Mansfield Hearthstone need help with low 275 Deg F high burn temperature.

[tnybrick]

I just had a Mansfield Hearthstone stove installed at my house. I have done about 4 small break in fires to season the stove. I have had two hot burning fires in the stove but only got the top center stone temperature to 275 deg F playing with the primary air control and with well seasoned wood. My dealer says it needs to burn in for a week but I don't think the stove is working properly.

Does anyone have the same problem or any advice.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Andy99]

I had the same problem when I got my soapstone stove. Its a bunch of things but you will get the temps up its a learning curve. After you get the fire really going close the air control about 1/2 way. this keeps the heat in the stove. after you get a nice bed of glowing red embers load up the stove. I mean FULL. Then burn full open for 10-15 min then go 1/2 open for another 10-15 then close it down to about 25% open and watch the temps rise.

Read more about it here
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/28008/

 

[badger1968]

As Andy said, it is a lot of things. And make sure you check out the thread he has referenced in his post.

Addressing the question of a quick hot fire--there is no reason you should not be able to get a very hot fire after your break in fires. Remember, with soapstoe everything is on a 30-60 minute delay. You may have a roaring fire, but it won't be reflected in stove top temps for a while. By the way, I don't think anything is wrong with your stove. There may be draft issues, especially if your weather is still a bit warm down there. But, it is unlikely there is a structural problem with your stove. It's a pretty simple engine.

So, all that being said . . . here are a few simple things I have learned and may help:
1. Leave your coals in the firebox. Starting a fire in a clean stove is (of course) possible, but not as easy.
2. Use a lot of good dry kindling and dry, barkless, 1/8 splits to start your fire.
3. Build your fire with lots of gaps, either in a criss-cross fashion or a pyramid.
4. Add 1/4 splits when it gets going and when you reach critical mass--PILE ON!
5. All the while keep the air wide open (and keep the door cracked just a little for the first 10-15 minutes or so)
Wide open air makes a hot fire and cleans your flue by burning off creosote. Keeping the air open is a good thing for the first two hours of your fire.
6. You should hit 400 on top in an hour or so.

All the best and good luck!

 

[Heat Miser]

Your wood could be wet, or maybe you just need to get used to the stove. Once you learn how it burns you should be able to get it to temperature with a hot fire with no problems. Also when you say "hot burning fires" were they sustained fires? I need to burn a good fire for about an hour to get it up to 4-500 degrees stove top. Once that happens I can keep that temperature through most of the burn cycle with a low damper setting and a full firebox.

Just keep practicing with it for a week or so. Work on keeping a good bed of hot coals and loading the firebox completely between burning cycles. It should work fine. There is not much that can go wrong with that stove.

 

[todd1st]

Hi Tom,

This is my second year burning in my Mansfield and I have noticed that it doesn't burn as well in this shoulder season type weather. However, that being said, I see some cold 20-30 degree weather forcasted this coming week and I can't wait to load her up and watch her cruise!

Todd

 

[tnybrick]

To All:

Thanks so much for the advice. You have all given me some good ideas.

1. First you are correct we do have some muggy rainy warm days in Maryland about 50-55 degrees so i will have some trouble with draft.

2. I am probably using too large of a piece of wood after starting the fire 4-5 inch diameter. I'll try to use the 1-3" diameter kindling for a longer period of time.

3. I have run the oven as follows.

a) Start the fire with air intake full open, then crack open the door an inch for 5 minutes to get a good flame started.
b) close the door and let the flames start.
c) after about 15 minutes I would lower the air intake about half way. After this I seem to get some flames but then I develope more hot coals than flame. Maybe this is due to draft/weather or maybe I havent fired up the stove on high long enough. I'll have to experiment.
d) I have been loading the stove with large logs 4-5 inch diameter with this so maybe I need to do a more gradual step to larger wood on hot coals.


Thank you all again for all the great Ideas. I'll let you know how I make out.

Tom

 

[Heat Miser]

c) after about 15 minutes I would lower the air intake about half way. After this I seem to get some flames but then I develope more hot coals than flame. Maybe this is due to draft/weather or maybe I havent fired up the stove on high long enough. I'll have to experiment.

Keep the damper full open for longer than 15 minutes (but keep an eye on things just in case). I need at least 30 minutes to get a good hot fire going from a cold stove with damper full open. You should also consider installing a flue probe thermometer (FlueGard about $25) so you can see the temperature inside the chimney. Since soapstone takes so long to heat up you won't be able to tell with the stove top thermometer how hot things really are going unless you have another way to measure temperature.

 

[pumiglk]

Good advice so far. With the Eqinox I have found it really doesn't like to be shut down until the stovepipe temps are well over 400 and this takes longer than I think sometimes, depending on the wood and how I load it etc. To get the soapstone over 275 is actually not a trvial amount of burning when starting with a cool stove. I would keep the air open as long as you can, however as stated above, if it really gets ripping inside it is difficult to tell what the temps really are as they are slower to respond on the stovetop. For that reason I rely more on the probe therm in the stack more than the stove top for monitoring the burn.

 

[edthedawg]

We have unseasonably warm and wet and humid weather here in CT these past couple days... for whatever reason, when I came home early Friday, I decided to stoke up the fire. No good coals from the morning however, so I tried starting with a 1/4 of a SuperCedar. I foolishly used too-large splits tho, instead of letting it chew on enough kindling, so i had a very on-again, off-again fire - lots of smoke belching from the chimney, poor draft - heck it was 60 out! I really just wanted to help dry out some wood, I guess...

