Ideal Steel overnight burn settings

Good luck with the renovations. Sounds like the IS is part of your overall plan, and you're putting a good amount of thought into what you want to do. I'm sure I speak for many who would like to see pics as the work comes along. Do you have a design planned for it, if you're planning on doing the custom option for the IS?


Only spent half a day in Bozeman, but I woke up to a beautiful view of the Spanish Peaks after arriving late at night. You're in some great country out there. Course, I've seen a postcard or two of the views here in VT too.

 

Sorry I didn't get back here any sooner, stepped out the door, walked two blocks to the first world cup ice climbing championship in n.a. Pretty cool living here I must admit, although VT is pretty awesome as well, it's the folks that make a place special, and we both live in places that attract some pretty down to earth folks.

I'm hoping to have a custom design with some ice tools or piolet's, could look unique that way. I'll post up some pics once we're underway this spring.

As far as the stove choice is concerned, yes I've put some due diligence into it so I'm hoping that ends up being rewarding. Sometimes I have a tendency to over analyze purchases only to find out that I vapor locked on a feature and missed the big picture. Trying not to do this, but I guess you never know without taking a chance. My wife likes the attractive stoves like the PE Alderlea series, or the Jotul's, but I'm wanting to heat with wood, and am not convinced I'd get a nice 8 hours of sleep without losing coals for the am. Time will tell, perhaps by next fall there will be yet another option that will be enticing. For now, my money's on the IS.

 

My initial concerns were similar to yours, I was concerned the IS would be too much stove during the shoulder seasons. My place is 1200 sq. ft. down and 1000 sq. ft up, but I have a limited amount of heat going to the second level, in effect I'm really heating 1200 sq. ft. plus a modest amount of heat going upstairs. My stairway to the upper level is in the garage section of the home, so I have no inside stairway leading upstairs. I'm probably heating 1600 - 1800 sq. ft. effectively.

Turns out my concerns were unwarranted. I have no issues keeping the stove in check. No problems whatsoever in overheating my home. Based on how you described your home, it sounds like a great choice for you.

 

I will admit that Blaze King has a nice feature of the automatic thermostat. I wake up with plenty of coals every time, but it would be nice if it opened up the air a bit to liven them up for me as it cools. I'm not looking for a crazy long burn, just so that it heats while I'm at work.

It seems like to get those super long burns with a load of wood, at some point in the burn you need to adjust the primary and heat the coals up. Either way it heats my house fine.

I'm sure once I get off the shoulder season wood and dump oak and locust in there this thing will react even better.

 

Today I got the cat activated and slowly shut the air down the entire way closed. I walked outside and there is no visible smoke. Temperatures are settled in around 400 f . The load is about half full mulberry. We shall see how this works out.

 

1 1/2 hours later. 350 at hot spot in front of the cat. 300 stove top. This works perfectly because it's 45 degrees outside.

 

2 hours in its 330 at the hot spot and 270 stove top.

 

Still no smoke out the chimney? Air all the way closed?

That Mulberry's going to last a while at this rate....

 

Nope no smoke. Clear. The glass is black. It's starting to feel a little chilly in here so I put it back on notch 5 to make it more comfortable. I just wanted to prove it could be done. It will definitely burn with the control fully closed.

 

Excellent thread JA600L , it's nice to step away from the production IS thread a bit, it's getting so long.
My two cents on the initial question. Overnite temps and my schedule dictate the overnight burn for me.
Weekdays, when I'm working both my jobs, I set the stove up for a 12 hr overnite burn, my wife will adjust
the coals in the morning and reload for the daytime. When it's colder (say in the teens) I will open the air
damper to notch 4 and this will get me a little more heat for the overnight. If it's somewhat mild
(upper 20's +), I go to notch 2 or 3. Either way I will have decent sized coals in the am. On the weekends I
might just set up the stove for a 8 or 9 hr burn and reload in the morning. This way I can get two 7 hr burns out
of partial loads during the day and still use the same amount of wood as a weekeday reload. That was a little
experiment I did in Novemeber to get more heat out of the stove doing two reloads during the daytime, something
we can't do on a weekeday.
Another thing I have yet to experience on the overnite load yet is using oak as my fuel. I did do a load this week
using oak for the first time during the day and there was a noticeable difference. I'm sure the overnites with oak will work out well too.
Has anyone else been using oak on the regular? either partial loads with oak or a full load? I'd be interested in any reports like this.

 

Let's try to organize this one and stick with burn data instead of jumping into theories and all the other aspects. The other one got way too scattered.

 

Sorry guy, I have a way of digressing from the OP, and was definitely guilty in this thread.

 

On the I.S., no, I think you have it exactly right. On my stove, in my house (chimney type, length, etc, etc.) anything below a notch or two less than 1/4 draft and the firebox is dark, cool (below 650 F), the cat. is hot (above 1,000F) and most of the heat comes from the top of the stove. A pure cat. burn where the glass will turn dark and the inside of the stove does also. At 1/4 draft and a notch or two above that (a 'notch' being an setting mark on the stove, sort of like 'tick marks' to indicate draft lever position), the firebox will have some flame, the occasional 'ghost' flame and if full, a full but small secondary burn at the top of the firebox. The glass and stove inside now stay pretty clean and the cat. temp. drops way down (below 1,000F always) and more heat starts to radiate from the front of the stove. Above about 3/8 draft opening, the stove maintains an active primary burn (plenty of flame from the wood itself) as well as an lively secondary burn and combustor temp. is not much higher than firebox temperatures; at this point, the stove is really behaving like an EPA "tube" stove and not making much use of the combustor. And at this point, a LOT of the heat is radiated out from the front of the stove such that you cannot sit w/in, say, 2 feet of the stove and watch it. So yes, it absolutely changes behavior depending on how hard it is pushed.

