Replacing Fireview with....?

I really missed the boat when the PH came out with introductory prices and again when I was at the factory and they had a blow out on rebuilt PH's.

Agreed, the IS is really a great value at its price.

Yes, I have a second flue. I'd love to claim that space back and hookup a stove to it again. That's been a dream of mine to have the fireview on the second flue and another stove as the main workhorse. It would be nice to generally rely on one rock solid machine.

Sigh, I feel like an attention hog on this post. Hopefully no one is upset if I get stubborn, dig in my heels a don't do a darn this with stove changes the winter. !

 

Never had a P.H. but I believe you. That said, it is absolutely no problem to spiff up an I.S. to burn the coals down as the stove burns. Just read the manual, and do exactly the opposite of what it says never to do.....



I was sitting on the fence regarding a P.S. or an I.S. right up to the day I ordered the stove. I had a deposit on the I.S. but Woodstock told me that I could switch it to a P.H. if I wanted to do so. I waffled right up until the last minute and still could not decide when they told me they did not have anymore P.H.s in stock. Hence the I.S. I own now. We are quite happy with it and have no urge to try a P.H. but most probably, I would be saying the same thing about a P.H. and not wanting to bother trying an I.S. if it went that way too. I think both are nice stoves that will serve very well given reasonable expectations.

Brian

 

What about the newer blaze kings. I have an IS and I absolutely love it. But for the sake of argument how big a player would the Ashford be?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

I didn't get a manual with mine. But I'm guessing it has something to do with the ash pan door...

 

I think if your trying to heat two stories, the Fireview is not enough. And it can still be difficult with a large stove if it's not an open floor plan.

 

I believe at one time they were and still might be running a 6 month no questions asked return policy. Might want to look into that?

 

I think they take trades also

 

What I found with my Absolute is that high gear varies quite a bit depending on the temp=draft of the chimney. I usually set for my cruise setting around the 1 market on the absolute. If it's warmer, then a little more. I really never went below that, even though I've seen in the users manual that you can. Then one night, over night, down in the 0'F I put the draft setting at .5, almost completely closed. I was up in the middle of the night and decided to check the stove top temp and I have the cat probe set up as well. Cat temp was way up over 1K'F and STT was at 700'F. Entirely CAT heat at this point with sporadic ghost flames but no secondaries that I remember.

With the Fireview I don't go below the 1 setting on the draft. 1 seems to be the right long term cruise point, with the best overall heat and long term bright orange CAT. You can't see the cat so well with the Absolute, but with the probe you know it's bright orange when you're up on the plus 1K area.

I love the added capacity of the Absolute. The Fv isn't much smaller, but the shape of the box makes for a bigger load for sure that really makes it easy for me to support 24X7 burning. The Fv also does a good job of 24X7 but I need to deal with the ashes so much more frequently and coaling takes up room in the really cold days where I could use the extra heat of full box of wood. The ash pan system of these stoves is such a major benefit.

 

I couldn't have said it any better!
This has been my experience also.

 

After going back to the beginning and reading this thread, if the OP is a 1 stove home, and the wife says it doesn't have the horsepower, I can fully understand that. My Fv is my main heater, in the upstairs main living area, essentially all one side of the house a combined living room/kitchen cathedral ceilinged 26X13 ft room. Upstairs loft bedroom and two smaller bedrooms downstairs that are now the music room and the office room, but used to be kids bedrooms. This is a well insulated home about 1400sq ft of living area. We live in north central Massachusetts so we know what cold is and we know what snow is.. but it isn't northern Michigan or Minnesota where I think you are usually a bit colder.

Where the Fv just isn't enough is when we get those days (sometimes weeks) when the weather is in the -10'F and even below. Over the last few years we have some January and February weeks where it is -20'F neighborhood, with strong winds to boot. This is where the Fv seems to run out of steam for us and I'm wishing I had the AS upstairs (main living area) and the Fv downstairs (finished and insulated basement/exercise area and laundry room.). The AS, with that extra capacity and nice square box shape of that capacity is just that 20% or more, especially with the hybrid technology, of the Fv. Between the extra firebox capacity, the hybrid technology, and the awesome ash pan system, it takes all the fuss out of those extra cold down below zero days/nights/weeks.

The Fv is gorgeous and very efficient heater, but I need to deal with the ashes much more frequently, and in very cold weather when there is a lot of coaling it doesn't have the firebox capacity that the AS has. My AS isn't as pretty as the Fv and I've seen other AS stoves these days with neat paint and bling schemes that are very pretty. I'll say this, if you have the extra room on your hearth for the AS, and you like the side loading, which I needed as well, you will very much like the AS. I'm not sure how much more you get in heat capability/burn times with the IS, but the AS is a good step up just based on heat capability/burn times, and then throw in the added feature of the ash pan convenience and what is there not to like. I also forgot to mention the nice feature of top or rear flue capability, which I also needed for clearance and hearth size issues on my downstairs hearth.

