A continuation of my thread about getting my hybrid Clydesdale. Did my first inspection today. It was due according to the manual, and I've been seeing some smoke out my chimney while the cats are engaged which I don't think should be happening. Removed the baffle boards and maintenance hatch, all of which was very straightforward, and saw this: The gasket for the bypass door was just hanging half off. Definitely a factory QC issue as this wouldn't have been touched by the installers. The cats themselves had a bit of fly ash but cleaned up nicely with a paintbrush and some compressed air. To my untrained eye they look good (this is pre-cleaning): I believe the issue with the gasket was allowing a significant amount of draft to go straight up the flue leading to my smoke issues, as well as a surprising buildup of creosote: To my untrained eye this is not a problematic amount, but is definitely more than expected. I'm not going to sweep it now but I might on the next inspection mid-winter. Additionally, the installers were a little sloppy with the placement of the fire bricks leading to some gaps inside the firebox. I carefully pushed them around a bit to seal up the gaps and get more exposed brick in the active firebox area. This probably won't make much difference but it certainly can't hurt. I can definitely see why Hearthstone advises periodic inspections during the burning season. I'm rather annoyed at their gasket installation job because it cost me time and money for parts--wire brush, acetone, gasket cement, but getting a warranty coverage on this minor issue would likely take weeks if not months. Other than these issues, the stove has been burning well and I'm happy with it. It puts out a ton of heat and I'm able to run my house on wood heat for about 90% of my heating needs. Hopefully I'll see an improvement in efficiency with the bypass gasket repaired, as I've gone through a fair bit of wood so far, and winter has not even started. My only other complaint with the stove is that the glass darkens around the edges. Hearthstone advises a hot burn once a day, and while that cleans 80% of it, the corners never fully clear up. I've noted that my stove top temps have been a bit lower than anticipated, 250-300, and I may be slightly under-firing the stove, but it's a difficult balancing act in keeping the cat temps in range. All minor things, and overall I'm quite pleased with the stove so far.
Not only the stove but perhaps you need to do some changing in the wood supply due to the creosote and black glass. I hope changing that gasket was not too difficult.
Dennis has a point. What is the moisture content of the wood you are burning? Or how long has it been cut split and stacked and what kind of wood? That's a bit worrisome that the gasket wasn't in it's place and was so obviously not where it should've been.
I'm generally not burning anything above 15%, and never above 20%. Oak and ash primarily. I think what happened is that because the gasket was jamming the bypass opening slightly most of my flue gasses were zooming through the small gap and then immediately expanding into the flue and cooling. The cats have probably barely been working this entire time. I speculate that this happened at the factory, the worker left glue on the rope gasket and closed the bypass and then when it got opened later on it ripped it out. Action shot:
Of course this begs the question of how you are checking to know that is the right moisture content. How long has that oak been split and stacked? I'm not trying to pick but rather attempting to get to the root of the problem and too many times people use a MM but not necessarily the correct way. Yet, I never even use one as I have no need for one. I burn some oak but it has been split and stacked for 3 years or longer before burning it.
I'm not sure why you folks would jump to my wood being bad when I identified and fixed a serious issue with the draft which would undoubtedly lead to a pressure drop and condensation in the flue. The wood is 2+ years stacked. I check moisture by splitting a room temperature log and sticking the pins lengthwise into the grain. In reality, this stove won't even burn wet wood. I've stuck wet logs into it before and it just goes out.
That's a beautiful looking stove. I was just looking at them just a few weeks back. Just window shopping of course, if I had the money. It would fit in my setup nicely and give me the longer burn times I desire.
It truly is a great stove. I have some complaints but they're all minor, and I'm not convinced that there would be a better model out there that does any better. Primary gripes: - Difficult to monitor the cat thermometer because it's tucked way back, which necessitates using a flashlight to see it - Hard to run a high-temp burn without overheating the cat thermometer. This seems to be getting better as it breaks in, but the balancing act is mildly annoying. Turning the blower to max helps with this. - The blower lacks any sort of PID or feedback control so you occasionally hear the motor "wandering" in RPM as it runs which sounds kind of cheap. I may try to take it apart next summer and see if there are any replacement motors available from motor supply houses that have constant speed control. This would be a killer mod/upgrade if doable. - As mentioned before, the blackened glass corners. I don't think there is a fix for this, but maybe super dry wood (under 10%). 80% of the glass stays totally clear so this is really just an aesthetic complaint. My house is three floors and when running the stove my central air never kicks on, which is the important factor.
Looking for a cat insert and there are only a few out there made. But they all seem to be around the 5k mark, that's really steep.
