Production Woodstock IS

Hey Keith, your right on this thread, it's really gotten out of hand. The original IS owners who rec'd their stove before the season began and the beta guys all got this started and it is full of useful info, bad part is it is so long. As all the other IS owners started to get their stoves as they were built the thread just got even bigger. We should find a way to make info for this stove more simple to access.

I just did a typical reload, loaded the stove full, every available space has some wood filling the void. The coals prior to that were pulled to the front and I let them burn down for about an hour. Starting at the back I fill the stove N/S and the last piece I lay in is E/W to fit under the angled secondaries burn plate. I open the air damper to full and in 10 +/- minutes I will get a flue temp of 250. I engage the cat and knock the air lever down to (today) notch 3. On colder nights it may be 4 or 5 depending. This will get me an hot, even burn through to early tomorrow morning

 

I have been doing just about exactly this for the last week or so and I believe the stove burns better / longer / more evenly when loaded N/S rather than E/W. I have been loading E/W because I can almost always get more splits into the stove that way but it seems like the stove burns about 1/2 of the load and then slows way down as the coals in front will not allow any air to get to the splits in the back. When loaded N/S, the wood has air channels between all the splits and burns much better during the second half of the burn plus it burns the coals down much better than when loaded the other way. Not sure if this has cured the problem of burning the coals down yet (has not been really cold since going back to E/W) but it certainly is much less of a problem.

I will say it is easier and faster to load the stove N/S.

Brian

 

I get what you trying to say Brian. I have found that when I rake the coals forward about 1-2 hours before a reload and burn the coals down in the front of the stove, I use this to setup my reload. With the coals forward and nothing but ash or the stove bottom in the back, I build a 'shelf' in the back going e/w, the same height as the coals in the front. Then I lay the rest n/s until the top, the last ones lay e/w to fit under the front of the top plate. The front ignites and about the time I engage the cat and slow the main air the fire slowly makes its way to the back.
It's working for me

 

Interesting. I actually rake the coals forward so the bottom slope mostly matches the top slope of the stove and then just load all the splits at the same angle all the way up. But it sounds like either system works pretty well.

Brian

 

Just to let everyone know: my I.S. has been a little sluggish lately and tonight I had a small but constant wood smoke smell coming off of the top of the stove. We have already discussed cleaning the cat., and a few weeks ago mine was very clean, at least looking through the top with a strong flashlight. So tonight as the stove was <sorta', kinda'> cool or at least not really hot, and we have some very cold (for us) weather coming, I pulled the top up, the radiator up and looked at the cat.. Same thing- it looked very clean. But then I pulled the cat. out from the stove and there was a fair amount of fly ash in the cells of the cat. So I let it finish cooling and washed it with just warm water, and a fair amount of crud came out of it. Let it dry, put it back in an viola! a new I.S. all over again. No longer slugging and the cat. lights even faster.

I would guess that I am into my third chord of wood so far. It might be worthwhile for those of you who have been burning this stove since the fall to give it a check. By the way: I cannot imagine an easier way to get to and remove / reinstall the cat. in any stove. I did mine while the stove was hot, surface maybe 340F, but with the draft fully shut and it really was easy and did not spill anything noticeable into the room (although there was no wood left in the stove so no visible smoke, just coals).

Brian

 

Do you have any warping on your cook surface, My IS? Mine is ever so slightly warped.

 

Maybe a suggestion would be a owners only thread/Review of the IS or Blog. How about pulling off the best of this long thread and posting a sticky thread?

I do a agree there is a lot of valuable info that deserves a clean format for everyone to read. Nothing wrong with a lot of question and answers on here but with this new stove and technology it would benefit everyone to have a concise format.

 

No warping on the cooktop surface here, just the rod that works the sled

 

I did this after I saw your post. I had vacuumed mine the last time, but it still seemed a little weak. This time I tried warm water and a brush. I had a sink full of crud. I let it dry off and put her back in. 5 minutes later she was glowing. I'll second the suggestion to do this !

 

Slept in late this AM (whole state closed down, driving banned) and did not get to the stove until 10:00 AM. After a 13 hour burn, with high winds outside, the inside of the house had fallen to 67F in the hallway. So for the first time, I kicked the stove a bit higher than medium; I hit 610F on the stovetop this morning, the first time this stove has ever seen 600F (actual temp, the magnetic thermometer was closer to 700F). 1/2 open draft, open bypass, stove 3/4 full of wood. A bit later, I opened the stove to throw in two more splits and had to turn my face away from the fire..... it was chucking a lot of IR with the door open. Very impressive and still not what I would call a 'hot' burn, and I never let the stack temp, measured inside the flue with a probe, get above 650F.

