FHC Exclusive! Long low oak burn in the new Ideal Steel stove

Wife turns living room, with our new FV, into a Christmas wonderland with 37 years worth of decorations. She thinks the Fv is a great pedestal to place decorations on and it is right next to the tree.. so, until the tree comes down Jan 2nd I am only burning the downstairs Resolute. ...oh well, at least I get to burn a bit.

But it doesn't keep the whole house warm so I have the oil burner kicking in a bit early in the AM.

 

I think Scotty and I are finally going to get a chance to meet up tomorrow afternoon. He is donating some three year seasoned locust for the advancement of scientific endeavor. The locust test in the Beta Ideal Steel will be a good excuse to start a new thread.

 

The Ideal Steel seems to be talking to you at least as much as the PH.....

That's a beautiful flame show.

Secondaries would be wild if you left the air open in my stove...scary wild. Roaring wild. With the PH, Woodstock tells you not to burn with the air all the way open. Can you do so with the Ideal Steel, or only for a few moments???

 

Only for a few moments. That last video was about 20 minutes after engaging the cat. It throws off way too much heat with the air all the way open.

I usually leave it on full air for 10 to 20 minutes after engaging the cat then cut it back to 25 to 50% depending on how much heat we need. At the end of the burn I routinely open it up to 100% to burn down the coals for an hour or two.

 

Yep, me too. The PH will burn anything you can fit in it without a problem.

 

Playing with the iPhone 4s again

I downloaded the TimeLapse app by xyster.net and did a quick trial.

This one was supposed to run for two hours but ... you know how you're not supposed to set your smartphone on the dash of your car in the hot sun? Well, my iPhone seems to think sitting three feet from the front of my stove isn't any better for it than sitting on the dash in the hot sun and it auto shut down prematurely due to the heat.

I think it also timed out and went to sleep partway through then started again each time I opened up to check the progress of the time lapse process.

I have to turn off the auto lock when I use this app, I guess.

Anyhow, here's the very first try with the app:



And here's my custom iPhone "tripod":

 

Can you zoom with that phone/app?

 

I don't know yet. If not I'm going to put a picture frame in front of it so the glass will reflect the heat. I just downloaded it over the weekend and I still have to play with it a bit to learn what options are available.

I did use an Amazon gift card I received for Christmas to order a real mini tripod and mount for my iPhone. I'm sure my wife will be happy to see the saw horse and wood clamps return to the basement.

 

Works on my Droid, but only in the included camera app.
Good call Dex.

 

On the iPhone the volume buttons take pics. But I did just find the zoom on the camera app (pinch the screen). I've had the phone for two years and never even looked for one. I'll have to see if it works in the TimeLapse app too.

 

Kooool !

 

For a tube stove like this, does the usable firebox calculation have to exclude about 2 inches from the ceiling sec. baffles because the flames cannot develop with wood against them? Three inches? Given the firebox dimensions said on page 13 of this thread (22 X 18 X 11/15) , could the firebox size for this Ideal Steel be 2.45 cu.ft. ?? We have a pure cat stove, not a tube type. Other posts state that tube stoves cannot use the whole firebox volume. What is the usable firebox size with this Ideal Steel?

 

Just my $.02-
Stuff it to the top and let the cat clean it up until it has room to burn

 

Advertised firebox size is 3.2 cu ft. To me its huge, far larger the the 2.2 cu ft firebox in my Fireview and with the huge front loading door far easier to load. It works just as well loading NS as it does loading EW.

As far as loading they recommend leaving an inch or two for airflow at the top. In practice I just load it up. Sometimes it gets loaded without two inches of space at top along the edge of a split. Sometimes the edge of a split is touching at times. Since the entire perforated stainless steel roof of the firebox serves as the secondary air input it's not exactly the same as tubes. If the holes are a little blocked along the edge of a split it still has space around it for secondary air flow. And since it's slanted I can't imagine a loading pattern that could block all the secondary air flow.

 

The secondary air chews down the top of the wood pretty quick if you run it on 100% air for twenty or 30 minutes. It makes room real quick.

 

I think carefully loading up any type of stove to the top is fine because within minutes the coal bed and wood shrinks down and leaves a gap at top.

Many manufactures recommend leaving a gap up there because their more worried about people damaging their cheesy ceramic baffles.

 

Who would that be? I'm familiar with ceramic cats, but are there really ceramic baffles? I guess I've not crossed paths with one if these yet.