Hearthstone H1/rebuild?

[MikeSisco]

Here is my situation...I bought a home with an older Hearthstone H1 stove, bought in 1978 (according to the back plate). It will need about $800 in parts to get it back to a good working order, the outside and doors look great, inside looks like someone took a blowtorch to the baffles, damper, secondary airtube etc. My question is this, would I be better off buying a new, medium size (60,000 btu) stove or rebuilding this old workhorse (rated at 100,000 btu's) I know that the newer stoves are much more efficient but I'd hate to just give up on this one, it really is a beutiful stove.

I'm looking at a Lopi 1750 if I go the replacement route, any suggestions?

 

[acklvr]

That's funny, we just bought a house with an old Hearthstone H1, too. The home inspector advised getting rid of it so we started to shop around. When we realized how much it would cost to replace it (we were looking at the Hearthstone Mansfield which is almost $3000) we thought we'd try to salvage it. The final repairs were made today...around $800...and we're burning our first fire in it tonight. It's too early to tell if repairing it was worth it but we're sure hoping it is. Once this baby gets going, it should throw off some serious heat. And...it's really quite a beautiful soapstone stove. Good luck!

 

[MikeSisco]

Mine was supposed to be repaired today also but the parts never showed up. We probably ordered the same parts at the same time, you beat me to the punch. did you get get service from the Shelby, Vt store?

 

[acklvr]

Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. Not the most efficient service crew I've ever seen...took them three trips to fix this thing. Lots of confusion on their end as to who did what, why didn't he fix that, oh I thought we had those parts, etc. Right now the fire's going strong but the kitchen is filled with smoke. Not good...

 

[MikeSisco]

Let me know how it turns out, so far I have been very disappointed with the customer service on Hearthstone's side of things. May be better to just go with a newer stove after all.

 

[struggle]

I will ad this to your situation. I went from a Vermont Castings Vigilant to a Hearthstone Mansfield mid winter last season. The Mansfield cost me brand new $2410 plus tax and after seeing how a this thing works I would never ever burn a non EPA stove again.

It is just awesome in all aspects of performance, looks and superior fire viewing.

If in any way you can get into a new stove I am sure you will not regret it. I know we do not and the upside of the newer stove at least this Mansfield compared to the Vigilant is we use at least a third less wood as well.

$800 into an outdated stove just baffles me. THe new one will pay for itself in less than two years with heating cost and less wood demand and the countless hours of watching the secondary burn is just so cool/hot to see.

GET NEW ONE

 

[DriftWood]

Be aware of and avoid false economy when falling in love with old stoves. They are or can be Money pits, wood eaters and smoke dragons. Unless you are a stove collector, love slitting way to much wood or have a ten full cord pile to burn this winter Think about selling that stove for $400 to $800 and getting something else. A new modern stove will out preform a H1 every day its is going.

The H1 has some secondary air introduction above the burning logs. No sure how well it works - I'm sure the stove wouldn't meet current clean air standards, but it is built in almost exactly the same way as current hearthstones, so from a safety standpoint, it would be fine. The H1 was an "underwhelming" heater by most standards- I believe it is rated at 40K btu, but performs like a 20K BTU/hr stove in the field.

See Cories comments on the old H1 in this thread.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/9703/

 

[MikeSisco]

Thanks for all the input and advice!. I think we are going to go with a new stove (not hearthstone). In the long run I am sure we will be much happier with a more efficient and economical model. This is a great site thanks for all the help.