Production Woodstock IS

I''m pretty sure they are just re-badged Condars.

I like to have that tip within 1/2" of the cat surface...read that somewhere.

 

I wrote condar this morning. The probe is 3/16 and it does not come with a magnet. CS advises using a high temperature bonding agent. Looks like I may want to look into this a little more. I like the magnet idea for easy removal, or even a clip of some sort that can be easily taken off. A bonding agent seems more permanent and messy.

 

Well...solving the right Condar probe is important to me. Going to need one right away, but was informed that the water jet cutter broke and my last weeks build date is now this weeks date. My existing smokedragon is scary to run....and it is cold as hell here this week.

 

Sorry for the setback but happy for you that it's going to there soon. As far as the cat probe goes, this is new to a few of us. We are going back and forth with ideas and numbers to see what will work best. And so you know, WS does send out with your IS, a magnetic thermometer for the flue pipe. It will let you know when to engage the cat.

 

The magnet is a good idea, and now that you found out that the shaft is 3/16" (0.1875"), you should be all set. A 6" long shaft (Easy!) will work fine for an I.S. stove.

As far as the magnet goes, you can get them easily and very reasonably from McMaster-Carr. This is the page for ring magnets: http://www.mcmaster.com/#ring-magnets/=uoyqk9 #5856K1 looks like a good choice, is $.60 and you can get one the next business day. You might want to take a look inside your stove first to make absolutely sure a 1/2" outer diameter magnet will fit around the hole provided by Woodstock first though. Otherwise, that should be a great combo. and perform fine.

Brian

 

I can almost guarantee I have a magnet in the garage that will get a 3/16" hole drilled into it. When the thermometer arrives I'll have to see how well everything fits before making any moves. Kind of like dry fitting...

 

Thanks for the link. If I'm reading the numbers correctly, the 5856K1 is rated up to 485 degrees, whereas the 5704K14 is rated up to 975 degrees

 

The problem with the Fireview and Keystone was that the 8" probe didn't reach the edge of the cat, even without the magnet. Close, but no cigar. It basically monitored the temp near the flue exit. That was still useful, though; I knew that if I ran the probe up at 1000 or just over and held it there for maybe 10-15 min, the cat would light off regardless of the stove top temp, which they want at 250 in the manual. The stone stove top temps lag the internals of the stove considerably. I sometimes lit off with 125 or even less on the stove top, but generally it would be about 170 or so with a more gradual ramp-up (but I never run the stove hard during ramp-up.) You can also do the same thing with a flue surface meter. I have mine lying on the tee snout right behind the rear-vented flue collar. It probably reads closer to the actual internal gas temp, maybe 2/3 or 3/4? What stove top temp do they say in the IS manual before you should close they bypass? The steel stove top won't lag as badly as the stone, I wouldn't think. I never was able to locate a probe longer than 8" so a thermocouple will be the solution for me on the Keystone.

 

There ya' go, fixed it up for ya'.



The magnets in regular stove thermometers have a hole through them that is slightly larger than 3/16 but would probably work with a turn or two of masking tape to make a tight fit. I know the tape will burn up but really, it won't matter if it is the tape or the tape's ash holding the probe in place.

Brian

 

Yes but the magnet you describe has a 3/4" hole through it and is 1" in diameter; I don't know if it will fit above the air-wash passage and it absolutely will not fit the 3/16 probe. I don't think that magnet will work due to size.

All magnets and magnetic material lose magnetism as the temp. is increased. I do not believe the one I mentioned will suddenly 'fail' at 485 degrees, that is just a number suggested as a max. workable while maintaining a high percentage of its original (base temp.) magnetism. As the front of the stove does not get much above 750F, I <think> it would work. But then again, it could well fail. The reason I suggested it was because I think it probably will work well enough for the job at hand, it fits the probe and so will hole the temp. gauge straight (or square to the stove face), and it is 60 cents so not much of a loss if it does not work.

I certainly would agree that a higher temp. magnet would be most desirable but did not see any that will actually fit the probe.

