Hearthstone Manchester

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Anyone use one of these stove and burn full-time with it? Are you in the upper Midwest or New England? Any problems with the stove? Thank you.

 

[Woody Stover]

They had a couple of issues right after the 8360 came out, but those have been long-since corrected, I believe.
If you look at the EPA ratings, you see that high output on the 8360 is much higher than on the 8361 Manchester 2. I don't know, maybe they throttled back the air or something, because it was too easy to overfire the 8360? I think they might have had both models in the shop but I didn't look closely to see if there was an obvious difference...

 

[Woody Stover]

I think both have in the manual a 10' minimum chimney requirement, which would seem to indicate that they are very easy breathers. You may need a pipe damper...

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

I think both have in the manual a 10' minimum chimney requirement, which would seem to indicate that they are very easy breathers. You may need a pipe damper...

I appreciate your time on this one. I like the side door on it. My Heritage has been a great stove. I want something bigger. can you relive the ceramic baffle to clean the chimney? Does it have a stainless baffe? Thanks

 

[Woody Stover]

can you relive the ceramic baffle to clean the chimney? Does it have a stainless baffe? Thanks

You might find that info on the hearthstonestoves website, documents on the Manchester page, manual, exploded view, etc.

 

[webby3650]

I appreciate your time on this one. I like the side door on it. My Heritage has been a great stove. I want something bigger. can you relive the ceramic baffle to clean the chimney? Does it have a stainless baffe? Thanks

You can drop the baffle assembly, but it’s a pain... just make sure you have a slip section in the stove pipe for easy cleaning.

 

[billfred]

This was my first winter with the Manchester. This is my first woodstove, so I'm no expert. I used it to primarily heat our 3500 sq ft 2 story home in So. Indiana.
It's a rear vent with about 25' of chimney liner. It drafts great. I like it. I'm able to load it up about 10 at night and come down to a hot stove with good coals at 6AM. The double wall design does take it a while to heat up. Not great if you are not burning all day. Once it heats up it really holds the heat, doesn't cool off fast. The side door is great. I added a blower which I think helps move the heat.

 

[Woody Stover]

If you look at the EPA ratings, you see that high output on the 8360 is much higher than on the 8361 Manchester 2. I don't know, maybe they throttled back the air or something, because it was too easy to overfire the 8360? I think they might have had both models in the shop but I didn't look closely to see if there was an obvious difference...

I stopped by that stove shop again today; Yes, they had both an 8360 and 8361. They had the small metal EPA tags, the 8360 is 3.0 g/hr, the 8631 is 2.1...just missed the 2020 limit of 2.0. Looking closer at both of them, the difference I saw was that the 8361 has a row of holes through the back of the air wash casting, letting some air go to the area of the front-most air tube. There was a 1/2" tall strip of sheet metal on the fresh-air side of the air wash casting, long enough to somewhat block those holes. If they are supplying additional oxygen in the area of the front tube, it may be burning the smoke more completely and getting the stove down to the 2.1 g/hr. That would be an easy way for them to clean up the burn without major re-tooling of the stove. There would also be less air shooting down the glass and supplying the primary fire on the wood. That could be why the 8360 got more BTU/hr. at the high-burn rate in the EPA tests. With them tapping off some of the air wash air and the fire on the wood presumably less, the glass possibly wouldn't stay as clean, but that's probably a non-issue.

 

[billfred]

Interesting. I’ve got the 8360.

Never knew about the heat output difference.

 

[Woody Stover]

Here's the complete EPA list, bottom link on the page: https://www.epa.gov/compliance/list-epa-certified-wood-stoves

 

[pixelated]

We've been heating full time in Northern New England with a Manchester for about 3 years. Our house is about 1700 sq feet, the stove has been able to keep it comfortable in -10 weather. As mentioned, it keeps heat well because of the cast iron and stone liner construction. A nice side-effect of the double top is that the top surface is rarely hot enough to cause burns if it's touched accidentally by someone.
We bought ours with the fan kit, and I highly recommend it. It makes a big difference in getting the heat distributed. Because of all the mass it does take a bit to kick out serious heat on cold mornings or if you've been away for a while and the coals have burnt down, it demands some patience. We reload ours through the side door and light it in the front.
The latch needs a bit of lubrication on a fairly regular basis, a couple of drops of oil on the little roller every 6 weeks or so keeps the latch operating smoothly. This is mostly for the front, the side door latch goes for most of the season.

 

[Rodonnell18]

Speaking of removing the baffle, has anyone done so? Where do the stuffing strips go exactly? Thanks

 

[Woody Stover]

Speaking of removing the baffle, has anyone done so? Where do the stuffing strips go exactly? Thanks

I didn't look at the manual for a diagram, but if it's like the T5, the strips seal along the sides of the baffle so that the smoke is forced past all of the burn tubes, or secondary re-burn baffle.