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

These forums are so beneficial! Just follow directions and you're golden. Thanks guys.

One question..how do you remove the "sled/ramp" that the cat sits in (if thats what it is). In the pic its the piece siting on the right by the chair (white gasket inside it).

 

piece of cake, take center burner off, lift lid cat pull right out, you might want to leave sled in. then follow instructions in manual that Woodstock puts in box or ask when stove top not 600 degrees I walk ya thru it

 

I have move 2 of these stoves in the last month we did both with everything on them except for the side leg covers not bad at all with a few guys everything comes apart easy if you want to take stuff off you are going to love your new stove but be prepared to be addicted to it I think everyone who has this stove is I sit in my basement and watch it friends come over and watch it so cool to see this heat monster work good luck with it

 

Everyone's stove-moving situation is different, but if you have some help that day moving it, you really don't have to tear it down that far. If your help is limited, that may be a different story. Invite a few people and cook up some steaks and turn on the game!

 

I guess that leaves me with only one day left Feb 7?

 

Good luck on the new stove and getting it moved in freeburn I was solo and had to do it myself so I stripped off everything - except for the soapstone liner as it looked like that was going to be a bit of a pain. But everything else pretty much lifts off without any tools (actually it ships with most pieces separate anyhow):



not pictured is the firebricks, I took those out an placed them in correct position on a piece of scrap plywood so I wouldn't get them out of order (several different sizes). I later realized there is a picture in the manual of the correct order, but still easier to keep them in the same shape anyhow.

 

Also, I've done 3 days of 24-hr burns now in a row. I honestly didn't think the low heat output of such a long burn would do me much good, and I often dismissed all the BK folks talk on the 24+ hr burns as being useless to me, but I am quite surprised how well it's doing in my house with the somewhat milder temps we are having. Having 2 stoves running helps too of course. But I did a 24 hr burn even with lows getting into the 20's and my house stayed in the upper 60's.

I haven't measured flue temps, but I think with the low burn that the stove is extracting significantly more heat since the hot flue gasses are traveling slower, thus increasing the time they are able to be in contact with the surfaces that act as heat exchangers. This is proving to be way more efficient than my Jotul. A typical day like the last few days would be a 3-load day, maybe not stuffed to the gills but pretty close to 3 x 2cuft = 6 cubic foot worth of firewood. I'm doing the same thing now with 1 x 3.2cuft, and a lot less hassle!

 

I think BrowningBAR has postulated that two stoves could be running with less wood than one to heat these large drafty farm houses because each could be run much more efficiently. We are hoping to get there (two flues lined) by Fall. Finding this thread quite interesting....

 

I think last night's burn was just about perfect. The stove still had a lot of charred wood (mostly charcoal though- not much weight left in it) so the reload was not a full load of splits. Still, settling down for the night's burn by 11:00 PM, the firebox temps are extremely consistent until 8:00 this morning (9 hour, unattended, 'medium' burn). House was 72F two rooms away from the stove although temps. this morning were only 30F. Not only were the firebox temps. very even, so were the stovetop and flue temps., and the flue temps. were well below the stove top temps, indicating that a very efficient burn- very little heat went up the chimney.

Settings were: draft open 2 notches, damper fully closed, grate draft open about the equivelent of 5/16" hole. Virtually all wood and coals consumed this morning at 8:00 AM



Brian

 

What is the "grate draft"? By damper are you talking "key damper" in pipe?

 

How did you get it off the pallet by yourself?

 

Yes, the damper is the "key damper"

He also concocted an extra way to let some air in through the ash pan. He can adjust it to let more or less air in. Many of us experience too many coals and the primary air draft doesn't seem to open up enough to burn them down quickly. Letting a little air in through the ash pan helps alleviate too many coals. This is the "grate draft."

 

For those that utilize the ash pan door in some way to burn down coals- are you seeing build-up of black creosote on the door and in the pan itself? I don't do it very often, but I have a black layer on the door almost as thick as the rope gasket, and the pan is pretty guncked-up.

 

Can't see how introducing air to create a hotter fire to burn down coals could be the source of creosote. Can you post a picture?

The only time I noticed any creosote in my stove was when burning very low in shoulder season; would see a little build up in the corners and on the bottom of the door; it has since burned off with hotter fires.

 

I don't utilize the ash pan door to burn down coals, but my door is also covered with creosote. It's even on my ash pan.

I'm theorizing that it might be due to my chimney being a little short. 13 vs the recommended 15. That will be fixed when I decide if I'm going to move my stove or keep it where it's at.

 

Only when low and slow. NOT when she is running hot.

 

By grate draft I really meant any air that is introduced under the grate. It really helps in burning the coals as the wood burns so I do not end up with a stove 1/2 full of coals that will not put out enough heat to heat the house. A little (read: LITTLE) air introduced under the grate really eliminates this problem without any negative effects that I can see, again as long as the amount of air is small. Photos can be found in this thread in post #265.

Damper- yep, a key damper or a stove pipe damper; a round disc that sits in the smoke pipe and is turned by a metal rod going through both the pipe and the damper.

Brian

 

I just walked it off, pick up one side and rotate a few inches, set down and do the same with the other side, then repeat. It was a bit tedious, especially considering I had a loader tractor (in my current avatar) that I could have used but the tractor isn't running unfortunately. Utilize help if you can, but fwiw details of my solo install: Ideal Steel solo install | Firewood Hoarders Club


Well when I got home from work this morning the stove had kind of slacked off but it was half full of wood still. Cat might have stalled a bit, hard to say but it was a bit under 500. I turned it up some, got flames going for 30 minutes, then throttled back down and went to bed. House nice and warm from loading at 4pm yesterday and into the 20's overnight...


Bedroom was at 71F. Usually its warmer than living room, but northerly wind was cooling it down some.
And then when I got up this afternoon 23 hours into the burn:



That burn was half and half Ecobrick and ash.

I reloaded at 3:35 this afternoon and since I am off tomorrow unless I get called in, I'm going to record temps again for Ecobrick test #3. Loaded 19 bricks (~66 lbs) plus 1 large and 1 medium ash split (17 lbs).

A little breezy but not bad. Temps dipping to low 20's tonight, and mid 40's tomorrow. 10-15 mph wind overnight. I'm shooting for 30 hour burn...

 

Lot of BTUs in that load. 83 lbs @ 8600 BTU/lb ~ 7 14000 total BTU or ~ 30,000 BTU/hr if it goes 24 hours. That would be a lot of heat in my house! The combination of a huge firebox and the dense BTUs offered by the CWF bricks is a great combination for long burns. Looking forward to seeing your results.

 

Well I think those numbers are not taking stove efficiency into account, I don't think I'm even near 30k... if you take 20% (just a guess) for what goes out the flue, and extend that time a bit longer, might be closer.

Watched it fairly closely today and shut this load down a little quicker, but just like in the last 2 tests I got a dip a couple hours in then it started to really pick up. Not sure if it is a characteristic of the bricks or what. Cat peaked out a bit over 1200F, but came back down fairly quickly and currently at 1050F. I even stuck a small magnet over the majority of the secondary air opening (prior to the dip and rise), not sure if that did a whole lot or not, but I'll leave it on this time just because I have so much fuel in the beast. It's been on a 100% cat burn since the first hour.