Sorry for the long windedness of this post. For people with under 2200sq ft home, I think the AS is a great solution. I love the IS and the PH, but I think they are just overkill for many homes.

 

Yeah, it says never, EVER, use the ash pan door to introduce any air into the fire. Death, dismemberment, an ecological disaster and quite possible the Earth will shift on its axis as a direct result.

I believe you can get the owner's manual on- line as a PDF. If not, I am sure you could get one by calling the folks at Woodstock.

Now, I you do poke a hole in the ash pan door, what happens is the coals do not collect until they take up more than 1/2 of the firebox but instead burn down as the wood burns down. A much better and more even consumption of the fuel and it makes the stove much, much easier to use IMO. Of course the key here is a little air, not opening the ash pan door. Which is why the mfg. claims it is such a horrible thing to do of course. But used with a little sense, it works well.

What I did was to cut a triangle opening in the ash pan door itself and put a draft damper over it so I can control the opening from 0 to about the equivilent of a 3/4" hole or so. I set it so the opening is the size of a regular wooden pencil and never move it; this introduces just a touch of air under the grate to help burn the charcoal at the bottom of the stove without causing any excessive temperatures. In fact, I could actually control the stove by closing the normal draft all the way and just regulate the ash pan door draft opening, exactly as a pot bellied stove does.

This is what the mod. looks like, wide open:



This is how I actually use the stove:



Brian

 

Brian, don't tell anyone I said so, but that is AWESOME! {carefully hoping no one from the guvment, or anyone other bad guys see this}

 

Thanks Steve.

Just because the voices in my head are not real does not mean they do not have some really good ideas!

The mod. works extremely well. It just has to be used with a little sense and care; I would never open it all the way and, say, go to the movies. That would be almost as bad as crossing the streams! In actual practice, I really never move that setting.... it could really just be a drilled hole about 3/8" and would work as well I think. But I did not know that when I made the mod. and so made it adjustable with the expectation of actually adjusting it.

I have done a few mods. to the I.S. that have proven worthwhile. Putting a 2" tall block on the inside / back of the radiator drives the stove top temps. up and the flue gas temps. down, meaning more heat is delivered to the house and less to Santa. After installing the new and improved radiator, I did not mod. that one and instead just used a stove pipe damper and it is proving to be about as good and of course, adjustable too.

What I really wanted to do was to open up the air ports in the front / bottom of the firebox and put the damper plate over that; it would be the same basic design but inject more air above the grates, as Woodstock's original design intended. I did not go that way because a lot of the time one or both of those firebox air inlets clog with ash and or charcoal so they tend to get chocked off and it will not really matter how big they are. The under- grate air works as long as the ash above the grate is not too thick to block that off too but what I do there is to take a hoe (a full- sized garden hoe) and scrape a slot in the middle of the grate when re-loading the stove so there is always a passage for air.

Brian

 

I should add, that is another thing I like about side-loading. Even though the IS has a bigger box, I feel a have a harder time maxing it out by loading through the front door (in part, because of the sloping roof of the firebox). Loading from the side seems to afford a bit more ability to arrange the splits and rounds to a greater degree, right to the front of the stove.

 

It's that "well-insulated" part that I lack, which is why on the coldest days having a slightly larger firebox doesn't always seem to translate into a warmer house for me.

But if you look at bang for the buck, aren't the AS and IS about the same price? So for the same money, I figured I might as well have the extra cubic feet. Never realized how much I would prefer a side-loading door, though, regarding ease of loading and absence smoke/ash spill.

I also found the ash pan more proportional in the AS. In the IS, it takes quite a bit more pushing around to get ashes to fall through the relatively smaller grate. With the added tendency for ash spill, that has made the IS a "messier" stove than the AS for me. The folks at Woodstock would surely have let me trade it out and go back to the AS, but 1) they've done enough for me already and 2) I'm too lazy.

 

Looks like you made yourself a controlled forge. Gotta love steel, cut it, weld it, grind it.

 

Agreed 100%. And when putting in that last split, it usually wants to fall out on me. So while technically it fits, I cannot keep it in (Easy Boys!) for the actual burn.

I think what we need is andirons pointing down from the top as well as up from the bottom. And that reminds me, anybody else load an I.S. to the gills only to have the andirons tip out slightly so you cannot shut the door? It does not always happen but when I does I always think what we really need is a latch to keep the andirons in place..... then I forget about it and get on with the rest of my life.

Brian

 

I think that is a great point about side vs front. I stuffed the fireview to the gills last night and jammed little pieces in every nook and cranny.

I was thinking this AM, shoot I've processed a lot of firewood at the 16" inch length. It's nice to have the ideal log length for the main stove you are running.

 

Yep, good stuff. What they called 'the black metal' in the early days (to differentiate it from bronze and copper).

Hey, if it were up to me, I would build bridges, buildings and a whole host of things out of the stuff.... hey, wait a minute....



Brian