Ideal Steel Season #2 Tips, Tricks, and Improvements.

I'm gonna give it a whirl

 

OK been burning on and off 2 months and got a half a cord threw IS.. I loaded pics but they did not load..

I cleaned chimney and pipe 3 tablespoons of stuff not bad.... I pulled and vacuumed cat quarter cup of white probably what you call fly ash. o
under top lid. the steel sled that holds cat is got some paint flaking dead center on top and red rusty looking metal not smooth underneath where it came off is this normal?


other than that love the fact at 45 at day 20 at night I can build 1 fire a day load at 9 pm with popular and some elm and at 3 pm next day got enough coal leftover to add splits open air and another fire.. that's great!

 

I posted some pics somewhere, mine is doing the same thing. Some of the paint was sitting on top of my CAT. Apparently this is normal.

 

thanks Babaganoosh I will receive read this thread and see

 

That flaking 'paint' on the steel plate over the catalyst is not paint, it is the steel itself decomposing (called 'scaling') due to the extreme temperature it is exposed (Easy Boys!) to. Perfectly normal and really not much can be done about it other than to replace the center of that steel with either stainless steel or some type of ceramic. Next time you have it out, look at it closely or run something like a putty knife over the surface and you will see that the surface of the steel is actually missing. Basically, it is a consumable part although it looks like it will take years to actually burn through. And even then, a new plate could be welded in place if that is easier, faster or less expensive than going back to Woodstock for a new plate (I believe they call it a 'radiator').

Brian

 

ok.. thanks BDF... I just wanted to know about size of elongated nickel..

 

That thing flakes and warps. Mine keeps getting thinner so it warps easier. I pull it out every now and then to beat it with a hammer.

 

Who wants to get a few made up in stainless for us? Group buy?

 

Any harm on running without it?

 

I'd bet you mess up the top of your stove pretty badly.

 

That and or most of the heat from the cat would probably go up the pipe.

 

The top of the stove, and the stainless steel plate bolted to the bottom of the top plate would probably warp. There are very high temperatures directly above the cat. and that is why the radiator is there in the first place I think; it acts as a sort of shield and spreads the heat out to a wider area before it gets tot the top plate, and that lowers the max. temperatures the top plate sees.

Brian

 

There are the start of flakes (bubbles) even on the top surface of our radiator in the same area where the scaling is worst on the bottom. Must be taking some serious heat from the cat.

 

My cat. often runs at 1,400F and a touch more although I do not let it get to 1,500F. Carbon steel will start to scale (make black flakes that look like paint peeling but it is not; it is the iron dissassociating from the steel, called the 'amorphous' state) as soon as it turns dull red, about 900F. So inexpensive, plain old carbon steel just cannot withstand temps. over 1K F without scaling and decomposing. All of that said, I would not really worry about it as it will take several years to actually burn through, and I do not think a new radiator is all that expensive from Woodstock anyway. And it is extremely easy to look at or remove too- all cat. stoves (all stoves period IMO) should be looked at each year as at least some internal parts (Easy Boys!) deteriorate in all stoves and should be straightened, replaced or whatever is needed. Woodstoves require a bit of attention and maintenance to keep them working correctly and especially, safely. I have seen woodstoves with fireboxes actually 'burned through' such that they are porous; not a great thing to have a fire in inside a house.

Brian

 

OK so I should buy a spare radiator, cat and extra ash pan for a Christmas gift

 

Ditto

 

I am not bothering with a spare radiator- as I said, in a pinch (something like Woodstock goes out of business or whatever) you could have any welding / fabricating shop just weld another plate over the badly pitted area or where the hole is a few years down the road.

I bought my stove with two ash pans because I prefer to just swap them rather than take the full one and empty it while the stove is running. So I think having two of them is a good idea but of course a second one is not really needed.

The cat.: I would not buy one too far in advance because the one in the stove is warrantied for I believe 3 years outright and then a pro- rated discount (going by memory here). So no need to stock one IMO. Besides, over the years catalytic combustors have gotten quite a bit better and when you do need a new one, might as well get the best, current type available rather than have a three- year old type. Catalytic combustors do not really fail all at once anyway, they sort of fade off in performance so it is really unlikely you will need one in the middle of the winter; once you notice the performance falling off, when it is harder to acheive light- off and keep it running (it will tend to stall when it gets 'tired'), just order one over the summer for the next year. But that is just my opinion, some folks like to have a spare on hand so whichever way works best for you is the best way to go I think.

Brian

 

BDF , OK thanks for that, OK I will get second ash pan just because I want one... I do have the advantage that half my family is from Woodstock so stopping by factory is a 10 minute drive when down there.. I just really like the stove and trying to learn and to be frank my wife will loose her mind if living room isn't 80 in winter.. And if something does go wrong I can get a part quick..

 

Good news and bad news on an extended run.......

Loaded up the stove full of splits and rounds on Friday at noon. Get some of the wood charred and shut the air intake all the way down. By Sunday when we get home there is still wood in the stove and the natural gas furnace did not come on (it is set to come on at 62 F).

The good news was the furnace did not kick on
The bad news is that I had a smokey-grill like odor in the house. I also had the black liquid on my hearth and a healthy coating of it on the inside of the stove. My Cat must have stalled in the low, slow burn. It was very warm out, 40s-60s, and must not have had a good enough draft. The wood was ash. Moisture was below 20% on the splits. Some of the rounds were between 20 and 25 % a week ago when tested. I do seem to get a bit of a smoke smell when running cat only for a long period of time. Guess I will need to make sure the air intake is a bit open when it is this warm.

 

Has there been any word back from Woodstock about the black liquid? I'm sure you've seen Golf66's Thread.