New Woodstock Ideal Steel installation

Yes, cleaning door glass on a door that is cool and lying flat is a LOT easier than cleaning the same glass when it is hot and there is Vulcan's forge running next to it (in the open hole that is the woodstove).

I find the garbage on the door scrapes off pretty easily dry provided the blade is sharp. After that, Rutland glass cleaner works fantastically to remove the remaining crud and leaves some kind of coating on the glass that makes it easier to clean the next time.

Brian

 

Yep, just common sense: why in the world would, say, 150 square inches or more of door opening and air flowing, plus all the gasses that the fire is making, all go up a 30 square inch pipe? Some will but the rest will spill into the room.

And there are 27 ways to try and address that but I find it easier to just use a draft inducer, which is a perfect 'shotgun' fix; it just overcomes the small exit with force and blasts everything up the chimney. Once running, no need to try and be quick opening and closing the door, or frantically throwing the wood into the stove and so forth. It really is a nice wood stove accessory IMO.

Brian

 

Yep, a lot of people do use the front of the stove as a measurement of temperature and that is fine. I do not believe there is a right or wrong way to measure temps., just that some are faster than others and some better represent what is going on in the stove I think.

If I had to pick one or two, I would measure the flue gas temperature, preferably with a thermocouple because they are much faster and have much better resolution than any mechanical spring thermometer. The other one if I only had two would go on the top / top / top or the front / front / front of the stove to watch overall heat as well as try and make sure the combustor was kept running. But I do believe a dedicated cat. thermometer or better, a thermocouple is very valuable on cat. stoves and really help run them efficiently as well as reduce or outright eliminate the risk of running a slow, smoldering fire making a lot of smoke and creosote with a stalled combustor. Of course there is only one place for a combustor temp. measurement, and that is on the top / top / above area over the combustor (not the bottom / top / side / front / top).

With a new stove, it might really help to have something like an inexpensive infrared temp. thermometer so you can quickly go around the stove and find the hot spots as well as the places that change in temp. the fastest, then place a thermometer in that place. Just a thought.

Brian

 

Could this draft inducer also be used in the beginning stages of starting a cold stove? I have a low draft situation with my chimney; probably because there is a tree too close to it. Once the chimney is hot, I am good to go but I get a lot of smoke issues at first and have to leave the door open for a good bit of time; I tend it of course, until I get the stack good and hot, and that is even in winter.

 

Yes, it can be used anytime. It has a speed control on it so it can be turned down to about 1/2 the max. speed. It is a bit loud though so depending on where your stove is located, that is a consideration. My stove is in the middle of my living room and I cannot use the draft inducer while watching TV for example.

The best ones are those that mount to the chimney top outside the house but they are very expensive and expensive to install (or difficult to install for the homeowner). A draft inducer in the stovepipe is kind of kludgy and rough but it gets the job done, is fairly inexpensive (around $165 or so) and overall works well. The downside is that if the chimney is ever clogged or significantly restricted, the draft inducer will continue to run but pour smoke into the house. I would never, ever leave one running and leave the room the stove is in, never mind leave the house. But used with some care, it is a fantastic way to use a woodstove in a house and keep things a lot cleaner than running the identical setup without the inducer. And it sucks in all the 'fines' ash too; that fine, white powder that gets everywhere inside the house also comes out of the stove, usually when being loaded with firewood or cleaning out the ashes- I always use the draft inducer when removing the ash pan too and that also goes a long way to keeping the fine ash in the stove and out of the house.

Mine is a Tjernlund-AD-1, and this is what it looks like: AD-1 - Tjernlund AD-1 - AD-1, Auto-Draft for Wood & Coal Stoves

I am not a salesman for Tjernlund and have no affiliation with them, and I certainly am not saying anyone needs one of these to use a woodstove. I just find it a useful, helpful addition on my own stove.

Brian

 

I've decided to give another pipe configuration a try. Instead of out the back to a tee, I'm going to come off the top, then back with a sweeping 90 (two 45s in sequence), into the adapter, and into a class A tee. It may or may not draft any better, but it's fewer pipe connections, and at least starts the smoke going up rather than horizontal almost 2 feet. Gotta grab another 45 and I should be good. Hoping I can cut an adjustable piece of DSP (selkirk) to fit since my choices are 6" or 12+". Looks like it shouldn't be a problem. I'll report back after this crazy warm weather gets outta town. Supposed to be near 70 tomorrow!

