Woodstock Fireview in cruise mode

I've had the Fv since 2013. It took a while for me to get on the 2 year plan with the wood, now I'm pretty much on the 3 year plan. It just heats my little home in north-central Mass. so nicely. It's really the centerpiece of our living room. We've been here 40 years, always had a stove, but this Fv is something special, and it's more than just the way it heats, looks or puts on entertaining light shows. It wouldn't be the same home without it.
So I was thinking these things when I went over to check the STT, so I took a couple pics. 32'F outside, 74" inside. Stove draft set at 1. (Cat is a Applied-Ceramic ceramic cat) I purchased in 2018 when the original SS finally needed replacing, and WS was back-ordered.)

No flames just a slight red on some splits in the front. STT temp doesn't sit there long, it dropped within the hour to 600'F and Flue pipe temp 225'F.

 

I was thinking the same. It doesn't stay there long, and it doesn't go any higher, but I will give a .75 or even a .5 a try. The 1 position over the last few years has been burnt into my muscle memory, but I really didn't need that level of heat last night. The long-range item I'm looking forward to measuring is the life of the ceramic cat. I do have a Woodstock SS waiting on the shelf, as I placed the order when the other started to fail. But that was 3 seasons ago now.

The Baffin boots finally bit the dust. They were always a bit snug and I got them pretty wet a number of times, and the stitching finally failed. But I had them since 2005 and they finally died in 2015. So I did get my money's worth out of them.

Dennis, nothing wrong with your memory!

 

Did you load full or partial? Burn times, please? Home size and layout?

 

1600sq ft 36X28ft New England Chalet (cape style shape) with a cathedral ceiling and loft with the master bedroom. The hearth is in the center of the house on the 1st floor and it's about 1600sq ft upstairs between 1st & 2nd floors. Well insulated and built in 1979. But it's not air-tight.

It was a full load but not crammed full. I feed the stove before we go to bed at 11:00 PM, fill the stove again in the AM anytime between 7:00 and 9:00AM. Always hot coals ready for a reload in the AM. Load it up and it'll burn nicely till it's the early evening load, depending on how cold it is I'll reload after supper, or just let the coals burn down before the evening load. Which if it is getting down below 15'F or below zero then it is a 3 cycle 24hours. If it's 32'F or above there are many days I just let it burn down for a 2 load 24Hours. With the soapstone, the stove just holds so much warmth even when I'm just downs to small coals. It's still pretty much keeping us warm.

Anything bigger than my house I'd suggest a bit bigger box, like the Woodstock Progress, IS or even AS, but any of those stoves are really more than I need in the main house. I do have an AS in our downstairs, converted basement which was a family room and my home office when I was working. But that stove I don't use 24X7 anymore. But I do get it going when we're down below zero. Or just for some warmth down there when it gets cold (the furnace doesn't come on very often) and we're doing laundry.

 

Great stove, had one years ago. Used to run mine around .5- .75 mostly for the longer burns and a 500-600 STT. It would really throw the heat at a setting of 1-1.5. Keeping a good flame in the box seems to heat up more of that soapstone verses the lower setting where most heat come from the cat and the top.

 

Good points about the heat. Usually for our house, just running on a cat burn is fine. Until we get down into 10'F or below. I know Dennis also runs his in that .5 range. I find my system ((stove/chimney/etc) gets very sensitive to minor adjustments below the 1.0 mark.

 

Just a beautiful stove.
Big part of me wishes I had that model.

 

Beautiful stove sir, I missed out on one a few yrs ago that was gently used. I burned the keystone model for 8 or 9 yrs and loved it.

 

Welcome to FHC Brewer Farms! That and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year for 2022! This is a great forward with lots of great info and fun for burning, o just about anything else.

Hang around and become one of the regulars!

Steve aka Oldhippie

 

1.0 mark is as low as I can go too. Seems less than 1.0 cuts off too much air intake.

 

Sorry for the late reply but thank you Steve.

 

Well, I'm done burning for the season. This 2021/2022 season was kind of weird. We had a typical PITA shoulder season in the Fall and I started burning in mid/late October but it didn't get real cold and I didn't get to 24X7 heating until sometime in mid/late November. Plenty of cold but not a lot of snow this year. We'd get 2 to 4" of snow and then it would turn to rain, and then go freezing cold and it was a mess.

I burned about 4 cords total, maybe even a little less and that is between both the upstairs Fireview and the downstairs (family room) Absolute Steel. The AS wasn't 24X7 so maybe 40% of the time.

I'm now on the 4th year with the Applied Ceramics cat I installed the season of 2017, to get me through as Woodstock was back-ordered in their Cats. My original one needed replacement after 5 years. I did get the Stainless Steel from WS eventually but have not yet installed it. The ceramic one is still working fine with none of the fuss of vinegar baths and all that. Just a simple tap-tap once or twice a season and a small vacuum cleaner and brushing or the grated SS intake it sits in. I think I'll get a few more years out of it, but right now I'm at 4 full seasons and it's working fine.

I'm done burning for the year. Now I'll be buying and stacking the replacement cords for the season of 2024/25 being on the 3 year plan.

 

Your right. I may be forced to do a couple more burns as this weekend and Monday are dropping way down again. I got out on my motorcycle yesterday and it was in the high 50s. I'll most likely run the AS downstairs and just let the heat come up. You guys out there always get colder, and have a longer season than we do in the east.

 

I’ve been burning with the air fully shut at #0 as well as my pipe damper at about a 45 degree angle. This will not snuff out the flames but they are the lazy slow floating flames above the logs. I get plenty of heat in my small cabin burning this way and figure most of the Winter I will get away with a two load 12 hour schedule.

I thought maybe there’s a leak somewhere but I haven’t been able to find one. Also checked the air slide and that seems fine. I guess I’ll chalk it up to super dry wood and great draft. The chimney is straight up 22’ half double wall stove pipe and class A. Stove top temps range from 500-650 depending on fuel type and load size. Internal flue temps 400-600.

 

One of my "oldhippie" photographs, enjoying great and warmth, excellent early 70s music. Due to the great help I've been given here. I forgot I even took this pic and here it pops up again. Thanks for pulling up this thread.

 

Nothing beats dry wood, a great draft and a working cat!

 

Thought you might want to see a few similar pictures of our Fireview in operation. I added a probe to monitor the combustor temperature. It is quite normal for the CAT to reach temperatures of 1,000 while the stove and pipe temperatures are well within a good burning range. This has a steel combustor by the way. It is several seasons old and not as peppy as when new, but still doing the job. We run the stove setting just under 1.