Production Woodstock IS

Oh no, I did not take your post that way at all. My response was partially tongue in cheek and partially because sometimes groups tend to form on forums when someone violates 'the rules'. Absolutely no offense on my end and I really was not defensive, and I guess the humor wasn't obvious enough..... I'll work on that.

My IS also performs more than well enough with the two problem areas, starting fires and fully opening the door under certain conditions. The first problem I think is partially chimney related and partially due to this stove's internal (Easy Boys!) air flow, which is rather convoluted. The second problem is more one of physics IMO and is basically that we cannot have 170 square inch opening in the front of the stove and have all the air (and smoke) movement out a just under 30 square inch pipe with nothing but a chimney providing the draft. Now a better chimney set up will no doubt help that but in the meantime, I ordered a draft inducer and it should be here Thurs.. This one is an in-line type that I have not used previously but I have used other types and they make a world of difference. And the stove will still function perfectly without the inducer running so I will not use it for actually running the stove, and the stove can still be used without any AC power, which is a big plus to me. Will let you folks know how that goes....

Brian

 

I never really got a chance today to open the hood and measure probe lengths. The temps fell during the day and I didn't have the time. Another day

 

'Open the hood'- funny and really pretty accurate too on the IS. 'Measuring the probe length' is always good for a chuckle too....

Mine is on the downside of a burn so I can probably open it in an hour or two before loading it again and kicking it in the butt for the night. I'll snap a couple of photos if I can get it open tonight.

Brian

 

One of the IS guys mentioned to me yesterday that the probe can be cut to length if it needs to be a custom size. I'm thinking if I pick up the Condar catalyst thermo, I'll get the one with the longer probe if I can cut it to fit later on.
Thanks for looking at yours when it cools

 

There are quite a few conversations going on within this thread, ranging from chimney performance to cat probes. Corona is preventing me from adequately responding to any of them. Now, for a live report from my Ideal Steel.....it's 20 degrees here in northwest NJ. Reload one hour ago on well-seasoned white oak. Firebox is dark but the "kinda sorta" cat thermometer supplied by Woodstock is pinned at 690. Back to you in the studio...

 

Be careful golf.....the BTU police might pull you over for doing 690 in a 650 zone!

 

My probe, which is really a thermocouple inside some 316 SS tubing with the end pinched closed, it extends 8" which is a bit too far really:



Note the slight bend so it clears both the combustor and the radiator (which is not in place to show the probe)


A 4 inch long probe would put the end over the front edge of the combustor but not be ideal IMO:



A 6 inch long combustor probe would be ideal in my opinion and land almost exactly in the middle of the combustor:


The combustor hole is a 1/4-20 threaded hole, and the clear hole is at 0.201 inches or just a bit bigger than 3/16" if going with a solid rod type probe.

Brian

 

I just loaded up for the night, E/W, loading from the back of the stove but all wood ends up against the right side of the firebox per someone else's post. It left enough room for me to put a couple of splits N/S on the left side of the stove (my wood is all around 17" long). This stove holds a LOT of wood if you pack it! Anyway, it 27F here right now and going to 20F overnight so this the first time I will be asking for even a reasonable portion of what the stove can do.

Loaded 1/2 hour ago, wood is all charred now and the bypass is closed. Draft set at 1/4 open.

Combustor temp. 1120F
Firebox temp. 620 F
Stove top temp. 399 F
Flue temp. (internal via a probe, not outside the stovepipe) less than 24" from stove exit is 381F.

Exhaust is clear, no flame anywhere in the stove. In fact, other than a very few red spots around the bottom edges of the splits, the inside of the stove is black as it usually is.

Brian

 

Brian, that is about as efficient as it gets.

 

Finally got some decently cold temps tonight. the light show is back from the beta. i am unable to post my youtube vids link. "Ideal steel low burn light show" will get you there. Never thought i would be happy for below freezing temps.

 

Brian,
So ultimately what size probe will work on this stove without the carriage/sled being affected every time the bypass is moved back and forth?
Condar offers; 1" to 6" probes and a 2" and a 1.5 inch dial face.

 

How are we measuring burn times? from first flame or when we close the draft for the long burn? when to stop the clock, no surface temp or a temp we choose to say its done? i shut mine down at 7pm last night and surgace temp is still at 160 without touching a thing.

 

Agreed. This stove is fantastically efficient, at least when used at these low outputs.

Brian

 

6" would be about perfect and put the probe tip just about in the center of the combustor.

The length of the probe does not make any difference as all have to pass by the linkage and the combustor (when it moves) if they are long enough to be useful.

Just make sure the shaft size is not more than 3/16" or you will have to drill the hole that W.S. provided for it to fit.

Probe length. Shaft diameter. Probe tip. Best probe size. There is more comic material here than most people could stand and I want full credit for not making a single joke about any of it.....

Brian

 

Right, how DO we measure burn times? There is that one brand that seems to have the magic ability to burn what, 40 hours? But other stoves apparently cannot do that. A person would have to think the wood itself would not realize which stove it was in and act the same in any similar stove (insulated firebox, same air supply to the firebox) but perhaps not.

There is no official burn time method that I know of. The two that would make sense to me would be either the longest the stove could reliably re-start upon reloading without a match (holding coals) but that would depend on how much ash was in the stove, what kind of wood was used, etc. I would think a reasonable definition would be how long the stove would put out useful heat; that can be further defined to be the point where the top of the stove was, say, 1/2 the temp. of normal running temp. or something similar. But without any kind of agreement on standardization, 'burn time' is a useless term with useless numbers that follow it.

My own personal opinion on what I would consider a burn time would be how long the stove can put out enough heat to hold the building it is in at a reasonable, comfortable temp., or no more than, say, 3 degrees below that temp.. In other words, how long will the stove actually 'do its job' without any attention and especially, without being fed more wood? And that will vary with the outside weather conditions of course.

If I were to set a standard, I would try to quantify how much heat output a stove will produce and then call the 'burn time' the time between when the stove starts to put out more than 1/2 of that number and the time its output again falls to 1/2 of that number. In the end, it would come down to the firebox size and the ability of the stove to control or regulate draft of course.

Brian

 

Your level of restraint is impressive...

 

Brian,
What's your opinion about the level of heat at this type of low burn. Did it keep the house comfortable enough for the time of day?

 

You have no idea..... as I get a bit more comfortable with you folks, you may see my 'rapier sharp wit' (or is that bad puns?) more often....

Brian

 

Absolutely comfortable and often a tad too much. It has been quite warm here (RI) and is just now turning colder.

The stove will put out enough heat to keep my house warm, or too warm, when it is between 30 and 40F outside for 12, 15 hours or more without any attention. Often longer. I would not say it was actually burning but it put out enough heat (the house never goes below 70F) to go from an 8:00 PM loading and a 9:30 final adjustment until after dinner the next day.

The last two nights are the first time the temps. have been low enough to even nudge the stove a bit. Both nights in the mid- 20's. Load the stove at 8:00 PM nearly full of 'hardwood' (unknown varieties) and the stove is hot at 7:00 AM, large coal bed which is all red and the house was 70F and 72F respectively (I ran it a bit hotter last night).

But most of my burning has been with the combustor between 800F and 950F, stove top temps. of 330 / 350F and exhaust temps. of 250 down to 180F or so (which is really too low unless the exhaust is really clean and it is above freezing outside) and the stove has impressed me to no end with its burn times as well as its ability to run very steadily at such a low state without adjustment.

Brian

 

Thanks for your input Brian, I'm going to order the 6" this afternoon. And you did very well with all the suggestive language, not one "easy boys" on this post!