Production Woodstock IS

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One thing I have noticed is the paint on the burners, We picked the forest green and charcoal body, the green on the burners has faded to almost match the charcoal, the door and sides are ok. Not a big deal just noting it for others.
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Nice Stove!!! The colors and side burners are the same as mine!!! I had some trouble with the moss green paint as well. I got a nice email from Woodstock. It seems the green might be a little "softer." I haven't noticed the color fading, but it was easily scratched. I will repaint them in the off season or in the spring shoulder season.

17 days before emptying your ash pan is great!. I do mine about twice a week burning 24/7 and almost all ash.

 

Experiment No. 593,058: loading E/W but on the left hand side of the stove....

My IS has a definite bias in the primary air feed toward the right hand side of the stove. So I have always loaded E/W on the right hand side, packing the wood up against the right stones and leaving an air gap on the left side (where the door handle is). But after thinking about this for a while, I am giving a different method a try: loading E/W but up against the left hand side with all the coals raked to the right hand side. So far, one time in a row, it works great; the stove lit the new splits faster than ever before with the flame swirling up the right hand side and igniting the splits on top in less than 5 minutes. The bypass closed in 8 minutes and the combustor lit immediately. All of this from a virtually cold stove with maybe a gallon of coals left, virtually empty and I filled it with as much wood as I could get in there. So far, I am really impressed- now to see how long and even the burn is from loading it this way.

Brian

 

[QU mightOTE="BDF, post: 259711, member: 1400"]Experiment No. 593,058: loading E/W but on the left hand side of the stove....

My IS has a definite bias in the primary air feed toward the right hand side of the stove. So I have always loaded E/W on the right hand side, packing the wood up against the right stones and leaving an air gap on the left side (where the door handle is). But after thinking about this for a while, I am giving a different method a try: loading E/W but up against the left hand side with all the coals raked to the right hand side. So far, one time in a row, it works great; the stove lit the new splits faster than ever before with the flame swirling up the right hand side and igniting the splits on top in less than 5 minutes. The bypass closed in 8 minutes and the combustor lit immediately. All of this from a virtually cold stove with maybe a gallon of coals left, virtually empty and I filled it with as much wood as I could get in there. So far, I am really impressed- now to see how long and even the burn is from loading it this way.

Brian[/QUOTE]
You might be onto something. I too noticed the coals on the left side are always higher then the right. I never thought much of it.

 

The really big difference happens when trying to get the new load of wood involved. With the coals and gap on the right side of the stove, the draft air sweeps down and into the gap making the right side and top of the new splits very hot, very fast. Much, much faster light off of the new wood, much faster heating of the stove and the combustor. When loading against the right side the fresh wood actually blocks the airflow through the stove but that is not obvious, or at least was not to me, until I loaded it the other way and noted the difference. Like night and day.

Brian

 

I think the bias is from the airflow coming in from the left and it's path of least resistance is to flow diagonally across the glass towards the right.

 

If Lorin and Tom ever needed details on the first year production IS units they might need a few days to read all the posts, experiments included at no extra charge.

 

So I was getting read to load the stove tonight and the smoke flap fell out when I jostled it. Funny enough but I could not figure out how it went back in the stove 'cause the coals were so hot I could not keep my hands in the door opening long enough to get it back in- and I was wearing those heavy fireplace gloves. Sheesh! That thing is going to have to rest on the granite tiles for the night.

Temps. are supposed to go down to -5F tonight; I know that is not impressive to you folks in the central- north US but here in RI, that is about as cold as it gets. Going to set the draft to 1/4 plus two notches tonight.

Brian

 

Can't say I've had my smoke flap fall out yet. I've struck the latch a few times when loading and it flapped down, your a stove flap abuser Brian!
I loaded at 9:30 with a full load of American Beech and red oak. Went 1/4 on the air damper. This mornings reload was the same type of splits and I got 10 hrs at 72 deg. It was also 32 deg this morning too. Gonna be a cold one tonight

 

Well, I'm away at a cabin for a few days so I loaded the stove full of oak and set it at 3. My goal is to maybe have some coals left over for Saturday night when I return. The heat pump will have to carry starting tomorrow morning. I'm sitting here warming up in front of an old Kodiak insert. Not so bad .

 

It is true- I am a smoke flap abuser. But I have been going to the meetings and trying my best. I slid a little yesterday but hey, today is the beginning of my new, non- abusive cycle, right? By the way, it is easy to put that thing back in when the inside of the stove does not look like Vulcan's forge.

I think the stove did great- loaded it full last night at 9:30, found it this morning at 6:30 with most of the fuel and about 1/2 of the coals gone, and the house at 70F. Not bad considering it was -7F last night. A nine- hour burn but a hard, hot burn with the stove producing a lot of heat.

