Production Woodstock IS

Yeah, the result of a wee bit o' air from under the grate. And it does not take much at all really, I think a 3/8" round hole would do the trick, and I am sure a 1/2" hole would do.

Longer, flatter stove pipe and stove top temps. too, all because the coals are being burned down as the wood is consumed rather than being left to accumulate, or at least as much. There are still plenty of coals left, just not as much as before and not so much they get in the way.

Brian

 

Mine are always like that. And my stove temps. are a bit higher after the air dam I put in the back of the radiator; they used to be even lower.

I guess I would respond by asking how you guys keep your stove top temps so high? (seriously, not kidding). I have had my stove top to 600F, and maybe once or twice to 650F but I have to say, if I kept it there for long, I would have to open some doors and windows as well as feed the stove more than three times a day. 650F actual (not magnetic thermometer) stove top temp. is really roaring on my I.S.. Not over- firing either according to the instuctions or common sense, and nothing is too hot (nothing glowing, nothing in danger of being damaged, etc.) but the stove puts out a fierce amount of heat. Even during extended below zero F runs, the stovetop never needs to be above 500F unless I am trying to recover the house after letting it get cold due to not being here.

Brian

 

Were the burn times affected with the small draft door open underneath? I'm beginning to understand this concept a little more now that you have some concrete results. Knowing the coals are burning down as well as the reload is gassing off is a good thing. Earlier in the season we were all dealing with the huge mounds of coals with reload after reload.

Do you see the coals burning down and the off gassing off the reload at the same time when you view through the window?

 

Have you considered making the piece you attached to the radiator permanent?

 

I'm at least 550* (top magnetic) every night, draft set from 4-8 hash mark. Will be good to compare like data. Will have to get probes set up in as close to the same location as each other for comparison.

 

I would also think that wood variety, quality, and moisture content would play a factor into this as well. I've noticed that my 3 year oak firewood gets put to shame in this stove as lesser woods seem to perform as well or better. It's a game changer.

It also means that I can be on the lookout for some of the lesser quality woods. Most people around here jump on free Oak in a heartbeat. If I can get great results with lesser woods then I don't have to be as picky as there is more of that for free.

I'm picking up some dry box elder from a friend today. . That should be interesting.

 

Honestly, I cannot tell if the burn times were changed because I never let the stove 'burn down'. I believe what is happening is that I am adding some of the coal burning phase into the wood burning phase so that in, say, 10 or 12 hours, I am consuming more of the total fuel in the stove. With just air from the draft, there would be more coals left, which of course would increase the burn time but only if I let the stove go for a couple of days, which is useless as it cannot put out a useful amount of heat running like that. This is where "possible burn time" and reality part ways, at least if the stove is used to heat a normal house in a normal winter environment.

No, I cannot see any difference at all in the coals with the grate draft as far as the overall burn goes. I can see that there are more coals glowing under the entire fire, indicating that there is some burning going on at the bottom of the stove. If I open the ash pan door briefly (GASP!) and look, above the grate is a dull red in places but not all over the top of the grate; again, this indicates that the coal bed IS burning from the bottom up albeit very slowly.

Actually, I think this longer, slow method of introducing just a 'tad' (technical term) of air under the grate for the entire burn is kinder to the stove than trying to burn down a gigantic bed of coals. I am not letting in anywhere near the air I used to have to to get coals to produce a useful amount of heat.

Brian

 

I sort of already did- it fell out a few times and I finally drilled two holes through the radiator to use SS wire as hangers to hold it in position. So the stove is modified now. And of course the ash pan door.

When we bought this stove, my wife made me promise that if we bought a 'store bought' stove, I would not modify it. She wanted one thing or the other: to build another stove as I have been doing or to buy one and leave it along. I tried..... I really did, and the I.S. is a great stove overall..... but with just a few tweaks, it can be even better in both my opinion and experience. It is nearly perfect now..... other than it needs to be a bit deeper in the firebox, the stove floor needs to be "V" shaped so all the ash falls toward the grate, the grate needs more and slightly bigger slots, and the ash pan needs to be a bit bigger (triple what it is would be nice). And automatic draft control, along with a draft inducer (already on the stove) and that is it.... I promise. Really. Honest.

She is going to be cranky during the cutting / welding phase I bet....

Brian

 

Brian, do you think if WS was to incorporate a way to get air fed to the bottom of the stove and have it govenored that it could produce what you have just done with the ash pan door air draft?

