I hear ya...I am seriously contemplating fabricating a new door with a window for my Kuuma...I wanna see the Kuuma magic! Supposedly they burn blue, like a gas flame
I believe that. When I get the IS set right the flame is mostly blue/purple with a little orange mixed in. It “falls”down out of the secondaries and washes against the back of the door glass like a flame waterfall. No flame from the wood itself. I’d equate watching it to watching something like the northern lights. It’s pretty cool.
So since it’s been getting really cold I’m having trouble with the stove filling up with coals… How are you guys managing coal build up in the Ideal Steel?
So folks are having this "trouble/issue" with an IS and a Survival. Hopefully someone can explain the science or thought process behind it as well, so others can follow and learn.
I don’t think it’s just a Ideal/Absolute steel problem. It seems more like a general overall EPA stove problem. I had similar issues with my Drolet Austral. I learned over the course of a season or 2 what to do to help the problem. I just figured I’d ask as the giant IS threads on here are so huge it’s like searching for a needle in the haystack.
Yeah, I didn't mean it was a problem for a particular stove or brand, I just meant it's happening on more than one model. So it may be more of a cat stove thing, or a weather thing. I'm just interested in the "why" behind it.....
I should also throw out that I have 18-20 foot of stack height. The wood that I am burning is ash at less than 18% moisture content.
Most likely a bit of user error and me letting the ash build up too much. Also I'm on wood that's 18 months dry- so I'm behind on the 3 year plan, but getting there. I raked and raked the coals, let the door open for a while and tossed in some kindling and got an ash pan full out in about a half hour. I learn and relearn some lessons each year.
I’m noticing getting the ash worked out is pretty important with the IS. As is getting the coals raked forward. I’m wondering myself if I’m not running it hard enough when it’s cold. Right now I’ve been running the air intake at around 33% open. Got secondary flames going in the firebox. Seems to help bust the coals down, but wondering if I’m doing all I can be.
Yeah its certainly much more common with EPA stoves...I think its because they tend to burn more "top down" and the ashes insulates the coals more that the old stoves that tended to have the air coming in down low (or underneath even)...it just takes time to burn down coals, and some extra air if you wanna get them gone faster...I'm sure you know about the trick of adding some pine (or other low ash/low BTU wood) to the coals and then open the air up to make 'em gone...this helps get some heat out of the stove while the coals burn down. Which speaking of heat...I think that's the other issue with coals and EPA stoves...old school stoves tended to be "single layer" steel boxes, and those screamin hot coals were enough to make that stove put off some heat (so you weren't wanting to load as soon...that time component again), but EPA stoves tend to have "insulated" (firebrick, and sometimes actual insulation) fireboxes and the main "heat exchanger" part of the stove is the top...which the coals don't put heat to the top very well since they are under a baffle, or cat, what ever...my 2 ¢...
I think there is a lot of wisdom here Dave. At least from what I’m observing so far. With the Drolet, whether it was right or wrong, I could always pull the ash plug and dump some coals down into the ash pan. I did always lament loosing some btus that way but it sure made it easy to keep the house warm. Not so easy to get rid of coals with the ash management on the IS. Again not a gripe I’m just trying to learn the stove as best I can. so far I’ve had some luck mounding the coals in the middle of the stove and stacking a couple splits north/south on either side of the mound. Almost treating the coals as a “split.” Then stacking east/west over the top of the coals. I don’t have much in the way of pine css’d to help burn coals down with. Never needed that trick with the Drolet. Something for me to keep handy next year maybe.
For those of you fighting excessive coaling. Are you able to take time to crank in full primary air a hour or two prior to reloading? Bonus is adding 1 or 2 nice medium to small splits (softwood preffered but not required/dry, dry splits required) on the excessive coals you have pulled up front in a pile. Burn these two splits down with full air. Coals be gone! This issue can be a problem with almost any stove make/manufacture during cold stretch's when the stove is being asked or pushed for big heat output. Another issue is folks treating these stoves in a old school fashion. These stoves arent really designed to have one, two or three splits added every few hours during the day/night. Burn complete full loads until nothing but coals for restarting are left. Then reload fully. Otherwise "constant tending" will result in a huge glowing coal pile with no room for a reload! You will all get this figured out Part of the challenge! My experience. FWIW.
