I live in Maine. Brand new house built in 2021... Very well insulated and sealed up tight. Our stove is a Hearthstone GM60. Double wall pipe that's 20' with a weather cap. House is 1800 sq ft with the Woody as the sole heat source.
My problem is that when I load the stove up, regardless of how hot or how much wood I put in, I'll get a nice strong flame and coal bed in the front of the stove (roughly the first 6-8") but the back of the stove (last 4-5" or about 1 log's worth) appears to be choked for air and wood largely just smokes and turns to charcoal that slowly very slowly burns away. I get a pretty uneven burn out of the stove and it does not seem right. When the stove was installed the crew said it was missing the metal protector for the upper firebrick deflectors. I was getting absolutely horrible burn results during my first couple uses and it was burning quite erratically. I discovered they (or the factory) had stored that metal bracing piece on the upper air inlet on the back upper part of the stove and I ultimately removed it and placed it in the proper spot while I was waiting for them to order a replacement part. (Very disappointed with the stove installers, they still haven't called me back about getting that installed and it's almost 4 months later). That said due to the way the fire burns so unevenly I'm wondering if something else is amiss or is that normal for this stove. Or maybe even the way I'm placing the logs?
I have poked around some on the forums but have not notice anyone else with this problem.
Firstly, I'm using only Maine grown hardwood. Seasoned for a year to 18 months, however I will admit my tarp was slightly undersized this year so a couple pieces have some moisture to them but I try to let those rest but the stove for a few days to dry out when I find one. Our wood is between 16-18" and I largely can only load them lengthwise into the stove so airflow isn't optimal I get thay. Further, I will usually rake out the hot coal bed to make it nice and even before adding new wood, and I allow new wood to catch before flipping back the cat, but the coals at the back of the stove appear to get choked out regardless of what I do, even if I leave the damper fully open (unless start the burn with it fully open and never shut it down so it's very very hot). Ultimately, 9/10 the back part of the stove is the area that will have coals left during an overnight burn but the majority of the time this area has black coals and is actively smoking and basically producing charcoal. Just moreso looking to see if this is normal for the stove?
My problem is that when I load the stove up, regardless of how hot or how much wood I put in, I'll get a nice strong flame and coal bed in the front of the stove (roughly the first 6-8") but the back of the stove (last 4-5" or about 1 log's worth) appears to be choked for air and wood largely just smokes and turns to charcoal that slowly very slowly burns away. I get a pretty uneven burn out of the stove and it does not seem right. When the stove was installed the crew said it was missing the metal protector for the upper firebrick deflectors. I was getting absolutely horrible burn results during my first couple uses and it was burning quite erratically. I discovered they (or the factory) had stored that metal bracing piece on the upper air inlet on the back upper part of the stove and I ultimately removed it and placed it in the proper spot while I was waiting for them to order a replacement part. (Very disappointed with the stove installers, they still haven't called me back about getting that installed and it's almost 4 months later). That said due to the way the fire burns so unevenly I'm wondering if something else is amiss or is that normal for this stove. Or maybe even the way I'm placing the logs?
I have poked around some on the forums but have not notice anyone else with this problem.
Firstly, I'm using only Maine grown hardwood. Seasoned for a year to 18 months, however I will admit my tarp was slightly undersized this year so a couple pieces have some moisture to them but I try to let those rest but the stove for a few days to dry out when I find one. Our wood is between 16-18" and I largely can only load them lengthwise into the stove so airflow isn't optimal I get thay. Further, I will usually rake out the hot coal bed to make it nice and even before adding new wood, and I allow new wood to catch before flipping back the cat, but the coals at the back of the stove appear to get choked out regardless of what I do, even if I leave the damper fully open (unless start the burn with it fully open and never shut it down so it's very very hot). Ultimately, 9/10 the back part of the stove is the area that will have coals left during an overnight burn but the majority of the time this area has black coals and is actively smoking and basically producing charcoal. Just moreso looking to see if this is normal for the stove?