Brian

 

My wife and I are in the market for a new wood stove and have been doing research on this and other forums. In our circle of wood burning friends, one owns a Blaze King King model, one owns a Blaze King Princess model, and one owns a Blaze King Ashford 30 model. All are very happy and the burn times seem impressive.
We were pretty much set on buying a Blaze King until we read about the Woodstock Ideal Steel. We read how it won a prize for being the most efficient stove. We like the idea of a hybrid stove that incorporates cat and secondary technology. We would also like to know more about this new model Woodstock is coming out with so we will keep watching that.
Out of all the reading we have done, you seem to have the most experience with the Woodstock stoves. We joined today so we could get more information from you. You obviously are impressed with the stove since you bought it after testing the pre-market version. Can you give us more input comparing the Blaze King stoves and the Ideal Steel. We are very impressed that the Ideal Steel costs so much less. Seems like a lot of stove for the money. Any other input would be appreciated.

 

Welcome. I'm sure any questions have been answered in the 70 some pages, it would be easier to throw them out and someone here will gladly respond. I would also reccomend giving Lorin Day a call at woodstock soapstone they would have more info on the new ?franklin? stove they are coming out with.

 

Thanks for the response. Our biggest concern right now is burn time although the environment is a priority also. We both have busy schedules and we want a stove we only have to load once per day. Our home is 1500 sf and is really well insulated. We were impressed with BrianK's 24 hour test and that was one of the reasons we started looking at the Woodstock (my wife also likes the looks better than the Blaze Kings). But we have read from other owners that they are getting more like 10-12 hour burns. That is kind of why we wanted to hear more from Brian since he has had so much experience with that stove. Maybe there is a method to getting longer burns.

 

Welcome to FHC Lovinwood. As Hollywood has mentioned, there are many threads and many pages of posts to read about the new Production model WS IS. And as I see you have quoted BrianK 's post on the upcoming franklin style hybrid beta stove coming out shortly. There are also beta posts from last years IS beta testers, BrianK also being a tester for the IS. Ask your questions, we have several active IS owners that post on this thread and a few others, and recently BrianK has started a Franklin beta thread with some preliminary info on the beta stoves that are yet to come to the field yet.
The BK is a fine stove with a great reputation. There are also many BK owners on this site that you may want to question and do some research with. However, as an IS owner myself, I am partial to WS and their new hybrid technology, which as you have mentioned previously, has won some awards for it's low emissions and long burns times.
It's an affordable stove for being an all steel stove. It's a local NH based company that just does stoves, and has a passion for making them well.

A few questions to you:
How many square feet are you heating?
What part of the country are you from?
What are you burning with now?
What kind of home do you have?
What kind of wood are you burning?

 

Thanks for the response. Just the guy we need to talk to. As posted above, we are really interested in the Ideal Steel's burn times. Sounds like you can give us some good input on that. We know how clean it burns by the award it won. My wife really likes the looks.

Our home is 1500sf, we are actually burning a home made stove with manual air knobs that was given to us for free. We can't heat our home just on wood because the stove won't burn that long. We want to get a stove that will heat our home without help from the furnace and we burn oak.

 

A well insulated house is a major factor in the heat retention and the percieved extended burn times. I heat a 1 level house approx 1900 sq/ft very very well insulated and have been able to go 24 hrs between loads most of this season. Maintaining a temp of 68-72 throughout the house. I do get help from the sun coming threw several large southerly facing picture windows. With the recent colder weather I have started a small fire (5 or 6) small to medium splits around 5pm running the stove more open and hotter. Full load at 8 pm for the overnight. Wake up to 68* house with -15* outside. I recently figured I have used a little less than 1.5 cord of wood this season. I picked the stove up the end of September.

 

Wow! Sounds like it is working well for you. That is a great burn time for a large house and some cold temps! Amazing that you have only used 1.5 cord in 4+ months!

 

Very happy. Glad to have had the oprotunity to beta test also.

The soapstone lining produces a soft even heat. The tradition brick lined stoves I have been near have a very sharp abrasive heat.

 

Just something else to think about but burn times alone do not mean much; in fact, during BrianK's 24 hour burn, his heating system kicked in as the stove was not putting out enough to maintain the temp. of the house. Extending the burn time even further would not be of much use.

In the end, all cat. based stoves will behave in a similar way regarding heat output / burn time. The big difference between a Woodstock IS and a Blaze King (King model) is the the BKK is quite a bit larger at 4.4 cubic feet vs. the IS's 3.2 cubic feet. So the BKK will simply hold more wood and therefore produce more heat per loading. The Blaze King Princess model is about the same size as the Ideal Steel and so would be a better, more direct competitor in my opinion.

I load my Ideal Steel twice a day when it is above 20F, and it maintains my house in the low to mid 70'sF. When the temp. drops down near zero, I have to load it three times although the (morning, early evening, night) although the early evening load does not have to be packed as full as possible.

So just as a suggestion, you may want to put more weight on the internal firebox volume of the stove instead of any printed 'burn time'. Then there are other things that may not be obvious such as the price of a catalytic combustor which will vary from around $100 to well over $300: it is worth checking the price on replacement combustors when considering which stove to purchase.

Brian

 

That is great information. I guess I should rephrase our expectations. We would like a stove that we only have to load once per day and have it actually heat our home (with no help from other sources). You are right, heating time is what's important, not burn time.

Your information is really in contrast to Hollywood's but does seem more realistic. Almost doesn't even sound like the two of you are talking about the same stove. I wonder if his furnace kicks on much? Maybe your house is way bigger than 1900 sf or not insulated as well as his? Anyway, we appreciate your input a lot.