Production Woodstock IS

Been following this forum for some time. Have been burning my new IS for about a month. After a learning curve on how this stove all works. I have to say it's an awesome stove. Lots of heat. Ridiculous burn times compared to my old quad 3100. Supposed to be -25 tonight. Here in mn. I know my house will be warm and toasty

 

nice to meet ya UpNoMn saw similar Temps and performance yesterday!

 

Filled the IS up yesterday at 4 pm after work. Still putting out heat burning down the coals now at 11am. Gonna fill it up here shortly and should be good for another long burn. I've never heated my house 24/7 with wood. But with this stove I don't have a choice. I'm Not complaining.

 

I went from an old cast iron stove to an IS. I really wasn't prepared for how well it performed. Like you said. Not complaining.

 

With all the positive impressions with this stove I'm sure I'll be happily disappointed about not having to fiddle with the stove 4 times a day to keep the house warm!! Sounds like I should have no problem running 10-12 hr cycles which will fit my schedule nicely!

 

yeah my experience is when friends come over and fiddle with it it actually makes it harder because of Coaling.... set it... at 10 hours open air burn down coals add few pieces of kindling.. depends on your setup.. reload and leave it alone!

 

My house might not be 'toasty' warm, but survived this last cold spell - hit close to zero a couple days, with wind chill down in negative teens (wind makes a big difference in this leaky house). It's nice when the cold blasts occur on my days off since I can feed the stove more, but on shift the stove has to last 15 hours (about 14 hrs door to door but got to get the stove loaded and settled out I usually load it an hour before I leave) best case scenario. Both days in a row I had to make a stop on my way home, 16 hours gone one day and 17.5 hours the next. Stove wasn't making much heat at that point but still lots of hot coals, stovetop around 200-250 iirc. Would not have been possible with my Jotul stove, with the same firewood (ash) 8-9 hours was tops, couldn't even reload the stove without starting from scratch much after 10.
I could have probably done better had I loaded up with ecobricks, packing more BTUs in the stove, but didn't feel like venturing out into the barn to renew my stash. I'm off starting monday, I'll bring a bunch of packages of ecobricks inside for the next round.

My Jotul was typically on a 4 load schedule, it was a pita. You should have no problem with 10-12 once you learn the stove. I find it's harder to get a short burn! I have to tackle the overnights carefully on my work days, since I have to do the 15-16 hr burns at work by the time I get home it's only 8hrs until I'll reload again. Or less if I'm going from an off day where I'm burning later in the day. If I load it full it will still be half full of burning firewood when I get up, and not good to reload it that way. Softwood actually worked really well in the shoulder season for the shorter burn, then packed full of hardwood for work. Or now that it's colder and I need a bit more than the spruce puts out in 8 hours, I fill it 2/3rd full of ash and burn it a notch or two higher and that works well with a little excess coals but not too many, come 4am.

 

I'm glad you wrote some extended info on steel stoves and the test of heat and what kind of results may occur.

The VC Encore, is it a steel stove or cast iron? Reading this post made me think of a question between the two, does cast handle heat better than steel?

I remember my Jotul Oslo, it was a cast iron stove with secondaries only, not a hybrid with a cat. The secondaries could get the oval on the top of the stove cherry
red and I could actually make out definition through the redness, kinda scary actually.

I can understand the IS has a two layers between the cat and the stovetop. I believe even the SS plate on the underside of the stovetop also has an airspace as an insulator, as well as the modified radiators. Ive never seen my stovetop change color, anyone else?

 

Our temps in the NE are well into the upper 50's right now, I'm letting the IS run through the overnight burn to ash this morning. I'll give the firebox and ashpan a nice cleaning this afternoon and do a quick inspection. I'm curious what the new cat looks like after burning with it for approx 2 months now. I also have a new modified radiator from WS, curious to see what what that looks like too.

I have to say it's been nice working with a new routine this year with stove loads. My work schedule keeps me away from the house for 10-11 hours a day so it took a few days to find what worked for me. 2 full loads and a partial takes the IS though a 24 hr day comfortably. 5am reload, runs the entire day until 3:30. A 3-4 split reload at 3:30 take me until 8:30, at 8:30 another full reload gets me through the night. I'm sure when the colder, steadier temps come I'll have to modify it again. Worst case the Central heat will kick in at 62 deg.

 

I know Brian BDF has a modified ash pan door with a supplemental air source. I was a little reluctant to try it, my mind can't hold "stove attention" as it should when that air source is working. I'd be scared it would run off on me.
I've been raking my coals to the front and opening the main air damper to full and getting decent results without having to keep a close eye on it. How are others managing their coals towards the end of a burn cycle?

 

Warm here today too. Doing a cleaning and I noticed my radiator is starting to droop in the middle. Going to have to call woodstock this week. It's not the upgraded one with the stainless. The stove was made between Sept and Oct of 2015. I don't baby the stove but my cat probe hasn't ever shown any temperatures outside of the acceptable zone. I think I've seen as high as 1400 but that's few and far between and not for long either.

As for coals I do the same thing, rake forward and open up the air. Works for me.

