Production Woodstock IS

Same conditions here in SE Mass. Was 9 above this morning with gusts and light snow. I KNOW for a fact the wind found some places to creep into last night, I came home from work at 7:30 to a 63 deg first floor.

 

Yeah it was bad. The sun is finally out now but the wind is still going.

 

For the transition from feeding the IS lighter shoulder wood (ash in my case) to nice dense wood (white oak & BL), do you find you have to set the intake higher or wait longer before closing the sled with oak & BL? I find it more difficult to get the front thermo above 600° or even to maintain constant secondaries without leaving the intake open way more. For instance, last night load of 1/2 w.oak and 1/2 BL needed the intake just 2 marks below half open to stay above 600 front thermo and keep secondary flame. Normally it can run loaded with ash, set air at 4 marks closed, front thermo soars to 750 and stays and have great secondaries. First thought would be my oak and BL are wet, but they were CSS over 3 years and MM read 'em around 18 or 19% MC. I am confused how to run the IS with awesome wood. What am I doing wrong?

 

I see the same kind of thing. Premium hardwoods seem to release their BTUS slower to begin with, now you try to slow it down even more by closing the air. I think where the premium wood shines is keeping the box hot after the fire goes out. This is a good thing. It means that almost any wood can be premium wood in this stove.

 

Well, it was you who got me to go back to N/S loading and that greatly reduced my coals problem with oak. I find as the wood is consumed, the coals stay pretty much where the wood was (without falling down) and allow air channels between them, and that really helps burn down the coals. I do not even have to change the draft or touch the stove, the coals just burn much better loaded this way than E/W where they tend to sit there as a clump forever.

I think the difference is that you put one piece of wood E/W so the bottom of the stove is closer to level. I rake the coal bed so that it is tapered, just about exactly the same as the top of the stove and then just load the rectangular space left; that way there is no airspace for the N/S wood to fall down into as it burns and I think that helps it hold its shape and burn the coals better.

Opening the bypass and cracking the door both greatly speed up burning of the coals and also increase the heat output of the stove while it is happening. For the adventurous, devil- may- care types who like to live on the edge, there is yet one more way to really deal with the coals and that is to introduce a bit of air from underneath the coals. Of course that is too horrible a method for me to mention in polite society but I hear it works quite well and produces the most spectacular blue, twisting 'kernels' of flame you ever saw. Sort of like aurora borealis in the top of the stove.

Brian

 

Now that you have mentioned it, I may give it a try. I don't taper the coals from the front, I make space to see the stove floor in the back so the e/w pieces are not on coals at all, everything ignites from the front and works towards the back.
Your method would allow me to stay n/s for the entire reload.
we'll see what happens

 

I've been researching wood stoves for 2 yrs. Considered them all, BK, Lopi, Myriad, NC30, etc. But WS really caught my eye and the new IS clinched it for me after watching the Beta testing last winter (and it fits my design needs, house size, etc). Heck, I'm building our hew home this summer around the Ideal Steel, so to speak. I've already ordered the IS, for late Summer/early Fall delivery, when we'll be building. I value your experiences and knowledge on stoves, particularly the IS (you should get a commission from WS ).

 

It's really neat how this thread sort of turned into an owners manual/ sales brochure. We have all seen different results and posted them on here for others to read. It would be quite interesting to know how many sales came out of folks listening to our rants on this thread .

 

Yep it would be interesting. I believe the majority of today's shoppers research the big- ticket items they are looking at on the 'Net, and forums dedicated to specific items are a big part of that research. So I would say that wood burning forums sell a lot of wood stoves (and pellet stoves, and OWB, etc.) today and perhaps, even the majority of those sold. Certain forums seem to gravitate to certain models too; last year when I was looking, I found a forum that seemed to be pretty heavily weighted towards the Blaze King line. This forum seems to be weighted toward the Woodstock Soapstone line, at least somewhat.

Really, open forums like these are an outstanding source of honest, real- world knowledge I think. A lot of garbage too but hey, it is the reader's job to filter through that stuff IMO.

