First fire in the Beta Ideal Steel Woodstock stove

Hi folks,
We started our first fire in the new stove around 1:30 this afternoon. We made a 2x2x2 crib of six 10" pieces of 2x4 pine lumber with one of our homemade firestarters in the middle and put three medium to large cherry spilts on top EW. We left the door cracked (there is a notch to hold the door cracked open when starting fires) for the first five minutes then left the air control on its highest setting.

Temps on top of the stove next to the flue collar hit 300 within 20 minutes. We don't have a probe thermometer for the double wall stove pipe yet so we don't have a good gauge for flue temps yet. I ran out to Harbor Freight and picked up one of their pistol grip style IR thermometers to compare to the stove top thermometers we have from Woodstock and Lowes. Interestingly the IR registers between 50 and 90 degrees lower than both of the stove top thermometers.

About 45 minutes into first burn:



I posted some video of the burn near the start then a half hour later. The secondary air burned what could be described as egg crate craters into the top of the top piece of cherry. Very interesting burn pattern.



We shut the air down to half way and stove top temps are cruising around 450 on this small load.



This thing throws off a LOT of heat. Its much more than the Fireview but hard to get a good feel for it while airing out the house. We have the dining room window open with one box fan blowing in, set on low, and another box fan in the open living room window a couple feet from the stove blowing out on high to exhaust paint fumes.

Two hours into the first burn right now, the firebox is mostly black and stove top temps can be seen in these two photos:

 

How's the smell of the paint? The 30 had a pretty good stench during the first fires.

 

Not as bad as I expected, honestly. With the two fans pushing air through here it vented pretty well.

It was 49 outside and 65 inside when we started the fire at 1:30. I turned off the natural gas furnace about an hour ago as I figured it was artificially holding the temp up. I shut off the box fan blowing into the dining room but left the window open. The other box fan in the living room is exhausting it out on high.

Right now, with furnace off and snow flurries blowing by the window and outside temps down to 39, two windows open and one fan still exhausting air, inside temps have gone up to 67 on this small load we started at 1:30.

 

Interesting. Not a sound from this stove or flue. Our Fireview always made occasional pings as it heated up, and our single wall pipe always pinged. This stove and double wall pipe combo has been silent so far.

 

Looks good Brian thanks for the updates Im sure that stove will keep yall nice and warm.

 

I reloaded three medium oak and two medium cherry splits on a good bed of hot coals, let it char briefly and reengaged the cat.

Here's the burn after reload on high, medium, and just below medium. Stove top is currently at 500. Living room window is still open with the box fan blowing out the paint fumes on high, furnace has been off all afternoon, outside temp down to 30, inside temp now up to 69 even with window open and fan blowing and outside temps dropping with wind. (At one point Ben the cat decided to nudge me and join me on the bentwood rocker in front of the stove.)

 

Thanks for the updates. I think the stove looks great, even better in all black. Whats your forecast like this week? I'd really like to know how it does on a full load shut down for the long burn. Probably a little early in the testing for that.

 

Forecast is highs in the upper twenties to lower thirties. Lows in the upper teens and lower twenties. We will definitely be experimenting with long burns. That seems to be the primary concern for a lot of folks.

House is up to 7o now even with living room window open and the fan still blowing out on high. I think we have enough excess BTUs in our current weather to do a long low burn.

 

I sincerely appreciate all your efforts with keeping us updated.

 

Nice videos! Looks like it will chew through some wood in a hurry if needed. Burn how you need to if that's low and slow great....if not we'll wait for a warn spell.

 

Love the bump in the camera when the cat jumps up.

On medium/low burn, what is the stove top temp sitting at?

 

Thanks Brian. Looks like you're off to a very promising start.

 

On higher burns it runs along at 500, on medium/ low around 400. But those temps in my Fireview would not have given off near as much heat as this thing is pouring out. In fact, when my Fireview was running at 650, it wasn't throwing as much heat as this one is in the mid 400s.

 

Nice! That is awesome to hear.

Yeah, going large offers you so much more flexibility. Size matters when it comes to stoves. Makes life easier.

 

Sounds like your off to a good start. I guess that bumpy ride in my truck to DC was worth it!
Now I need to get mine going.

 

Yep. Did you snap a pic of your first load of wood today?

Nice avatar. I didn't know Honda made a TurboDiesel Sport Touring bike

 

Dunno. Wonder if Harbor Freight even included instructions...