Another Ideal Steel adoration thread

Ghost flames!

 

The only storage would be the owb itself. I believe it holds 380 gallons. Odd thing about she, originally had a plate heat exchanger for the she that was tied into the electric water heater. Worked fine for a few years then less & less. Took it out & it was plugged solid with calcium. Couldn’t get it clean so bought a shell in tube heat exchanger at the recommendation of the stove dealer, doesn’t seem to work that well.

 

Dealer recommended we get a water softener for the calcium issue. Anyone have any experience with those? Perhaps this should be moved elsewhere. Don’t want to derail this lovely IS thread!

 

oh yeah!
I had the top lift up and rock a 2 gallon pot of water and push the gasket out across the front on top. I filled the house with smoke trying to open the top and get the gasket back in with the fire going.
Had a few flashes out the ash pan door also. When the gases start getting thick and rolling you better crack the firebox door and let the smoke go up the flue or expect a little excitement...

 

Yes that works but you get a really messy thick yellow flame and a lot of ash going up into the top of the stove.

Getting a fire hot fast with the ash pan door trick on a reload is great, but it will coat the glass with yellow funk.

Like BDF, I drilled a 1/4" hole in the ash pan door and it burns down coals really well.... It's also forbidden by the manufacturer.
I keep a metal magnet there to cover the hole (partially or completely)

 

They finally shipped it today- been on backorder for a month. I’ll be glad to get that combuster so I can stop depending on the secondaries as much.

 

With the cooler weather we have run her a little harder lately. Also had to play catch up a few times, and have thoroughly enjoyed the flame show! The ghost flames chasing each other around the firebox are hypnotic. Wife thinks I'm crazy for looking forward to some real cold so we can see what the stove's capable of.

 

Mrs Papi loaded us up at about 6:00 with red oak (oops) and red maple. With today's temps hanging around the high thirties, we kept it running low and are just reloading for overnight now on a strong coal bed.. House stayed a steady 74 all day long.

Satisfied customer here! The low range on this thing is outstanding, imo.

 

More love for the IS. Did my first sweep yesterday, and even sweeping the rear exit connector pipe is easy. Lift lid, remove cat shield (still not warped, stainless shield doing its job), remove cat, and with the rear exit I was able to sit in front of the stove and run the soot eater into the double wall connector without even leaving the comfort of my chair. Straight shot, easy as can be. A little shop vac action and done. No tools required.

I did find some flaky shiny creosote, so I'll get back in there in a month and do it again. Probably took a measuring cup or two of crap out of the 22'-ish chimney. Next year will be cleaner with better wood.

 

How long of a burn time do you get with pine ?

With a regular 2 cubic foot stove it's not very long.

 

Depends on how hard we run it of course, but we'll get between 4hrs-8hrs of usable heat with a relatively full load. If it's 0* outside, more like 4hrs. If it's 35, 8hrs is do-able.

It definitely chews up faster than hardwood, but still very useful fuel, especially since its usually available free & delivered around here.

 

That's good to know. I'm considering a larger stove for my mom's house, a little more heat when it is cold and something that doesn't have to get loaded quite so often for someone that is 86. Burning pine for a decent amount of time is a plus as we have several acres of it. The only other thing to do with it is boards and it isn't the greatest pine nor quite a mature enough stand really for boards.

 

As long as she doesn't have to move the bloody thing, I think it would be well suited to an elderly person. The door latch doesn't take much effort to operate, maintenance is minimal, and if bending is an issue, the adjustable legs can get the stove pretty tall to help when loading. Controls are easy once you get used to less air sometimes meaning more heat.

The only thing I'd suggest depending on her physical ability might be to cut her wood supply so that she can load N/S most of the time. Getting the first couple pieces shoved way in the back might be challenging loading E/W for a person that isn't too flexible - the box is pretty deep. If she loads N/S you'll want to split her a good amount of thinner pie slice type splits to put on top of the load to really pack it tight. The secondaries plate is angled toward the back, so a couple thin splits up top help to really get a full load. If you go this route, pack up the andirons in some oil cloth for a rainy day - they'll just get in the way. Mine spend more time tucked under the stove than in it since I'm burning a lot of short wood that I had to cut down from OWB length splits.

Pretty cool that your mom is 86 and heating with wood still! Tough generation, that one. My grandfather is 92 and in the process of building himself a man cave in the basement.. Only thing he has let me help with so far was getting the sheetrock moved down through the bulkhead.

 

That's precisely why she has a N/S stove now. My dad had a little tiny boxwood stove like I have that he would burn on just the weekends when it was cold and warm up the room he liked to sit in and watch TV. When he died I got rid of the little POS because it was way too small to actually be of use in January to heat the house if it was 0ºF outside and the power was out. I didn't think she would use it at all because of the "mess" but I kept it going a couple of weekends and then I didn't have to at all. I just have to keep a supply of wood. Her house is twice the size of ours.

 

I’m very happy with our IS. I wish it would get cold so I can see what it will do. 16” splits N S is what I like. I have a few cord already cut to 16” but most of my wood it 20”. We are getting ready to order a fireview for our main floor of the house and it takes 16” splits. So I’m in the process of cutting down splits. I don’t enjoy it at all but it is what it is. I had made my late dog a little raised deck for him to feel like he was up high overlooking everything. I turned it into a rack to hold 4 arm loads of wood to cut down. It’s working pretty good.


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I'm doing the same with wood I had put up for the boiler. at 24" , I cut them in half and just deal with it. Not a lot of fun for loading, but it's more fun than paying the oil man. sometimes I have a couple thin splits vertically in front.. wife thinks I'm nuts, but it works!

 

Those are the cut offs of 1 cord of honey locust.



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