 

I just finished my cleaning and inspection. The first picture is a shot looking into the stove and I'm trying to get the angle right so you can see the SS top baffle (secondaries) is starting to flake on the right side. It's very little and nearly insignificant but it is happening.

The second picture is a brand new radiator with the SS plate underneath it. The picture shows a small section on the top where the steel has started to flake. The underside in-between the SS plate and the steel radiator is also flaking a little bit. The SS plate is keeping the flakes from falling into the catalyst.

When I looked at the new cat it looked fine, it was clean and no damage to report. Towards the middle of the season I will swap the cats out so the current one can get a cleaning.

The rest of the stove looked good. the only other thing I did was repair the door latch, the nut and bolt would constantly losses over a period of time.

 

I've been raking the coals to the front and opening the draft all the way open. Seems to work pretty well. Wish I had an inventory of higher quality firewood. Been burning poplar mostly cause i have so much on my property. 8-10 hour burn time on this marginal fuel is impressive. And with -28 this am. The furnace does come on. But not too frequently. Love this stove.

 

Your coaling process must be short because of the poplar. What is the hardest longest burning woods you can get your hands on up there?

 

I suppose I could get just about anything. It alls boils down to how much a person is willing to pay. Poplar is free and abundant. I do have birch trees. So I may start cutting those next year. I had a a nice stand of ash. But cut that quite a few years ago.

 

Hello...New here...after running a boiler for the last 23 years I decided not to replace it after it gave it up this past year and I have been researching cat stoves and I have it narrowed down to a BK or IS. After reading this thread I am concerned that the IS is difficult to run? Needs mods.?Doesnt do well with small loads? I am looking to heat approx.1800 sq ft. The winters here in Indiana are relatively mild compared to our brothers to the North. I need a stove that can be throttled down for those milder days...steady and slow would be the key here. The last thing I need is a stove that can't be run in this manner and I am opening windows all the time...I had enough of that years ago with the fire breathing dragons...

 

Today is a long burn. I loaded the stove up before I went to bed last night around 10pm with my first big load of Ecobricks this season. ~52 lbs of ecobricks and 4 small-medium splits of ash. Set it on notch 1 (counting first notch as 0) after the cat hit 1,000º and went to bed. Got up at 4am to get ready and then head to work, cat was at 700 bumped it up to notch 2 iirc maybe between 2 and 3. Normally I'd be home around 7PM but going to pick up my son and see a movie on my way. Probably won't be home until 10pm so going for a 24hr run. I won't be home to tweak em but hopefully will still be warm and going enough to reload when I get home.

The Encore is cast iron I thought, but have not seen one in many years. I always thought steel was more tolerant than cast iron, steel isnt in multiple cemented together pieces and if it should crack (unlikely) can be welded easier. My IS replaced a Jotul Rockland (tube stove). That Jotul would burn hot. If you packed it full of good black locust it would peak out with the throttle fully shut in the 800's just about every time, often hang up there for a while and settle to cruise in the 700's. That was with an IR thermo on the stove top, though I later proved it was a bit off compared to another IR. A few times it got away from me... In 900's I don't recall seeing any color except the burn tubes would have a bit of a glow inside the stoves, but the stove top would turn just a hint of dull red a couple times it went over a 1,000ºF. One time it went overrange on the thermo which maxed out at something like 1060 or 1080, and it was glowing bright orange around the flue outlet. That Jotul was pretty robust, even after all that it shows no wear or sagging or anything I can find wrong with it and works the same as it always did.

With that said I am SO GLAD I got a stove I could actually control and count on. With the air control on the I.S. it'll put the flames right out if you want. And you can completely plug the secondary air intake with a magnet too if need be. That Jotul's secondary intake was always full open and you couldn't get to it as it was inside the stove inside the blower slot. It's pretty rare I have the stovetop much over 600 on the I.S. and I'm not sure if I've ever even hit 700. Though the I.S. is almost double the mass and surface area of the Rockland.

 

Welcome Tar12 I think both BK and Woodstock are great stoves. BK gets the nod when it comes to long slow burns with minimal fuss since they have a thermostat that regulates the burn. My setup wouldn't allow any BK to be installed though (needed a rear venting stove) plus from my dealer they were significantly more expensive than the Ideal Steel. However the Ideal Steel is quite capable of running low and slow. Not really difficult to run at all, in fact I'd say easier than most non-cat stoves and far better control over the burn, but perhaps not quite as easy as just setting the dial on a Blaze King. The mods are just to tweak a few things to make the stove even better since some of the folks here are very knowledgeable and like to tweak
I have no mods on my stove whatsover and it works great. Every stove has a few quirks and sometimes it depends on your situation. In the shoulder season I don't think the stove does well with small loads. But that isn't a big issue, load it up atleast 1/2 to 2/3 and just dial it back once its running. It can run pretty low - even without any visible flames.

 

Thanks for the welcome and reply...running on low what guess would you venture as a BTU output? One of the reasons I am looking so hard at a IS is the cost difference...bout 1k here.There are several things I like about the IS...thermal mass and the ease of the Cat change and I love the way they look!

 

I'm not sure any cat stove runs good with small loads.