New Hearthstone Heritage burns way too fast

[Slimpickins]

New stove burns a full firebox in 4 hours with air intake closed, Hearthstone and local dealer are useless their customer service is non existent, they have my money now I'm on my own. Do I install a damper? chimney is average. height and wood is year and a half old.

 

[DAKSY]

New stove burns a fill firebox in 4 hours with air intake closed, Hearthstone and local dealer are useless their customer service is non existent, they have my money now I'm on my own. Do I install a damper? chimney is average. height and wood is year and a half old.

What is the EXACT height of your chimney?
Is that chimney & stove pipe straight off the top of the stove?
What species of wood are you burning?
What is the MEASURED moisture content of your wood?

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Have you checked all of your gaskets? Air leaks? What is stovetop temp? Flue temp?

 

[electrathon]

Depending on what wood I am burning and a few other factors, 4 hours would make me happy. I have basically the same stove as you do, just a few years older.

 

[Highbeam]

I had a heritage for several years. It's a 2.3 CF firebox and I could get 10 hours and still relight without matches from coals when using low btu softwoods. So, something is wrong with your stove or chimney. You are loading the firebox full to the roof right?

 

[webby3650]

Is this a new Heritage 2? Did you get the Ashpan with the stove?

 

[begreen]

I had a heritage for several years. It's a 2.3 CF firebox and I could get 10 hours and still relight without matches from coals when using low btu softwoods. So, something is wrong with your stove or chimney. You are loading the firebox full to the roof right?

What were the burn times when it was in the teens or low 20s?

 

[Wickets]

still relight without matches from coals when using low btu softwoods.

Off topic nooby question: are soft woods generally easier to get burning than hardwoods are??

On topic, I have a heritage too and compared to what I've read here on the forums it seems to 1.not burn hot for long periods of time... Takes a long time to heat up and drops temperature rather quickly..... Maybe it's the perfect stove if no others existed haha

 

[electrathon]

Off topic nooby question: are soft woods generally easier to get burning than hardwoods are??

On topic, I have a heritage too and compared to what I've read here on the forums it seems to 1.not burn hot for long periods of time... Takes a long time to heat up and drops temperature rather quickly..... Maybe it's the perfect stove if no others existed haha

Hardwood starts slower (and more difficult) and burns longer. There is also more "heat" in a piece of hardwood than there is in soft wood.

Yes, slow to heat up, the soapstone can only absorb the heat so fast. It takes a long time to heat up and a while to cool down since it has a tough time moving the heat from the fire to the stove and then to the room. The soapstone is a thermal insulating layer between the fire and the room. On the other side, it is one of the prettiest stoves out there.

 

[Woody Stover]

are soft woods generally easier to get burning than hardwoods are??

Yes. Even when dry, dense woods take longer to get burning. Black Locust is hard to get started unless you have a hot coal bed to load on.

 

[webby3650]

Off topic nooby question: are soft woods generally easier to get burning than hardwoods are??

On topic, I have a heritage too and compared to what I've read here on the forums it seems to 1.not burn hot for long periods of time... Takes a long time to heat up and drops temperature rather quickly..... Maybe it's the perfect stove if no others existed haha

That's also been my experience with a hearthstone.

 

[webby3650]

Hardwood starts slower (and more difficult) and burns longer. There is also more "heat" in a piece of hardwood than there is in soft wood.

Yes, slow to heat up, the soapstone can only absorb the heat so fast. It takes a long time to heat up and a while to cool down since it has a tough time moving the heat from the fire to the stove and then to the room. The soapstone is a thermal insulating layer between the fire and the room. On the other side, it is one of the prettiest stoves out there.

That's correct, it can only absorb heat so fast. It also can only release a certain amount of the heat into the room. So when you are cranking the fire trying to get it hot in the room, the majority of the heat is going up the flue. These stoves run really high flue temperatures, and rarely have a dirty flue.

 

[begreen]

webby, did you ever try one with a butterfly damper in the stove pipe to reduce heat loss up the flue?

 

[Rearscreen]

I had a Mansfield and the ash grate got moved to the open position inadvertently (I never used this feature). Stove got out of control. Not sure if the Heritage has the same design.

 

[webby3650]

webby, did you ever try one with a butterfly damper in the stove pipe to reduce heat loss up the flue?

They don't recommend it, my flue was only 13' tall anyway.

I have seen a Hearthstone that was using a pipe damper, they shut everything down abruptly and the ensuing back puff blew the stones off the top of the stove.

