Ideal Steal; new blog posts

Amen to getting rid of that shovel and bucket thing. I just received a new ashpan for my Progress and cannot wait for warmer weather to install it. As I said before, I never did get any good at the magic Dennis trick of shoveling without so much as a single ash atom escaping.

 

I cleaned ours this past weekend just because we were expecting more cold and I was going to be away. I think it had been 3 weeks since I had last checked, and it was in very good shape (I did vacuum it off, but it would have been fine). This is 24-7 burning.

We are emptying the ash pan about every 6 days. We are raking coals multiple times between loads, and as a result we get very small (smaller than pea-sized) coals in the ash pan - these would have burned if we gave them a chance, but during the real cold we are trying to minimize the time spent below 500 degrees stove-top, so we stir the coals at the end of the run.

 

That's one thing I don't like about the IS. My Beta unit does not have an ash pan and it is impossible to clean out the ash on this stove without fly ash floating away into the room. On a production model an ash pan should be standard. Its non-optional for me, gotta get one.

 

Ok, a couple things.
First, and I hope this hasn't already been answered, but how long can this stove hold a temp in the neighborhood of 500°?
2nd, don't know if anyone has noticed, but on the newer Betas, the hinges for the cat access lid are now gone/hidden.
I like it.
Here's one of the newest tester models w/o the hinges showing.
http://blog.woodstove.com/2014/02/new-beta-tester-newbury-vt.html

 

12 hours at 500 degrees? I suppose that's with only three splits also

 

Talk about saving firewood!!

 

The more I see this stove the more I like it. I wasn't a fan of the looks, or of steel stoves in general, but it's growing on me