Brian

 

I was thiiiiiiiiis close to ordering one based almost solely on BrainK's posts on the Beta.
Then, the 30 deal came up.
I think I would have been happier with the IS, but the money wasn't there at the time.
To be able to load 2x/day would be very nice.

 

Woodstock received great media coverage last year with the wood stove challenge in DC and coming in first in that contest. That got a lot of people looking at a stove company they might not otherwise have heard of before. Then discussions here and elsewhere provided real world feedback, most of which was very positive. They've sold almost 500 IS stoves last I heard a couple weeks ago, pretty good for a company that averages sales of 2200 units a year.

 

I'm sure a bunch of us would enjoy pics and stories of your home being built and eventually your new IS going in sometime next fall. Have you already decided on medallion and burn plate designs yet?

 

I remember that happening. Can't pass up a deal like that, and you didn't!

 

Theres so many people lurking and reading that aren't members. I know of a couple that have come on and said so but whos to say how many have actually done it.

 

The house will be a Kodiak Steel 3/2 ranch, well insulated (R28 walls, R45 attic). 2000sf on main, full insulated basement (R10 floors, R30 walls made by Superior Walls Inc). It will be located in S. IL, 90 miles east of St.Louis, in the country with 25 acres of trees. My wife and I picked out the Eagle/ribbon sides and the Liberty Bell for the IS, in black with charcoal sides/door.

 

I refer a lot of people to this forum that are new to wood burning and or stove shopping. I find it surprising how much education people need in the art of wood burning and how a particular stove runs.

 

#2

 

Someone just PMd me at AnotherSite, asking about the IS vs an NC30. Of course I gave him two thumbs up on the IS, but I think the BK fanboys there might bring him over to the dark side though...is a long burn really worth such hideous aesthetics?

 

I do not want to go too far OFFTOPIC but I do not think a BK, or any other brand, has anything unique that would allow them to do anything differently than an I.S. regarding burn time. You did a 24+ hour burn with your beta, and as I remember, the coals were not all consumed after that amount of time. I guess put an entirely different way, what stove would not duplicate similar burning characteristics (a modern, air - tight and well- regulated stove of course)? At any rate, given less than 100 lbs. of wood and a 40 hour burn, no stove can produce much heat over that amount of time simply because there is not enough fuel supplied to do so. I think a B.K. is a fine brand, a fine product, has a lot of support amongst users but honestly think the whole burn time rating is kind of silly; suggesting tremendously long burn times without noting what amount of heat can be produced during such a burn is rather like selling someone a ladder that will reach 100 feet high, costs only $50..... and then you find out it is only rated for a 10 lb. climber. The 100 ft. rating sort of fades away if a human cannot climb the ladder, right?

I find my I.S. will produce enough heat to keep my house above 70F when it is below 10F outside and it will do so for at least 10 hours. A 24 hour burn, while I am sure the stove would do it, is frankly quite useless to me as it could not keep the house warm and so that number does not mean anything to me.

I think people would be far better off comparing the type of stove (basically catalytic or not) with stoves of that type, and compare firebox sizes of approx. the same size. I believe a B.K. Princess and a W.S. Ideal Steel are about the same firebox size, both have cats. and so are reasonable to compare if a stove of that size and type will do the job it is needed for. A potential buyer's time would be better spent thinking about how each stove would be used; loaded, ashes removed, the combustor serviced, the cost of a new combustor amortized over the warranty period, etc., etc. Checking on parts prices as well as the reputation of the stove mfg. as well as the supplier would also be useful IMO.

Brian

 

It's 10 above in SE Mass right now. I did my last reload at 9:30 for the overnite. Prior to this I had some decent size coals to burn down in order to have room for reload splits. As someone mentioned earlier, I tried opening the door a crack, which seemed to work very well. The air damper open full does not feed as much air as the open door does. In pulling the charcoaled pieces out from underneath the coals and with the door cracked I got a stove top temp of 300 for nearly 1.5 hrs. To keep this temp while burning the coals down I had to stir the coals every so often to get the ash to drop off the top layer of coals. I'm gonna try this again tomorrow and see how it goes again.