Production Woodstock IS

If you don’t mind me asking when was the stove put into service?

 

Mannnnnnn that means mine may be ready some here soon?!!?!?!!!

 

Fall 2015

 

Got the call this morning.
Repairs are completed and stove is being boxed back up for shipping this week!!!!

 

17 Nov 2020, 11:00 AM
Just got off the phone with Lorin (sp?) at Woodstock. They were originally going to replace the fireboxes on the older I.S. stoves but are instead repairing them. Went into some detail with Lorin and am quite pleased with what they are doing and believe it will work well and end the problem.

They are repairing the cracks directly by welding and grinding the face flat. The actual 'repair' of the stove consists of a new firebox face, including hinge halves, welded onto the original firebox. This is actually an excellent solution IMO because it greatly speeds the repair process for Woodstock, allowing them to push our older stoves through faster, while providing what I believe will be an actual cure for the cracking. By adding a new face- plate, the original face can crack and yet leave the stove sound and air tight because all the heat expansion and contraction of the original firebox will happen 'under' the new face, as well as the original face shielding the new, outer plate from heat.

They are fitting new sleds to the old stoves as the sleds have changed. This is effectively an upgrade.

My stove is 'in process' and should be ready shortly, meaning weeks and not months, which is fine with me. Woodstock is clearly overloaded with work, both new stove manufacturer as well as repairs of older stoves, and doing the best they can, which is all anyone can ask or expect IMO. They are even looking for additional help but that has not been very successful apparently so again, it is not really possible to fault them, at least I will not. In a different world things would go faster but they have to deal with reality and all the short falls that come with it. Canadian border VT's stove is also in process so I guess we are racing. I hope you get your stove first though as you need it more than I do- it is still pretty mild here and oil is cheap so we are in fine shape.

As always, a pleasant conversation and I am left very confident that Woodstock is using an excellent solution that should work indefinitely and end the problem. Of course we will have to actually use these stoves for a few years, and hundreds of heat cycles to be sure but at least they have chosen a path that agrees with physics and mechanics, at least as far as I understand those.....

Brian

 

Great. Take some photos if you would and maybe post them.

You must be further ahead in the line than I am- mine is a few weeks away apparently.

 

BDF it’s snowing here single digits tonight

 

You guys at least have some portable electric heaters...something?

 

Yeah, you need it more than me- it is mid- 40's here, overcast. Sweatshirt weather Though it is going down to well below freezing for the next few days.

 

I believe we both have central heat.... of course I know I do but I think Can. border VT does as well.

 

I thought I remembered something about being wood heat only earlier in the thread...

 

So they’re welding a second stove front on top and you’ll have a double thick face? Good idea. Fast and cheap, well, compared to the alternatives.

 

Yes I have oil hot water boiler in house!

Woodstock did wood only heat owners first

 

Yep, I too thought it was a clever idea. With a second front plate on the stove, even if the original firebox face cracks, it will not matter to the secondary plate. And the primary plate crack should not be able to migrate in any way into the new, second front plate; I do not believe a crack will transfer sideways through a weld be, not easily or readily at least. And the second front plate will not be subject to the same extreme localized temp. changes that the firebox face itself is. So it should work quite well.

Of course I have not seen this yet, not even in photos. Apparently it does not extend all the way across the stove face and ends where the outer edges of the loading door end. That is what I got from Lorin, or at least how I understood how it is being done through conversation and I certainly may have misunderstood. We should know shortly.

 

Yes, earlier in the thread. I used to have an ancient, extremely inefficient boiler that I literally did not use. Most of the time, I was shut down, again due to its inefficiency. But in either '15 or '16 I bought and installed a Bondhus boiler w/ Riello burner and Honeywell controller (reset controller), along with an external boiler- fired water heater. So these days I have not only a modern boiler but an extremely efficient one- somewhere around %90 effective efficiency I believe. Coupled with the low price of oil I honestly think it is more expensive to heat with firewood, at least if I am buying the wood which I do. Temps. here dropped to 19F overnight and it is perfectly warm in here, and much more evenly heated than if I were burning wood. This is why I have not been pushing any harder to get my stove back- we are safe and comfortable and there is no need to increase the strain at Woodstock, and those folks are absolutely feeling the strain.

That said, I still like burning wood because of the radiant, spot heat source as well as.... well, really liking fire I guess. I think it goes all the way back to our origins, there is just something attractive about fire to we humans. If not, no one would bother to light a fire outside when it is summer out. We do it simply because we can and we like it. So I guess a wood stove satisfices my little trace of pyromania right in the living room.

 

Sitting here wondering if the Absolute Steel stoves will develop the same unfortunate fault. The door isn't as large, and not in front, and the plate it's mounted to is probably a bit smaller. But having said that, it is a large door and similar construction. Although I was one of the early AS buyers, I do not burn that stove 24X7, so I'm thinking I won't be the first to find out.

I'm pretty sure the WS staff has been down the path of thinking this one through as well, but I'm not going to bother them with the question. Has anyone else talked to them about the AS as related to this issue?

 

Back up and running after repairs! Impressed with Woodstock's customer service and quality workmanship as
always.

 

They took on a lot when they lost their original foundry which was (I forget?) Spain. Then needed to find another vendor for that, which put them back almost a year for some model stoves. Then just a little before that they started production of the steel stoves with the introduction of the IS. Which then got them into a new set of technologies and skills. Welders and also with the steel stoves all the customization and that laser machine where they cut all the custom designs and bling in-house. Then, they've taken on the manufacturing of catalytic converters and doing that in-house. (I believe that is the case?)

So now along comes the pandemic and all of a sudden there is a new boom in the economy for home projects, and many out of work folks (thinking) let's cut and burn to heat the house this year. Or something like that. Plus this IS unexpected issue.

I don't know how many employees they have but I know Tom (the CEO) is a big believer in customer service and is making it a priority and will hire if it helps. But it could be that the difficulting with getting raw material, which I've seen with getting parts for motorcycles (as an example) is also an issue.

Tough time to be in business, lot's of balls to juggle, and still keep everyone safe. I might be off about the above here and there, but if you've been a WS customer and fan, you probably remember all of this history too. I got to give them credit and respect, other companies could go in less supportive directions and leave us high and dry.

So all I have to say at the end of this is "Keep Smiling Woodstock! I'm proud of you! Prioritize as you must and do the best you can for the rest of us."

 

Brian, what is a "Sled"?

 

It is a part unique to an Ideal Steel Steve. Instead of a normal catalytic bypass as most stoves use, the I.S. uses a sliding assembly that carries the cat. with it. It slides fore- aft, toward the front of the stove or the back of the stove. When back or 'open', the cat. is shielded from the firebox so nothing goes through it. When the sled slides forward, it puts the combustor right over the center of the firebox where the temp. is highest. It is actually a bit more complicated because it does not just slide fore- aft but makes an arcing movement so when it comes forward it also moves down to sit on the gasket that seals it to the firebox. Really pretty slick because as I mentioned, if you are starting a fire, or burning something you should not expose the combustor to (and none of us would EVER do that, of course..... ) the combustor is not in the exhaust path of the fire. Very different than most stoves that simply use a flap- valve arrangement as a bypass that still allows combustion byproducts to go through the combustor even when the bypass is open.

Apparently Woodstock changed the sleds on the gen. 2 stoves as well though I do not know what those changes are. ??

Brian