Mynamesnotrick
New Member
Has yourMy experience with a post 2020 cat stove has been horrendous, and that's being very polite. We purchased a 2021 Hearthstone Manchester and what a disappointing and frustrating purchase it has been. Let me count the ways:
1. After a total of 8 months of use over two seasons the air control mechanism on the front of the stove failed and required disassembling 1/2 of the stove to repair. This issue was further complicated by the fact that none of the local wood stove/fireplace techs were familiar with this procedure and it took a long time to find someone willing to take on the job.
2. Since we heat exclusively with our stove we do burn 24/7 when it's cold and unfortunately the catalysts require cleaning every 3 weeks. And this means the stove needs to be nearly cold so you can access the cats and vacuum them clean--brushing the cats is pointless and only buys about 1 week of decent, not optimal, operation.
3. After two seasons of use our spark arrester was nearly totally clogged with deposits and this never happened even ONCE in 26 years with an older Regency stove. Boy I miss that stove.
4. The Manchester is a messy stove. The front door is designed in such a way that ash gets trapped in a crevice and every time you open it ash drops on the hearth.
5. The front door on the Manchester is basically useless once the fire is started because regardless of how well the fire is burning or how clean the cats and stovepipe are a large amount of smoke will escape into the room so for adding wood the side door is necessary 100% of the time.
6. Now after almost 4 seasons of use, usually we burn a lot between November and March/April, the catalysts' performance has dropped dramatically. I tried removing the cats and cleaning with a diluted vinegar solution as the manual described and this did make a large improvement but still probably need new cats at around $400 US for the pair.
Now for the good. When EVERYTHING is clean and in PERFECT condition the stove does heat up quickly and radiates heat for a long time once max safe temps have been reached. The problem is that the stove seems to be very high maintenance and performance seems to degrade very quickly. All we burn is seasoned Live Oak, Tan Oak, and Madrone.
Maybe other companies put together a better catalyst stove than Hearthstone, and it wouldn't take much to be better than our Manchester. I can't financially justify getting a new stove yet but I would not shed a tear if our Manchester fell apart and I was forced to. I guess my advice would be to only buy a stove that had a bypass mechanism so you can keep burning even with the cats clogged and non-functional.
Has your opinion of the Manchester changed over the last 2ish years?My experience with a post 2020 cat stove has been horrendous, and that's being very polite. We purchased a 2021 Hearthstone Manchester and what a disappointing and frustrating purchase it has been. Let me count the ways:
1. After a total of 8 months of use over two seasons the air control mechanism on the front of the stove failed and required disassembling 1/2 of the stove to repair. This issue was further complicated by the fact that none of the local wood stove/fireplace techs were familiar with this procedure and it took a long time to find someone willing to take on the job.
2. Since we heat exclusively with our stove we do burn 24/7 when it's cold and unfortunately the catalysts require cleaning every 3 weeks. And this means the stove needs to be nearly cold so you can access the cats and vacuum them clean--brushing the cats is pointless and only buys about 1 week of decent, not optimal, operation.
3. After two seasons of use our spark arrester was nearly totally clogged with deposits and this never happened even ONCE in 26 years with an older Regency stove. Boy I miss that stove.
4. The Manchester is a messy stove. The front door is designed in such a way that ash gets trapped in a crevice and every time you open it ash drops on the hearth.
5. The front door on the Manchester is basically useless once the fire is started because regardless of how well the fire is burning or how clean the cats and stovepipe are a large amount of smoke will escape into the room so for adding wood the side door is necessary 100% of the time.
6. Now after almost 4 seasons of use, usually we burn a lot between November and March/April, the catalysts' performance has dropped dramatically. I tried removing the cats and cleaning with a diluted vinegar solution as the manual described and this did make a large improvement but still probably need new cats at around $400 US for the pair.
Now for the good. When EVERYTHING is clean and in PERFECT condition the stove does heat up quickly and radiates heat for a long time once max safe temps have been reached. The problem is that the stove seems to be very high maintenance and performance seems to degrade very quickly. All we burn is seasoned Live Oak, Tan Oak, and Madrone.
Maybe other companies put together a better catalyst stove than Hearthstone, and it wouldn't take much to be better than our Manchester. I can't financially justify getting a new stove yet but I would not shed a tear if our Manchester fell apart and I was forced to. I guess my advice would be to only buy a stove that had a bypass mechanism so you can keep burning even with the cats clogged and non-functional.
