MORE Hearthstone Green Mountain 60 - ISSUES

[tabner]

I second the above about moisture content. I have oak that was standing dead for over a year, and has been cut short, split, stacked on top of pallets with tarps on the top, in the sun, for three years, and the lowest moisture reading I can get on a fresh split face, with the prongs inserted firmly into the wood, is about 15%.
It’s possible your climate is quite different than mine, and that is the reason. But could you explain your testing procedure for moisture meter?

 

[tabner]

Your dealer sounds very good though. I certainly understand the desire to just be done with it and get something you know works well for you.

 

[Moe64]

Sounds like he is a decent dealer and willing to work with you. I do have to say tho, unless you live in a desert or are testing your wood wrong I have doubts about your wood moisture content.

Yes, he's been pretty good so far. My wood has been in a shed for over three years and is pretty dry. It is the start of our rainy season so I do expect the moisture content to get higher with the higher humidity.

 

[begreen]

Yes, he's been pretty good so far. My wood has been in a shed for over three years and is pretty dry. It is the start of our rainy season so I do expect the moisture content to get higher with the higher humidity.

Doesn't sound like the wood. This stove seems to want a stronger draft than average. That is harder to come by in our milder climate, especially in a one-story house.

 

[Highbeam]

I just double checked the manual and it has chimney height minimum described below. It sounds like you are meeting that. But do you have any T's or 90's in it? And what have the temps been like in your area? Draft improves as the temp drops.

"The recommended minimum chimney height is 14 feet (3 m) off the floor. The recommended maximum chimney height is 30 feet (9m).The Green Mountain 60 requires a draft between 0.08” and 0.15” water column. Ensure your chimney is long enough to provide the minimum draft, and use a damper if your installation has a required chimney height that provides too much draft."

Whoa! It requires 0.08 to 0.15” WC of draft? That’s insane and more than double other stoves’ requirements. No wonder it’s not working well on a “normal” chimney.

Junk it. Get the kuma you already know performs.

 

[begreen]

Yes, I'd get to work on the dealer return.

 

[Moe64]

Update on the moisture content of my wood. The dealer gave me the meter so I could rule out most wood for my problem. He didn't give me the manual for it. I just downloaded it and discovered it was on the "building material " calibration. When I set it to wood and the correct one for doug fir I have a reading of about 12-15%. I keep my kindling in the house and it's about 8-9%.

Today I did the test burn with the baffles taken out. It seemed to do better but not much. My chimney length by Hearthstones measurements is almost 18% longer than their minimum length.

 

[tabner]

Update on the moisture content of my wood. The dealer gave me the meter so I could rule out most wood for my problem. He didn't give me the manual for it. I just downloaded it and discovered it was on the "building material " calibration. When I set it to wood and the correct one for doug fir I have a reading of about 12-15%. I keep my kindling in the house and it's about 8-9%.

Today I did the test burn with the baffles taken out. It seemed to do better but not much. My chimney length by Hearthstones measurements is almost 18% longer than their minimum length.

That’s testing moisture on a freshly split face?
And have you tried cross crossing the layers of wood on startup, like a log cabin, to allow maximum airflow?

 

[Moe64]

Yes, tested on freshly split piece.
Today baffles are back in and I lit another fire using the top down method again. This time though I did the base layer running N/S with short cord pieces. The previously posted video made it sound like it could get air better from the lower primary air. It took right off today. Temp was 40 degrees so it did have a better chance than the 50 degrees from the other day. I just restocked it and put it on low burn after letting the wood get fully lit (about 10 min). I want to see what happens when the chimney temp goes down a little . I restocked it when stove dial was about 2/3 to max temp.

 

[begreen]

The difference in draft between 50º burning and 40º can be large. I'm glad it's working better for you today. If it works well from 40º and colder I would add more chimney. 2-3' can make a notable difference for milder weather burning.

 

[cabinwarmer]

Whoa! It requires 0.08 to 0.15” WC of draft? That’s insane and more than double other stoves’ requirements. No wonder it’s not working well on a “normal” chimney.

Junk it. Get the kuma you already know performs.

Good Day, Moe, that stack above looks perfect. Glad it is working better. Do you use a digital flue probe for temp? I would highly recommend it. I started using one after the fine gentleman on this sight suggested I do. Totally changes the way you burn and helps you to understand and monitor what is really happening with your stove. I have found that outside temp really makes a difference in draft on my GM60.

 

[Moe64]

Dealer can out the other day to give it some testing. He spent about 2hrs. Burning went ok, not great but ok. He thought I had plenty of chimney for it to run. It did do some things that didn't add up. When activating the cats, the nice flaming fire went out. He had to wait until the heat probe was reading half way across the active zone. Cats were checked to make sure they were not plugged. He also could not move the air intake from full open directly to low without fire dying right out. He had to close it a little at a time. It did let a lot of smoke into the room when opened. He did agree that the door design being so tall that it may contribute to the smoke in the house when opening. He did say that the stove seemed to be working ok but maybe not ok for me. He has some new Kuma stoves on the way and is going to put my name on an Ashwood. When they come in and I still want to trade, he will trade out the GM60 straight for the Kuma. He said he could easily sell the GM or he may also install it in the store as a demo. He's been great so far and seems to want to make his customers happy.

 

[cabinwarmer]

Sounds great! Looks like you will be trading it in after all. Did the dealer happen to mention this?

