FHC Exclusive! Long low oak burn in the new Ideal Steel stove

Hi folks,
I dug into my supply of 3"x6" and 4"x6" oak blocks (from a local pallet manufacturer, seasoned since Feb 2012, just shy of 2 years) for a long low burn in the new Beta Ideal Steel stove. The blocks are cut 8 " to 14" in length on average so I was able to stagger them in an EW loading pattern to the very front and very top (and I removed the andirons for this test). I left a little space at the top for secondary air burn and a two inch space down the bottom middle in which I placed two of my homemade firestarters and one piece of 2x2 pine. This was on a cold bed of ash (which surprisingly still had a few hot coals remaining 40 hours after last reload.)

I lit the firestarters at 3:00pm on full air, room temp at 68, outside temp 37, I'll let the flue temps on my Bacharach probe thermometer on the double wall stove pipe get up to about 600 degrees, then I'll engage the cat. After a bit longer I'll dial down the air. When its fully engaged and stove top temps get to about 400 I'll turn the air down to zero for a long low burn.

 

Good luck sir!!

 

Thanks! The photo of the outside pile was from when I brought the load of oak home in Feb 2012. It seasoned outside on a wood rack till this past summer when I brought it into my basement. It's well seasoned.

 

I decided to run the air at about 10% for this low test but stove top temps are still climbing, currently at 475 next to the collar on top, and room temps went up from 68 to 72 in the last 50 minutes since I lit the stove from a cold start. Its 37 out here, so over the next hour I'll decide if I'm going to back it down to 5% or fully closed.

 

Holy Moly, that's one full stove. LOL! Gotta love that cut to order stash you got there. My only question would be are you sure it's Oak? Are Pallet builders that fussy about their stock? I suppose some need to be better than others..

Still, that's one full box! LOL! You da' man Brian! You da' man!

 

The fellow that owned the pallet company said they use 90% oak and some other hardwoods for the bases of their pallets. We picked through it pretty well when we loaded it up, pretty sure its almost all oak.

Folks wanted a long low burn on good hardwoods. We aim to please.

 

Two hours into burn on 10% air, not much visible activity in firebox, stove top temps have leveled out around 350. There is a hot spot just above the middle of the door on the front of the stove just below the lift off top that is consistently running around 450 on the IR thermometer. Most of the heat from this stove comes off the door glass and the top front, not the top rear near the flue collar.

There's a little soot on the bottom left corner of the door glass, and the bimetallic coil for pre cat air is just a little open now.

Outside temps now 35, room temps up to 74 from 68 at 3:00.

 

The thought had occurred to me Dennis but it closes up real tight/secure. If you look at the first photo on this thread, with the door open, you'll notice soot on the stove itself in the same area. I'll keep an eye on it. Adjusting to latch tightness looks pretty straight forward, just loosen three bolts:

 

Let the games begin !!!!!!

 

looks like you have a lot of adjustment room left if neeeded.

 

Very nice. I like the lack of flame. Really seems to be burning low while providing decent heat. This is very promising and I look forward to the additional updates.

 

Looking good. What temps are the soapstone side panels?

 

Side panel soapstone temps are 140 but the side panels sit an inch away from the stove body, on the outside of the perforated panel that holds the leg covers.

 

At four hours into the burn, outside temps now 27, room temp now 73, stove top still at 300, no real change to firebox appearance from last photo, no visible activity in firebox, hot spot just above the middle of the door on the front of the stove just below the lift off top at 400, flue temp on probe thermometer 375.

Wife says, "This is boring. How do you know its still burning?"

 

Now smoke from the chimney right? The cat is engaged? How much of the wood have been eaten? Does it look much different than your original photo:

 

Smoke was completely clear within first twenty minutes of lighting the fire. Cat was engaged at about ten minutes after ignition. Not much change in amount of wood. Here's a current photo at five hours into the burn. The two pieces on top front were a piece I split in half longways to load up to the top of the firebox in the front. One of them just started to coal and a piece broke off but the rest of the logs are still 95% intact.

 

That looks pretty damm good. So, you are about five and a half hours into the burn. I'm hoping this stays chunky through the 17 hour mark which would be 8AM.

 

But, I do suspect this load will break down sooner than it should since the "splits" are short blocks.