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

Would you open the bypass? The problem with burning hotter is my cat is already redlining, don't want to damage it.

 

Your cat temp is way up because it is carrying the smoke load. If you let the secondaries help the cat temp should drop.

 

You know, I am just about 3 months in on this stove and I think there are some aspects of its control that I still haven't got down... a few have mentioned that in the past JA but I just haven't found the sweet spot yet. I have tried to turn it up before in hopes of reducing cat temp, but its just driven the cat temp higher so I had pretty much given up on that theory. I will try again and see if I can find this effect, suppose to be cold tonight so I am going to burn hot and keep the house on the warmer side during the day.

 

Notch #5 is my sweet spot. I don't use eco bricks though so maybe that explains the hot temps. I have found that the best way to run this stove is right around #5-6 notch. Even though the stove off gasses quicker at the beginning, it also keeps the temps higher and burns the coals more effectively towards the end.

I have a fairly tight 1800sqft house though. So I get to keep most of the heat produced.

 

I let mine settle in right where the secondaries are just firing. Very lazy flames. This is around the first big notch. Eventually it will off gas and the secondaries will grow again and I'll bump it down a notch or two. If I'm around later into the burn I'll bump it up a bit as to burn the coals quicker and get to a reload faster. As someone said above this stove holds heat a very long time.

 

Yep, shot it right past me on the funny.

Keeping the glass clean of course does have the benefit of being able to clearly see the fire, both to check on what it is doing as well as just enjoying it (pyromania is in our genes I think- my short, hairy ancestors invented fire, or at least thought they did ). But I find a tremendous amount of the heat comes out of an I.S. through the window via infrared, and keeping the glass clean really goes a long way to getting the most heat out of the stove. I cannot quantify it yet and probably never will but how clean the glass is makes a tremendous difference is how hot the steel door directly opposite my stove gets and I believe this is showing just how much heat is available via the glass. And that was one of my main reasons for buying a second door, and why I posted that it cost less than one cord of wood; every time some efficiency is lost, more wood has to be burned to make up for it. Either that of the stove's owner has to give up some comfort.

Tonight will provide a chance to stretch the stove's proverbial legs- temps. going below 0F to a predicted -6F. I know some of you folks routinely have temps. much lower than that but it is pretty much ringing the bell where I live. Perfect that the low temps are occuring on a long weekend too 'cause there are a whole bunch of vehicles that may not start the following morning as these temps. are a real stress- test for the condition of a car's battery :-( .

Brian

 

Yep, it can be a problem. That is why I introduce a small draft under the grate to burn the coals down as the fire burns and not leave so many for the end of the burn.

Another thing that really helped me with my new chimney is a stove pipe damper; it makes the stove a LOT less sensitive to small draft adjustments, and also tends to even out the burn quite a bit. It also raised the stove top temps. while greatly reducing the exhaust flue temps, so I get more of the heat that the stove generated in the house. My suggestion would be to try a damper in the stove pipe- it is very inexpensive and pretty easy to install and at least on my new chimney, made a tremendous difference in how the stove behaves.

Brian

 

The wind is howling, the Ideal is cranking, a fridge full of beer and a load of takeout on order. Winter can go get stuffed....

 

OK in cold Temps my stove seems to be putting out more smoke. STT is 550 to 700 stack temp has been 300 to 400 here a pic.. u mm will check cat Monday but for this weekend it's going to throw heat! of course with 35 MPh winds

 

Likely just steam. Very noticeable during real cold weather. Lots of steam coming out of mine at 0 degrees where none seen at warmer temps.

 

I know you can't tell from pic but definitely more colored than steam. hard to see in winds... maybe draft is 2 times normal? I think it's 12 below now real temp and dropping

 

Wisps of white are totally normal for that cold. Same thing you see when you start your car when its that cold.

