Ideal Steel Season #2 Tips, Tricks, and Improvements.

I bet you meant excited ... I under stand I was like that too... cool color combinations definitely pic worthy!

 

That is simply hysterical.....I can't stop laughing....

 

Well seriously, there's customer demand. Why wouldn't you want to offer something that people want? The hole for it is drilled and tapped into the stove when they make it. It's already there upon delivery to us waiting for a cat probe. I could see if we had to drill it ourselves and they didn't sell them to discourage bumbling fools from drilling holes into their stoves but its right there!

We are saying "take the our money!" And they don't want it

 

Babaganoosh, re-reading this thread if you bought the condor probe 9 inch and the magnet and put one in your stove and posted a pic.. I might just have to buy the kit from you put up a website and meet the customer demand that free enterprise right there!

 

Go for it. It's a 4 inch probe. Maybe go a little longer since the magnet will take up some length.

It just doesn't make sense to not offer it as an add-on to their stoves. Epa requires them to drill and tap the stove. I'd rather just buy it from them initially than have to go back online and order it from somewhere else.

 

Didn't get to reload the stove before work. Booo

 

Hopefully you have some back up heat. .

 

I don't want to say it because I want to be hard core but yeah I have a ng furnace. It's not efficient as gas furnaces go, and my house definitely needs some air sealing and insulating done. When I bought the house in 2014 the den had a wood stove in it. I came online to learn how to use it and now I have the stove and a bunch of firewood tools. Chainsaws, splitters, homemade racks, a small trailer..etc. it's an addiction once you feel that radiant heat. Plus I HATE paying the utility companies, yet I love being comfortable. That in itself means wood stove!

 

The last time I removed my combuster for a dust-off, I noticed the large stove gasket on the top lid was about half loose and sagging. I e-mailed Mike H. And asked if I could purchase some cement, but they are going to courtesy ship me some since the stove is relatively new. Can't speak enough about their great c. Service....

 

This goes back to what I was saying earlier that they say they are too busy to worry about those things - I think they are getting to popular lol! One issue is they drilled and tapped the hole a size that doesn't seem to be common at all. I've yet to come across any cat probe that would thread into this, but I haven't searched extensively. That might have forced them into getting a probe manufactured just for them, which takes a lot of time and effort to locate a supplier and agree on a deal. Heck if they would have simply made it big enough for the Condar that would have been at least one easier solution. Mine just sits loose in the hole. I've not really ever had to touch it either, unless I bumped it lifting the lid or something.

 

I've been really meaning to push the long/slow burn capability of this stove just to see what it would do. And how well it stacks up against the BK units since they like to really brag about that (at least over on hearth). Burns much longer than I need for a shift at work don't really benefit me all that much since this big drafty poorly insulated house needs more heat. And the IS is in the wrong spot to heat the entire house with, so my pellet burner usually does the shoulder season type burns. But the weather looked milder today than it's been, and I think I've got enough experience on the stove to try a larger number of Ecobricks, so figured I'd give it a shot today. But when I looked at the forecast I missed the wind... sure its a few degrees warmer today then yesterday, but yesterday was bright sun and calm out. Today completely cloud covered and windy, which really effects this drafty house. So I may have to abandon the test if the pellet burner doesn't keep up, but hopefully it will.

Ecobricks will likely last longer than the ash cordwood I have so I want to test a full load but I didn't feel like I was ready for a full load of Ecobrocks. So today is a test burn with a mix of 1 layer of medium ash splits (4 pieces, 20" length) and then 12 Ecobricks stacked on top. I estimate it's about 3/4 full, I could easily have put 6-8 more bricks in there or a couple splits of wood. Save that for next time. Goal is hopefully 24 hours. I've never been around much to monitor a full cat burn, nor have I throttled a cat burn down very low (usually goes up to 1200-1400F and hovers there for a while). So I really don't know what I am doing, but I am going to try and throttle it down to keep the burn lower than I usually do, but probably open it up towards the end some.

Loaded at 10:30am. I have three thermometers on it (plus IR but sticking to the others to ensure the same spot each reading). The condar cat probe, the center burner, and back corner of the stove top (CAT, CB, ST). Just taking readings manually. Almost pulled trigger on data logging thermocouple device but decided too much money just for my own curiosity. I'll take some pics too. Maybe when I do the 100% load, I'll shoot time lapse video.

 

Have fun with it but don't expect to change any minds over there. There seems to be only one real player in the long-burn field and that is BK. Long burns make sense for their configurations with cat only, t-stat, convection decks and blowers, but not so much with the hybrid radiant heaters produced by WS. Clearly, both companies are marching in slightly different directions so expecting one product to act like another isn't going to happen. I've never quite understood the "competition" between the owners of these two brands, but it gets very impassioned over there at times. I find a bit of fun in throwing stones at the hornets from time to time and try to limit my involvement to that. Some kids are better off when playing in separate sandboxes!

 

So I cleaned the IS this morning, I have been burning a lot of popular which seems really ashy this year. so I took pics hoping one of you guys will tell me 1) If I did it right and 2) if everything looks the way you think it should. My only observation is the glue they put the gasket rope on with is not effective.

This is the pic of white fly ash every where..

The top of the lid is darker on left and some discoloration on the gasket there

This is the bottom of the cat.. was pretty clogged I had noticed I was waiting til flue temp was closer to 600 before as cat was sluggish you say.
I just hit it quick with vacuum it looked a lot better and seems to be working better now. when it cools down to just coals I will lift lid and ensure gaskets stayed where I want them

Forgot after pics but the white ash is gone..