 

[webby3650]

If the OP got the ashpan with his Heritage I'm pretty sure I know the issue.

The ashpan is now an option, it gets bolted in on site. The issue is that the fit is very poor, bolted down tight it does not seal, very sloppy! Until we were given a resolution to the problem, we added a second gasket to the mating surface. The direction from Hearthstone was to do this very thing. If you have the ashpan option I'd put money on this being the problem.

Reach under the stove and see if the ashpan has movement up and down.

 

[VirginiaIron]

The soapstone has a Low heat transference rate. Soapstone might be good if you're at home at all times feeding it throughout the day. The Hearthstone Soapstone is beautiful Stove and certainly a conversation piece.

 

[electrathon]

I had a Mansfield and the ash grate got moved to the open position inadvertently (I never used this feature). Stove got out of control. Not sure if the Heritage has the same design.

If the ash grate is open there is a lever that keeps the ash door from closing. The grate is not the "seal" for outside air, the ash door is. So generally it would be pretty tough to accidently have it open. When my stove was hot the movable ash grate would warp just enough that you could not move it. Once cooled, you could wiggle the grate and get some ashes to fall through. I pulled out the grate so I can use the poker to get ashes to drop into the tray, then I can open the sealed ash door and pull out a tray of ashes.

 

[begreen]

They don't recommend it, my flue was only 13' tall anyway.

I have seen a Hearthstone that was using a pipe damper, they shut everything down abruptly and ensuing the back puff blew the stones off the top of the stove.

Whoa, sounds like a major puffback!

Wondering if the stove could benefit from more latent heat. I know the difference in slowing down the flue a bit on our 602 dramatically lowers flue temps above the damper. Of course, this raises the stove top temp so it would require watching that closely.

 

[electrathon]

I have seen a Hearthstone that was using a pipe damper, they shut everything down abruptly and ensuing the back puff blew the stones off the top of the stove.

That would scare me. I would likely have to go and change my clothes afterwards.

 

[webby3650]

That would scare me. I would likely have to go and change my clothes afterwards.

Didn't literally shoot them across the room, just
Knocked them all loose. It Heaved up all the top stones.

 

[VirginiaIron]

Back in the 90s I remember a salesman telling me that a damper was not recommended for a wood stove that had glass in the door for that very reason. Now every glass door I've ever seen has always been inlaid from the interior rather than the exterior like the soapstone.

 

[Highbeam]

What were the burn times when it was in the teens or low 20s?

Maximum burn time at lowest draft setting (exactly what the OP asked about) was always the same 10 hours because the stove has no brain and only burns fuel at a rate set by the user. Maximum burn time is a specification based on minimum burn rate and fuel load. If I as the operator wanted to reduce the burn time by increasing the burn rate I could probably do and call it something other than maximum burn time.

Even when it was 5 degrees outside, the most I could get out of that stove was 10 hours. 60 degrees outside, same 10 hours.

I think you like to try and imply that maximum burn time has something to do with the needed heat in the home to keep the home at 70 degrees. That is not maximum burn time. That is called utilizing a variable burn rate to meet your needs.

 

[Highbeam]

Off topic nooby question: are soft woods generally easier to get burning than hardwoods are??

On topic, I have a heritage too and compared to what I've read here on the forums it seems to 1.not burn hot for long periods of time... Takes a long time to heat up and drops temperature rather quickly..... Maybe it's the perfect stove if no others existed haha

Ha! I have experience with both softwoods and hardwoods. Now realize that by definition hardwoods are anything deciduous which includes cottonwood and poplar so you really need to be more specific with the question. I find zero difference with startup times for hardwood and softwoods of similar densities.

I sold the hearthstone after running about 30 cords through it. It worked as advertised. I would not call soapstone a performance enhancement as it most often caused me to be colder than I wanted to be while it was warming up. Very high flue temps all the time as webby mentions but a very clean flue. What I disliked most was that the hinge and door latch hardware was rapidly wearing and not replaceable without a full stove tear down. My upgrade to the BK also came with the phenomenal increase in available burn rates so that I can get 30 hour burn times.

 

[begreen]

The implication is that the OP may be dealing with colder temps and having the air open wider for a higher average stove top temperature. Our max burntime in shoulder season burning is 12-14 hrs. We can do that and maintain a 550-600F stove temp. In very cold weather, even burning hardwood the max burn time drops down to about 8 hrs as we push the stove for higher stovetop temperature, running at 700F stove top temp for 2-3 hrs until the fire starts burning down. In other words, max burn times to maintain a given interior temperature.