Keystone 18 hour "burn"

That's awesome, Todd...you da man! Really looking forward to seeing this material. With this air leak, the stove is going to 500+ every time; I just can't restrict the air enough.

As I've said, with the probe, you can run it up to 1000, hold there for a while, then light 'er off pretty much without fail. I think I lit the Fireview off one time at about 100, after running a pretty strong ramp-up fire and holding at 1000 on the cat probe (actually, flue exit temp.) Generally, though, I ramp up a little more slowly and light off when the stove top is about 170. Fox, yours is the kind of burn I'm missing now. It's handy when it's not cold out...you can really stretch those loads. (The 3 brain cells I have left have their hands full...fox, do you have a thermocouple, or not yet, I can't remember.) jdonna, insulate liner, rear-vented into external masonry, I can run at zero most of the time but usually have like .3 or so. Now when the air leak is fixed, I may have to open the air a little more on the Keystone but IIRC, the Fireview used about the same air here...0-.5 usually. Smoke out the stack is generally a problem only when I have the air open too much. Pretty hard to stall the cats here, for some reason.

Huh, I see most of the flaky stuff at the top, where the masonry/liner are above the roof and exposed on all 4 sides. Masonry is also smaller up there...

Wow, on that short stack and relatively low draft, the only way I can imagine the stove top going that high is if I was burning the ramp-up pretty vigorously and got a lot of wood gassing at once, then closed the bypass and cut the air enough to immediately snuff all flame. I would think if you ramped up with a less lively fire, you should have total control over where you want the stove top to level off, with that tame draft. Something I'm missing here?

 

How many sq ft are you heating? 14 hr burns and able to keep the temp up in the house is impressive, almost hard to believe. If its into the 20's at night, we're reloading every 8 hrs to maintain a decent temp inside. Our house is 1650 sq ft, although we're heating about 1300 sq ft of it right now, so the Keystone's size is pushing it.

 

14 hr burns aren't too hard; Not much heat but enough coals to re-load. But fox lives "way down yonder on the chattahoochee," as far south of me as I am of Chicago, so unless he gets a rare cold snap, he can maintain house temp with 5 golf ball-sized coals in the stove.

 

I can't even raise room temp by a degree an hour in this heat vampire of a house.

 

Me too, way too many windows in a 2300 sq ft house for just the Progress. When it's below 20F the Palladian gets fired up and helps out.

Running 2 stoves really evens out the heat on the first floor when its super cold.

 

Condar cat probe.

1536 sqft heated. Very tight and well insulated (for AR). Also, all my floors are acid stained concrete. Over 66,000 lbs of exposed heat sink, really levels temps out.

^This helps a lot^. A couple of days with over night lows down to 0F and highs in the lower teens, I'll start burning a partial load in the evenings. That's y'alls typical winter temps.

 

Yeah, that's right. Not that I need it to run the stove, but I definitely want it, for mooooore info!

Well, not quite that bad here. Average coldest day (Jan 21) is 40/20. I can remember many winters where it never got down to zero, some never below 10. 2 weeks is a long way off, but I see they've got us for a couple nights in the mid-teens. I will have the Keystone back in by then...

 

http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/threads/i-drilled-the-soapstone-for-a-probe.2223/

I know you've seen this Woody, but maybe some others haven't. It's easy to do and now I wouldn't be without it. If anyone needs additional measurements, let me know.

Same here. usually only a few nights a year.

Todd's luck with the Keystone impresses me. He heats a bigger house in a much colder climate.

 

I'm only heating 1200 sq ft now but I use to heat about 2000 from the basement with a Keystone and I'd say it could handle the whole house til we dipped into the single digits.

If you guys want to see what this stove is really capable of fire up a full load and engage at 1.5 and leave it there. It will pound out the heat for a good 6-7 hours.

 

Uh....apparently I have. Re-reading that thread has got me fired up about getting a probe in there. I may string a thermocouple through the probe hole, but I'm not sure. What length of probe did you use? I might put mine like 3/8" from the cat face....I've read you can trim them to any length you need. On my SIL's Dutchwest, the probe I got was a little long so I put a couple washers under the face to lift it. Speaking of that stove, I need to go over there and finish up with the gasket/seam seal job. I just need to put in the bypass gasket, bypass, flue collar gasket, simmer out the cat, and I'm ready to fire it up. I can hardly wait! It's a ways off and the forecast could change but if we get those lower teens 2 weekends from now, I can really put 'er to the test.But I'm not gonna stand for her having a better 2460 than mine, which isn't sealed as good although it has new gaskets....so the Keystone is going back in.
We just got done hauling a 5x8 trailer of mostly White Ash over there. She's down to mostly Silver Maple left...burned up most of her arse wood already, even though I told her to save it. I guess her ID skills need some work. Gonna steal some Dogwood from my other SIL and haul it over there too...need some primo stuff to test the gasket job. The White Ash was from a dead tree that was slightly punked on the outside, but is still pretty good. It was stacked in a spot my neighbor graciously allowed me to use...on top of a hill with good sun. Was only stacked since spring but it got real dry. We put 4+ cords over there; The Ash, a little Oak that was already low 20s, and Some Red Elm. That's almost got both SILs covered for next winter...time to start stacking Red Oak and get them 3 yrs ahead.

 

Auberins.com has thermocouple for wood stoves. I have a 10" probe ( keep it clean) and inserted it in the hole in back of the stove and the tip is right in between the shield and the cat.

I did have a problem with the last probe, it only lasted 1 year, hopefully this one will last longer. I think my 2 year old grandson might of messed with it.

 

They often try things they're not qualified to do; You gotta watch 'em like a hawk!

 

I did a fox fire today, 12 hours in so far still a couple hours to go. I just went ahead and engaged at .5 and at first I thought she was going to stall but within 30 min the cat temp started to climb and peaked around 1100 and STT peaked at 500. I think the majority of the burn was 300-400 STT and the cat stayed active throughout.

I was getting smoke out the stack a little longer than I like burning this way. If I adjust the air down in stages I don't get smoke but my stove temps peak much higher.

 

Todd

Why do you think adjusting down in stages causes the higher peak temp compared with keeping the air open a while and then adjusting down all at once? Seems either way the cat would get just as hot. How long do you leave the air at each stage?

The probe does not lie, just trying to understand.

 

I have this happen also. Kinda like the burn tube guys say, shut it down earlier in the burn to keep peak temp down. I think its because the hotter the stove, the more draft it will have-sucking more air at the same draft setting. More air=more smoke=hotter cat=hotter stove. Just my $.02.

 

That will stop when you get the new SS cat. At least during its hyperactive stage.

 

Yeah, my cat is definitely going down hill but still has some life left and surprises me at times. Maybe I can get by the rest of winter with this cat and start fresh next season with a new steel cat. I'll probably change out all my gaskets as well.