 

Wow, easy there fella'! Not sure I want to get our probes all that close.....

I am still looking for a place for my firebox probe. I <may> put it in the front of the stove but that will require drilling and tapping a hole right in front of the stove. And there is a draft channel where I want the probe to go so that may not work either.

Brian

 

Certainly, and they could do a neat, incorporated job of it. Tie it in with the primary draft for example. They could not use the ash pan though as that is an option that not all stoves are built with but there are other ways that would work well and be pretty slick I think (think 'blowpipe' in a blast furnace as an idea).

The two problems are 1) they may not like the idea and may think it unnessasary. And I am not sure but they would probably have to have the stove re-certified that it meets EPA standards given the new air inlet. Not sure about that, not sure how much leeway they have and I do not if they could do some kind of limited testing to sort of certify the change only. ??

By the way, I want to add here that I do not blame W.S. for their stance here; they made a great stove IMO, and they must follow the rules set by the EPA. I have two big advantages over W.S., one is the EPA requirements (which I believe the stove still fully meets with my mods. by the way) and of course the other one is using the stove every day, all day as an exclusive heat source. It gives me a chance to see what changes might be useful and actually try them out. Woodstock did not have those advantages and had to introduce a fixed product and could not keep tinkering with it endlessly. So I do not mean to imply they did not do a great job, just that a bit more fiddling can usually fine- tune anything. Plus I have my own specific wood, chimney, etc. while they had to produce something for a much broader market.

Brian

 

The box elder is a go. This should be interesting...

 

Jeff,
It was about $287 delivered to my place of work at Ann Arbor. We were closed when it was supposed to come in, so I went to pick it up. They said it would ship the ATF depot in Mason, but it actually went to Inkster, near the airport. I called the freight company and went and picked it up. They put it in my truck with forks. The 250 free shipping would just about cover it. I think several people have put down deposits and changed their mind on which model. It seems Woodstock is fine with this. I gave you my info in the conversation if you want to come over to look at the IS. I am home today, Sunday evening, and open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evening this week.....

 

I get the load fully involved and make sure I have a lot of secondaries. During the cold blasts I have not been using the Cat too much. There is a fickle point between the whole load off gassing with the draft open and shutting down the secondaries for a cat only burn. This process needs to be watched.
Once the load is going, close the bypass and turn down the draft to 25-30% (three fewer hash marks if you are introducing coal air )
Watch the temps. If you have a large load it can run away from you. A small re-load generally doesn't run away as easily.
I just adjust the dampner between hash mark 3 and 8 depending on how fast and large the load is degassing.
Once the load degasses a bit (couple of hours) I can turn up the air to keep the secondaries going and burn down the coals.
If I am just burning down the coals with the intake wide open, I will just put in one or two small splits.

Doing this one must load the stove more often, and you will make a lot more ash.

Another thing we have been doing is to make a few small reloads and keep the draft open to burn down the coals. It might be 1-3 splits on top of a large coal bed.

My house has no/little insulation and negative to single digits is tough. But, the IS really has kept the temp up and used up less wood than my Lopi.

When the temps are above 20, I can reload with two full loads and 1 medium or 2 small loads inbetween.

 

I found that the primary air holes near the door do a decent job of burning down the coals toward the sides and the grate air keeps the center open with ash falling in toward the grate. I only have the rear wall that doesn't get burned down well.

 

BDF with your comment about over heating the cat, do you think that the "automatic cat air" would help keep it from overheating? According to their website it helps prevent overfire and stabilizes the burn. I would be curious to see what it does during a burn cycle.

 

Funny you mention this. I've been burning 2 year-old white oak that is measuring single digits on the outside of the split, low to mid teens on the inside. On paper that should be extra double good. However, the oak was put to shame by some old white ash I had lying around. At about five hours into the burn, with the air control set on #4, the front thermometer was reading close to 900 and it was radiating heat like a blast furnace. The oak doesn't do this.

 

Funny you say that, I have about 3 cords of white ash and that stuff kicked my white oaks butt the same. I don't think that white oak off gasses very much. Your better off burning that stuff hot when you need more heat and the glass cleaned.

 

I experience the same- w.oak won't get stove as high of temps as w.ash "for a given intake setting". To get the same output heat burning a load of BL and w.oak requires the intake lever a couple notches higher. The coaling phase however lasts ALOT longer