Dumb dumb dumb.

With no wind out, and no temperature difference really, all that smoke just lingered around the house. I went upstairs and found the attic area around the chimney ALARMINGLY full of smoke I reckon I was just drawing it right in thru the ridge venting... I opened a window near the stove, got it cruising nicely, and it cleared right up... good thing tho - i really filled the attic w/ smoke!

good luck once the weather turns COLD!

 

[tnybrick]

Thanks for the info guys.

I loaded my Mansfield with small pieces and got a good hot bed of coals close to 200 F then as was suggested loaded it up with a mix of small and large splits. This got me up to 300 F. I have been a little conservative with the firing so I don't overfire the stove.

I do have another question concerning initial heatup:

When I load small dry wood pieces on a red hot bed of coals I have the intake full open but have to prop open the door about an inch to get a good flame going. If I don't prop open the door I get a lot of smoldering.

With the door proped open an inch it can take up to 15 minutes to get good flames and charred wood. Then I close the door while leaving the intake full open and the flames catch and start the wood gas reburn process. Next I wait another 15 minutes and start cutting back the intake making sure I still have good flames and wood gas reburn.

My question: Is it typical in a Maryland environment at about 40 deg outside temperature to have to crack open the stove door for 15 minutes to get the flames going well. It seems to me that I should be able to close the stove door and get enough oxygen through the intake to get the wood flames up in 15 minutes with the door closed. Do you think I have some draft issue or something else. By the way half of my stack is outside the house exposed to the cold. I am not sure if this may be part of the problem with having to leave the door open.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[struggle]

What kind of chimney inside diameter, material, length and is it an outside or inside chimney.

Sure seems like a lack of draft to me. Once I get mine going I could never leave the door open or it would burn everything it in to coals in 15 minutes.

 

[Heat Miser]

My question: Is it typical in a Maryland environment at about 40 deg outside temperature to have to crack open the stove door for 15 minutes to get the flames going well. It seems to me that I should be able to close the stove door and get enough oxygen through the intake to get the wood flames up in 15 minutes with the door closed. Do you think I have some draft issue or something else. By the way half of my stack is outside the house exposed to the cold. I am not sure if this may be part of the problem with having to leave the door open.

In my 40 degree environment I'll have to leave the door open a crack in the morning when the coals are smaller to get a flame going. I close it down after 5-10 minutes once the flames get rolling again, BUT I leave the damper full open until the fire gets really rolling (about another 5-10 minutes afterwards).

If the coals are larger (baseball sized - like during the day when the end of the burning cycle is coming), then I can just put on the wood (any size) and optionally open the damper for 5-10 minutes to get it going again. Often I don't even need to do this and just leave the damper alone and the coals are large enough and hot enough to get the fire going quickly with little smoldering.

BTW, my metal chimney is on the outside of my house and nearly 30 ft. of it is in uninsulated or completely exposed areas and drafting is not an issue. I make sure the chimney stays hot and it works just fine. A hot chimney is a happy chimney.

 

[aurora04444]

Hi, I got a used 1996 Mansfield and it is the 1st first winter for it. But I am freezing now!
Last winter, I had a 1976 Vermont Castings, one of the nice old ones, quality-made.

The Mansfield smokes if the door is open more then 1/2 inch and it needs to have the door open 1/2 inch to get going when I initially start it. Then when I close the door, the flames die down quite a bit. I do get it cranking before shutting the air control down 1/2 -3/4 way. But it does not seem to have a good draft.

From what I have read I need a 6 inch diameter chimney, which I don't have. Just an old unlined 8x8 interior brick chimney which is about 32-35 feet in total length. I grew up with stove/fireplace fires my whole life, so we know about chimney fires and are not freaked when they occur. Just shut the damper and wait.
Another chimney problem is that my old 100 year old oil furnace is attached to the same chimney and also the propane water heater. Probably causing further decrease in draft. I only have one good chimney.
So...
I heard reducing the interior chimney to 6 inch diameter will help. And taking off the other appliances. But I can't do it now, as no other back-up heat, or for when I got on a trip, the oil furnace is it.

Thoughts???

Thanks!
Aurora

 

[struggle]

"just an old unlined 8x8 interior brick chimney"

That is way to big of a chimney for it draft right. Its not the stoves fault. The chimney is causing the problem. Also appliances are not allowed to use same flue by code. Huge safety hazard.

 

[aurora04444]

Hi, I know, I have heard all about the codes and researched that from numerous sites. But many poor people up here in Maine have been using chimneys this way for years. We burned for over 30 years on old unlined chimneys. I have read about gases from the other appliances coming in. But the oil is not used when the woodstove is used, it's only for when I am away. Don't get me wrong, I DO want to get my chimney re-lined, but I can't afford to line the chimney right now. So I guess I will muddle through this winter and save up. I was thinking about the Supa-Flu.

 

[gyrfalcon]

By the way half of my stack is outside the house exposed to the cold. I am not sure if this may be part of the problem with having to leave the door open.

Thanks,
Tom

You don't want to throw ice-cold wood into the stove, so best to bring it in half a day beforehand when it gets really cold out, but Idon't know that the 20-degree difference between 50 outside and 70-something inside makes a lot of difference.