Production Woodstock IS

Thanks Bruce. You are saying things like woody that make total sense. The circulator fan on the furnace runs on an automated schedule, that could have contributed and as you both said with the weather. I just have to reassure my wife it's not an issue that will occur on the regular, seeing as we just installed new hard-wired smokes and CO2 detectors. The night it happened I cracked a few windows upstairs just to be safe. I'm glad you guys chimed in and gave me something solid.

 

When in the coldest weather (going for a lot of heat), we had a lot of coals to deal with. This was when burning 2yr Red Maple and Ash. The PH has a stronger primary air flow, so is able to burn down the coal bed faster at the end of a load. I think some of the others had less issue with different wood and different burning habits/needs.

 

The PH is very easy to restart with just one or two live coals, but the IS does not have as strong a primary air flow. If doing a restart from an almost-dead fire, I would bring the coals to the very front center and loosely put kindling around them, and only a couple of splits. Once I got the first two or three splits going then I would add more wood. Same idea for a cold start (small fire first (about 10 minutes or so)), then add more wood. One trick is to put a couple of splits in N/S with a coal/starter fire between them, and then more wood on top running E/W. Another way to let air in under the splits at the start was to put a couple in kitty-corner, with one propped up on an end of the ash shield at the front. This allowed the air to come in under the split and fan the coals, and the heat from that went up onto the split above it.

{edited to remove repeated words (must have stopped to think while writing)}

 

The afternoon I installed the production stove the temps were in the high 40's and I had a tough time. I knew I had enough experience with the IS so I assumed it was too warm to draft. Every fire since was started when it was around 35 degrees and it hasn't given me any trouble. I don't think anyone has anything to worry about. Plenty of good draft nights coming up soon enough

 

The key for me has been top down fires. I am using a few pieces of pallet wood and some kindling on top to get a quick, hot fire going. I will light it and leave the door open for ~5 minutes until some of the larger splits have taken off. From there I can close the door. My goal has been to get the secondaries to engage as fast as possible, which the pallet wood usually does right away. From there the stove is taking off.

Before I left for work today I loaded 3-4 medium splits on a few coals and some kindling, got things charred and put the air at 1/4. About an hour later the stove was at 575. It scared me how fast the stove got hot. I can only attribute this to the coal bed I loaded on.

 

lol - I'd avoid too much of that thinking and stuff.

 

Congrats on your install...
Do you like the differences between the beta and the production model?
Do you think they covered everything??

 

I had a good evening burning the stove last night.. At 6PM Outside temp was 63, inside was 64. They were predicting a cold night so lit a fire.

Loaded the stove with two small splits of Aspen 3 paper balls between them and then small kindling peices over the paper. Added a little dry bark and two more small Aspen splits N to S and then a medium cherry split on top. Fire took off quick and within 15 minutes had the stove top to 300 and engaged the cat, cut the air to 30%. Looked outside and no smoke from the chimney so I knew the cat lit off. This was the quickest I had the stove heat up for me and I think it was because I added more kindling and bark than I normally would have and separated and cross stacked all the splits with a lot of air space between. Aspen burns like gasoline and my wood is all really dry so that helps also.

Waited about an hour, stove top about 375, added 3 medium splits of sycamore. Then I started playing with the air to have just enough for a secondary light show, but not too much to have a lot of flames or make the firebox go dark. The air control was about perfect at 25% or so with the stove top at 450. Small adjustments in air would result in a great deal of fire in the box or make the box go black. I adjusted the air to have only fire coming from the secondaries and none from the wood itself. The air was very controllable and you see a somewhat immediate reaction to the fire in the box. I thoroughly enjoyed the light show.

About 2 hours later, 9PM, added 3 splits, slightly bigger splits, one oak and two cherry over the decent coal bed all E to W and all separated and not stacked on top of each other. Firebox was probably half full. House was 74. Put the air down to 3% for the night with the stove top at 450. Temps went to 36 last night, woke up at 7 AM, house was at 73 and stovetop was 300 with a fair amount of coals left after a 10 hour burn. 11 peices of wood with 4 being very small peices of aspen. House stayed warm until noon, so 18 hours in shoulder season with a colder night and a cold stove start and 11 splits if you count the aspen.

 

Fanatical1 , great report! I did exactly the opposite last night (not knowing). Went to bed with a fairly warm house and woke up to outside temp at 38 and inside at 62. I lit mine this morning when I should have started the night before.

 

I want to run this secondaries experience off you guys and see if anyone else has seen it happen.
Last night I reloaded the IS with a full load of splits and on the top of the load I added a couple pieces of thin slab wood (beech) to take the wood to the top of the firebox.
About 20 mins into the load the secondaries kicked in and this is what happened. The secondary gases burn and shoot downward into the box. The flames shapes are round simular to the holes in the plate, and the slab wood pieces on top looked like they were getting holes drilled into them. When the secondary flames shot downward they burned perfect round holes into the wood.
Has anyone else seen this?

 

Yes, both times in running the IS I've seen this as well. I'll get this with the PH too. Had it happen with a piece of birch the other night in the PH. The flames were blasting holes in the birch on the top of the pile. It's quite a show, and the glass is kicking off a lot of heat when it happens.

 

That's a new one for me. I don't think I've loaded the stove full enough for the wood to be close enough to the secondaries yet. Going to have to try this pretty soon. I assume you have just enough air to have the secondaries blazing, but not enough for the wood to catch fire? Stove top temps?

 

Instead of knocking the stove down and running the cat after the reload I just let the secondaries run for an hour or so. I'd say the stove top was about 475 and the damper open to half.
I've seen the secondaries be really active like this before but never seen it work the wood until last night. It was really cool to watch.

 

Now tweak the air just right, and that round flame will lazily "detach" from the top plate and appear to float back and forth (up and down). This stove has a high entertainment value due to its incredible air control.

I used to also play with the two secondary air inlets down on either side of the door frame. I could get 4-5" long pencil-thin jets of flame there, and it would easily "drill" holes into the end-grain of splits.

 

Lasts nights reload was at 8pm, loaded the stove full and ran the secondaries for about an hour until I engaged the cat and went to 15% on the air. Awoke this morning to a first floor temp at 72 Deg and a stove at 450. Outdoors was 39.
The reason I'm posting is the firebox still had definitive pieces after 12 hrs, partially charcoal but still giving good heat, I made no changes to the air damper. I ran some errands and came back home just now to an all coals firebox with the house temp the same, 72 deg. I'm impressed to get 14.5 hrs out of some black cherry, silver maple and some beech slabs. I hope the oak does all this one better.

 

raybonz , the difference is amazing, it's really like night and day.

I did a reload (from last nights load) at 10:30 this morning, crashed for a few
hours and here it is at nearly 3pm and the house is 80. Yikes!
When I did the reload I put the damper on 1/4 air and this is what happened.
part of the learning curve

 

I recd a package in the mail today.