Getting acquainted with the Fireview

Happy to do it. The high resolution is best, just like wood-burning the quality of the raw material you start out with is key.

 

One of the best things about retirement is that you wake up when you are ready to wake up. No more horrific alarm clocks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm just getting used to being retired, although I actually officially/on paper retired last August. But I was in the middle of a lot of parental care issues with my Dad and that kinda' became a full time job.

Since July life has become a lot more manageable. I got a few major house projects done and got the Fireview transported and installed. I probably did 9K miles on the scooters, when I only did 3K from April to July.

Now I just gotta get the house buttoned up and next years wood stacked and I'll be feeling like I can hunker down in the man-cave and pursue some of my winter hobbies and chase Mama around the kitchen table when she gets home from work.

But yeah... I didn't really realize how insane my working life was until I stopped doing it.

 

Steve, when I had the Fireview and wanted to add wood, I would just add wood no matter what the stove was doing.. Never an issue.. I found if the cat was going and I wanted to add wood, I would just allow the new wood to sit for about 2-3 minutes, just to drive out any moisture as to not shock the cat, then close her back up and engage the cat. No 10-15 minutes on a hot reload... 2-3 minutes always worked fine for me... Sounds like you are getting some really nice burn times from your stove... Glad to hear it! I loved that stove when I had it.. A marvel of simplicity when it comes to running a stove the is such a pleasant heater...

 

Charlie that's good to know. I wasn't sure how fussy I needed to be and I've been reading the Fv users manual and trying to be pretty particular.

I'll tell you what's really sweet, is coming downstairs in the morning to a warm kitchen/living room area, pouring myself a coffee and waking up nice and easy and taking my time attending to the stove refresh, as opposed to coming down and having to immediately deal with a stove on it's last legs.

 

That is a nice thing especially for a guy like me that has to be at work at 0600 I just have to get up a little earlier load the stove up get ready to go and just before I leave close it down and leave.

 

Like I told you before you had the stove,,, your going to love burning the Fireview, it doesn't run you, you run it! It's hands down a great stove! That's why it's been around for 30 years.. I use to keep telling myself, I can't believe how simple this stove is to run, yet it's a great heater as well.. Loved when you would think it's out, then peek up at the cat , and she's still glowing away... also cat need not to be glowing to still be working too...
Yes that's a great feeling with a soapstone stove,,, even though there might just be coals left, as soon as you enter the stove room, you can feel it's heat mass from the stone.. Like walking from the shade into the sun with your eyes shut.

 

Yeah.. I got that, and I'm erring on the side of caution.

Thanks for the point though Dennis.

 

Paperclip high temp indicator

Idea Stolen from another thread.

 

Now that's inventive! I'll give it a try.

 

Me too that looks better than a piece of aluminum foil that usually ended up missing.

 

I use the cat probe because even though it doesn't actually give an accurate cat temp reading, it does give the temp in the top of the fire box which is very useful. It will somewhat parallel the flue thermo but you'll notice that as you cut air and keep the probe at, say 1000 like I do at startup or reload, the flue temp will drop with less air. If I run the probe at 1000 for 10-15 min, light off is pretty much guaranteed with the Fireview or the Keystone without having to wait for 250 stove top. Flue is about 500, but that's on the tee takeoff about 5" behind the flue collar. On the Fireview (now owned by BIL) 1000 on the probe reads about 350 on the flue, 12" above the collar. Flue drops as you cut air.
I'm definitely in the "charlie camp"....I don't fire the stoves hard at all to get up to temp, and figure that by operating this way these stoves should last a long, long time. The Ks will definitely get up to temp faster than the Fv due to having less mass to heat. The box is smaller, only one layer of stone on the door side and doesn't have the corner stones to heat up. The other day, Keystone top was around 200. I loaded a few splits on coals pulled forward, ran the probe up to 1000 for 10 min. I closed the bypass and got good light off with the entire cat orange in less than a minute....with the stove top at 130. 15 min. from load to light off. I usually wait for 170 or so, but it can light fast, considering the cat is one of the early ones, from the supposedly "bad batch." Nothing wrong with this one. With the Fireview it's more like 220 or so stove top after you get the probe to 1000 for 15 min. Figuring out how to light off as soon as possible will save a lot of wood over the long haul. As I cut the air, I'll keep a little flame in the box as long as I can and try to lower off-gassing as much as possible before going cat-only. If I don't need a lot of heat, I often close the air all the way. I've never had the cat take off on either stove, as happened to Judy. Not sure what happened there, maybe too much wood gassing by the time the bypass was closed?
As far as the timing, you'll get it down so that you don't have to "add a couple splits." If I ever do that, I definitely want to char 'em before closing the bypass again, but not sure that's really necessary with the steel cat.

 

Great information. I am definitely in the "getting to know you" stage with the Fv. Between different wood, different chimneys and other variables, all these tips are great guidelines.. but I've still gotta' go through the stage with my install.

Loving the Fv so much.. I'm kinda PO'd it's warmed up again around here. But, it's pretty even when it ain't lit!

 

It doesn't get old either, for me anyway. I was glad to fire up the stove last night after it went cold for a day.
Yeah, it sure is pretty. Maybe for some people the styling doesn't work with the rest of their decorating scheme, but I don't understand anyone just not liking the look of the stove itself. It is unique, and absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. The Fv is a 'classic'....sorry, Woodstock inside joke.
Here's a cool thing you can do; If you get a little pit of glowing, burning wood in the bottom front center, the air wash will feed it and you can still get flames with the air real low. Right now in the 'stone I've got a thin, straight flame in the hole and a little intermittent floater....air is at .2.

 

I cut the air to zero and the floater activity increased! I don't know how long that continued but I watched it for at least ten more minutes and it looked pretty stable....

 

I like the fact that Woodstock stoves run their best with almost a zero draft opening... that equals low wood consumption with lots of heat! Nice thing about a stone stove and a cat... the stone doesn't let any heat go unabsorbed! Soapstone is like a heat magnet, just storing more and more heat, then letting you know it's there for hours on end,,, releasing all that stored heat slow and consistently. This really makes one feel like your getting the most useable heat out of your wood and efforts, even pine! Just because it burns fast doesn't mean the stone didn't gather that heat .. I look at the soapstone like your charging a deep cycle battery

 

Good point Charlie. I can burn a big secondary light show, with ribbons, roll over, flash overs etc. and get all the btus at the end.

 

A Men!