How is the IS performing during the shoulder season?

I haven't seen any chatter so figured I'd ask. I'm curious if any testers are getting 24 hour burns(or better) on low using cord wood.

 

Watching this thread because I ordered an IS last week.

 

I did too and meant to ask this question a couple of weeks ago.

 

I'd be interested as well. FYI, Woodstock has posted final clearances for the Ideal....holy smokes, corner clearances of only 6 inches!

 

Oh yeah, tomorrow is the last day for intro pricing. Hmmmm.

 

I'm a preorder guy too. I emailed Mike at WS a coupe weeks ago for an update and he responded that
pre-orders may get moved back to the end of June or early July. They have waited a little longer to collect the beta stoves because the testers were still running them and lastly an IS unit was sent off to the lab for testing. When the testing is complete they should have their approvals and numbers associated with the IS. Mike also said that they would update the IS blogs on the WS website as soon as they know more significant info.

Like others have said, there hasn't been much chatter here, I was a little concerned too

 

I dont have any info to report because I havent run mine in about a month. Between being nearly out of wood and not being around much I just havent seen the need.

 

I talked to Ron a little while ago, and he said tomorrow's pre-order deadline is not set in stone. He said it would be fine if I called back next week.

I wish I knew where I will be next winter. I may just make the deposit, since it is refundable. I guess I will have to sit down with the other half and talk it over.

I also wish I knew how it was performing in the warmer weather. I'm still burning my BK pretty much 24/7. I think I let it go cold three times last month. Not that I mind building fires

 

Based on the threads that came up earlier in the burning season, I would suspect the IS would perform just fine in shoulder season. It seemed very controllable and on par with the Fireview and Keystone.

 

Cool, we can now look forward to more IS reports.....with pics, of course.

 

I've only let mine go cold a few times so far this spring. Right now the house is sitting at 66*, something will be getting burned shortly.

Looking at the 10 day I'll be having evening fires for a while still.

 

Yeah, same here.
Had a small fire this a.m., and we'll be having another tonight.
Still 69 in here.

 

Loaded the Ideal Steel last night at 9pm on a deep coal bed (3+"). 20" long splits, relatively small diameter (3"-5"), Red Maple and Ash. I mostly filled it, but took no special care to pack it tightly. Brought the stovetop up to 400, closed the bypass and damper at 50%, and about half an hour later moved the damper to 1/2" inch open (90% or more closed). I didn't note the temps.

At 7am the outside temp was 40 and inside was 68. Big chunks of wood/coals. Didn't note the stove temps. Left the stove alone because we were both going to be gone all day.

At 6pm stovetop at 100 degrees, 3+" of coals and ash.


Opened the damper and bypass. Inside house 70 degrees, outside 62 degrees.

7pm stovetop at 150 degrees. Fluffed the coals (worked the ash down through the grate).


7:30pm stovetop 200 degrees.
8:15pm stovetop 200 degrees.

I would be hard-pressed to call this a "burn", but there are still coals visibly glowing red since the 7pm "fluffing". I think starting on a smaller coal bed and using larger splits of a more-dense wood species would make this a bit better.

I should also note the door gasket leaks a bit (they have redesigned the gasket since our early beta version), and I have been lax about trying to keep it a tighter
seal around the door.

So we can reload every 24hr without using any special effort, but on a cooler morning, especially if we were going to be home, we would have reloaded in the morning.

 

My house must "make" heat or something. Been in the upper 50s during the day and low 40s at night.
House stays around 70ish. No need for the stove.

 

Thanks flame for the shoulder season update on how well the IS burns at low temps. This is great info for me, looking forward to keeping the house a fairly comfortable temp with little effort with a minimal amount of wood.

 

Hi all,
I'm now working two jobs with no spare time at present to play with the stove or post on the forum. Due to a lot of family circumstances we just haven't been running it since the cold weather passed. So I'm sorry to report that I have no shoulder season reports to report.

 

Reload at 10pm, same type of wood as above.

6:30am, 70 inside, 35 outside, 300 stovetop. Looked like this (clearly the bulk of the BTUs were expended prior to this, but I'm sure some air would have brought the stovetop up above 400 for a while)...


5pm, 70 inside, 60 outside, 150 stovetop
7:30pm 70 inside, 55 outside, 130 stovetop. Opened the damper all the way.

 

My last fire was a couple weeks ago. I was burning one load every 24 hours or so and the house was getting too warm in the afternoons--- that and I ran out of wood in the house and would rather keep the rest for next year.
I like it for the shoulder season. If I wanted to run it more I could but would have to keep a window open some.

 

Is it me or is that perforated plate on the ceiling of the firebox bowed?

 

I saw that too, my guess is because that plate slopes down from front to back that maybe the shadows and the angle might be playing tricks on the eyes.