Soapstone break in, brown liquid

[DSW]

While breaking in my Hipster soapstone stove, I noticed after the first burn(10 pc kindling only, per manual) there was brown, sticky liquid at a few points where the wood may have been in contact with the stove as it burned. The wood is 2+ year old oak cordwood. I'll get a moisture meter tomorrow.

Is this a worrisome buildup, or am I going to have to break it in more times than the manual suggests?

6" lined steel flue, no horizontal.

 

[begreen]

It may be normal moisture bleeding out of the cement and stone. If so, this will stop after the next hotter fire or two.

This is the first posting on the Hipster. Please let us know how the stove performs for you.

 

[xman23]

I think it's from the wood , and a pristine new stove surface. The break in fires are not hot enough to burn clean.

 

[nlvllm]

We had a few drops fall from one corner of our new stove on the second burn. Hasn't happened since!

 

[mark cline]

Never heard of Hipster , going to have to look into it. As you progressively burn hotter fires , the cement and soap stone will dry out , keep in mind that the break in fires are a good practice every year before the heating system. Going on 10 years with my Hearthstone Mansfield and it still performs like new.

 

[Rob_Red]

Normal, my hearthstone green mountain 40 (same stove) did the same thing and will weep a little moisture every time I do the first fire of the season

 

[begreen]

Normal, my hearthstone green mountain 40 (same stove) did the same thing and will weep a little moisture every time I do the first fire of the season

That's very interesting. It looks like Ambiance partnered with Hearthstone to make the Hipster 14 and Hipster 20.

 

[tabner]

My GM60 dripped liquid out the two back bottom corners, probably my first 6 to 8 fires, last year when it was new. It hasn't done it once this year. I believe BeGreen is correct, it's the cements and manufacturing products curing, not the wood.
Side note, I visited Preston Trading post yesterday and saw they had a GM 40, 60, and 80 all on their floor. I asked what the customer feedback has been like on them overall and they said very good (take that with a grain of salt if you want).
While there I also got to see an F45V2 in person - really great looking stove, compact on the exterior, but that deep 18" N/S firebox is very impressive.

 

[begreen]

Our F400 did this for the first few fires too. It never happened again after that.

I visited Preston Trading post yesterday and saw they had a GM 40, 60, and 80 all on their floor. I asked what the customer feedback has been like on them overall and they said very good (take that with a grain of salt if you want).
While there I also got to see an F45V2 in person - really great looking stove, compact on the exterior, but that deep 18" N/S firebox is very impressive.

That has been a good shop. Did you ask about the F500v3 too?

 

[DSW]

So on my second burn I added more kindling. The stone inside was sweating like a shower wall. I gave it a day and did a third burn at a higher temp. More waterworks inside -- nothing externally. Next, I fired it up to just sub-cat temps for about 45 minutes and then pushed it into cat temps for a couple hours. I was sitting in my basement wondering why they warned me about the curing smell/smoke, then went upstairs -- now I know where all the offgassing went.

 

[Rob_Red]

My GM60 dripped liquid out the two back bottom corners, probably my first 6 to 8 fires, last year when it was new. It hasn't done it once this year. I believe BeGreen is correct, it's the cements and manufacturing products curing, not the wood.
Side note, I visited Preston Trading post yesterday and saw they had a GM 40, 60, and 80 all on their floor. I asked what the customer feedback has been like on them overall and they said very good (take that with a grain of salt if you want).
While there I also got to see an F45V2 in person - really great looking stove, compact on the exterior, but that deep 18" N/S firebox is very impressive.

We go to the same stove shop! I like that f45 it’s just a tad to big for my room though also it needs more clearance to combustibles