Production Woodstock IS

I'm torn between the two directions. I typically load like this:

And sometimes even like this if i dont mind the window getting dirty:

I find the n/s loads burn hotter and faster but really tails off quickly on the back side of the burn, losing secondaries and cruising heat sooner. I think it off gasses faster and turns the wood to coals faster because of more exposed wood surface and it burning easier from the ends vs the sides. The e/w load burns a tad cooler but holds secondaries alot longer and maintains a more even stove temp, and takes alot less adjusting to maintain temps.

 

Had a nice explosion this evening. Made a few mistakes which added up to almost getting burned (literally).

It is going to be super cold so I decided to burn the coals way down to get a full load in. I waited too long so there were very few coals left and it was late. Stuffed it to the gills with very dry wood and didn’t respect the potential. Did I mention I waited too long?, so I was in a hurry to get it settled in so I could go to bed but the coals were not hot enough to get the logs going as fast as I wanted. So I opened the ash door. In a matter of seconds, the logs were engulfed in flames and the temp was rising back up. Shut the ash door and then closed the cat damper way too soon. The flames went out.

Then BOOM. Massive back puff blew the lid up with 10 lbs of tea kettle on top, blew out the gasket so it was dangling in front of the door, and blew apart the stove pipe at one of the 90’s where I didn’t have a screw in the joint. Doh!

Luckily I was still wearing the welding gloves I use to load it, so I quickly put everything back together and decided to be more patient about getting the fire going. Learn from my mistakes, don’t be in a hurry and take shortcuts. Oh and yes, I loaded it NS except for the top which does seem to make it gas off faster.

 

Me too- torn between the two methods but have been using E/W exclusively. Just to add in another variable, I am torn on using andirons and not using them (installing them, removing them from the stove). I would prefer to leave them out, as you have in those photos, but I always end up with splits banging into the glass as the wood is consumed. Sometimes a fairly large split knocks into the glass pretty hard and that is off putting. Another problem is loading the stove full and getting the door shut before the top split(s) fall forward.

What might really help would be a steel strap in the middle of the door opening, straight up / down. Not sure how I want to install or retain it but I think that could be beneficial. I think I am losing maybe 15%, maybe even more of the stove's volume to the andirons. And I have never had much success with playing stove Tetris and loading most of the stove E/W and filling in the gap with splits N/S. I always end up with a lot of airspace in there and a bag of splits on the floor in front of the stove. :-(

Brian

 

I haven't used the andirons other than a couple of the first loads. I would get the stove all loaded up and couldn't tip them back in do to a split being too close to them. Then its a mad scramble with wood lighting off and frantically moving burning splits to get them to tip in or get them removed when they are burning my hands through thick welding gloves!

I dont have too much trouble with splits hitting the glass to often. I make sure they are tucked tight to the side walls so the front edge of where the door seals holds them in place. I usually make sure I stack a pretty tight stable load though and usually try to make sure the split on the bottom is out further than the one above it forming a step if you will. That really seems to help.

I also taper my coal bed with the mound towards the front and down to nothing about 2/3 of the way back. The back split or 2 will just be on a little bit of ash basicly on the stove floor. So my split pile tends to have a lean towards the back of the stove.

 

For anyone interested, I found the data graphs with and without the radiator modification. Oct 26-27 2016

 

Silly question...
North/ South loading is with one end of a log towards the glass and the other towards the rear of stove?

That usually is how I load, did notice that the right hand side of the fire box seems to consume wood quicker.

 

Yes, N/S really means front to back where you are looking at the ends of the splits as opposed to the more traditional side to side Yule log view. And yes, the airflow is the IS is not symmetrical, so when facing the stove, the right side will tend to burn faster and hotter than the left.

 

Yep, got the notice today from Woodstock that they are in, are ready, and are being shipped out now. Mine is on the way.

It will be interesting to see what Tom does with the concept of making them at W.S.. Maybe they will branch out into the woodstove catalytic combustor business? I know the original reason was suppliers stranding them so they could not sell stoves but it might work out that it is profitable to make them for other stoves, as long as they tool up and are producing the ones their own stoves use already.

Brian

 

My main problem with loading an I.S. N/S is the fact that the top of the stove has that angle dropping toward the back. So the last couple of splits, at the very least, end up going in E/W on top of the splits already in the stove anyway.

Raking the coals forward to make a pile that causes the splits to stack at about the same angle as the top of the stove also wastes a fair amount of space just behind the coals because the splits only touch the coals bed in teh front and the stove floor in teh rear.

