Absolute Steel Hybrid

We use our L-shaped poker to slide under the coals and work the ash down through the grates (hold the 'L' flat to the grates and slide back and forth). The coals stay on top, the ash filters down through the big coals. It works pretty nice. I do recall the IS being more work than the PH, and the Absolute is definitely easier than the IS.

 

One burn here this year, but not from the door - this came from standing in front of the Absolute Steel, reaching over it to turn the key damper, and catching my forearm on the back of the stovetop. I noticed it right away, and learn fairly quickly. I haven't ever burned myself cleaning any of the three Woodstock hybrid stoves, due to the ashpan setup. My wife requires keeping heavy gloves by the stove for refueling, and I used them about half the time. I never used gloves with the PH, but started with the IS (something about fitting the firebox full with long splits).
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I like side-loading. Maybe you can get your wife a pair of stove gloves that come up further on the arm. Hey, shouldn't you be handling the ash-removal chores?

 

The very nice thing about the Fireview load door is that it can be opened past 180 degrees. I could not do this with my old stove and find that I sometimes forget to open the door all the way; I almost burned my arm a couple times by not opening it up all the way. The small load door is also good for not allowing smoke leakage ... something that a few of the IS owners have had some issue with.

 

Only have the half sleeve gloves. Totally agreed, ash cleanup is on my watch 99% of the time. I was stuck away from the farm in the blizzard that was happening today though and she wanted to stuff the fireview to the gills.

I've fallen victim to pretty much every wood stove I've worked around at some point with battle wounds, I'm sure most can attest to this themselves too.

 

Anywhoo....., not trying to derail this thread by any means, just trying to stir some conversation about the new side loader Absolute (Progress/Fireview/Keystone vs the IS front loading options out there.

 

Coming back around to the early questions about door height, here I have a laser level set to the top of the door opening to show the amount of pitch in the top of the firebox. I've found the stove quite easy to load, and tend to not load these stoves right up to the very top. But I have a time or two. To get the wood in the front above the door line I load the front first, and then top off the back. I think these stove burn better with a few inches between the top of the firebox and the wood, so I spend more effort on minimizing the coal bed and less effort on shoehorning in a few extra splits on top.

 

So here is the Absolute door wide-open (the door setup is beta-version, subject to change). Just a hair past 90 degrees.

 

How does that compare to the IS?

 

My memory is foggy, but I think the IS opened another 20 degrees. ?? Someone with the IS will chime in soon...

 

How accurate do you think those spring thermometers are? I just bought the same one, branded Condar, and it pegged past the high end on a medium burn in a 1/2 full load. That makes no sense to me. I've got an IR probe on order to try to calibrate it?

 

In the past I've tested some against an IR, and ended up tossing one or two. I've had some off by 100. Others got dropped and then started sticking at certain temps. I don't use them as much for the actual/true temp - more so to give me a benchmark as I try different things, and then to help be consistent once I find a routine that works well.

 

Agreed. Better for relative temps than absolutes.

 

Somewhere there is a pretty good thread on comparing thermometers (either here or "there"). A neighbor let me borrow his IR when we had the IS, and has said I can borrow it again, so once I get it I'll check it against my memory!

 

My wife swung by Woodstock's showroom today and picked up some new andirons. I had commented early on that I felt the ones in it were short, so they asked us to try these. I'm glad to see the new ones aren't much taller, because the initial ones have been working out fine (no issue with wood against the glass).

The pics show one old and one new...

 

Speaking of thickness, what are the steel thicknesses of firebox sidewalls and tops on the IS/AS?

 

Maybe 100 - 110 degrees.

 

Yeah, the door is wider than it is tall, opposite of the Fireview, Keystone. I'd think that would make it easier stacking the front and back rows, and make smoke roll-out less likely.

 

Yeah, I use an 'L' shaped tool also- it is a garden hoe. Really. I stand about 4 feet away from the stove and work the coals and ash back and forth with a steel handled, garden hoe. Do not even need gloves. Sure it looks stupid but it works fantastic, especially when the coal bed is bordering on nuclear proportions but it is time to load the stove.

Brian

 

Is it just me, or is that thing gorgeous?!?