I didn’t remove the cat when I picked mine up from the seller and by the time I got it home the ceramic cat was cracking and crumbling from the ride home. It was old and needed to be replaced anyway but a new one would probably have met the same fate.
Oh no. Good to know though thank you. I’ll find a box or something to put it in? If I did get a new one for this one, would it likely have anything different being that they may have changed since 2007? How much have they gone for?
I have a 201 model. The 205 model (yours is a 205) has the cat in a different location and I believe the shape is different. If you check out woodstock's website they have diagrams and replacement parts. You could remove it and wrap it in a towel or something.
Woodstocks are rare in the pnw. Might be a hard sell, which is good for you. No more than half of new price.
That’s my angle. I hope you’re right on that being rare. Or at least most soapstone stoves are. It’ll be more than what I paid my last stove for but if the burn times are the same or relatively for the new ones on the site,I’m happy. I wouldn’t know if there’s any difference in burn times... BCB would you happen to verify if they are pretty consistent?
Jump!! Jump and drive!! LOL If that’s a 205 it should have a stainless cat. That fact alone should make you jump. Obviously the owner knows what he has there. Hence the price being a little high. Do you have a way of loading it? My first WS was a FV 201. Nice stove but the old design with ceramic cat. I heated my house with it entirely for one season (barely). Had to run it hard to do that. Furnace was down and going to stay down. It did the job but the cat was toast by the end of the season. Probably from moisture in the wood. Much like this one it was an inheritance, hardly used. Here’s the kicker, paid $140 on eBay. Felt pretty bad taking it for that price. Threw in an extra 40 for loading it with his tractor bucket. I’m willing to bet he learned about reserve after that.
Sorta. Truck is a little higher than I’d want to lift the stove. Something about the stove I did not intend to think about was it’s operation under cat. I guess I like seeing the rolling flames but had some videos on YouTube that showed it does secondary bursts but not like a rolling fire in a non cat stove. Any chance to change my perspective? I’m not at the liberty to head to see a stove rolling at full bore then see the options of burning wide open. Edit: Seeing a Fireview at full bore and at different burn speeds. The dial in the back must have some kind of air adjustment so that I can see more of the fire. I know I’d be giving up Some efficiency but maybe the fire best turned down at night for that matter would help.
Backwoods Savage May have better info than I. I think he has a 205. I had a 201. I know the 201 didn’t just run dark like some Cats on low. It also didn’t have a window wash air supply though. The secondaries were more air feed for the cat. They flowed sideways in the 201. They usually run dark right after engaging the cat and shutting the air. Unless your late and it’s ripping already. When the cat heats the top of the stove the secondaries have little choice but to fire up. My PH being a Hybrid is rare to see it gaining temp without secondaries burning too. Usually if it’s dark I’ve cut down the air too soon. Heavy rolling secondaries are something I’m not trying to achieve. Once you get that stone heated up it’s just a waste. Ghost flames on the other hand are super cool to watch. The secondary bursts you mention are usually just the stove/cat coming up to temp. Usually turn into steady flames once the temp rises a bit more. Different woods, different moisture contents all make different scenarios. I run my PH with primary air fully shut all the time. Only saw the cat take over fully (no flames) a few times. Stove temp 750+ and black window. That’s actually really cool too LOL but very rare.
Cat stoves can all make a fireshow. You just need to turn up the primary air setting. On the woodstock fireview, that control is in the rear. Turn up the air, watch the flames, get hot, turn down the air and go to bed. My load of maple in the BK last night (20s F overnight at my place) was flaming for the first 4 hours. Lazy floating flames. It was great. Even a noncat eventually burns down to a pile of flameless coals.
Well I had to go watch some YouTube videos of WS stoves' ghost flames after reading this thread. Now I want one! It would be a hard sell to the wife. May e if I ever get serious about one I can get in touch with TurboDiesel. Hes close by. Maybe he can show my wife how much he likes his and convince her it would be a good idea
Good enough, that’s something I can at least strive for and think about. Could be a waste but even some stoves, you get used to it the first year and then its kinda set. Would just take some getting used to but Im agreeing that it would be different in person than a video. Some were not high quality videos.... if I can “steal it” for the right price.
Yep, easy to run them with a little flame in the box if you want. Run a bit more flame if you want more heat radiating off the sides. I ran the Keystone last night with just a tiny flame coming off the back of a couple Red Elm splits.. BTW, what's the sq.ft. you want to heat, and what's the layout?
I like to have a 66% of new figure in my head for a target with used things. 2500 comes close to that when you figure in shipping and maybe tax, but I'd be using the price of the stove 12 years ago not replacement cost. 20 fires in 12 years doesn't sound right. Not impossible but I'd want to hear more of the provenance.
205 came out in '96, and hasn't changed except in '10 or so, when they replaced the cast iron combustor scoop with the stainless version. I did, however, read a comment by Backwoods Savage that they were coming out with a new version of the Fireview..hybrid, maybe??
Yes he said they were doing this in like 2 years or so? I’m at an impasse with this because of the climate. Here in WA the temps don’t drop to a ridiculous negative for weeks on end. Only times I’ve had that was in eastern Wa and that doesn’t happen often. That’s just another thought if the temps aren’t low enough how would that satisfy the need?
That won't be a problem, you can run the Fireview pretty low. Or just let it burn out if it's not real cold out. Some people think it's a big deal to have to re-light a fire, but if you work on your top-down start technique, it's easy as pie. The Fireview has some serious thermal mass, so if you do let it burn out, the stone will keep releasing warmth for many hours.
How many sq.ft. are you heating? What's the layout, open or many small rooms? How is the insulation and air-sealing?