First fire in EPA rated Hearthstone Green Mountain 60

Had an issue last night....

Final stoke before bed was a little slow to take and get rip roaring. Maybe big chunk of wood not as dry as others I've been using OR the fire just wasn't hot enough to fill the firebox with. Either way, I probably didn't wait long enough before turning down the air control. It WAS in catalyst range but lower end.

Regardless, woke up this morning to BLACK glass....lots of creosote.... should I be worried that the fire wasn't hot enough to keep the catalyst firing through all of that? Catalyst gunked up from it?

 

Super easy to do on a BK cat stove also. Hence the reason for charring the load correctly prior to shutting down the primary air (in a BK at least). Sounds like it may work that way in a GM as well.

My wife... Bless her heart..... Makes me cringe a bit when left to reload etc. She gets impatient/nervous about turning down the air early. Almost every time. Black glass here we come Its a non-issue other than me rolling my eyes.

I like to spin the dial on the Cat gauge myself before dialing back. Good luck!

 

What was the house temp like this morning? Did it seem like the stove was heating overnight?
Also, what was the stove temp like?

 

My dearly beloved simply refuses to do anything stove related.

 

Yeah, I simply didn't get that char first BUT it was burning and heat seemed ok. I thought it would be fine but really, it was not fine... Lesson learnt.

Room temp was 58 and outside low was about 6. The stove DID heat most of the night and there WERE a bit of hot coals in the morning but clearly it had been a slow and smoky roll...

I think I need to make sure I add a log or two early enough in the evening to be sure to have enough heat/coals to get the overnight load burning. The issue last night was we were all out in the space as a family and it was PLENTY warm so I didn't add a log when I should have. Alternatively, should've treated that final fire like a new one and built it up with some kindling.

 

Mine has come full circle on the wood heat, is willing to stoke it, AND may even be open to the same stove in the house to replace the useless gas stove that is in there now!!!

 

Looks really nice. And so does your stove.
Welcome to the club.

 

I bet the cat is fine then...just gooped up the firebox...it will clean up after a couple good "rippah" fires...

 

X2

 

My OCD led me to let the stove cool after morning burn and cleaned up the glass spick and span....

 

Just an update to say still LOVING this stove!

We’ve been in the -15-20F range overnight last few nights and now that I’ve got the stove figured out for loading and air control, I’m lighting night fire at 9:30pm, dialing back air at 10pm, and still can light a morning fire at 6:30am next day with hot coals leftover. Typically room temp is around 65 degrees in the morning. I’d say NOT BAD for what I consider a very small stove.

She’s pretty too!!

 

Maybe even dialed it back TOO much last night. Massive bed of morning coals after reloading it almost 9 hours ago.

 

Looks pretty good to me

 

Yup. Nice being able to get the morning fire ripping quickly. Especially when it’s -13F out with a wind chill of -38F!!!

 

I go against the grain on this one but having a stove sized right is better than blowing the doors off the place for most the year with over heating the space.
I’m just a small stove kind of guy I guess.

 

I guess I am too! It’s working well here. Great little stove.

 

Looks great to me. Love seeing a big bed of coals in the morning, especially when the house is still warm.

 

I too have a stove in an outbuilding, had to change insurance companies BTW, and I have similar challenges with not being there to monitor it. Is this office conversion to allow you to work from home? Like a freshly displaced cubicle farm refugee? Did you put up walls in the garage or basically finish it out into a huge mancave "office" space? I can imagine a refrigerator, huge TV, woodstove, a couch, all in the name of "office" work.

Any pics of the conversion ?

 

yeah, insurance part is fun. As are building codes and zoning… we live in a tiny little Township but of course the county wants their greasy mitts on everything. The codes for an accessory building like this are quite interesting… previous owners had already added a bathroom and a separate room that is now my office. We did renovate everything and swapped out the garage doors for patio doors. The space cannot have any sleeping quarters, per zoning, because our septic system does not have a large enough drainfield to qualify a bedroom out here as a sleeping space. Just ridiculous.

Regardless, we got the space done and it affords us my office plus some much-needed living space considering our house is only 900 ft.² and there are four of us in it full-time. I have always worked from home (pre-WuFlu) and my wife homeschools our two children. For the first time in three years, this new space gives us the ability to have a television! But the woodstove is by far my favorite addition.