be better suited for the size home you have. You’ll get better detailed responses in your own dedicated thread.

Welcome aboard!

Thank you very much, I just realized I didn’t put it out on my own thread, rookie mistake! Haha. Have a great night

 

[Hoytman]

Thank you very much, I just realized I didn’t put it out on my own thread, rookie mistake! Haha. Have a great night

Not a problem. Been there done that.