As far as comparing it to a B.K., I would assume the I.S. has a similar level of control but remember, the B.K. has a thermostatic damper and will adjust automatically to try and maintain stove temperature. I like the I.S. a lot but have never used a B.K. and would never make foolish statements like the I.S. regulates as well, etc., because I honestly do not know and I believe that thermostatic controller on the B.K. is a useful device that probably works quite well to even out the burn temp. of the stove over the various phases a single fuel loading always goes through in any woodstove. Put more simply: I may be a fanboi of the I.S. and Woodstock Soapstone as a company in general but not to the exclusion of other good products on the market; the B.K. has gained a big following and a lot of respect from some very experienced wood burners and I believe it is a fine product that will perform well. I actually looked at one I considered purchasing before choosing the I.S., and also researched the Regency F5100 for the same reasons: a high quality stove offered from a very well respected, seemingly high- quality overall manufacturer.

Brian

 

Can you guys burn the IS hot for an hour or three, then shut it down for a cat burn? Seems like I remember the PH needing a little more finesse when trying to achieve long shoulder burns.

I'm not sure what my next stove will be. I know my wife wants another BK, simply because it is so easy to control. I'm pretty bored with it, and depending on where we live next winter, a Woodstock is at the top of my list.

 

Yes, as long as the load of splits in the firebox is warm and has caught, you can slam the draft down to nearly closed and it will just go into a pure cat. burn. Of course, like any stove, if the bypass and especially the draft are closed too soon after a reload, the whole mess can smolder without ever lighting the cat. To be honest, I would expect this out of any pure cat. or hybrid stove: once the fuel is hot an engaged, the draft should be able to be cut down to a very small amount for a long, pure- cat. burn without any problem. The 'tricky' part is not usually shutting the draft but making sure the new charge of wood is hot and burning before throttling the stove way back; at least that is where I have always had the problem, usually trying to fill the stove for an overnight burn and not wanting to take the time sitting up waiting for it to get charred and engaged enough before shutting the draft down and going to bed.

As for the comparison, bear in mind that the I.S. is considerably smaller than the B.K.K. and that the B.K.K. has a thermostatically controlled draft, which the I.S. does not. I am not steering you one way or another, just pointing out what I believe are the major differences that should be considerations for anyone thinking about choosing between these two stoves. I believe the B.K. Princess would be a better stove to compare with the I.S. given its smaller size and 6" flue.

Brian

 

I don't plan on needing a King. We're downsizing a bit, and getting out of the wide open farm fields and into town.

I'm not sure that the thermostat does that much in my situation. It certainly doesn't open up enough to maintain temps at the end of a cycle. I'm sure it does help to even things out, but a fair amount of manual input is still required. Not complaining, because it is a very versatile stove that does what the manufacturer says it will.

The one thing about the BK that I like the most is the control. Not just because of the thermostat, but every aspect in general. I'm gone overnight for work twice a week, so my wife does a lot of the burning. I don't have to worry about her losing track, loading too hot, too much air space, splits too small, or whatever else it might take to overfire a tube stove. When it's blazing, she closes the bypass and turns the knob. I really have to try pretty hard to get the stove up to 700°. If the IS is capable of this, I'm in. Maybe. If it fits.

 

Well given that specific concern, and it sure does sound reasonable to me, the I.S. has outstanding draft control, at least in my experience and setup. It is also very repeatable and predictable: set the draft to a certain place and you will get a very expected burn every time given the differences between wood, split size, chimney draft that day and so forth. But what I am trying to say is that if you are concerned with the stove 'getting away' or being finicky, it simply will not do that. I would not let my wife run my last two wood stoves for the very reason that they were finicky and sensitive; the I.S. is something I would feel comfortable helping her set over the phone. Once you figure out how the stove runs in your particular house, you could even do something like set your own 'high' and 'low' marks on the draft (which is already marked with hash marks by the way) and as long as the draft is between those to places, all should be fine.

Extreme control-ability is one of this stoves finest attributes IMO. That and its ability to run at an amazingly low output and still burn perfectly clean, at least to the eye (zero smoke). A very nice feature of the draft is that it is very non- linear and well set up for the user; just as an abstract example, setting the draft at 1/2 open is really more like 1/5 open, leaving the entire remaining range of draft adjustment to be very easy. So moving the draft from 1/4 to 1/2 does not open it nearly as far as moving it from 3/4 to full open does. Very nice touch on Woodstocks' part in the design IMO. So once the stove is set for a medium burn that is, say, 1/4 open on the draft, it is not finicky if it is exactly at 1/4 or just a tad off of that because the change in actual intake opening is very small by that point.

Brian

 

I simply meant that the IS takes some operator input to keep a long burn going. Let it burn the smoke for several hours then you need to open it up for the coaling stage to be very effective. I personally think an auto primary control would be the perfect add on for this stove.

 

When mine gets delivered, come on over and see how she runs - nothing like hands on experience....

 

I'll look forward to it.

Heck, we might be neighbors if that brick ranch down the street comes down to a reasonable price. In case you've never been in it, it's like opening a time capsule from 1959