New Woodstock Ideal Steel installation

Hello from the land of sky blue water!

I'm sitting in front of "break-in" fire #2, watching my new Woodstock Ideal Steel hum along at 475 degrees. A couple of observations so far, and some questions.

1. I cannot open the stove (with the bypass open and air fully open) without smoke spillage. It's significant enough that it bothers me. The smoke curtain does come down, but seems to have no effect.

2. This thing takes a good while to warm up! I suppose that is to be expected with the soap stone. It's a small fire, but it took about 2 hours to feel any heat from it, sitting in front about 4-5 feet away. The insulated glass door definitely traps the heat.

3. Not much in the way of secondaries yet. I'm still playing with the air control and when to engage the cat sled. Maybe the wood I'm burning is too marginal for good secondaries? Are secondaries affected by the cat position?

4. The stove is beautiful, and I love it!

Questions:

1. Is the smoke spillage connected to a marginal draft? I hear a slight/low pitch whistle at one of the DSP pipe connections...how likely is that to cause a draft issue?

2. When is the best time to turn the stove down on a new fire? I seem to want to engage the cat at about 350 degrees, and turn the air down to just above 1/2, but the fire basically goes out. It's still heating, but a thin black film began to form on the metal surfaces inside. Should I wait for 500 degrees or so?

That's it for now. I appreciate your help in understanding my new heat machine!

 

how long are your opening the bypass and air before opening the door?

 

What’s your outdoor temp there? Draft improves with colder temps. It may help to open the IS door very slowly, letting the exhaust column in the flue to accelerate.
Your IS being in the downstairs might place it below the house neutral pressure plane, have a window to crack open nearby before opening the stove?
No exhaust fans running?

 

We engage the cat when top temp hits 300f. The stove seems to perform best mostly filled, at least 2/3 (or better 3/4) full to get strong secondaries. Our cruise setting after tapering down for several minutes past cat engage is 1/4. But I do love running the stove in full cat mode (no firebox flame) with lever at 3 notches above full closed.
This thing has a lot of thermal mass - it does take time after a cold start to start heating. But you get that absorbed heat back after the fire goes out.

 

Doesn't seem to matter...15 seconds or a minute, the smoke spillage is the same. The flames get exited when the door is cracked, so it seems like the draft is doing its thing!

 

Outdoor temp is about 35. Stove is "downstairs" but only by 3 feet or so. Split-level house, so all but the bottom 3 feet of the basement are underground. Connector comes out the back of the stove about 2 feet, then straight up 25 feet in class A. No fans running, and the house isn't super tight.

 

Does the horizontal pipe have a slight upward pitch toward the wall/thimble? Is it clean? How dry is the wood....when was it split/ and stacked?
When was the last time the flue got cleaned?
Are you opening the door quickly or slowly?

 

Pitch: yes
Clean: yes, new
Wood: 11-17%
Door: slowly

I had a feeling the rear exit might impact draft. I may have the option to come off the top and go back with a 45.

 

These andirons so far just get in the way. ;-)

 

Hmm, everything sounds right. Maybe the rear exit, but I think once burning real loads in cold winter (like in No. MN) the flue will heat up more and the temp delta will increase draft nicely.
By now you’ve found that the andirons either tip forward or can be easily removed...
Good lookin’ stove!

 

Nice looking setup!

25' should draft peachy. Is the cap on your tee sealed good?

 

One little tip to think on... Are you folding down the andirons when you load it? When you do this more of the door opening is blocked allowing the opening to create more vacuum. It might not fix the problem entirely but it may help.

 

Well it does sound like it is working somewhat, so I doubt this applies here, but was there anything left in the stove pipe/chimney during the build? I have heard, more than once, of people forgetting a towel, or some insulation that was stuffed in the flue to block it off until the stove was hooked up...
Might try cracking a lower level window or door open just to make sure it isn't a lower level negative pressure situation...

 

Everything sounds like it should be good. I have about 22 ft class a chased in all outside with a through wall setup. I have an almost constant draw even without a fire. I would check the cleanout t cap as stated. I have a rambler with the stove in the basement and have to crack a window near by on a cold stove start.

