We have moved into an new home that has a hearthstone unit purchased and installed in the 1970s. The previous owner had kept and passed on a lot of information, but we are missing instructions on how to start and maintain a fire using the scissor based coal grate inside our unit. The company website no longer provides user guides for coal, only wood and pellets. Does anyone know if user manuals for previously made units from this company are avialable anywhere? Or have any advice to give us? I love the unit and we have recently had it reconnected to the flue. The flue has a little motorized fan, not sure what this is for? We have tried to ignite with some succes but the fires always die out quickly and we don't seem to be able to get the coal to get to the temperature to become self sustaining. I.e. Burning glowing red and ready to receive new coal on top.
Hearthstone soapstone coal grate fire HELP!
- Thread starter Robbiemac
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Dakotas Dad
Minister of Fire
The "little fan" is possibly a "draft inducer", all solid fuel heaters need draft to work. Are you running that fan when starting the stove? I think you probably need to.
You say you "had the stove connected", does that mean you had a profesional look at it? Did they, or you inspect/clean the flue? If the stove has been disconnected for some time, there is NO telling what's in it.
and welcome to the forum.
You say you "had the stove connected", does that mean you had a profesional look at it? Did they, or you inspect/clean the flue? If the stove has been disconnected for some time, there is NO telling what's in it.
and welcome to the forum.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Pictures would help. Could that fan be a Magic Heater rather than a draft inducer? Need pictures.
Wood Heat Stoves
Minister of Fire
lol
in an older manual it says:
the stove is designed to burn coal only with the Hearthstone Coal Conversion--which is accompanied by complete instructions for building and maintaining a coal fire.
in an older manual it says:
the stove is designed to burn coal only with the Hearthstone Coal Conversion--which is accompanied by complete instructions for building and maintaining a coal fire.
It has been a while. It's nice to be back
!
I will dig through my stuff. I have retired the Hearthstone, but ALWAYS ran it on coal. You need the shaker/Grate box, the two shaker grates, the handle, Rear deflector plate, side deflector plates, and the pass-though adaptor hub that goes from inside to outside of the stove. As for your coal fires, start them on small splits of woods until you get a good hot bed of coals, then add the pea/chestnut coal ONLY! This system WILL NOT burn larger coal, as the clinkers will not pass through the grates when you shake them down. If I may add, ALWAYS burn anthracite (Hard) coal.
Fill the Shaker box to the top. It should have a nice blue flame within 20 minutes or so. They coal will turn bright red, and then you can turn down the primary air and let the stove cruise at a surface temp of 450 or so. The nice thing about the Hearthstone's, is the auto Primary Air Lever. As the coal burns down, it will add air automatically. You should never need to set this again, as-long-as you burn coal or want more heat output, but be CAREFUL!! This small stove is a very efficient coal burner. It can runaway fast once the coal bed is hot.
Once the center is the only glowing part, and you can see the burned out coal on the sides, shake it down until you see a few hot ones in the ash pan, and then reload. We got about 8 hours of run time per load. Quite honestly, the coal fire never went out from fall to spring. We used about a ton per year to heat a modest sized house. You will love to hate the small ash pan!!
We used a five gallon pail and a large aluminum ice scoop to fill the stove. It heated our home for over 15 years.
I will loook around for the Manual, it has to be somewhere........
!I will dig through my stuff. I have retired the Hearthstone, but ALWAYS ran it on coal. You need the shaker/Grate box, the two shaker grates, the handle, Rear deflector plate, side deflector plates, and the pass-though adaptor hub that goes from inside to outside of the stove. As for your coal fires, start them on small splits of woods until you get a good hot bed of coals, then add the pea/chestnut coal ONLY
! This system WILL NOT burn larger coal, as the clinkers will not pass through the grates when you shake them down. If I may add, ALWAYS burn anthracite (Hard) coal.Fill the Shaker box to the top. It should have a nice blue flame within 20 minutes or so. They coal will turn bright red, and then you can turn down the primary air and let the stove cruise at a surface temp of 450 or so. The nice thing about the Hearthstone's, is the auto Primary Air Lever. As the coal burns down, it will add air automatically. You should never need to set this again, as-long-as you burn coal or want more heat output, but be CAREFUL
!! This small stove is a very efficient coal burner. It can runaway fast once the coal bed is hot.Once the center is the only glowing part, and you can see the burned out coal on the sides, shake it down until you see a few hot ones in the ash pan, and then reload. We got about 8 hours of run time per load. Quite honestly, the coal fire never went out from fall to spring. We used about a ton per year to heat a modest sized house. You will love to hate the small ash pan
!!We used a five gallon pail and a large aluminum ice scoop to fill the stove. It heated our home for over 15 years.
I will loook around for the Manual, it has to be somewhere........
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