Ideal steel/cat wood stove…?

Hi guys, first post hear…. I am on my first week with my brand new ideal steel stove. This is my first cat stove. My last stove was a jotul f500, and old hunting camp stoves…. Big steel fisher types and Ashley tin stoves…. So far I am loving the stove, burn times are amazing ! And I am very happy with the heat output ! Couple questions though….. so even after a good 10-12 hours at 1/4 air I still have a ton of big coals, I know this is a good problem…. But let say I want to get the coals burnt up quicker. Do I leave it in cat mode and just let it go another few hours or am I better flipping the cat and just giving it some more air….. I feel like I have so many coals, and not much heat output…. And I am loosing the ability for more wood….. also what should I be seeing for flue temperatures? I feel like when I am really cooking and my stt temps around 500-600 I am seeing 400 in the flue, is that right ?

 

A few more pictures…..

 

Welcome Adkhunt
Barcroftb
TurboDiesel

 

The Ideal Steel can load up on the coals... I find that when you are down to significant coals you may open up the draft all the way. Or, many of us introduce a tiny bit of air through the ash pan. Some have drilled holes in the door and cover the holes with magnets to adjust the level of air intake. I just crack the ash door ever so slightly. This is mostly when it is super cold and I need a lot of heat.

 

Thanks for the reply’s….. ultimately that’s what I figured…
Backwoods savage, somehow my birthday is listed for location. Not sure how that happened as I made the account awhile back…. I am from northern New York. Kinda between Plattsburgh and lake placid.

 

When I get down to a lot of coals I open the draft and door and put a screen in front.I get a good amount of heat off the coals until they burn down then add more wood.

 

Got same stove. Open air all way; if you need heat, if you find it that way in the morning after an all night burn. The easiest way for me is to throw small splits of pine and let it go full air. Warm house quick

Welcome to the FHC. From other side of the water

 

This is interesting, I've had my ideal steal just short of a year and was just thinking the other day i dont have the coaling problem as much as i did with the drolet or PE.
The house has a much more even heat and I never need to load the stove with a lot of coals in it, i did have the stove in the cold part of the winter last heating season.

 

I don't have an IS I have an AS and when I'm at 600'F stove top, just to the right or left of the top exhausting flu, then I'll be between 250'F and 300'F depending on where I am in the burn. Sometimes it takes a while to drop down in flue temp after I throttle back the draft control to the 1 setting.

But, there are a lot of variables here with the temp's gauges, which are not all that accurate anyway. Outside temp, the time after cat engagement, wood quality, and dryness. Typically though I would think you would get settled into an ongoing cruise STT would be 400~500'F and exhaust temp should be 225~300'F. But that's just my experience with my stove and there are one hundred-plus guys here with the IS.

Welcome to the forum. Tell us where you are, and what you're burning, sit back and enjoy the experience. Sounds like you're pretty experienced with burning, but there is definitely a learning curve of a 1/2 season or more to learn these new hybrid stoves. Looks like you are a basement burner, I wonder how many square feet you're heating sq ft wise upstairs?

 

400 flue temp, probe or surface?

 

Lots of great ideal steel reading here on this site if you do some searching. I was having some trouble with coals building up in my IS. I did drill one hole in my ash door. You can read about the mod here:

Finally pulled the trigger...

 

If you double-click his pics a couple of times it looks like a basic magnetic surface temp gauge. (of course, as I say to my wife every time she says anything to me, "but I could be wrong". )

 

That's what i thought also, seems a little high but the magnetic temp sensors can be off a fair amount.

 

Thanks for all the advise….. I have magnetic temperature gauge and I am also using a ir thermometer…. I am heating in the basement. It is a insulated basement in a new construction house. The chimney exits the basement and is built into a chimney chase…. It’s a little over 20 along the side of the house. Upstairs is about 1,850 sq feet, there is a open stairwell with a open concept layout. I have well seasoned wood, a mix of maple, beach, and red oak…..

ultimately I think I might be rushing the reload, as I am use to tending the fire more often…. When I have the air lever about the suggested 1/3 for high heat output it definitely gets the stove cranking and flue temperatures seem high… today it was fairly mild, about 32-35 degrees….. I ran it 1/4 air controll and she has been cruising well all day.

 

One thing to keep in mind on this stove compared to the ones you are used to is that you do not need the typical "high BTU hardwoods" to stay warm...that "junk wood" you shy'd away from in the past might actually make more heat than the typical heavy hitters, like oak...not saying you won't have to load a lil more, but since you will not have to wait on coals to burn down as much, it will actually heat the house better...experiment a bit and see!
Oh, and if you open the air up to burn coals down and need more heat, throw a few pieces of low coaling wood (like pine) on the coals for some flame action, and more heat.

 

^^^ yes

 

I've been real happy with a mixture of oak and ash or elm. Hell still not sure if I'm running this stove the best way but the house is nice and warm. LOL

 

Hey, if the house is warm then you probably aren't doing it wrong!

 

Thanks for all the tips…. I will have to cut up some pine and poplar for next year. All I have dry is hard wood for this year…. I hate to admit the amount of pine I have just burnt up in brush piles.