 

[Moe64]

No, he didn't mention it. The stove looks like it has the updated version though.

 

[LakeCabin]

Your experience sounds very much like mine. Our dealer sold a number of GM60s. Not everyone who bought one from him had problems but quite a few did according to him. We messed around with ours for months and tried all sorts of things to make it work but to no avail. Eventually we gave up and replaced it with a stove from a different manufacturer. I think the GM60 is a roll of the dice. You may swear it is the best stove ever or you may curse the day you bought it. And it's hard to predict which way it will go before you install it and try it out.

 

[baril_m]

We just bought a Green Mountain 60. Initial experience is very similar to what Drylightning described a few weeks ago. It's nearly brand new. Another customer had it for a week and gave up.

This replaced an old Hearthstone Harvest in a cabin we recently purchased. We lit the Harvest a number of times and it appeared to work fine until the damper broke and we discovered lots of other stuff was broken and needed replaced.

To get the GM60 to run we have to start with the door ever so slightly cracked --which is what it tells you to do in the manual except you can't close it. If I close and latch it the fire goes out. If we run it with the door until we've burnt two or three logs and there is a good amount of glowing hot wood in the bottom we might keep a flame going for 5 to 10 minutes minutes after latching the door. If the door has been latched for a while I have to ever so carefully crack the door and wait for the logs to re-light to avoid lots of smoke coming out the door. I tried using the catalytic when it was hot enough but that doesn't help and probably makes it worse. Hard to tell. The wood is seasoned. As we inherited the wood I tested it with a moisture meter and it's fine. The air damper is wide open. But it really doesn't make any difference open or closed because as the only way the GM60 runs is with the door slightly cracked. I checked the metal plate/tag wasn't blocking the air intake as suggested by Cabinwarmer in the earlier thread. I unlatched the tag and it didn't make any difference.

I tried Cabinwarmer's suggestion of doing a top down start. If I latch the door it fills with smoke and starts to go out. If I unlatch it very so slightly it's a roaring fire again during startup. No in-between.

Our setup is different from Drylightning's. It's a straight up steel chimney. the Ceiling is 8 foot from the floor. And there is a shallow slanted roof about that. I haven't measured the chimney/roof but I'm guessing there's another four feet. I noticed Wood Stover's comment in the earlier thread that the minimum height is 14 feet. I checked the manual and that's exactly what it says. So I think the chimney needs to go up at least 2 to 3 more feet and see if that helps.

Another note is that it's often fairly windy where we are. Average wind speeds outside during the first fires I'm describing above in at least the mid twenties. When I hear a gust outside, the flame seems to swish around. Not sure if I'm imagining that or it's real.

Aside from extending the chimney, anything else I should be considering or could an extra few feet of chimney be enough to fix the problem?

I had the exact same problems as everyone else is describing over the internet about this Hearstone Green Mountain 60 stove: smoke going out of the stove when opening the door. This is clearly a design flaw which can be minimize by adding a small metal plate like you can see in the video.

It's not a perfect solution and I still have to avoid opening the door when there are a lot of flames. But at least now it's tolerable.... oh and I painted the metal plate in black now so it's looks like it's part of the stove. The video is in French but I think you can understand only from the picture.

Hope that helps!

 

[bmikeb]

I had the exact same problems as everyone else is describing over the internet about this Hearstone Green Mountain 60 stove: smoke going out of the stove when opening the door. This is clearly a design flaw ...

It's not a perfect solution and I still have to avoid opening the door when there are a lot of flames. But at least now it's tolerable.... oh and I painted the metal plate in black now so it's looks like it's part of the stove. The video is in French but I think you can understand only from the picture.

Hope that helps!

Maybe if enough of us complain to Hearthstone, they will make a piece to fix it? Probably not but they must be aware it's an obvious issue.

 

[begreen]

It's not uncommon for some stove designs to need a front flame shield to prevent this. This one seems a bit close to the glass. I wonder how that affects the air wash?

 

[Strickly Anonomous]

I have the GM60 stove.
I'm not wasting my words. It's a bad product. The reason why the chimney is so clean for the environment is because all the smoke stays in the house. My chimney is 17 feet high. Yes my installers put on a new liner and insulated it BUT NOBODY TOOK A DRAFT READING UNTIL AFTER THE STOVE WAS PAID FOR, INSTALLED AND THEN NOT WORKING CORRECTLY. Before any work was done a experience dealer would have taken draft readings first. Then there would have been no issue or at least the excuse for poor draft would have been discarded.
These dealers and manufactures treat customers like crap. If HEARTHSTONE designed homes, we would never have house fires because there would be no draft!
Makes me sick. I'm about to eat the cost and purchase another product. Then I'll paint the inside of my house from all the smoke.

 

[begreen]

I have the GM60 stove.
I'm not wasting my words. It's a bad product. The reason why the chimney is so clean for the environment is because all the smoke stays in the house. My chimney is 17 feet high. Yes my installers put on a new liner and insulated it BUT NOBODY TOOK A DRAFT READING UNTIL AFTER THE STOVE WAS PAID FOR, INSTALLED AND THEN NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.

Draft is usually measured after the stove is installed. There are a lot of house issues that a salesperson may not anticipate. If there is negative pressure in the room, it's not a stove issue per se and replacing it with another may not solve this.

Can you post pictures of the stove install and the flue setup? What remedies have been tried to correct this issue?