Production Woodstock IS

Based on what I see in photo:

pi (3.14 x radius of pipe squared x height of stuff in the pipe (radius and height of stuff in inches) = Volume (cubic inches)
3.14 x (3" squared) 9 x 4" = 113.04 Cubic inches
113.04 cubic inches x 1 cup/14.4 cubic inches = 7.83 cups of stuff

 

Yep, what he said.... again. The stiffener (Boys!) could be a piece of angle welded with the wide section down, like an upside- down "V". But in the end, as someone already said, the radiator is a sacrificial, self- consuming part and it is not really reasonable IMO to try to extend its life indefinitely. Making the center section out of 1/4" SS would help a lot and greatly improve the parts' life but at the initial material and fabrication expense. Radiators are cheap, and often warrantied on top of that so I think we want to be careful about putting too much effort into what is really a pretty small problem, at least IMO. Also, it is not a 'technical' or precision part so even if for whateevr reason new radiators were not available, it would not be much of a problem to find a fabrication facility to weld / bend / smash one back into a useful condition. Dat Dare part don't gotta' be pretty, it just has to block the tremendous temperature from wiping out the top of the stove....

Brian

 

I do not believe there is an 'up' or 'down' side. But if you are really concerned, I would suggest flipping it over on the first of every month: that way you know it was installed correctly at least 50% of the time.

ROFLMAO- sorry, could not resist.

Brian

 

AGREED: I like it stiffer forward rather than rearward.

 

I have so many replies to that that they are all clogging together in my brain.... and I cannot type a single one of them.

Brian

 

After seeing and hearing you in person, I hardly think you have a brain fart for that

 

Just make sure the cat surface strait up, parallel to the stove body, not pointing rearwards towards the flue. I usually flip mine after every dusting.

 

thanks guys.. it's 35 here today and of course stove was on at 23 Last nite! I opened up to full air at 5 am it took til noon to get STT below 250.. got it out cleaned it I could see imprint of the gasket on it.. next time I will flip it thanks.. I always put it in same way it came out!

 

Hello boys and girls.

Have we decided how to number the notches yet? Lol

 

I just count from the rear. Small and large all the same.

 

Wow, you shoulda' put an 'Easy Boys!' in there somewhere....



Brian

 

Oh, you meant THAT which way? Well, someone already answered your question in that the cells of the cat. should point more toward the front of the stove rather than the back. But I would not call that upside- down, I would call that flipped so I kind of thought you were making a joke- I get it now so ignore my earlier post.

To sum up: the cat. in an Ideal Steel stove is symmetrical all except for what I will call rotation: you can put it in wrong but only by spinning it 180 degrees so the cells point backward. As far as actual top vs. bottom and left vs. right, it does not matter which way it goes in.

Brian

 

Alright, I am at my wit's end with this stove.

Break in burn #1 went fine. Break in burn #2 went fine and longer/hotter than #1. Then I did the first reload on hot coals that night and it really went like gangbusters (as I posted about several times in this thread a few days ago).

Since then, I can NOT get this horrible wreck to stay lit. I've been putting in the same wood from the same wood pile, confirmed with the moisture meter than the splits are 12-18% MC, loaded it the same way, started it the same way. The fires take FOREVER to get the flue temp to 500F so I can engage the cat. The first 3 fires, it took less than 8 minutes each to get to 500F. These unsuccessful ones have taken 20+ minutes and barely gotten there. With the air full open, the fire burns energetically in one spot but won't spread at all and stove temps take forever to climb. If you close it at all, the fire goes out. I don't mean "slows down", I mean goes out, flue temps plummet, and the fire actually stops burning and I'm left with unburnt wood in the morning. Right now, I'm trying to figure out why it won't burn and I've actually got a hole burned down through the center of the pile of wood while the wood at the edges of the fire box is still clean brown color. The firebox itself is coated in flaky creosote. I just barely managed to convince it to heat up enough to burn off the creosote skin directly above the small area that would stay burning. Weirdly, this really cold fire has managed to warp the baffle at the top almost 2"

What on earth is going wrong?

 

I would like to see pictures of this. Seems like an episode of the twilight zone is going on in your stove.

 

williaty a reload on a bed of coals shouldn't take anymore than 20 mins tops to get the firebox to temp, engage the cat and slowly bring the main air damper down.

I'd be interested in your wood supply, it seems suspect to me. The stove itself seems like it's ok. Draft maybe? Are you resplitting to get your MC?

 

When it cools tomorrow, I'll take a picture of the baffle.

Wood supply is better than I expected for the first year. As I said, it's coming in at 12-18% on freshly split faces. Almost entirely Ash with a little bit of Cherry here and there.

Draft is one I'm pondering. I have 12' of double wall topped by 5' of Class-A coming straight out the top of the stove. While the 17' combined height is greater than Woodstock's minimum of 15', I wonder if the long run of double wall is letting the exhaust gasses cool much more than it would in a normal install where most of the run is Class-A.

On the other hand, if I open the ash pan door, the stove will go like gangbusters and would definitely run away. That would seem to me that the available draft is OK if the firebox has access to air. FWIW, with the ash pan door open is the only time my stove behaves like you all describe yours (lively flames, quick fire spread, "roaring" if you let it get wound up, etc).

That all being said, 3 hours of being at full air and the stove is finally warming up and the inside of the firebox is pretty well involved. I've put it down one big notch to see if it'll start behaving itself or if it'll just go dark and extinguish again.

 

Has the weather changed? Do you have a furnace or exhaust fan running? What if you crack a window nearby?
The chimney sounds fine as long as it meets the 10-10-2 rule.

 

The weather has not changed much at all. It's been between 40F and 55F every burn we've done, good initial ones and these horrible ones.

No exhaust fans, furnace will stay off if we're running the stove (even if it's burning badly).

The stove does react to opening/shutting windows and doors but then goes back to what it was doing before. It reacts to the change not to leaving it open or shut. I mean that, as you're doing something with a door, the stove may react instantly but, if you leave the door open after 5 minutes the stove won't do anything different than it was doing 5 minutes ago when the door was closed. For instance, abruptly opening a window a few days ago took a nearly black firebox and made it become a fireball with wild secondaries for a bit but a few minutes later it went back to being a black firebox even though the window stayed open.

 

I'll say that I've never had great luck running the stove when the outside temps are above 40f. I rarely bother until it drops into the 30's-and it's a whole different beast when it gets into the single digits. Maybe- even if the temps are the same (and they are marginal)- the barometric pressure changed enough to cause a problem.

 

It sounds like a potential wood problem. Run over to the home depot or whatever and grab some 2 by 4s and make a fire with those. If it still doesn't go well then you probably have a draft problem. You saying that the fire starts roaring when you open a window kind of points to that. Your house might be too tight.

17 feet of chimney should be good. I only have 12. (I know I know) but it's double wall pipe for 6 feet to the support box and then class A to the top. I light a fire the minute the temperature drops below 50. It will be slightly sluggish at 49 degrees but nothing bad at all. I rarely even get smoke spillage on a reload. That temperature drops another 5 to 6 degrees and I'm off and running. In the 30s and I'm cruising. I do plan on adding the 3 feet but my issue is finding the beams underneath the roof sheathing for the support rods. Cathedral ceiling so there's no attic to look in or measure from.

I'd wait until it's in the 40s and test with 2 by 4 cut offs. Cut them to 18 inches and try that. That should help diagnose the issue.

I forgot if you mentioned it but do you have an outside air kit installed?