First fire in the Beta Ideal Steel Woodstock stove

Its designed for 6" as far as I know. Part of the design is a cast funnel shaped reducer that can be seen on images at their blog that is supposed to increase draft. It wasn't ready for my Beta unit.

 

6" flue- this makes me happy. Very happy. Thanks.
(I'm currently doing the 'happy dance' I'll never do in public)
Thanks again, JB

 

I need to see what type of burn cycles this stove gets and what the listed prices is before I do my dance.

 

I hear you and understand you not wanting to jump on the band-wagon. My take on this - and this only pertains to my situation-

• I'm doing a new install with a stove that I know will put out the heat, but not the burn times I'd like.-(NC-13)
• The projected cost's for the new stove aren't more than 2K.
• 3.2 CF capacity, this makes me happy, only 1 CF less than the main heater (BKK)
• 6" flue pipe- compatible with the NC-13
• The extra mass of the "Ideal Steel" is a bonus- est. 650 vs. 290 for the NC-13
• The new tech. in this design
• The Wife thought it looked fine
• Front loader vs. the Fireview I've been dickering with on CL

There are a few minor issues, but that about sums it up. I am hoping for the best. JB

 

It's been ten hours since last night's last reload (almost all cherry) and I came downstairs to a HUGE bed of very hot coals this morning. Stove top temp 180 but still giving off a good amount of heat. Wood caught fire while I was loading the stove. On the Fireview I would have had to work a bit to get it lit after ten hours on just a small handful of warm coals.

Here's the stove this AM prior to reload then five minutes later. Small load, six medium splits NS, I'll pack it up tight with some oak before we head out to Virginia after Church around 11:00.

 

Twenty minutes after reload, stove top temps at 325 and climbing, on full air.

Outside temp is 12. I have house thermostat (in same room as wood stove) for the natural gas furnace set at 65. It wasn't on at 4:00 am when the upstairs bathroom temp was still 68, but it came on since then, not sure when. (That's personal preference. We just don't like to wake up to a "cold" house. I'd estimate first floor would have been in low 60s otherwise this AM.)

 

give her hell, Brian. lets see what that baby can do.......

 

Brian, you have been a great sport about keeping us all in the loop about you're beta testing afforts. We all really appreciate all the time and effort spent posting your great pictures and videos. Thanks again......

 

That looks like a huge bed of coals. Surprised the STT was only 180F. I'm guessing it was throwing a lot more heat than the 180F would suggest.

 

Yes, this stove was giving off more heat this morning at 180 than my Fireview would have been in the morning at a stove top temp of 250 - 280.

 

Just added 4 medium pieces of oak. I'm letting it rip till we leave in ten minutes then I'll close down the air to about 10% and we'll see what we have left when we get back home late tonight.

 

I agree with you Brian as I felt the PH puts out twice the heat as the Fireview on the same amount of wood... Must be all that big glass the PH and the Beta stove share.. Glad you getting to enjoy your stove,, I can picture a big grin on your face as load her up.. My thanks to you for keeping everyone posted! You should run outside and see how quick the smoke clears up once closing her up, then run in and check your stove top temps once you see the pipe clear .. You'll get an idea of at how low a temp the stove begins to burn clean...

Does your stove have the clear glass inspection panel on the back? What's up with that?

 

Its to keep an eye on the self adjusting bi-metallic pre-cat air control coil. I've looked at it several times now and it always looks like its in the same position. I talked to Jamie about it yesterday and he's going to get back to me about temp at which its supposed to engage.

Stove top hit 520 on about 65% air and I cut back the air to about 15% for while we are away. The spectacular combo of cat flames and secondary air flames I posted a video of last night occurred again when I cut back the air. Very cool.

 

Just got home after 12 hours out of town. Stove top temp again at 180, huge bed of coals like this morning, and part of one oak split still there on the far left side of the firebox. Sometime this evening the furnace kicked on, its set at 65. But its 11 degrees out here right now so that's not too bad.

Just loaded up 8 small to medium splits, caught immediately on fire on contact with coals. I'm letting her rip for a bit on 100% air, then I'll re engage the cat, let it heat up to 500, and then close her down to a quarter air to see how she holds stove top temps in the morning with a little more air overnight.

At some point I'm going to have to open up the air after a long burn just to burn down all these coals.

Here's another great show of secondaries from this morning just before we left for the day:

 

Think how cool it would look if I could actually figure out how to get my iPhone to focus

Here's tonight's reload. One white bark birch, one mystery round that I had to encourage to fit, the rest cherry and an ash. Small to medium stuff on a huge coal bed, which can interfere a little bit with dropping and raising the andirons.

 

Looks good.
I'm wondering what it would do on a full load of dry Lodgepole? The BKK is going 20 hrs. on Aspen but it's still fairly mild outside.

 

Are the flames against the glass part of the secondary plate(?) flames or are they secondaries from the air wash like a FV or Keystone burns?

 

Didn't have time to burn them down, gotta get to bed. Stove top got up to 500 real quick though

Air control is cut back to about 20% now, only lazy small secondaries right now from the secondary air, a few small wisps of cat secondaries, and I'm off to bed. I'll probably get up and come down sometime early morning and open up the air a bit depending on stove temps to see what happens in the AM.