 

Low flue temps are going to cause problems in many causes no matter what the stove.
One person who loved his Blaze King said he had buildup that he had to keep an eye on due to the low flue temps. And yes his wood was dry and he new what he was doing.

 

Have any pics of install?

I'm interested in having less smoke spill during start-ups

 

I understand what your saying but respectively disagree.. old stove NC 13 type.. burned at least 10 cord a year (tough to do in 2 cu ft firebox) cleaned chimney every other cord always a 2 gallon bucket full.. new stove 4 cord easy year last 2 years more heat marginal wood avg 22 % on moisture meter last year a quart total 1 cleaning.. last week 4 cups! on 4 cord.. more heat less wood.. chimney is 30 feet exterior in a uninsulated chsse.. my draft is crazy iirc close to 50 pascals

 

Yes; however, that stove at some point had no baffles; no secondary burns, the baffle plate was completely burned out when I got it (there are photos in a thread I did). It was just like an old non-epa stove. By the way, I am still appreciative of you gifting the stove to me; it was very nice of you to try and help me out. I still intend to try and repair it.

 

Kimberly if I hadn't had double pneumonia I was going to put that piece in.. still have the piece of 3/8 steel to put holes in it to make another first one was less thick 1/4 but figured it would last longer because of the angle wood always hit it.. but I thought oldspark was referencing that older smoke dragons normally have higher flue temps so less creosote

 

One kinda' lousy photo.

The draft inducer is the 'blob' in the middle of the vertical smoke pipe. It is basically just a squirrel cage type of blower with about 3" of the blade sticking into the smoke pipe. It works by accelerating the air (and smoke) in the smoke pipe upward. This design leaves the majority of the smoke pipe open and unrestricted for normal use when the blower is not turned on.

Before someone asks, the 'wire' going to the top of the smoke pipe bottom is a thermocouple. There is also a thermocouple on the stove top, the magnetic thermometer is only there to hold the end of the thermocouple in place.

 

OK, my misunderstanding again . Do you think you could still make that piece? I was going to use the angle grinder to knock the welds off to remove it. Once out, I could take measurements. I will pay; shipping shouldn't be that much or I could have it shipped to my friend in NJ.

 

I find it takes a reload on a good coal bed to get secondaries. The bigger the load of wood the better the secondaries.

 

I will look again for it.. yes I have it.. it's in the garage.. but can I find it.. already cut to size.. what I was going to do was a two piece insert where the second piece has a little tab welded to it and would sit on the middle bracket only thing I hadn't finished was cutting it out and drilling the holes in the new piece...cut out with Drexel cutter and drill press for drilling holes ...not a big job for me just a few hours to do it but probably a few days to find the stuff.. part that really kills me is I found it a few months ago when I cleaned garage put it somewhere

 

might have to clean the garage again...

 

Yes, that is me. Actually, I think stuff hides from me; I really do. I waste more time hunting for stuff I know I have. My goal is to clean the shed and make a list of where I put stuff so I can find it later. The last time I cleaned the shed I found stuff that I had forgotten I had. It was like "Wow, I didn't know I had this."

 

is that an offer TD? 2.5 car bonus room above.. just put plywood over insulation and new work bench.. soon everything been moved twice. . it's in there but probably got something stacked on it.. then there's the 30 by 40 barn.. probably faster buy another it was 10 bucks then I'll find it real quick sorry for

 

Regarding the draft inducer mentioned earlier..... it has absolutely NOTHING to do with an Ideal Steel from Woodstock Soapstone. Every-time this comes up, I always get the feeling some people think that it is this stove that 'needed' a draft inducer and I want to make it perfectly clear that

1) The Ideal Steel does not need a draft inducer to function properly.
2) I would use a draft inducer on any modern stove with a large, front door (which I think is all of them).

So to be fair and honest regarding the Ideal Steel and Woodstock Soapstone, please understand it is NOT their stove that caused me to install a draft inducer, it is the fact that modern, front door stoves tend to spill some smoke and fine ash into the room with the stove. I would use the same draft inducer on either of the other two stoves I was considering when I bought the Ideal Steel, the Blaze King and the Regency F5100.

Brian

 

Pipe reconfigurated!