Mansfield maintaining secondaries, and primary control

[JonOfSunderland]

Is anyone able to maintain a secondary burn with the primary air turned down to less than half? I can't seem to easily sustain a good secondary burn unless the stove is half full of coals and the stove top temp is above 500. Either I get the baffle and secondaries glowing red and the stovetop at 600, or it all goes out. What's the largest size splits you use? Oh, and I never load E/W. I just can't get it to burn hot. Always N/S. I don't think draft is an issue. Setup is 2 ft of vertical stove pipe, then back into an internal masonry chimney with 6x9 clay flue ~15ft tall from thimble. Stove is in leaky basement, never backpuffs. It seems to be pulling combustion air through quite well.

I found this video on youtube (it appears to be a Heritage and not a Mansfield)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7EWQMnNGt0&feature=related

It appears he's cutting the primaries off completely, yet still has combustion air reaching the coals at the bottom of the loading door. If I do that, the coals start to die out almost instantly, then eventually the secondaries fade away.

Hardwood mixture has seasoned since April. If it sizzles, it's very minimal and very brief.

Also, for anyone with a newer Mansfield (primary control is a sliding lever, not a rotating knob), are you able to cut off primary air completely, or was there a modification to keep them open slightly? Could anyone possibly post some detailed photos of the whole mechanism? I'm thinking of retrofitting as the older style is rather lousy (jams a lot, not at all smooth)

 

[Pagey]

That's the dealer I purchased my Endeavor from. You might call them at 1-800-264-8181 and ask to speak with Bob or Fran, the owners, to see if they can give you some tips.

http://www.customfireplacesandmore.com/

 

[java1080]

I had the exact same problem with my Hearthstone Phoenix. Very good draft but wouldn't burn well unless intake was 3/4 open or more. Anything lower and I struggled to keep it going. The Phoenix was a little to small for my house so I went bigger with the Isle Royale. I can close it down almost all the way once it's hot and get a great slow lazy burn with secondaries. I've read other posts of Hearthstone owners saying the same thing. Burned with mine for 2 years before selling it; actually worked out fairly well since I had to run mine hot anyway to keep the house comfy. I don't have anything bad to say about Hearthstone; they are great stoves, but my Quad IR sucks the air in and my Phoenix seemed to struggle with that.

 

[todd1st]

This is my second year burning in my Mansfield, and I have a lot more to learn about wood burning which is the reason I'm constantly on this website. However, I can tell you that when I get a good coal bed, I can place 4-5 large splits (averaging from 5-8 inches-in other words, packing the box full), let it char up, move the primary switch down in cycles as suggested by many others here, until it is all the way to the right, shut down completely (10-15 minutes total time). I have noticed that with the good dry wood I am burning with this year that my secondaries kick in even before my primary is shut all the way down, and my stove gets to 300 very fast, and is inching up to 400-500 stovetop temp.

I usually put my big splits in around 7pm, and I still have coals to start another fire at around 4am (stovetop temp around 200 at this point and still giving off heat). This is using oak. At 400-500 when the stove peaks, my 1800ish sq ft house gets up to around 78-80 degrees in my open living/dining/kitchen area in the center of the house, with my bedrooms, which are off this main area, get to 68-70, sometimes a little higher. This is with the temp high 20s to low 30s. Our house is a well insulated one floor ranch and we do have moderate temps here in Dover, DE. We were scared this stove would be too big for our house, but I am glad we got it, because when it does get cold, it really works like a beast.

I wish I could tell you why you are having problems, but I don't know. I am just letting you know how my Mansfield does to see if it helps you any and let you know that I think Hearthstone Mansfield is a great stove. We have a six in. double wall pipe straight up through the attic-total around 15 feet.

Todd

 

[bokehman]

Hardwood mixture has seasoned since April. If it sizzles

Sounds like the wood is suspect. 7 months is not much for hardwood. For example oak needs to be split and seasoned for 2 years.