 

Well we are getting hit with an artic blast or polar vortex or whatever they are calling it this year. It's not only cold but it's windy too. I'm about 4 miles from the ocean so we do end up with more wind than the average person in NJ. My parents only live about 10 minutes away from me. Due east. It's amazing the difference in weather patterns. They are about 10 miles inland and their weather is always very different than mine. A snowstorm can yield 6 inches difference plus or minus from my house to theirs.

Anyway. I loaded the IS to the gills. More than I ever have. The only way I could get more wood in is using compressed bricks. I have a layer of maple e/w that are cut to 20" on the floor. That's to light off of the coals easy. Then I filled the rest with red oak and locust n/s all the way to the top. They are only cut at 16 so there is a little space. In the time I typed this the temp raised up enough to engage the cat. Gonna start lowering the air in steps and let it cruise. I've got one small round stuffed in at the top e/w though

 

Cat is at 1400 already. Stove top at 500 and flue probe at 600. Kinda losing some heat due to the secondaries firing so hard but I need the btus to heat the house at this point.


Edit to add. One notch under the first big notch.

 

Sounds exactly like my burn last night. Here is what's going on tonight. It's like an upside down waterfall of flames. 1notch under 1st big notch too. Gorgeous display of fire. -2 and falling outside right now helping out with the draft.

 

Well I kind of tried this method tonight, but again I missed it. When turning the stove down I left it at the first big notch, which is a notch or two above my normal burn. After a moment the secondaries where firing medium/high and the cat probe hit 1400 so I backed it down a notch. But not much change. I left for a good 30 minutes or longer and came back and it was at 1600+. Popped open the bypass to hope to not hurt that cat and went ahead and throttled back to minimum to try to bring it down some. Stovetop between 600-700, top of front next to cat probe was 825. This idea of turning it up higher to bring the cat temp down isn't working so well for me. Maybe I let it get a bit to hot to start with. And I haven't been burning ecobricks since that last test, just ash, but tonight I stuck 3 in the end since my pieces were just a bit short and they filled the gap. But still 3 ecobricks isn't much. I did have a nearly stuffed to the gills stove though. I'm waiting for it to die back some before I reengage then I am off to bed.

 

I have found that engaging cat sooner will keep temps down. It seems that if you let the overall temp get too high, it likes tobjust stay there. YMMV depending on draft.

 

Today it's normal.. yesterday it was dark... I wonder if it had to do with winds and excessive draft. normal i see wisps of steam this was smoke like you get before engaging cat .. today normal... loads of sugar maple from hot load to coal were less than 3 hours too... no key damper in this stove yet but draft was shut off it just wanted to go...

 

Very cold again today here in NJ. It's currently 8 degrees.

This stove continues to impress me. Due to the overly warm winter I'm usually running with almost no secondaries. Just a very small flame if any. Occasionally I'll get a WOOF sound and a firebox full of flame then back to almost nothing.

For the past 2 days I've been running with solid secondaries and the air one notch above the first big one. This stove is putting out so much heat that I have to move the couch about a foot further away from the stove. I'm rocking red oak and black locust. This thing throws major heat when you want it to. Serious heat. I was unsure I'd be able to heat the house with these temperatures but it's holding it's own. Granted I've got to refill it sooner but it's doing it. I'm seriously thinking about moving the stove to a more central location in the house because if it can heat from a converted slab garage that's now a den and thru 2 small doorways it's gotta get it done with ease from the living room. The only issue is my den will be very cold without an alternative source of heat. A second wood stove is out. I'd slightly considered a pellet stove for on demand heat but my den is where I hang out. I don't want to hear the fan going.

I saw woodstock has that mini Franklin gas stove. It's quite interesting. It's soapstone and only weighs 70 pounds. It's only 17 inches tall. I've got natural gas so I'm wondering if something like that would do the job. It really is a cool looking little stove. I wonder if it would do the job? Any opinions?

 

That's a good load of wood you squeezed in there.

I usually can't squeeze in that much because I usually have a firebox that still have some wood and coals in it before loading it up for the evening. My experience when you put that last log in east to west and in right up tight to the secondaries, it really gets the secondaries roaring which in turn gets the whole firebox engaged.