Hearthstone Homestead Too Hot

[donmattingly]

Ok,
We have been using the Homestead with no problems this season (1st season) until this past week.
I can't control the fire like before. It gets so hot where I have the air control closed all the way and I am still registering over 600 on the stove pipe and on the soapstone itself. The fire is still roaring. I am very worried about cracking the stones!
I have read that the ash grate can provide extra air to the fire and not seal properly. I have noticed that the fire seems to draw straight from the middle of the firebox. Early this morning I cleaned out all the ashes and inspected the grate. It is sitting flush except for the slightest crack showing when the ash grate is fully closed. (This is something I noticed before the first fire, but why would there be an issue now?)
Stove is now approaching 700. Very worried here!

 

[Todd]

Had the same thing happen to mine. The ash pan is junk! I ended up taking the square ash dump out and placed the circle grate over the hole and slid the 2 large soapstone slabs over the top of it and filled the other gaps with firebrick. Then I just shoveled the ash out, never had another overfire, and yes I did get a crack in one of the side stones but didn't effect performance.

 

[electromagn8]

took the words out of my mouth, for some reason I find the ash pan slid out all of the time.

 

[donmattingly]

Thinking of sealing that ash grate for good. Stove got to about 680 and starting to lower now.
As I still look for the manual......
Is the air intake in the closed position, still be open a bit? I looked under the stove and notice with the lever all the way over, the vent was still open a bit.

 

[DAKSY]

Is the air intake in the closed position, still be open a bit? I looked under the stove and notice with the lever all the way over, the vent was still open a bit.

Yep. It's 20% open as mandated by the early 90s EPA regulations.
The combustion air that is still coming in is diverted to the secondary
burn tubes to comply with the "clean burn" guidelines...

 

[Vic99]

When I had a homestead, I didn't like the ash pan design even though the spin grate looked cool. I filled my ash pan full with ashes, shut it tightly and never touched it again. Used small fireplace shovel.

 

[Ithaca]

pull up the circular disk and clean out any ash underneath that might keep it from sitting flush. You should be able to spin it so that there isn't a gap. make sure your seal on the square pan is tight by making sure it is pushed all the way in and that the gasket is still in good shape.

If nothing works, take vic99's advice and fill the pan with ash and leave it.

Vic99 .. how is the fireview treating u compared to ur old homestead?

 

[Vic99]

I like it a lot. Still learning. A lot of my long burns seem to reach between 450 and 550. I've gotten to the 600s sometimes. Often, though, on the way down the stove spends a huge amount of time between 250-300. Some of my wood is suspect.

 

[westkywood]

This is why I didnt order an ashpan with my stove. Had one once and I just never really saw the advantage.

 

[Highbeam]

If the pan was optional, I wouldn't have one either. No choice on most stoves.

 

[GWL-2]

My first post here.

I've got a HearthStone Mansfield. The reason I signed up was to solve what I believe is an overheating problem with mine. I will not steal this thread with my problem though.

I don't know how the ash pan is set up on the Homestead but I just don't use the ash pan on mine. I had a Vermont Casting before the stove I have now and the ash pan on it was great. The Mansfield pan just creates a mess. I shovel it out the main door into a small metal trash can. Very carefully, when the stove has burnt down to a very low heat.

By leaving the ashes in the bottom of the stove it insulates and I'm guessing will help seal/slow down against any draw from the ash pan below. I've even heard of someone putting sand in the bottom of the stove. This is just one way I'm working to keep my firebox temperatures lower.

Another thing I've done, which most stove company's don't recommend, is to add a flue damper. HearthStone recommends it on my stove only if there is too much draft. Mine was measure to be too high. The damper has helped mine a bit but I still get a high heat with the air supply on low.(see temperatures below) I've read somewhere from HearthStone that two flue dampers may be needed if the chimney has too much draft.

I had two temperature gauges on the top of my stove this evening. One read 710º and the other read 600º. When we discuss these issues with each other we have to realize most stove temperature gauges are not always accurate. I believe most gauges are made to be more accurate in the middle of the scale than at the extreme ends of their readings. The ones I was using were made by different manufactures.

George

 

[GWL-2]

Don,

I just reread one of your posts about the air supply opening. I believe the EPA sets regulations regarding air supply. They don't want low burning fires because of emissions. I find this to be stupid. With my old Vermont Castings I could shut the air supply almost off and really control my fire. Can't do so with my new stove. I've got two 1/4 to 3/8 inch openings when mine are in the "closed" or low burn position. I want to add some kind of additional spacer to cut off more air but I've got an outside air supply box that does not allow me access to the air vents.

I want more control on my fire. And not with a flue damper as HearthStone recommends.

Now last season I was in my stove store here in Vermont and was looking at a new stove just like mine. The air supply openings on that stove closed all the way. I asked the salesman about it and he said it should still be open a bit when closed. He said they would have to adjust it. I don't think you can adjust it.

George

 

[Highbeam]

They might adjust it by bending the linkage. Remember that the air supplies that are adjustable are only for primary air and that the secondary air system runs at full throttle all the time.

If your hearthstone is like mine, all combustion air comes in through a single opening in the stove. You could add a "damper" to that opening and see what sort of control that gives you. Find where the air enters the stove and choke those places off.