Production Woodstock IS

This is what I have after last night. Recked it around and piled in the middle. Just walked by the t-Stat and has dropped to 67*. Highs of 14* and cloudy I may have to throw a small load in during the day

 

I'm liking this thread. Lots of good info from you guys.

 

PM sent to the IS owners

 

I'm liking what you guys are reporting with the brutal cold and the IS, you aer speaking my language now! Encouraging to hear that there is good relights after 10+ hours and good heat pumping into the house.

 

Having an Ideal Steel since the fall, and recently going through the colder (coldest?) part of the winter, I have learned a few things about the care and feeding of this thing.... I think.

I load the stove one of two different ways: if I load E/W, I pile the coals up on the right hand side (door hinge side) of the stove as far as possible. Then I load the stove against the left wall until it is full, and full is often a split over the andirons pretty close to the glass (but never touching it, at least not while loading). Then I put a few small, thin splits in the channel left on the right side, over the coals; this is the wood that will catch and light the entire load.

The other way is N/S; when loading the stove that way, I rake the coals forward and leave a tapered bed of coals that is about parallel to the top of the firebox. Then I load as many splits as possible into the space left.

So here are a few things I have learned:

E/W:
1) I can get more wood into the stove this way. Mostly because I can load it right to the top, actually touching the SS plate.
2) The fresh load takes longer to get really involved and it takes more time before I can damp the stove down for the long, unattended burn.
3) The load burns less evenly; the front 1/3 of the load burns quite well but after that, the stove slows down quite a bit. The result is that I have more coals and often actual wood in the morning (Easy Boys!) but get less heat into the house, especially toward the end of the burn. This is all because the air is introduced into the front of the stove and once the front portion is gone, it actually insulates the rest of the splits from being in the airstream.
4) The andirons are useful because the last splits all the way from the bottom to the top of the stove can either sit against them or right on top of them. Without them, a split or two inevitably ends up against the glass at some point during the burn. This still happens with the andirons in the stove of course but a lot less often and it is usually only the edge of one split against the glass rather than the entire length of the split.
5) This method works great for the longest, slow burns on shoulder season; the stove will just burn low, slow and clean forever packed full this way.

N/S
1) The stove is easier and faster to load this way but not by a lot.
2) More even burns because there are air channels left all the way to the back of the stove, all throughout the firebox. This gets oxygen to the wood in the back of the stove, even during the coaling phase. The burn does not fall off in the middle and while the overall load of wood does not last as long as an E/W load, it is better for me on overnight burns on very cold nights because I get quite a bit more heat out of the burn toward the end. So there is less wood and coals left but I got more heat into the house toward the end of the burn and the house is warmer when we get up.
3) The new load of wood gets involved much faster because of all the ends of the splits exposed (Boys!) both the heat of the coals and the feed air. This method is especially beneficial when cracking the door open a bit to get the fresh load engaged.
4) Fewer ashes end up on the andiron plate, the door seal steel and therefore, fewer ashes end up falling out of the stove when the door is opened at the end of the burn. Not a big deal but hey, cleaner is always better.
5) The andirons do little but get in the way IMO when loading the stove N/S, especially if the coals bed is banked as I described. There is little chance of anything falling outward or toward the glass.

All of my splits are cut around 17", 18" so longer wood would be an advantage both ways but especially when loading N/S, at least with the coals pushed up against the right side. Longer wood would probably work great loaded E/W if the coals were raked forward but I have found that it often takes a really long time to engage the new load when the wood and coals are arranged like this; the air circulation through the stove just rides up the face of the splits, not carrying much of any heat from the splits.

By the way, I do not segregate my wood by type (I don't even know what some of it is) nor am I careful to pack smaller splits in anyplace in particular. So basically, I am lighting a load of sizable splits and not bothering with any tinder at all.

Just thought I would post this for others to comment on and bash as needed.

Brian

 

This is like the old 'good news / bad news' joke: it as -5F this morning but the temp. has shot up to 27F and there is no wind. But that is only so it can snow, which it is doing..... again, and this time is supposed to dump up to a foot on us. Later on, the wind will pick up and Sunday as the snow tapers off, the temp. will again drop into negative territory so we can really enjoy digging out Monday. At least Monday is a holiday and I do have a Honda snowblower (really it is a snow destroying weapon) so I am not complaining. And we did get another trailer load of wood last night to get ahead of this storm / snowfall; it ain't no fun loading wood when it is snowing and windy.

