All things Woodstock Soapstone Absolute Steel

Gotcha, I was just curious. While the Ideal Steel has the decorative 'burners' on the top similar to yours that add one or two layers, there is plenty of room around the flue collar with no added layers and it always reads the hottest there. But yeah no big deal, it's just the cast-iron jacket of my old insert that created this concern I still hold on to - but that was different since there was an air gap. The cast iron would rarely get over 200-something degrees, not really useful for anything but it was the only spot big enough to stick a thermometer and many unknowing folks did just that.

 

I was going to recommend a top down fire as well. A top down gets my IS going in under 15 minutes.

A few of us IS owners make a small fire from a cold start to "preheat" the stove. Then we load I'd up for the long burn. It's not necessary but I found that if you have the time it helps a bit.

 

I did that with the Buck 91. Lotta steel to heat up in that baby, so I would get the temp up closer to what I needed to light off, then load up the box.

 

After a 70F weekend it cooled off enough last night to have a fire (sort of) but really wanted to try the 8" cat probe I installed from Woodstock. and the top down fire from a cold stove start up. Thank you for that suggestion! It was much better than the other process, even with a marginal draft the cat was at 800F within 15 minutes and it burned all night on 2 as Oldhippie suggested . And the glass stayed cleaner Qyota. more like what the more experienced AS users where demonstrating.

I like my stove even better now. thanks guys.

 

I have found both the Fireview I got in 2012, and now the AS I got this November, (but I beta tested one last March) and I have found they both take experimentation and a full season to find out what works for me. Every installations has different issues, with wood, draft, climate etc.

If I'm not going for pretty flames, which I usually am not, I am just going for what I call "Cruise Control", that is getting nice maximum heat with minimum draft which then also gives the longest burn and uses minimum wood. Typically for the Fv it will burn many 4 to 6 hours before the Fv goes from full CAT high heat down into the coaling process where the stove will gradually decrease in heat but still has plenty of hours left of warming the house. I'll burn at 1 on the Fv or even slightly less for maximum CAT heat, and then open it to two or even more for the coaling process. I pretty mich do the same thing for the AS. For overnight burns, I just set it one 1 for the night and when I wake up in the morning I will open it wide open, but keep the CAT engaged and just let it burn down that way till it's time to rake the coals forward and fill the box again.

But again, every install is different if 2 works better for your heat don't be afraid to use it as your "Cruise Control" setting. You'll get nice heat I'm sure.

 

Super helpful responses and photos/videos. Thanks everyone!

This will be my first cat stove, but not my first secondary stove (had a Hearthstone Tribute previously). I'm looking forward to learning the intricacies, and of course burning really efficiently!

 

A couple of other nice things I like about this stove is the size of the box and the ash pan. The size of the box is not too much larger than my Fireview but maybe it's the shape differences between the two, as this box seems 1/2 again as big! If fits lots of wood and I have found I usually don't go 24 hours, but I can fillthe box and 11PM one evening let it run through the night, ignore it all day, if it's a warm day, and then rake down the coals that next evening, throw on some splits and bingo it's up and heating again!

The ash pan eliminates ash dust from getting into the room, it's big and doesn't need much attention. Maybe every other week or so of 24X7 burning.

I also find the controls solid and very well thought out. WS just keeps improving on a good thing.

 

Awesome. I really like top down fires for a cold start. Glad it worked out on the AS too.

 

Yeah, I've wondered about how to tell if the cat is still burning, even if it's not glowing. Seems that if I cruise it with the air a little under 1, STT will eventually level out at 250 and hang there for a long time, so I think this is when the cat is done burning. Might be 6-8 hrs. on the Keystone, I'll have to watch more closely.

 

Thanks again for all the insight into how to get the most enjoyment out of this new to me burning apparatus. My dearly beloved thinks I am some kind of genius now. Just in time for Valantines Day here's a pic of my Absolute Steel making heat and looking good doing it

 

Very awesome pic! Bet that felt toasty!

 

Hello I have a absolute steel and have been burning since october, anybody else having a burning steel smell over 400deg? I did the break in fires per the book that was sent with the stove, also does everybody elses glass get pretty black when burning low and slow overnight ?even with the cat at 250 per the stovetop surface I am still getting a black glass before the surface temp drops below 250. The wood is a mix of 2 year old maple and 2 year old ash. Im thinking maybe my wood has to much moisture but should be able to order a moisture meter or try burning compressed wood logs to help diagnose.

 

The burning steel smell is most likely still curing paint smell. I wonder if it is your stove or your stove pipe going to the flue? My STT will run in cruise mode between 400 down to 250'F, but the flue pipe doesn't get much above 250 ever and I think most of my paint smell after the first few burns came from my flue pipe.

I think your glass is consistent with my experience too. I'm not sure I have a great draft, so I blame a little on that, but I didn't have a problem with the glass with my previous VC Resolute, and I don't have an issue with my Woodstock Fireview that I have upstairs, so I think some of it is just the personality of this stove. Try burning the stove a little more open on the draft setting and see if that helps. It does for me and I will frequently run at 2 on my draft setting during the day and then for the over night burn I might run at 1.

 

Andrew, your experience is like mine. I started seasoning our stove in October before we moved in to a new house so the `burning steel\new paint` smell was lessened by having the house open and unoccupied until first of Nov.
However even into Dec and Jan. I could tell how hot it was just by that smell. Anything above stt of 500 would provide us that aroma, 550 to 600 a few times and that seems to have burned it off finally. I never want it that hot for our house and have learned how to get the cat engaged much sooner by using the `top down`lighting method the good folks on this thread describe. I have good dry oak and hickory (20 -15%) and I heat my house with the stove exclusively. So long slow burns are the normal, so is a black glass. If I do a half load and do the top down lighting I can keep the air on 2.5 to 4 and keep glass clear. But if I reload on a bed of coals, get the load lit, engage the cat,gradually move the air down to.5 for a 10 hour burn....black glass in the end. I agree with Oldhippie, its characteristic if the stove when burning smoke and hot gas in cat mode. I love what it does for efficiency though.
I like having a MMeter I purchased a moisture meter at home depot by Ryobi($30) that plugs into my android phone and interacte with a ryobi download. It let's you select wood species and seems very accurate. You can get silly with it and record readings with photos and dates and get real anal if you want. I don't but each their own. Maybe that helps.