Been burning my IS in my new house for about 5 weeks. First, many thanks to the posters in the long IS thread. i have read all 120+ pages twice, and you're info helped me decide to get an IS, and, slowly, get used to it. My previous stove was a PE Summit, which was great, but I think the IS is a better fit for the new house. Running the IS is WAAAAY different than running the Summit, of course. The IS is on a 13" high hearth. I rear vent it into a Selkirk DSP cleanout tee, then 6 1/2 feet of DSP into 17' of Metalbestos. The house is one floor, flat 10' ceiling, and spray foam insulated. About 2300 sq. ft. total. While I intend to post many questions/comments over the next days to get your thoughts and hopefully help out others who are or will be new to the IS, my first question has to do with cat temps. yep, running outside to see if my exhaust is clean has gotten pretty old pretty fast. I am burning kiln dried hardwoods (mostly ash), but really kiln dried (7-12%) and locust/hickory c/s/s 2011, so my wood is good. I use the auber pipe probe mounted 18" above the stovetop. I think I should have mounted it lower (I was used to the straight up pipe on my old stove, and the IS is great at getting the heat out before the exit), as my flue temps at startup seem low. in any event, what do you think of using that same auber probe in the cat port? It's only rated to 1650 degrees, but that would usually be good enough. Here is the link: Thermometer for Stove Pipe,Chimney,Outdoor Wood Boiler,w/ Alarm [AT200CHIM] - $67.95 : auberins.com, Temperature control solutions for home and industry I appreciate your thoughts (also it's on sale through tomorrow.)
hencha welcome to the club.. many guys here are running thermocouples and data recorders and if that's what you want to do go for it! but if I am reading you right you have an inside flue gauge 18 inches about stove top? when that hits 500 engage cat drop air I do I big notch at a time.. keep eye on magnet thermostat Woodstock gave you mine sits left of center on back.. your good to go... I assume you like BDF and Hollywood setup I sure do... just haven't needed it yet..
Thanks Baba and VT. The auber won't work anyway--tech there said the probe won't withstand direct flame. I guess I'll go with the Condar others are using. VT-you are right, and my experience has been as expected: get probe up to 500 (interestingly, every time the probe hits 500, the WS supplied magnetic therm, which I have at the left front corner of the plate covering the top vent, is just at 250-but climbing fast), engage the cat, cut back air in steps. Flue goes from 500 to low 300's, some flame still there. The stove gets secondaries off the top plate very easily and robustly. Stovetop will increase gradually, as will flue temps. But flue temps are always less than half those using the Summit (30' stack). So flue probe was very useful on the Summit to see when i was climbing above 800; with the IS, I hardly see the need for the flue probe, except as discussed to engage the cat. So why also have the cat probe? I think I'm probably at 500 at the cat well before the probe is showing 500--the fire has to build to a raging, hell's gate situation, with mad big secondaries (and a wildly misshaped top plate), for several minutes before the probe shows 500. Also, I would like to see where the cat is at from time-to-time, just out of interest. Yet I understand the Condar, not being digital, is not a great solution. The IS is incredibly controllable! Is it possible to have the stove run away (other than leaving the air full open and going next door for dinner)?
yes it's possible.. but you literally got to fill it with dry wood and not shut it down.. for all our 120 pages of discussion this stove IS Easy!
Very nice looking setup! I actually considered the farmstead design for the sides when I was ordering, looks lovely.
