Another Woodstock IS question

Part of the reason most of us love burning wood is to to be entertained by the dance/ color of the flames on a cold evening. I have watched many videos/ reviews of this stove online and it appears once the catalyst is engaged the flames disappear? Is this the case? I don’t mind if this is true during the overnight burn after we turn in. But it would be a bummer if there is no flame to watch most of the evening. Is this stove so frugal with its use of wood that there is no flame to entertain us?

 

In my limited experience running the IS it has some nice flame action. In my setup I can run as a black box on low which was nice for the warmer days and nights. Colder temps allows me to open the draft control a little more and then there is some nice flames with more heat output, but it burns through the wood faster. Basically the more air you allow into the box, the bigger the flames will be. The secondary's are pretty nice to watch as well.

 

I have visible flames all the time as I am heating a large area, if the IS was too big for the space it was in you might have very little to no flames or it would be too hot.
Closing the bypass slows the fire some but it comes right back.

 

It would be helpful to the discussion if you would describe the space you are trying to heat. If the space and heat requirements are small, then you may be left with a situation where low and slow (black firebox) is the norm for you.

I heat a 2200 s.f. House with lots of windows and a “vaulted” ceiling And have flames almost all the time with stove top temps in the 400-600* range during the heart of the heating season. If you dial it in right those flames are usually the blue/purple ghost flames and the show is spectacular!

 

….
we will be heating about 1500 sq feet (log house) with a 19 ft vaulted ceiling in the room the stove will be located. In the last 36 years we have used an old steel stove, followed by a Consolidated Dutchwest stove (catalytic) and currently a Quad Mt Vernon pellet stove. The pellet stove is easy to use, great in the shoulder seasons but only provides the extra heat needed in colder weather to make this great room more comfortable. We are exploring the IS as it should be able to heat the entire area, even in extreme cold weather like last night… the pellet stove requires power so we also see the future of this country and want a little less reliance on electricity to heat the house.

How did everyone’s IS hold up last night during the brutal cold/ wind conditions?

 

Held up well, i started running the stove harder, it was 70 degrees downstairs when i went to bed, a little over 2000 sq feet.
At 1500 sq feet you should be fine IMHO.

 

We run three Woodstock’s in three houses. 2 IS and a PH. Here’s how they all seem to function IMO. After engaging the cat the flames can disappear depending on how hot the stove is and air flow. What happens then is the cats begin doing their job and creating heat in the top of the stove. As the cats build heat in the top you eventually build to the point where the secondaries begin burning. This is the transition point where the intermittent ghost flames begin. As the ghost flames and cat continue building heat the secondaries grow until they become a steady rolling flame.

I’ll see if I can add a short vid from my PH transitioning from black to flickering ghost flames.

 

One of the keys for me to control the IS the way I want to is to add a flue damper. With the flue damper dialed way back, I can open the stove's intake damper more and keep the flames in the firebox without over heating the house. This also helps keep the glass cleaner.

In the shoulder seasons, I still need to dial back more and live with the black box and dirty glass of I want to load it up for a long run. Alternatively, I can put just a couple logs and keep the flames, but then I need to reload more often.

 

I heat our 2300 square foot 2 level (upstairs and a daylight basement) with our IS that I purchased in 2015. It's located in the daylight basement in the north corner 5 feet from the stairs to the upper level. It will heat our whole house with downstairs being toasty (70's) to borderline hot (mid 80's), and upstairs to (65 to 70) at the furthest southern bedroom.

When engage the the flames slow and dance. The only time they disappear is if I turn the air WAY down (like last few notches on the gauge). After a few hours into the burn the flames will die down but still flicker. I've had back puffing at times where the wood gases build up and ignite causing a flash of flames (typically damp outside and the stove was turned down too much) A little air added reignites the gases and no more back puffing.

There are plenty of flames in the IS box at all burn stages in my opinion, with awesome secondaries at the beginning (looking like dozens of 4 inch torches driving out the ceiling of the stove) to lazy glittery dancing flames well into the burn turned down to really cool blue flames towards the coal stage. I burned a load last night of elm and once it reach its cooling stage it was read with blue flames! AWESOME!!!

 

Pretty impressive. I had a Woodstock Fireview. It would have nice secondary burns for a while then no flames. Just the glow from the cat. The secondary burn tubes in the IS must really help keep the flames going.

 

Even after the secondaries are done and aren't firing off anymore, the firebox still is very active with a wavy, lazy glittery flame. It's pretty cool to watch and it produces great heat.

 

I was looking at a diagram of the IS and I see they have a secondary air tube directly under the catalyst. Wouldn’t there be a flame coming out of that and cause flame impingement on the catalyst?

 

The secondary air comes out through the plate back behind the catalyst opening that's near the front top of the stove. There's no impingement as there's an opening near the front (where the catalyst sits when the bypass is closed) in front of the secondary air system.

Here's the diagram Woodstock has on there website.