New member with question on Hearthstone Heritage Wood Stove.. Please Help.

[thndrdrag]

Hi everyone,

My name is Rich, I am from NH. I bought my stove in July, and have been using it since October with little or no issues, I was emptying the ash today and found a piece of drywall type of board inside when cleaning (fireboard I think) I looked inside and this board was located at the top of the stove above a few pipes inside. I was wondering if anyone has had this issue and could give me some advice on it, or if anyone knows if it is nessecary to the operation of the stove. It looks like if you were to rough placeing the wood into the stove this could happen quite often. I really dont want to light it if it will harm the stove, but with the temperature outside getting colder as we speak if its ok to light I would really like to.

Thanks for the help,
Rich

 

[badger1968]

Hey Rich--
I have a Homestead. The board is the baffle board. It assists with the secondary combustion. Check to see if you have cracked it. If so, I would proceed with caution--call your dealer in the morning. I believe the consequence will be impaired secondary combustion and more smoke going up the flue--which long term isn't good for your flue, your efficiency, and the environment. If it's not, I think you're OK. I think you might be jamming in the wood a bit too aggressively--admirable, but potentially damaging.

 

[thndrdrag]

Hi Badger,

Thanks for answering my post, I am sure that the board is cracked. It is in many pieces actually. Sorry I dont have much experience or understanding of the overall workings of my wood stove. You say that it helps in secondary combustion, could you explain that a bit to me? I dont really see how it would help withhold smoke from escaping as their is the ability to pass air all around it. Do you know if this is repairable? And if so, is do you know if it is costly?

Thanks again for your help,
Rich

 

[badger1968]

From Hearthstone:
"If this piece has been fractured or a hole is punctured, it will cause the stove to function improperly. You must replace the board through a qualified Hearthstone dealer."

In terms of what it does and how it works:
"it maintains high temperatures in the secondary combustion area . . . to maintain the low emission - high efficiency combustion you desire."
I believe it helps create a heat inversion which traps smoke so it can be combusted.

I think you need to entirely replace it. Cost? Don't know. Good luck!

 

[Jabbers]

I cracked mine last year on my quadra fire. I put the board back with the blanket on top until I got another one. The stove wasn't 100% but it worked.

 

[thndrdrag]

Thanks to you both for the information.

Best Regards,
Rich

 

[Jabbers]

But I would call your dealer.

 

[edthedawg]

Thndrdrag - sorry i missed this earlier. Yes - that is (was) your baffle and you NEED the baffle. It is the achilles heel of the Hearthstone Heritage. Did you get your stove new? Or was it used? It is not safe - nor sensible - to operate the stove without the baffle securely in place. It's neither terribly expensive nor difficult to install, but you gotta be careful with it.

Here's the best info I can give you: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/16657/

Good luck - get it fixed - read the manual again - burn safe and be warm!

 

[edthedawg]

As for what the baffle does - badger's right - it's critical to your secondary combustion. It creates a path for firebox gases to spend a little more time inside the stove, keeping it hotter. Secondary combustion is what burns off the excess smoke, helping maintain high temps and a clean burn.

I don't want to harp on you, but you stated you don't really understand how your stove works? That's kinda scary, dude... Do you monitor your stovetop or flue temps at all? If that baffle's been broken for some time, you didn't notice it running colder or anything? Smoking heavy from the chimney? Consuming mass quantities of wood without actually warming you up?

This is a pretty popular stove - lots of info available here and elsewhere on the web. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress with the repairs... I'm contemplating ordering a backup baffle just in case I happen to smash mine - I've nudged it good a couple times but I'm always REAL careful w/ that top split...

 

[Highbeam]

You need the baffle to be in place and whole. It is actually pretty tough to break it since it is rather hefty and pretty thick but I agree with others that you must prevent logs from hitting it. I have a couple of dents on mine from firewood mishaps over the last 10 cords of wood that I've shoved through it. I pack logs right up to the bottom of the tubes.

I also remove the baffle to sweep my chimney. It is very easy to replace the baffle when your new one arrives. You just weave it in through the tubes.

The heritage has no blanket or other jive in the box. Only the tubes and the board so that board is critical to keeping your stove burning as it was designed.

I wonder how it got broke in the first place?

I priced the replacement since I thought it was the most likely thing to be broken and it was only like 60$. The newer baffles attach to the tubes with a wire while my older one (built July of 06 according to the metal tag) uses cotter pins.

 

[thndrdrag]

Hi everyone,

I would like to thank you all for the help and support you have give thus far. I have looked over the website and am intreged by so many of the great topics that are available to read through. Thanks Edthdawg for the link to the replacement of the baffle on hearthstone. I didnt mean to make it sound like I was totally inexperienced in running a stove, just more along the lines of the names of pieces, and not understanding the mechinics of the internal area(such as the secondary combustion) of the stove and how to take it apart and replace things. Or how a piece of fireboard does anything more than protect the upper area and exhaust pipe from overfires.

I do monitor both the flue temp and top surface temp of my stove to ensure there is no over firing. I did check my doors for drafts, once I read the dollar trick on here and found one of my doors to be a bit loose and have since retihghtened it. I clean and maintain the stove weekly, and check for breaks and buildup. My wife was the one who told me that she had pulled the piece of fireboard out and as she was cleaning it, the stove was lit at that point and I told her that I would look at it the next day when I got home to see what happened. I found a cracked board, with a 3-4 inch hole in it and havent used it since. The 2 pieces we found while cleaning would have filled the hole. And now I will educated myself further in stove maintinence so I will be more aware of these things.

 

[edthedawg]

Thndrdrag - great to hear you are doing well with the Heritage - it's a fantastic stove. Mine is purring along w/ some spots on top at 600F and the single-wall stack metal temp at about 380.

Your baffle w/ the hole in it - I definitely recommend trying the refractory cement patch trick in the link I sent you. I thought it sounded like yours had completely disintegrated. But just a puncture wound? Prime opportunity to save yourself some bucks. Worst case, you gotta get up in there anyways to replace it. If it was me, I would totally do the cardboard and cement trick.

As for its function again - it's a baffle - it slows down the exiting gases, lets them circulate up there w/ the tubes, and promotes high temps and clean burns. I don't consider it protecting the flue or stovetop per se - they get hotter as a result of the baffle being there, IMO. I'd be curious to hear what you routinely get for stovetop temps, if you're content w/ your wood consumption, etc...

And just a thought... but... um, any chance it was Mrs. Thndrdrag who mighta accidentally made that hole while you were outta town? Just wonderin...

 

[thndrdrag]

I love the stoev so far, its been able to keep the house plenty warm thus far this winter. I usually keep my stove running on the top in the 425-475 range, we are not trying to do a real high burn. I did see 525 once or twice but slowed it down a bit to preserve the wood. Our stack normally runs about 100-125 under this level (approx: 325-350). It is possible that the Mrs. had put the hole into the baffle, but not knowing for sure i dont really want to point the finger at anyone.

Some of the wood that we are currently burning didnt dry out as much as I would like so we are loosing some of the heat to whatever moisture is left within the wood. So I think our consumption and our effiency could be a bit better. But like I said, I am pretty happy over all with it. I will attempt the refactory cement trick that you have reccommended before I go out and buy the baffle. Thanks again for all your help.

BR
Rich