Absolute Steel Hybrid

Woodstock said it was OK to take the front artwork off if we wanted to see how it looked. Consensus here is it looks rather plain this way...

 

This is very useful information. My setup is almost identical to yours except I am at 28'. I've started running between 15 degrees above closed to closed and find this is making a noticeable difference to the air setting I can use. Need to do some more testing to see if I can notice any other changes.

That was perfect timing to help me with my fine tuning. Thanks!

 

I am debating trying a key damper myself. Similar setup with horizontal vent to a tee and liner up a chimney... no way to put it in vertical pipe, and I wasn't sure if putting it in the horizontal part would cause any issues, I see that is how you have done it.

Thanks for demoing this without the artwork... zoomed out in the thumbnail I thought it looked fine actually. But when I looked at it full size it does have a bit of an unfinished look to it. Maybe a simple trim of sorts would make it look better, even without any art to it. But I think it looks fine with many of the art options.

 

Key damper closed, 75% load of Black Cherry, STT 550, flue temp 600, firebox black, stove-front 575. I'm curious about the higher flue temps with the key damper closed, and will be watching this. As I've been futzing with the pics, all three thermo's have settled in at 600.

 

I am very glad you posted this coupled with a manometer reading. In the real world this is helpful. I have similar draft results and at times higher readings on my manometer even with two 90's installed on my stack. It is good to see that you have been able to run different WS stoves on your stack with good results. That has been my hold off on moving to newer WS models with fear of control of the fire without having to utilize the key damper all the time.

Are you checking single wall stack temps with a magnetic or with IR? I do not trust a reading for a second with a magnetic on a single wall, the radiant heat throws it way too high.

 

The flue temps are from a Condar probe, installed in the upper (top) edge of the 'T'. The other stove temps are magnets. I'll be borrowing an IR thermo soon, and can verify the others.

 

Like the IS, the front of the Absolute Steel appears to be where it gets hottest, above the glass. The top lid has shielding attached, so it doesn't get quite as hot. One of their modifications from their beta tests will be changing that shield slightly to reduce the chances of it getting hung up on the gasket when closing the lid. Ken, from Woodstock, says they have some taller andirons for us to try. I cleaned the glass the day we installed the key damper, and it is much easier to clean the glass behind the andirons than it is with the PH.

Here's another view/lighting of the stove without the front artwork...

 

They should just replicate the tall andirons of the Fireview; they are the perfect protection for the front glass ... never understood short andirons.

 

Here are the holes for the third air supply, on the front edge of the fireback. You can see the scoop for the cat above/back. No moving parts back there - just the bypass flapper for moving parts within the stove.

If you look closely, you can see my wife at the sink, the spruce tree in the yard, and Mt Flamstead in the background (hence "Flamestead").

 

Same load, generating some heat...

 

Brushed the flue when we had the stove cooled down to add the key damper. This is what came out of the 30+ feet from burning the PH since last cleaning on Dec 13. We periodically clean out of habit, but based on this, I probably won't bother again at least until they take the Absolute Steel away.

 

How long are they leaving the beta stove with you?

 

They didn't say, but I think they'd like to have at least a couple of cord go through it. Typically we burn 8 per year, so we could do up to 4, but I suspect they will be interested in dismembering it before the complete end of the burning season.

 

A Woodstock fireplace insert, anyone?
Absolute Introductory Letter

 

I did the evening reload a little earlier last night, and it has been relatively warm, so I decided to try a slower burn. I started on a 2" bed of coals, and loaded up to 2-3" from the top of the firebox. I had the key damper fully closed and the air control below 1 (nearly closed) for the night. The firebox was black when I went to bed, but I think I had let things get too hot before buttoning it up because the magnetic thermometer on the front was passing 600 and still slowly but steadily rising.

Reload was about 10pm last night, and here's what I had at 6am. Normally I'd consider this bad because I now have to burn down coals (I could have generated more heat overnight and had the stove ready for a reload). Hard to see, but still a semblance of form to a split in the back., and a bunch of baseball-sized coals.


With the key damper fully closed we are seeing higher flue temps than we have experienced before. It is hard to compare to the other stoves because we've never run them with the key damper. Right now we are at 550 on the flue probe, 500 STT, and 600 on stove-front (above the {edit: window (not door)}, with active secondaries.

 

Trying a N/S burn tonight. Thinking I had too many coals at the start and used splits that were too fine. Had the air at zero and key damper fully closed, STT 480 but got backpuffing at 27 minutes, eventually opened the air to lite the secondaries and am now trying to run them as low as possible.

Any IS hints for running low and slow? (Does it sound right that the deep bed of coals is part of my issue?)

 

Interesting- I have experienced exactly the opposite on three different stoves; install a damper and the stack temps. go down while the stove top temps. go up. Are you measuring the stack (flue) temp. before or after the damper installation?

Brian

 

After the damper. Here's a fuzzy, low-light pic. It is a Condar probe.

 

Very warm today. Not pleased with this weather. But, very, very pleased when I cleaned the stove this evening. We've been burning for 10-11 days, and on both the PH and IS I would expect to see accumulations on the cat {edit: same wood, flue, etc}. This pic is a bit fuzzy, but the cat is very clean. I should note we have been closing the cat much sooner/lower temp than we would with the other stoves, based on observations from Woodstock (they were having success at closing it early; I was worried it would gunk up the cat more quickly, but so far it is working). The cats seem to be very reactive in their early use, so it will be interesting to track this over time.


I spent quite a bit of time checking for bent parts, and all looks well. We've had the stove up to 700 degrees several times, and no ill effects showing up. We have a really good liker, hearth, etc, so we aren't worrying too much about playing on the upper fringes of normal operating temps.