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

I think it's been touched on, but let's not forget that Brian was opening the stove and also turning up the air at various points in the burn.
The stove may have gone even longer if that hadn't been done.
Maybe WS should put a stat on this one?
I'd be willing to bet they know how.

 

With these long of burns I'd like to see the condition of the flue.

 

As long as the cat stays active the flue should be fine.

Brian does the stove have a place to monitor cat temps?

 

No but it should be real easy to add a cat probe.

 

Good job Brian!

I think this stove will burn similar to a BK when it's set on smolder like that which is awesome for the spring/fall seasons. If you go after those long burns again try it with a good coal bed. I find if I can load on a good coal bed and char the wood better before turning it down it will burn with a better stove top temp when it's dialed down. Doing this may avoid the need to open the air up during the burn to warm the stove back up a little. I find with a coal bed I get more smoke to keep the cat feed and happy. Obviously it's a different animal than a BK so it may not help anything!

I'm also interested to see how it burns with some higher btu cord wood since that will better represent a more real world result.

Keep up the good work!

 

That's helpful advice, thanks.

When I do the low long burn on the locust this week I'm not going to record inside or outside temps or stove temps. I'm just going to load it full with locust, establish a fire, set it to zero, let it burn and find out how long it goes on that load.

 

This stove has a hot spot on the front middle of the stove above the door, just in front of the cat. It gets really hot just after I cut back the air and the secondary air flames settle down so I'm pretty sure that hot spot corresponds to heat off the cat. It consistently registered as the hottest spot on the stove throughout the 24 hour burn.

I figure as long as that hot spot is staying hotter than my stove top temp next to the flue collar then my cat must be functioning. But I wouldn't mind having a cat probe too.

 

Thanks rdust. By the way, welcome to the forum. Good to see you here - where we're actually allowed to discuss this mythical stove

 

Yes sir. (But thank heavens for screen shots ;-)

 

Honestly I had no interest in joining another forum(I was happy with reading along) until I seen your name couldn't even be mentioned. That kinda rubbed me the wrong way so I figured I'd sign up so I could post here too.

 

Scotty and I weren't able to connect today, so I won't be able to pick up the locust till next weekend.

So ...

I'm going to repeat with the 3"x6" oak but on about 5% air without any air adjustments or opening of the door for photos etc. I might load it NW on hot coals instead of how I loaded for this 24 hour test. I can pick out the longest blocks for NW loading which will eliminate some of the gaps down the middle BBAR was referring to.

 

Good luck with the burn. Will be interested to see the results. I expect Woodstock's direct air to the cat should keep you OK on 5 % air. Does 5 % mean just cracked open?

 

Pretty much, yes. In DC Tom said he couldn't imagine a scenario when anyone would burn on 0% air so I'm going to keep it cracked open just a bit.

The pre cat air only opens up on a HOT cat burn, so I don't know that it will come into play with this burn cycle.

 

Give her hell, Brian............