Now the last 1/8" of the glass is clean, right up to the gasket.

Brian

 

An observation for everyone on measuring the temps. I use both a probe thermometer 18 inches above the stove and a surface thermometer on the stovetop. I wouldn't want to get by with anything less. The probe tells me when to engage the cat (600 degrees) and the stovetop temp tells me when to close the air control (600F give or take depending on how much heat I need).
I would be wasting so much time trying to identify the cat engagement based on stovetop temps-- mostly because I often see the relationship between the two vary-- and then sometimes they are parallel.
So this is my campaign for measuring the actual stack temps. The Candor thermometers are like $15. Buy one, unless you have it back vented into a fireplace.

I think the cat probe thermometer would still be a decent add-on but the stack probe thermometer will still be useful so why wait?

 

So I must be gaining on the learning curve of how to run an I.S. Last night, I loaded the stove N/S as full as I could, with a small amount of coals raked to the front of the stove. Flogged it pretty hard to get the wood up to temp. (came in from outside where it was below 20F) and get the front of the wood fully engaged. Cut the draft down to 1/2 and let the wood char pretty well. After about 35 minutes or so, shut the bypass and set the draft at 6 notches open (1/4 draft opening plus one notch) before 11:00 PM. This morning 7:30 AM there was a good amount of wood shaped coals, the top of the stove around 350F, it was 1 F outside and the hallway in my house was 72F. Overall, I consider that a great, efficient burn that was more than enough to keep the house not only adequately warm but actually 'underwear warm'. It has taken a while, as expected but I think I am able to dance with the girl, at least without stepping on her (or my) feet. Color me a happy I.S. customer.

And by the way, read 'flogged it pretty hard' bearing in mind that I never, ever let the flue gasses go above 650F, read internally (Easy Boys!) with a thermocouple.

Brian

 

BDF sounds similar to how I have been running mine. Load her up, leave the intake open till the flue and stove front are up to temp. Then I shut the bypass and check it often. Once I see secondaries and the wood decently charred I take it down to 50% for a time (5-20 minutes) and shut her down. Depending on the temp outside I use notch 1 -2 for anything 35 F or higher. Around notches 4-6 from high singles to 20. It lasts an easy 7-9 hours when cold out. I find if I wake up at night and she is coals, I open up the intake to 50%. Later, when I get up I open it to 100%. My wife will then pack it later in the morning. If it is 20+, I keep it down and she burns even longer.

 

Oh yeah forgot,
I have only used one match since installing - my first fire!!!! And I have yet to clean the glass. 29 straight days without it going out!

 

After following the posts on here, there seems to be quite a bit of experimentation going on as to loading techniques.
Different setups for thermocouples and monitoring different temperature points on the stove
and different settings of the air control during the burn.
Now I love to analyze a process as much as the next, did that the my first week of burn.
Spent my career doing such things.

It seems with my stove it behaves the same way every time.
Stuff the stove e/w, throw a few bits of bark or slivers on top of the raked forward coals under the andirons.
Leaving the door on the first ajar handle position till the front thermo reads 270 close door and engage cat.
The front thermo instantly starts its climb to 750, at 450 I set the air at 1/2.
Then at 650 I shut the air down all the way, the temp the continues to 750 and tops out there.
The stove will then burn for 12 to 14 hours with a few coals and a stove top between 250/350 at the end.
It does this like clock work every time.
I spoke to Woodstock about this, especially the 750 they said this was normal temps for the front thermo.

It is exactly what I hoped for when I ordered the stove and I am amazed to get something as advertized in this day and age.
Mine was built on the 16th of January this year, I am wondering If Woodstock has been doing modifications along the way.
Making mine act a bit differently than some earlier ones, or did i just hit the perfect storm of draft/setup?

PS, please go easy here as no offense is intended and I enjoy reading the results of these techniques.

 

It really is this simple . You just have to have dry wood. I'm using 3 year old oak and the stove begs me to shut it down.

