Production Woodstock IS

Just checking in:
I was apprehensive since I am only going by stove pipe temps and only seeing around 300. I am happy to report:

I have secondaries!!!! And, ghost flames floating!!!!
I turned the air intake down and had flames shooting through all of the top tube ports!!!
Now I am confident it is working as it should.

An infrared thermometer would have been nice to help me check temps.

 

Brian K, you did a great job building the hearth and surround. Looks like the house was made for that stove... Even though you did the beta tests, betcha ya can't wait to break it in and take it for a cruise, eh?

 

Congratulations on getting your IS up on the hearth. Looking good and soon enough, feeling good. With regards to the ash pan lid, I'm not sure if it fits underneath, never tried it. I set mine aside, never used it.

 

Thanks Gark. I'm really excited to compare this one with the Beta. But I'm going to be a lot more cautious. With the Beta, Tom from Woodstock handed us the "keys" with the instructions, "Try to break it." And we burned it hard. I knew it was going back to the factory so no worries about overfiring (we didn't, but we ran it hard at times) or otherwise messing up a long term investment. Now I own it, so its going to be run a lot more carefully.

One comment around the dinner table tonight - everyone still misses the looks of the Woodstock Fireview. Someday down the road, we might still end up with a Progress Hybrid.

 

On our beta the Woodstock crew leveled it by loosening the leg bolts (nuts??) slightly, getting it level, and then re-tightened. Probably not a lot of play to work with, but I got the impression there will be enough play to get your penny back into circulation.

 

The lid does fit under the ash pan, but we store it out of the stove. It sits near the stove gloves to remind me to wear gloves when time to empty the ashpan. The pan can be hot and gloves are recommended - nevermind how I know that.

 

Regarding the ash pan lid, I don't believe I got one. Where was it packed? Hopefully I didn't leave it in my stove somewhere.

 

It is on top of the ash pan. I didn't realize it came with a cover. Hence the dark grill like marks.

 

mine was on top of the ash pan.

 

mtrel , as Hollywood says, it comes with the ash pan together as a unit in the ash pan housing.
Some of the guys are forgetting it's on the pan and start the stove with the lid on.

 

Results from running the stove yesterday to this morning:
Fire lit right up from cold start. Ran for 1.5 hours on three splits with the bypass open and air inlet all the way open. Stove pipe thermo up to 275.

Threw in a couple more splits around 4:30. Temp crawled up to 275-300 with bypass open and full air.
Could not seem to get the stove to fire up very hot.
Once I had an established coal bed, I threw a few more ash splits. Leaving the door open a crack really let air in and lots of flame/heat, but closed it after a moment.
Engaged the cat with the stove pipe showing 300. Thermometer dropped to 275, air still 100%.

Played around with air settings from 5pm to 7pm. At that point I was able to see the secondaries and ghost flames. Showed to the family.

Burned down coals from 8pm to 9pm with full air.

Loaded the IS up with 10 medium to small splits of mostly ash.
Let the air intake to 100% and by-pass open till a good bed of flames showed.
Shut down air to notch 5 (first Major graduation).

Outside temps were in the 20s all day and up to 30 this morning.

Checked the IS a couple of times overnight and saw a lot of coaling!
Inside temps were 68 when I went to bed at 9:15. (we ran the gas furnace all day due to the cooling of the old stove and having windows open for the paint cure smell).

This morning at 5am there was plenty of coals. Inside temps were from 67 to 65.
I placed a stovepipe coil thermometer on the front near the probe hole by the cat to see the temps and it was around 400-600.

I am having a hard time getting the fire really hot. I get flames if I open the air intake all the way but it doesn't roar. My floors were still cold including the stove room.

The heat seems way more even than my pre-epa stove, but I haven't been able to really get it hot yet.

Am I just a rookie with the new stove? Could it be that I left two windows in the stove room open at the top about an inch or two and another window open at the bottom a centimeter?
Is it the soapstone even heat? I thought I would be able to really burn it hot (while closely observing to shut it down quickly).

I raked the coals and threw a couple of small splits on this morning and opened the the air intake. I did not feel a lot of heat radiating out like I did with my old stove.

From 5am to 6am I tried to get the coal bed down with a couple of small splits, then threw on 7 good size splits and closed her down to the 5th notch. I am hoping to come home to a house without the wife needing to reload during the day. Should be 10 hours or so when I get home.

Oh, my wood is mostly ash with a moisture reading from 13-18. Some maple, and I might have some oak that is under 20%. I saw and heard NO sizzling from wet wood.