Another option would be to buy two rectangular magnets and use them to 'capture' the probe by putting one on either side of the probe and pinching it between them.

Finally, a turn of fiberglass tape or two around the shaft of the probe (even I am having trouble resisting this one....) will allow it to be quasi- threaded into the tapped hole in the stove. And fiberglass will withstand the temps. found there although the adhesive will burn off after a fashion. But I think that would the easiest / fastest way to [here it comes] get the probe stuck in the stove. And who doesn't want the probe in as soon as is possible?

Brian

 

Just my opinion but that is the much better solution anyway. You can watch the thermocouple change in real- time, virtually instantaneously and very accurately- w/in several degrees or better. When you make a change to the draft you can see instantly if the cat. move in temperature and which way. If I am just reloading the stove to maintain house temp and not trying to recover, I typically close the draft in about 10 second increments and as long as the cat. temp does not drop off rapidly, I know the cat is 'lit' and will stay that way. On the other hand, if the cat. temp. drops at something like 5 degrees per second or more (just estimating here), it shows that the draft cannot be closed that much, that soon.

I know wood stoves are a 17th century device but 20th century instrumentation is still very useful to run them IMO.

Brian

 

This report is coming to you live from the stove room where my Ideal sits.....

The stove was fed a full firebox of 3-year old cut/split/stacked white ash about two hours ago and it is absolutely raging hot. Even with the air adjustment lever turned down to the 3rd notch, the thermometer by the cat probe has been holding at 700 degrees. The firebox is dark except for some visible coals here and there. This is really, really new....I'm used to flames all over the place in the 2010 EPA tube stove and the Ideal is a completely different animal.

Back to you in the studio....

 

I've got good wood tonight (all right, my turn - easy boys!) in the stove for the first time. Yup, this is my first year running a stove, and less than ideal wood will be the norm. I'm looking at a black window, with the air intake all the way down. I wanted to snuff out the secondaries, and that was the only way to do it. Took about 5 minutes for them to go out. Thermo on the back of the stove is at about 525. Definitely runs better on good wood, but I've been impressed with its ability to run on the punky stuff too.

I tried to dig around for the answer to this question, think I may have seen it, but the length of this thread is making it a challenge. Just to clarify, Woodstock will be focusing at a later date on a cat probe for the IS?

 

The Holy Grail of burning a cat stove. Love it.

 

This is what my IS looks like when burning overnight. You can see the big bump when I reloaded it in the evening and then it runs unattended until 7:00 AM (which is mis-labeled as 8:00 AM- just subtract one hour from the X- axis).

What the graph shows is a reload followed by an 11 hour burn: note the firebox temp. jump way up and then the cat. jumps way up: that is the wood reload, then a short run with the bypass open, then the bypass closed followed by a closing of the draft to the third hash mark as I remember.




Brian

 

Yeah, the stove really does act nice even when fed a relatively lousy diet....

As to the combustor probe: I have no idea but my understanding is that Woodstock Soapstone is so overloaded that they cannot keep up with stove demand, never mind accessories like cat. probes (wow, sounds bad when said like that, huh?).

My suggestion would be to try the Condar 6" long model and jury- rig it into the port Woodstock provided.

Brian

 

Thanks Brian. I'll go over those posts again and figure out how to get it done. Very cool data on the stove temps.

 

Thanks but it is pretty raw data and not formatted well- just to give folks an idea as to how the stove produces heat over a long run.

As far as the probe, I earlier suggested something crude but hopefully effective like taking the Condar 6" long cat. probe (that IS funny) and wrapping it with something like fiberglass tape right near the gauge, then 'threading' the taped shank into the tapped hole in the stove. I know the glue will burn off but the fiberglass <hopefully> will hold the probe shaft well enough for the job at hand.

Brian

 

I'm not sure when WS will get around to getting a cat probe thermo as part of the stove deals. For now, we should be able to make up something amongst ourselves shortly if you feel the need to put one into place. I'll have a condar in a day or two and with the help of BDF , I should have it installed and working soon.

 

I love this data. Do you have the stone side panels, and if so do you have a way to datalog those too?