 

In terms of long burn times, I cold-started the Ideal Steel yesterday at 4:30 PM. At 10:30 AM today, it was still cranking out home-heating warmth. BK may have some sort of edge in long burns but the Ideal was an absolute champ in that department. My stacks of chestnut oak are grey and checked, and winter can go fork itself at this point. The replacement Ideal Steel is acting much differently than the first one and the Mrs is very pleased with it. We've usually got it on a cat burn with no visible flames.....while some folks want to see an active fire, I'm after long, steady heat. So far so good.

 

I probably should have cleaned my cat before trying this test today. I did vacuum it a week or two ago, was barely anything built up.

HarvestMan yeah I'm certainly not trying to say the IS can burn longer or even as long as a BK but I would like to know just how long it will. The long slow burn wouldn't put out enough heat for me under most circumstances, but I'm sure for some with smaller and better insulated homes especially in milder climate it might be ideal. Thing is once you start getting over 24hrs I think it would really complicate load intervals. 24 I could deal with, load it in the evening each day, but there is a lot of talk over on hearth about the princess going 32 or 36 hours, etc. If I were to load it in the evening, the next load would be in the middle of when I would be sleeping. Or if I loaded it in the morning, the next load would be while I was at work. So besides not being able to horizontally vent (a deal breaker for some installs like mine) the really long burns are of little use for me. But 24 hours wouldn't be bad at all if it could hit this mark somewhat reliably. Plus I just want to see what this stove will do with EcoBricks, and I have yet to really run this thing down super low and am curious.

I'll have a better summation at the end, with a good chart of times and temps, etc. But right now I can say wow, I wasn't expecting that. Even with the stove only 3/4 full, I think all the EcoBricks made it quite a bit more BTUs than I had run before. The draft was much stronger and I ended up having to do something I hadn't done before - run it with the throttle all the way to minimum for extended time. Even with it at min I was still getting secondaries... with a start time of 1030, and secondaries first kicking in at 1115 when I throttled it down to a 2, it carried secondaries through until sometime between 1400-1445 on a minimum setting! Cat probe peaked close to 1200F (over 1000 for most of the time so far) and center burner peaked near 700 and has been 500-600 for most of the burn so far. With those kind of temps I think it was burning too hot and I'd be surprised if it lasts as long as I hoped. All of those peak temps were taken with throttle at minimum so no way to go less, perhaps I should have throttled it down sooner.

It went full cat finally around 1445, a bit over 4 hours in, and last check at 1745 (7hrs 15m in) had a strong glow all around from the bottom of the load with some whispy blue flame from the coal bed in one spot on the right hand side. Still at minimum throttle, cat at 1075, center burner 585, back corner stove top 410. I figured I'd have to turn the air up a bit at some point, but going to wait until the cat drops more, like maybe around 800, if it does.

There had been a lot of unexpected fluctuation, probably due to the wind changing the draft slightly between calm points and blowing hard.

My thoughts exactly. A long burn of 18 hrs is really great regardless if there are stoves out there that con go longer! I however only have ash, which is really good but not quite as long burning as other hardwoods. I expect the Ecobricks to go longer than my straight ash loads have (plus I can pack a lot more fuel in there with em).

 

It will definitely give you 24 hours. I found it best to close the air, and open it every 4 hours. Then close it again.

 

Called Woodstock just to see what type of glue for gaskets was.... they said

that shouldn't have happened well send you glue and instructions... They got the customer service thing 100% down pat!

 

Blah! 30's for the lows and 40's or better for the high I can go 24hrs. I can't imagine my stove having anything going on after 36 hrs. Real winter weather is twice a day loading just like most IS owners.

 

Well I'm getting ready for bed, and I fear the stove burned to hot earlier... not much left in there. Still at minimum air, temps dropped but still stove warm enough considering the pellet stove is turned up. Cat at 700, center burner 310, stove top corner 290. I'd inch it up but fear it would be out before I wake, so just going to leave it set a minimum and see what happens. She was just pulling too hard me thinks. Might have to consider plugging up the secondary air if I were to attempt similar again. Or perhaps if it wasn't as cold and windy out it might not pull as hard.

 

So my test didn't go quite as planned but it was a learning experience for sure. I'll get right to the data...


CAT is Condar catalyst probe in factory hole
CB is the center burner
STT is where I typically measure stove top temp, in the back right corner, with Woodstocks provided magnetic thermometer
Throttle position starts at 1 and goes to 15

Normally I just use the CAT and STT but for the test decided to place another thermometer right on the center burner which should be the hottest place on the stovetop. Here is a pic for reference of the thermometer position:


Center burner temps over 600F where estimated, since the scale only goes up to 600. The above shot was approximately its peak temp, 675.

And here is the initial load of 12 Ecobricks on top of 4 med-small ash splits:

The firebox is approximately 3/4 full. The piece of cordwood in the front is in front of the Ecobricks, and another row could be stacked on it. 2 bricks are also hiding out of sight behind the 10 visible ones and perpendicular (E/W across the back).


Untouched, 19hrs in:


And after 21hrs 50 minutes and stirring up the coals:


Some things I've learned... I'm not sure if it was the wind or the Ecobricks (or both) but the stove pulled a lot harder than ever before. I've never ran the stove for extended period with the air set at minimum, or even 1 or 2. I've even had full cat burns with the air up a few notches. This burn had secondaries for several hours, including when the air was set to minimum. Secondaries were not completely extinguished until 5 hours into the burn, but even then they popped back in intermittently 3-4 hours after they went out. I'll have to try again sometime and try to get it into full cat burn sooner.

I'd like to see what a full load would do, but it is somewhat concerning with this load I was dialed all the way down and still hit some pretty high temps. Maybe I was just too slow closing it off, or maybe if I tried on a milder day there wouldn't be as much of a draw on it. In any case, it is my longest burn so far, 21:50 hrs, and had secondaries for a good chunk of it, and reloaded without having to fiddle with small kindling.