Production Woodstock IS

Yup, still getting long burn times even with the deep bed of coals. Our kids roasted marshmallows yesterdays on our coal bed to make smores and chase away the January blues. Not many downsides at all with this stove.

We're closing in on almost 25,000 views of this thread My IS. You really started quite the discussion here. Put into book form, I wonder how long this would be. I know I'd find it to be a page turner.

 

Wow!

 

For the most part there is only a handful of folks that respond to this thread, the IS owners. Occasionally some others that have done thread searches ask questions but mostly it's just us sharing with ourselves. I really like us keeping in touch this way. Group effort, and I thank everyone for sharing, you too BrianK .

 

I've been trying something in my stoves, and it seems to be working. How well it is working remains to be seen. Try putting some faster-gassing woods in the areas that are last to burn, soft Maple or better yet, Tulip or Pine (don't like to burn Pine in my cats but I don't think it's a problem, really.) Hopefully they will burn down faster and give you heat while the Oak coals have more time to burn down.

 

I try to incorporate a really hot fire when I get home from work. I burn hot till I load up for the night. This has helped my coal issue and keeps the glass clean. A little extra warmth doesn't hurt either

This stove really does keep the heat in your house on a long slow burn. I keep coming home 11 hours later to a 70 degree house. Even when the temps are lower on the stove I think it has effectively given you the btus from the wood and your house insulation level maintains it. I think the soapstone may be helping with this also. Always plenty of coals.

 

So how many splits do you put in when you get home and how are you running the stove? I kinda like this idea

 

I fill it about half full and run at 1/3 to 1/2 open. The wood is consumed much faster, but the temps in the house come up quick. Then I let it burn the coals before I load for the night. Coals from a hot fire seem to burn down better than a low burn.

 

I have come to the conclusion that the Ideal Steel very much likes to eat 3-year old hickory. I was keeping a stash of it for extra-cold nights and decided to serve a generous helping. On notch 3, secondaries are raging, stove-front is at 750 and I can feel radiant heat from 20 feet away.

 

I'm seeing that with my 3 year old white oak and Locust.

 

So with all this cold we are all getting used to, has anyone found the sweet spot on where to set this thing? Maximum heat output for the longest burn? I'm actually really liking #3. It seems to burn the smoke longer. So for me, being away 11 hours a day , I feel like I am getting a better burn with this low setting then taking it up to #5 or more. Then I burn it hot when I'm home.

 

A little less than 1/4 draft when it is in the teens, a notch more than 1/4 draft when it goes into single digits or zero. An 11 hour burn, putting out enough heat to keep the house at 69 on the coldest nights so far (zero degrees F).

I have been getting into the routine of doing a (approx.) 3/4 load in the morning, a few splits in the evening coupled with a pretty intense burning of all the coals, then a full load at 9:30 ion the very bones of the last of the coals- no more than a gallon; enough to get the full load going but not enough to get in the way of loading the stove fully. By the way, as my wood is cut at around 18", I really cannot load this stove 100% as I load E/S, from the back forward, against the right hand side (the hinge side), and there is always a considerable gap on the left side of the firebox. I can put a small split or three in there but mostly, it is air space. Such is the problem of loading a rectangular box with very un- rectangular wood.

Brian

 

Regarding: burning down the coal bed faster.
What if there was a way to block some or all of the incoming feed air to the secondaries (which feeds air to the top of the firebox) thereby directing more air to the primary air feed in the front/bottom of the firebox? Push the coals away from the andirons to avoid the blacksmith effect -- and viola -- the coals might just burn down a lot faster and produce more heat from the stove.
I guess we wouldn't even consider opening the bypass and the stove door and running the stove with a screen in front of the door.

 

Thin magnet strip. Like fridge magnets. Poke a hole threw it and bend a paper clip like a handle so it could be more easily removed. Cover which ever the secondary inlet is underneath.

 

Might be worth a look

 

Unless they were metal, the refrigerator magnets are frequently made with plastic backing and can melt.
I guess real magnets would work best.
But I think you're onto something there Hollywood!
Before committing to magnets -- how about a 4" square of aluminum foil that would just get sucked-up onto the secondary draft control plate. I wonder if that would stop the secondary air and cause the stove to pull more or only primary air. Worth a try.
What about a screen for the open door?
A ton of heat comes out of the stove when there is a deep coal bed with the door is open. Might help burn down the coal bed and get heat into the house if the stove can be supervised. Could be like the old days of open fires in the hearth.

 

I've seen those magnets without the advertising plastic stuff somewhere? Craft store maybe. Foil maybe but if there was a draft burp it may fall off and if your not watching you won't see it has fallen.

 

As you said, Al. foil will work but it is hard to insert / remove so unless you plan on just shutting down the secondaries altogether, that will be pesky.

The secondary draft plate will not fully close because of the rectangular cut- out in the plate; I think it is something like 1/4" X 3/4" (but measure it to be sure) and a plain old rectangular magnet will work fine to close off that portion of the secondary draft. Of course by using a bigger magnet, or by putting a piece of folded over Al. foil under the magnet, you could close off as much of the secondary plate as you chose to do. And just reach under the stove and place / remove the magnet as you want pretty easily.

Just my opinion but I do not think it will do much though. The actual area is really quite small and closing it off will not make the primary draft a great deal more effective. Besides, the charcoal bed quickly gets a layer of ash on it and effectively prevents oxygen to getting to the coals underneath them where it is really needed anyway.

Brian

 

Think of all that wonderful secondary air cascading down from the stainless steel plate as we all know it does when the draft control is open 3/4 or greater. Just imagine a lot of it redirected as primary air -- wouldn't that help in the combustion of some or most of the coal build up we all are experiencing? Brian, you have observed the primary air as it is set from the factory seems a bit on the low side. The draft being a non variable can be divided between secondary and primary. It just depends which draft control plate is patent and which is restricted. In the case we are discussing here; the secondary becomes restricted.
Presto -- more primary air! Just depends on the mechanism we find that works easiest/best.

 

I really do not think that is the case or will happen; blocking off the secondaries will not increase the primary draft appreciably. But it is certainly easy enough to try it, just block off the secondaries with the aluminum foil and set the primary to a higher setting and see if it works to accelerate the burning of the coals enough. But as I said in the past, I think the real solution to the problem is to get air to move through the coals bed and the only way I know to do that is to introduce air from underneath the coals bed.

There may be another way involving a plate put across the door opening at the bottom of the door. It could actually mount on the andiron swivel plate but would have to be quite a bit different than anything currently available. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get any parts from Woodstock right now as they are flat- out trying to build new stoves and are using all the parts they can generate apparently.

Another possibility might be to just alter the primary air plate so it opens much farther, much sooner. Again, not all that big of a deal to try if one had access to the stock primary plate (as a spare part) or a blank piece of steel of the appropriate size and a method to blind- cut steel (oxy- gas cutting torch, plasma torch, water jet, or even perhaps an angle grinder with cut- off disc).

Brian

 

I will be on my way to Woodstock today, kinda rhymes.