My New Absolute Steel Hybrid

I've been going the full nine yards and simmering the cat, but only every other year. I'll have to take note next time if there's a marked difference in how much I can open the air without smoke.

Nice.

I believe you did... At this point, a stove without a good ash grate would have a very hard time making it onto the hearth here.

 

Same observation here as above - opening the air changes the burn pattern from mostly cat to mostly secondaries, but the burn remains essentially smokeless on all three of the Woodstock Hybrids. A neighbor says it just doesn't look as homey without smoke from the chimney, but she lives upwind and didn't offer to buy the extra wood or come clean the flue!

 

I haven't, but I've read that many have had good results with it....I'll have to try it.

 

I'm not sure that's the issue with the smoke.. but I definitely notice when my cat starts getting to need maintenance. Also with the stove temps not getting up there as well.

 

Great looking stove, Hippie!

 

Typical late October/early November weather here in New England, low 30s, or even last night 24'F (-4C) when I woke up this morning. Then it warsm up to 50s during the mid day and then a slow quick drop at sunset in late afternoon. We set the clocks back this coming Saturday and it will get colder still. If I don't manage shoulder seasons, I probably burn more oil than during full on winter. So I burn even if it's pretty warm during the day. This is why I like having the 2nd stove downstairs in our family/laundry/gym room. I have the AS down there and the Fireview upstairs in the main living area where it's all pretty.

So I've been burning the AS and just leave the door open at the top of the stairs and the heat just floats right up and is just enough this time of year. This is giving me some more experience on the AS. I burned a beta last spring, but not all that much so now I'm burning that AS everyday.

Just like last year, that box holds a lot of wood. 2.45 seems like a lot more than my Fv upstairs, even though the Fv is a respectable 2.18cu ft, the AS just seems much bigger. I fill up in the morning and let it crank when the house has cooled overnight, and I have getting a nice light show down there.. lot's of ghost flames and rolling flames and then when I opened it up a tad more that secondary plate kicks on like a gas stove of olde and the heat really radiates! Then I turn it down for a long afternoon and early evening of not paying any attention to it at all, not even filling the box there is plenty of wood to wait till 10PMish to fill it up, char the wood for 5 or 10 mins, and then engage the cat, set the throttle for about 1.25 and let her cook all night long in CAT mode.

I'm pleased with the light show. I spend time down there practicing my guitar and trumpet, (the old lady kicked me out of the upstairs for that stuff ) and then I might surf the net or lift a few weights or basically just goof off, so a nice fire to look at is nice to have. It will run all night long with a STT of 450'F (230C) and a single wall flue temp of 210'F (98C). I hate to hurry winter but it heats so damm nicely I kinda' can't wait for old man winter.

PS I am schizophrenic about the Indians/Cubs going into the last 2 games of the series. I just keep rooting for whatever ex Red Sox guy is up, and there are plenty of them. But we're halfway through game 6 and it looks like there will be a game 7.

 

Thanks Mitch, that retaining wall cost me one Harley Davidson Ultra, but it had to be done, it really did come out nice.