35 oat should be enough inversion once the stack is warmed to create a good suction.... The IS is a little more prone to smoke spillage because of the large door opening. On a reload I usually open the draft wide open for about 10+ mins before opening the door. Usually an hour or so to get the coal bed burnt down anyway. Let the coals get good and hot and glowing getting the stack warmed back up. It will act differently with a true load and a good bed of coals on the bottom. Its hard not to fiddle with a new stove but you will eventually get used to only opening the loading door 2-3 times a day! Most of us only need to do it twice running about 12 hour loads.

 

Edit to post 13, also check to make sure everything is in its proper place in the stove too...sometimes things bounce or slide out of place during shipping/install and really cause problems with proper function...

 

Oh and I remember now the new IS paint curing smell during breakin fires and a couple burns following. BUT that smell is very different from wood smoke odor.

 

You described what happens exactly to me when I try to push marginal wood through the IS. Even surface moisture will cause this scenario. I find it helpful to store wood inside at least three days before burning it.

 

I looked but could not find if the OP stated how many feet of chimney he has?
I agree with Unhdsm on the wood being inside a few days and working better, I see that with mine at times but it does not cause smoke spillage.

 

See post #6.
I'm also wondering about the 10-3-2 rule on the flue. How far out the roof is the pipe, and how close to the roof is the cap horizontally? Any big trees nearby? Hills, or other possible obstructions?

 

Yes, it is a great stove and should serve you well.

To answer your points:

1)Me too, me neither. I have now had the stove on two chimenys and the new chimney is insulated S.S., over 30' feet tall, and I still cannot open the door without smoke rolling into the house. I think it is just a matter of havign such a large opening as teh door on an I.S. is, with all that air trying to flow up a 6" pipe and it just ain't gonna' happen IMO. I put a draft inducer fan on the smoke pipe just above the stove and it has eliminated the problem entirely. I only use the fan to open the door, and start it just prior to opening the door; with the fan on, I can actually remove the door and nothing spills into the house. Not the most beautiful addition to a wood stove, and it is loud but it functions perfectly.

2) Yes it does. Nothing special or tricky about it, merely an insulated stove. And as it is a fairly large stove, it really does not respond well to small fires, it takes a fair amount of wood just to get the stove up to temp. so it starts radiating into the room with you. This stove does not produce any useful heat from, say, a quick cardboard or wood scrap fire to 'take the chill off' on a cool night. It works best when loaded past 1/2 full and the load of fuel gets up to temperature.

3) That may be the type of wood you are burning, or again because the stove is not full. This stove does an interesting thing when full and after it is engaged but damped down: the fire at the bottom of the stove almost goes out while the secondaries take off and burn quite actively on top of the firebox. The secondary air supply flowing through all those holes in teh top baffle will actually dig holes into the splits because they put out 'jets' of flame that bore down into the wood. Again, the stove really has to be loaded to the top and used at at least a medium level, not really slow, to see this effect but it is impressive. You will no doubt see this happening later in the year when you both fill the stove and run it a bit harder.

To get the stove to light the catalyst and get fully engaged with a full load of wood, I would suggest running it with the bypass open, the draft between 3/4 and full open until the stack temps. reach about 600 to 700 degrees F. This is the actual flue gas temp. so if you are using a magnetic thermometer, it will read about 1/2 of that. Then close the bypass and close the draft to 1/2 and wait for the combustor to light and go past 1,000 F. Then close the draft to whatever you want and the stove should run for hours untouched. All of these temperatures depend on where you measure them and what you measure them with; a lot of people go by stove top temperatures and that is fine but you will need to adjust the temperature readings and times a bit for that. 350F on the stove top should be hot enough to close the bypass and start to use the stove in catalyst mode (or hybrid mode).

It takes a little while to learn how to use any new stove so you will have to tinker around a bit and see what works for you, with your wood, and your chimeny, in your house. This stove will run fine with a black firebox basically smoldering along if the combustor is 'lit' and is kept fueled by smoke, and that may be enough heat output for your house. Again, as the winter begins and the temps. fall, the stove and chimeny will act very differently so the whole year will be a learning curve. Not really a bad thing at all, it can be quite interesting to learn how to make the stove work best for you as well as enjoyable, at least IMO.

Best of luck with it and if you continue to comment and interact here on this forum, I am sure you will get a lot of useful advice and knowledge. A great group of people here with a lot of knowledge.

Brian