So overall, it <seems> like I can get more wood in (Easy Boys!) the stove loading E/W than the other way. I always thought it would be fantastic if the I.S. had a side- loading door in addition to the front door so that one could end- load E/W like a Progress Hybrid. Someone did a couple of quick tests and found that while the P.H. is significantly smaller than the I.S. going by measured volume, that person was usually only able to get one additional split, and a relatively small one at that, into an I.S. I believe it was Flamestead who posted that back a few years but am not sure.

Brian

 

I always have a few wedges or slabs that fit on top e/w to fill in the angle after loading n/s.

The problem with the side load option or normal e/w loading is I would need longer splits to get the same load of wood in, or I would have to try to fill in as much of the end as I can n/s with the sloped top, door frame and air channels in the way. I really don’t want to start managing different lengths in the wood pile so I mostly load N/S when I want a full load.

If you really want to pack it to the gills with BTU’s I think the higher density compressed wood bricks/blocks would be the way to go. You should be able to increase the dry weight per load significantly with those things. I have not tried any yet, but they are on my short to do list.

 

We are just going to start off with a huge EASY BOYS! as a blanket cover for this whole post.....

So I was thinking about your nut loosening and snapped a photo of my own nut to show you what you <should> have for a nut that will not loosen. Notice the top of the nut is split into segments like a 'pie'? Those pieces are then bent inward to make the diamter of the nut smaller at the very end. This is a form of locknut, was supplied to me on that door on the Ideal Steel, and once tightened to whatever amount of tightness you want (I do not know how tight you might want your nuts to be?), it will stay there. If you do not have one of these self- locking nuts, I suggest you grab one at a hardware store or give Woodstock Soapstone a jingle or e-mail and they will probably send you out a new nut for your stove door handle.

It looks like this:



Brian

 

As the topic comes up from time to time regarding how to 'watch' a catalytic stove regarding thermometers, thermocouples and other devices, I thought I would pass along something I am trying out right now. This is a true Cat- Cat monitor, and watches the fire intently. She finds the whole thing fascinating. Now I am trying to train her to actually watch the thermocouple readings and make adjustments accordingly but so far, not too much luck there. Truth be told, she has the attention span of a..... well, a cat.

NOTICE: no animals were harmed in the making of this photograph or the fire in that stove- it was a cold- start and the ash lip, while filthy, was cold. And it was not my idea for her to be up there anyway, it was HER idea so if she comes back at me in future years with a #metoo!, claiming 'kitten abuse', she is LYING!



Brian

 

Love the reflection on the door, looks like someone is happy to be in the fire!

I am not sure about the value of the cat cat monitor, but I would love it if I could train my dog to go out and haul in another load of splits when it is cold out. He loves it out side when it is below zero, me not so much, so it seems like a win win. Plus he could probably pull a heavier cart than I can!

 

Apparently, they need to run a new line for the electric kiln to bake on the chemical to the cat or so a little burden told me. Also reason no open house this year is they were behind schedule with the Navajo stove.

 

I would be happy to buy a bk cat from Woodstock! Maybe they’ll throw an IS on the pallet too.

 

Wow just wow....Glad you didn't burn the house down...Or get hurt...Now put some screws in that pipe and be safe...

 

I have the same andirons. I leave them in, but they are a bit large. The mechanism to automatically push them back up bent the first year. I just use my coal rake.

 

I had screws in the pipe. I took it apart to inspect before the cold snap and then I only put them back in the “important” spots because I was in a rush to get warm again. It turns out that in case of explosion, it is important to have the screws in the unimportant spots as well. Screws are all back in place now, ready for my next attempt to make the Farm Film Report.

 

I've had a few alarmingly large "flare-ups" in my IS that result in a back-puff. I'm kind of annoyed by this, because I don't think it should happen. For me, it happens pretty consistently when I set the air at the first big notch (1/4 open), or the next small notch up from there. So, I have to choose to run the stove a bit slower than I'd like (about 3 notches from fully closed), or a bit faster, and sometimes STTs force me to go slower. Now, I've never experienced one big enough to pop the stove top...that seems extreme!

 

Yeah, I have had flare ups and back puffing. This was more of an explosion. I am not worried about it happening in normal use. I think it was caused by messing with the ash door to get rushing below grate air and very hot coals, and then closing it off and shutting the cat too soon. The flames died and the stove and stack filled with hot combustible gasses that the cat didn’t burn. If you are patient and let the wood get going before closing the cat and dialing back air I think you are safe.