Production Woodstock IS

This far the stove has been great in shoulder season: I can easily get bed and get 10 hours out of 3-4 splits and wake with the stove at 250 to hold me until the next evening.

Tonight we are getting down to 32. We came home to a house at 62. I loaded the stove FULL of dry ash and threw a super cedar on top. I immediately got active secondaries from the top down start. I quickly got the stove to 300 and engaged the cat. Two hours later, stove room is at 67 and stove is sitting steady at 600. Cat is glowing. So easy to use. There's three checkpoints. Close the door, engage the cat, and shut the air down. It's a lot of fun.

 

Yes, I am geeking out over this stove. I was concerned of pushing much higher than 600 so I shut the air down completely. A red glow remained in the firebox but within 30 minutes the temp dropped to 520. I opened it back to one notch and we are holding steady. Cat no Longer glowing and stove around 500.

 

Glad to hear it BS. I should be in the same boat as you tomorrow , being able to burn and report a little bit of my learning curve to the IS comrades.
As you said, simple to learn how to use. Close the door, engage the cat then cut back the air.

 

Hey, haven't you heard, cat stoves are complicated to operate!

 

I heard from Woodstock that my stove is done and is being shipped out this coming week. Question about the cat probe: there was some talk in the past about a cat probe hole on the front of the stove, but nothing mentioned in the owners manual (Woodstock was kind enough to email it to me in advance of delivery as to help me get familiar with installation and operation prior to delivery). Does anyone know about the cat probe? My stove pipe is double-wall and I installed a Condar probe thermometer last year. Will the thermometer suffice? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Last time I spoke with them about this, there was no cat. probe on the market that was long enough to reach the top of the cat. on a IS. The person I spoke to thought some thermometer company might be working on this but was not absolutely sure.

I plan on using a thermocouple, which is an electronic temperature measuring device, readily available. Unfortunately they require other electronic hardware to make them work; it is not particularly unusual or expensive, but it is not an 'all in one' solution that a cat. probe (boy, that sounds nasty) is. Condar does have an electronic cat. probe but it doe snot apparently take a standard thermocouple connection so a longer probe might be more of a 'tinker with it to get it to work' solution.

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Elect...kD2kKiTLB4d8zUzyToxDTvLQnWDtr7YwqxoCh2fw_wcB]

Woodstock IS putting a threaded hole in the front of the stove to provide access for a cat. probe already though so when they do become available, the stoves will be set up to accept them.

I will have a better idea of how this might all work when I get my own IS, which should be this week.

Brian

 

Sent you a private message Golf

 

Started the IS this morning at 7:30 , 1/3 load of mixed shoulder wood/some pine.
Just came home at 5:15 and reloaded, the original load was down to coals, stove was at
275. No complaints here for 10 hrs

 

I am at about 23 hours on the load of ash. Still lots of coals and cat is engaged.

 

BS, did you have to modify anything with the by-pass at all? any freeze ups?

 

Nothing. The stove has been amazing.

 

Stretching the legs tonight for the first time. Full load, dark firebox with a bright orange rectangle at the top and 900 degree stack temps. My goal is to warm the house through mid-morning without reloading. 13 hours to go!

 

My new IS is in..... well, not all the way in..... well, not quite even inside the house proper but look how close. The trailer tailgate is on the front porch floor and the trailer is tipped 'up'. Now it is just a simple matter of sliding the stove onto the porch (yeah.... simple), uncrating it, removing the existing stove and putting this one it place. Should not take more than an hour.... going by Jupiter hours of course The plan for tonight though is to just get it on the porch and maybe begin the uncrating. Just waiting for my wife to get home and help with that; and just the other day she said we did not do enough stuff together anymore.

Brian

 

I had a similar situation. Truck was backed up to the front porch and all I had to do was get it off and into the house....Easier said than done, thats a fact.
On the truck I stripped the stove down as far as I could to eliminate weight. Next I put a 8 wheel furniture dolly underneath it so it could be rolled into the house. Of course I have 2 other guys helping me out, this is not a stove you can tip and adjust on your own.
After we rolled it into the house we were able to set it on the hearth and thats where it stayed for the night.

Just the stuff I mentioned took 1.5 hours. Had to build a ramp and beef up the dolly, that was additional time too.

Good luck with yours

 

How many pounds can you take off the stove by removing some parts?

 

I'd guess somewhere between 100-125. Depends on far you take it.
WS suggests that you take the side panels, the door and the top cover off.
I was able to take the sled out and the stone. I was probably close to 200 with all that included

 

Wow, still quite a beast.

 

I'd say so, they told me it's 700 pd all dressed out.

 

It IS a beast, at least in the crate.

I got mine from the trailer to the porch floor with a 2 X 4, a hand truck (a simple, cheap one) and my 120 lb., 5'3" wife tonight. And it was not fast although it was fairly painless. It just so happens that my porch end opens fully to an 8' + doorway so I can drive the trailer right up to / onto the porch. It was built this way to take a trailer full of wood along with the front end of a 4X4 vehicle (originally a Ford Expedition) to facilitate "bring wood into the house" in the winter- 3,000 lbs. + at a time.

Now to uncrate it, take off all the weight possible and wrestle it into the house. The move will probably happen Wed. as I have a friend's kids coming over to help (hehe- they have no idea what they are in for- young pups in their early 20's).



Brian

 

One other thing I never mentioned. Since the stove weighs so much I had to be careful moving it through the house as well. My floor joists on the first floor of my 1880's farmhouse are only 2x6 on 18" OC. The stove along with 2- 225 lb men made the floor sink down a bit as it travelled through. I also installed two lollys in the basement underneath the hearth. The IS is 300 lb heavier than my old Oslo.