 

Had the same problem getting it hot from a cold start with ash when new. Probably a good thing.... The paint company insert in my stove documents indicated curing to 300-400 then a blast to 600. I struggled and failed to reach the 600 mark.

I contacted Woodstock and they recommended breaking it in with two moderate fires without engaging the cat, letting it cool to room temp after each firing. I told them that was contrary to the paint Company flyer. I let them know there was confusing and potentialy harmful info in that flyer.
Anyway...since the break in period, I loaded a bit too heavy on too hot coals and had the experiance of struggling to keep the stove below 600! Hint-open the cat!

 

With my house I am only needing to fire it once a day. Just the over night burn. Start it at around 8 pm. when I first got the production model I was starting it by starting a small fire and gradually building it up. That just took to long for me. I went back to the way I started the beta. It worked with a bed of coals or from cold.
Bypass open, draft open 100%. Moved ashes out to the sides of the stove to have the center of the load off the floor. Loaded the back half full, added 1/4 piece of a Super Cedar in the center of the stove. Lite the Super Cedar and fill the rest of the stove. Leave the door open on the catch for a couple minutes close door and let the temp build to 250*-300* close bypass, might leave draft open or cut back to 3/4 until temp reaches 450*-500* and then cut draft back to the 3-6 line and walk away until the next evening.
I've used this with lesser loads also with success if you don't need a lot of heat or really long burns.

Oh yeah, I'm heating almost 2000 sq/ft with just the Ideal. I don't even have my t-stats turned on.

 

COMMENTS ARE POSTED IN YOUR QUOTE!!

 

I just checked with the Mrs.:
Temps are up to 70 in the house, and the cat thermo was tacked (only goes up to 700). Yeah!!!!!!!! She turned it down. Even had the smoke alarms going again from the paint cure.

My IS:
What are your normal readings on your thermo at the front of the stove. I already did the same thing!

Thanks all for the help.

 

Yeah, me too- all of that. The stove has much larger secondaries than primaries, and as the secondaries are at the top of the firebox, the stove burn best / hottest when it is full IME. That seems to be the key: fill the stove all the way, even up to the point of having splits against the upper stainless steel perforated plate. Due to the small primaries, lighting a fire is also slow and can be a bit annoying but once it is going, and the secondaries light, the stove will roar even with the bypass closed and the draft adjustment all the way open. You will notice most of the burning takes place on top of the fuel rather than at the bottom or the front; again, this is due to the large secondary air feed.

The other situation that the small primaries cause, at least for me, is that the stove does not burn coals down very well or quickly. During the recent cold snap here, I could not burn the coals down enough and have the stove maintain its heat output without adding more wood; that worked fine but the firebox got higher and higher with coals and did not leave enough room for fresh wood after a couple of days. Other folks seem to be mixing smaller splits in along with some softwood to burn the coals down but unfortunately I do not have any softwood and the great majority of my firewood is oak which coals a tremendous amount.

I believe the stove could use a larger airfeed at the bottom or even under the grate to assist with starting a fire as well as helping burn the coals all the way through the burn cycle. Perhaps the small bottom airfeed could be opened up but I am not yet willing to hack into this stove.

Brian

 

Between 400-500. I get these temps right after a reload and the stove is set (on whatever notch) to cruise for 5-6 hours.
Looks like the stove woke up this morning! Glad the Mrs turned it down before anything happened. I've only had the stove get hot enough once that I got a little nervous. Great thing about the air damper control, it easily brings the stove back into control again.

 

After break in I put a very accurate gauge on the flue collar, and the WS supplied gauge just right of the temp plug on the front. Flue temps 300 most times....stove top 450 is my normal running. Not been cold enough yet to need more heat output. I do have enough time with it to see that a heavy loading will be the key to higher temps. Sure is easy to fire and control this stove. My biggest complaint is dirty glass after a all night steady fire when turned down to a dark box cat burn. Just switched from Ash to red oak, my oak is a bit moist in the middle of the bigger splits, looking forward to next years wood. I am caught with one year old oak due to having burned everything last year during the so called vortex's.

 

The Mrs. got the run down on how to operate the stove last night. We both load the stove often. Generally after our night time reading and prayers she asks me to load the stove. I tell her she likes the heat so she should stand in front of the blast furnace to load it

And then I get out of bed and load the stove.

With the IS I might be loading before going to bed.

 

W, you can always resplit your red oak and dry it a little more beside the IS before it goes in the firebox.