It's in the mid 60s outside so a good chance to clean the stove up: Cleans up nice. Wish the glass would stay that clean. It will stay totally clear until I turn it down for an overnight burn and then I'll wake up with blackened corners.
damm, do you detail cars for a living ? Turned down overnite burns, blackened glass and some extra flakes in the chimney seem to be par for the course.
Agreed. I'm fairly certain if I only ran the stove on max it wouldn't darken the glass at all. I can run it all day and it will stay clear but once I turn it down for overnight I wake up with dark edges. My overnight burn process: - An hour before, shovel coals to front and set air to max, place a tiny 2" split on top to burn down the coals and keep heat up - Once again shovel coals to front. Ideally I get a coal bed that is RED HOT and only occupies the front third - Place 4-6 large splits in, with a smaller piece with a tapered wedge at the very front by the intake - Let front split catch and close up and engage cat - Assuming I started with a RED HOT coal bed, I can typically shut down in less than five minutes. I shut it down as quickly as possible while maintaining a strong yellow flame at just the very front. I see a lot of people say they char everything first and then shut down, but this is not necessary for me, and would cut into my burn times. After about 30 minutes, the secondaries light off STRONG all the way across the top. Initial burn after shutdown. To me this is a perfect start: Half an hour later the secondaries fire up and we are off to the races: The dark corners shown here are a "worst case" scenario and as a result of multiple consecutive days where I have not exactly nailed the combustion. It's not typically this bad, but isn't uncommon depending on how the stove has been managed that day. Also I am a bit of auto-detailing hobbyist lol. I have the cleaning process down to about ten minutes. Shovel stove out, clean glass with stove cleaner + ash (the combo works best), wipe exterior with a damp cloth, and sweep the whole area. Bonus shot: I have a fireplace in my home theater running on the same chimney (sorry to those that don't have a fireplace in their home theater). The stove installers really hooked me up on this and installed a beautiful top damper for it to keep the stove smoke out of my basement. When closed all you see from outside is the stove flue, but when the fireplace damper is open the entire thing raises up vertically to match with the stove flue like a scissor lift. It's a work of art.
The polar vortex has pushed out from my area and it's 60 degrees. Good opportunity for a cleaning and inspection. The stove was very much appreciate during this arctic blast, both for its assistance warming the house and defraying utility bills, as well as the peace of mind knowing we will have heat in the event of a power outage. I've been running it almost 24/7 all winter so far and I have burned around 2 cords. Setup with the Sooteater. Me and George about to go to work: Results: 2-3 cups maybe. Less than I expected but definitely not nothing. I think this could have waited till spring, but why wait? Flue looks good: All done. Cleaned out the firebox and vacuumed out the remnants: The sweeping went well, and this gave me an opportunity to clean the cats and validate that my bypass gasket repair is holding up, which it is. I will not be hiring a sweep going forward. Doing this myself gives me a chance to - Save money - Do it on my schedule - Work slowly and meticulously
Lately hired help is a waste of money. People just don’t seem to care as much as we all do. Getting dirty and DIY seems to be a thing of the past.
Blackened glass is par for the course on a stove that can operate low and slow. During the "blizzard" we just had here in MI, The Kings glass stayed clean, but it was also being run at a temp with an actual flame in the firebox. Loaded twice a day with 3 year oak, hickory and beech. Now that its been in the 50's, the glass is getting covered and its being loaded once a day. Just the nature of the beast. As for the steel cats.. I installed one after the first heating season with the King. Started this season and as time progressed I noticed the stove wasn't breathing right. Finally narrowed it down to the cat so I pulled it and cleaned it. This is the majority of what came out of it and that is after blowing it out in the stove... I bought a Ceramic to put back in and that's what is running right now. Cleaned the Steel Cat even further and put it in the box as a backup. I was pretty rough with it during cleaning, it seemed to hold up well. I honestly did not think it would plug up as relatively quickly as it did, but now I know if I'm running it, it needs to be cleaned yearly.
"I honestly did not think it would plug up as relatively quickly as it did, but now I know if I'm running it, it needs to be cleaned yearly." Are you saying the cat needs cleaning yearly?
What came out of mine was a seasons worth of burning, 24/7 for 3-4 months. Id wager the ceramic cats fair better since the openings are much larger. When I removed the original one, it looked fine. It didn't survive the removal process which is why I didn't keep it.
I had not heard that.. Makes sense, though. It chugged along fine all last heating season, I only noticed an issue about 4 weeks into this season.
Having inspected my cats twice now I will be pulling the baffles and cleaning every ~two weeks of burning.