 

I think it all depends on how much input you want to apply to the adjustments of the stove. They all do run the same AMAZING. I load up full e/w door closed let surface temp (near flue collar) come up to 300* engage the cat then immediately shut the draft to what I want to run it at. Most of the time I can see that the wood near the back of the stove isn't involved at all. The cat runs on smoke so give it all the smoke it wants. The internal stove temp will rise and in a closed area with high temps the wood gets hot enough and it will smoke without a flame on it, which is what feeds the cat. Of course it will eventually ignite the smoke in the box and we have the awsome light show.
So in short get engagement temp shut it down to where you want it and let the machine do its job!

 

Well, last part first: I think you made a good post with a lot of valid points. I cannot imagine anyone being offended by what you wrote to be honest. To go a step further yet, this is one of the nicest forums I am aware of although I do not participate in many (three to be exact, all moderated, all very nice participants, all with great information just about every single day).

Actually, I agree with you.... mostly. I too am very happy with the I.S. and absolutely agree that it can be used in a very simple manner and is an excellent performer.

As to the on- going discussion about loading techniques, burn settings / times, etc., etc., I do find a big difference in how the stove behaves depending on how it is used overall but especially on how it is loaded. This is a big part of my interest in this forum- to learn more about the stove than I could alone by following what others are doing / have tried. I believe I can get more wood in the stove packing it tightly E/W but the stove does not perform best for me that way. Loading it N/S produces a more even burn over, say, 10 to 14 hours, and the coals burn down much better. When I load the stove E/W, I get a fine, long burn but it is considerably hotter in the beginning and later in the burn, about 1/2 of the wood in the back is sluggishly chugging along but not putting out enough heat to keep my house up to temp. Then I end up with a tremendous amount of coals that burn even slower and take up far too much space so that the stove cannot be fully re-loaded with fresh splits.

I have also experimented with the andirons in the stove / out of the stove and find little difference actually. As virtually all of my wood fits in the stove behind the andirons, they really do not make much difference. And loading N/S, the andirons are really not needed IMO as nothing will roll forward and strike the glass as it burns down.

So if your method is to load the stove, get it engaged and set bypass and draft, that is great and will work extremely well with this stove IMO and IME. But some of us like twiddling around, learning how to optimize the stove for our own purposes and (apparently) posting about it and sharing this info. with others. I have learned a tremendous amount about this stove from the beta testers, before it was even in production and I am very grateful they took the time to both note these things and also to stop by a forum and jot down the info. as well as post a bunch of photos. And I am not trying to pass along what I am discovering about the stove in the same vein, merely to share with others.

Brian

 

The actual question in the post was whether the earlier ideal's seem to need more attention to detail.
Where mine seems to be set and forget for 10 to 12 hours.
With very little coals and a pretty even burn rate thru out the burn.
With us being a only few miles apart I wonder if it's just a difference in our fire wood.
Mine does have the 8" vent so a different setup.
I would hate to discourage prospective new owners, these seem to be the easiest of the many stove's I have heated with over the past forty years.

 

Me too- it is a wonderful stove that I would, have and do, recommend to others.

I too set mine and leave it for 10+ hour burns every single night without any attention whatsoever and it runs beautifully. I am actually a bit confused as to why you think our stoves are behaving differently or I 'fiddle' with mine more than you do with yours. ??

And if you learned all the nuances of any woodstove in the first week, my hearty congratulations! I have been using this stove since October and am still learning things, as others seem to be per our posts and conversations. This has nothing whatsoever to do with an I.S. by the way, I would expect to take quite a bit of time to learn the best way(s) to burn any [new to me] stove.

And yes, there are differences in our setups / fuel apparently: I am burning hardwood, mostly oak, that is less than one year old but reasonably dry (measured between 18% and 23% late in the fall, random pieces, outside and inside the splits respectively). I am confident your wood is drier. I am also venting into an 8" square masonry chimney with another device plumbed into it (I know- downright evil but that is what I have at the moment) and my draft could be better I am sure.

But back to what I think is the point: we are not in disagreement or cross purposes as far as I know. This is the best stove I have ever seen being used also, other stoves of mine and friends and associates stoves' as well. I monitor my stove with electronics simply because I can and I want the data; the equipment came from my last stove and had I bought a Blaze King or a Regency, all of this equipment would be on those other stoves too. I do this because I want to and it is my nature, not because the I.S. requires or particularly benefits from it. So again, I think there is just some misunderstanding between us (or perhaps myself and the world ), not any conflict or significant differences in opinion.

Brian