Brian

 

When you load e/w make coal piles evenly on both sides at the width of your splits. This leaves a large air channel beneath the entire load. My splits aee 19-20 in so I pile right out to the walls. It gets the bottom layer involved first and it once it's hot enough to engage the cat the remains splits are usually smoking not on fire and the cat feeds on smoke, so I give it what it wants and it likes.

 

I didn't quote your whole post BDF, but that's a great batch of knowledge right there.

 

You don't need to quote the entire thing, he will give you a short novel with many details as a response to a short quote. He is quite the info bank when it comes to this stove.

 

Yep. Noticed that, and it's very informative.

 

This is how I have learned to burn as well and observe the same as you....

 

Just to finish this story I added 6 pieces of small/medium pieces and the house to calmly climbed to 73* and cruised untill my 8 pm overnight load as per usual. This thing is phenomenal more impressed each and every day.

 

Here is tonights loading. Started it at 8 pm as usual and now with this setting
I get this. With this left for the rest of the night. I'm loving it!!!

 

So a little fun with math for the IS.....

3 cubic feet of wood loaded 2 times a day= 6 cubic feet. I know I know it is bigger than 3 Cubic feet but real world loading.

128 cubic feet in a cord of wood.

Comes out to 21.3 straight heating days with a cord of wood.

November-march burning 24/7= 6.6 cords of wood on a twice a day loading schedule. Mileage will vary depending on ones winter and shoulder season.

Fireview comes out at about 5.5 cords of wood on 2 full loads of wood with a half load in between.

 

Cold burning update....
The stove is having a hard time keeping up with the -10 to -20 F overnight. For the first time with the IS, I reloaded at night. There was not much room but I was able to fit a few small splits on top of the coals. I did not open it up much since I was going back to sleep, but left it a notch 7 or 8 (Just like Hollywood's photo). Got up a few hours later and then reloaded with 6 medium/small splits. The Mrs. did say she was turning up the furnace to 65 today from 62.
The stove still rocks, I would have reloaded two to three times overnight with these temps and our old wood burner, and the furnace would still have ran.
During the day we can watch the stove better and give it more air.

 

What is your initial draft setting for the first load?

 

During last evening (we got home at 6:20pm after leaving at 8:15 am), I was at 50% then finished loading the top at 8:30 pm. After making sure everything was charred with 100% down to 50 %, I left it at notch 7 or 8. Any more than that it can really peg the stove top thermo meters. I came home Friday and the Mrs. had it a little too hot running 50-75% I took it down to 0 and it still stayed very warm for an hour to 90 minutes before I opened it up to notch 6

 

You let it run at 50% for the day? Full load or partial?

 

As I have said, I find the primaries on this stove to be weak and once the gasses are burned off of the wood, the burn slows way down. That is fine for 20F and above, in fact it is great, but when it is really cold, the stove cannot keep up. It was -5F overnight here and the draft wide open would not keep the stove producing enough heat to maintain the house at 73F. What it needs is some air coming up from the bottom, through the coals bed. Then the primary air can be turned way down to about 3 hash marks and the stove will produce great heat for a long time. But without the air coming in from the bottom, the coals just cannot be burned fast enough to produce sufficient heat, at least with my I.S. and my chimney setup.

Brian

 

Sorry for the miscommunication
It was about 50% for an hour or so starting from a reload after a time at 100% to light the load from coals. It had coals but was a bit cool and took a little while to warm up the house. I was able to watch the stove and it did not get over 600 on the stove front thermometer. I can run from 50%-33% on a full reload IF I am watching it, otherwise it will run too hot. I then turn it down and forget it.

Brian (BDF),
I am finding similar results to your observations. I have not left the ash pan door open to stoke those coals. But when I change out the ash pan, the coals certainly take off....
The stove still heats better than my old one with less wood being consumed.

During the afternoon/evening I will often try to burn down the coals by stirring them, leaving the intake open to 100%, and I just throw one or two small splits on to keep up the temp.