Production Woodstock IS

Happy new year to all!

 

I used to have that coaling problem with my Blaze King, I'd have a pile of coals covered in ash and not putting out a lot of heat. That's when I learned that raking the coals and putting a couple of splits of pine on top would throw some nice heat and burn the coals down. I've been doing it with the PH the last couple of cold days too. The eco bricks will accomplish the same thing if you don't have any pine, I like pine better since it's free.

 

I've gotten mine pretty hot too. I keep a fan close by and put some air on the stove. That cools it pretty quick. This stove would be awesome with a blower kit.

 

Has anyone with the IS, used so far all season, cleaned or inspected their flue yet? If so, what were your results?
Thanks.

 

I cleaned my stovepipe. It was just a fine soot. No creosote.

 

I was mostly burning cherry, ash, maple, and hackberry for the shoulder months. Temperatures finally took a dive into the low 20's with a lot of wind chill. I switched over to Locust. Let me just say, between the improved chimney draft and the premium firewood, this stove turned into a heat monster.

I am running mostly on the 5th mark now with locust and the glass stays perfectly clean. Before I was running on low and fogging the glass. I worked 12 hours out in the cold yesterday and was pleased to return to a 70 degree house with big red hot coals staring at me.

I love locust firewood coupled with the Ideal Steel you've got some serious firepower. This is my opinion, but I think that soapstone liner mixed with big hot locust coals makes for a deadly combination. It always burnt well in my Quadra Fire too, but never made this much heat.

 

I had a warm spell about 2 weeks ago where I cleaned the firebox and the cat but no on the flue pipe, ran out of time.
The cat looked great, nothing even worth cleaning.

 

Well the IS is now installed and firing her first burn in fire. I picked it up Monday and had a few fellows coming out to help this morning.

Here is the old Lopi,



Here is the IS on the truck torn apart for moving:

Moving out the old stove:



Bringing in the new...



You can see that we placed the legs on the sliders from my couch. It easily slid all the way. That is me in the blue flannel with my best side showing.

 

It took less than 45 minutes from the fellows getting there to having the stove on the hearth. It took much longer to get the stove pipe in. Of course I had the old stove unhooked and ready to take out and the new stove ready to go. I was planning on using the 2x4 s to attach to the pallet and bring in like a litter. But we found out it was lighter that the other stove and we just picked it up from the legs. We got the front in the door and put it on sliders and then repeated with the back. While out, I check the chimney. The stove pipe had some flaky creosote but the chimney was really clean.

The hardest part was placing the stove pipe. I have a slip pipe at top, but the bottom was not crimped. I finally gave up and went to Lowes and got a new pipe and adapter. We banged on the pipe for over an hour They left and I put the new pieces in. I had to move it a little which was possible on my own. My wife had to add some pennies to one corner as I lifted it to level it.

Put it together and used high temp anti seize on the sled parts.



Just cleaning up a little...

 

Here is the finished product:

 

And the first fire:

 

I also took some close up pictures of the fire box before burning if anyone needs them.

It would have been nice to have a leveling mechanism on the bottom of the feet, but otherwise she has been burning for a little while now. The soapstone takes a while to heat up but the top was still hot.
Have fun!!!!

 

GOOOOD looking hearth, Coach! I like the designs in your IS. After the wait and the prep work and install, may I suggest you spend the next several weeks right by the stove studying, learning, admiring appreciating and feeding it? Now that cold weather has arrived here, I have trouble tearing myself away from our hot new heater. Enjoy!
And ... where did you get my picture for your avatar?

 

I agree with Gark with most of the suggestions he made. The stove looks great on your hearth CoachSchaller , and it looks like you had everything setup to make the transition from old to new as easy as possible. It's nice having a few friends help out, it just makes the work easier for you.
After you get those break in fires done and get that new paint smell out you can really start to get to know your IS. I know you have been keeping up with the IS threads on here so you may already have a head start on the how to run it and get the most out of it. Don't be afraid to ask any questions, we are here to hep you out and before long you'll be good to go. Enjoy!

Almost forgot, you have a wonderful looking family! Thanks for the pics

 

Thanks all,
She has been running for almost three hours now. The smoke alarms have gone off.... I have yet to get the stove pipe thermometer over 300. I just threw in a couple more splits in the huge firebox. She does not heat up fast.....

The hearth was here when we bought the house. It had a little Jotul cf3?

 

Congrats Coach!!! You are in the club now! I have had mine in and fired up for two weeks now. Between work, holidays rush, and jury duty, I have not had the time to post.
My biggest problem has turned out to be seasoning the paint on the DVL dual wall pipe. Single wall would have been easy, but dual wall runs a bit too cool to cook it properly. I feel your pain with the pipe install. I was whipped when I finished mine. Enjoy the ghosty flames and a quality burn. I was looking forward to you getting your stove. Happy New Year indeed.

 

Nice Coach! I love your design!

We finally got our stove up on the hearth today too but the double wall stove pipe might have to wait till tomorrow. I'm going to have to cut both the vertical and the horizontal sliding pieces because of the height of our new hearth as well as the closer clearances of this stove with the rear heat shield. My two sons and I used the car scissors jack to lift the stove on the pallet even with the earth, blocked it up with some old firebrick, then used furniture sliders to move it into the hearth. First fire tomorrow - hopefully.

 

Brian:
That color hearth and stove go really well together!

Whalen:
Sorry for the busy time with work, jury duty, etc.....

Thanks all for the encouragement.
Now we will see if I can get it hot enough and burn long enough.

 

Question about ash pan lid:

Do you all store your ash pan lid under the ash pan? Does it fit?

 

Haven't tried yet. Right now I have it sitting on the hearth underneath the stove.