More Ideal Steel Beta Testing

12 inches on my summit sides, you can hold your hand one inch from the side all day long with a hot fire going.

 

Between the soapstone and the convective channels, the heat is out to the sides but just above the stovetop intead of directly horizontal.

 

I see, went back and looked at the pictures, looks like the heat is directed to the middle on the top of the sides correct.
It really looks like a nice stove.

 

All of those open slots accelerate and pump out the heat, with the lower ones being the hottest. Those warming shelves must work great.

 

Great. Looking stove!

I would be interested to eventually learn what the rear clearance will be? Also do you have the stove depth measurement?

Keep sharing your thoughts and experiences as you have more time playing with it. It will be interesting how it does during the shoulder season on a half load slow burn when you don't want too much heat off it.

Thanks for sharing

Mark

 

Looks Victorian with a modern pop to it, nice looking stove.

 

Wow, what a gorgeous stove. When we put in our Hampton, my wife would have fallen for that one for sure! Beautiful!

 

That sure is different looking, goes to show that a different color scheme can give the stove a whole new look. How long of a burn time are you getting?

 

I'm still dialing in the burn times. I seem to be able to shut it down more than others have reported-- like completely. Today is the first "warmer" day (high 20's) so I tried a low burn and it seems to work great when the control is at the end of the travel.
On the cold nights I've been getting 9 hours easy but like I said, I am finding I can turn it down further so I think I have some fine tuning which is expected.

Stove depth is 25 inches I believe.

 

My draft doesn't seem to be strong enough to shut it right down. I get secondary gas firing intermittently when I shut it right down. I forget the percentage but I basically need to get some secondary air in the mix.

 

One good thing about having a stove that is scheduled to be torn apart is that you can take some risks with the design I think it looks as good in person as it does in the pictures, but it is probably not for everyone.

Another fun thing to do is to see what you can get out of it. Last night even though it was 28F outside I had the hot part in the front/top measuring 800F and the middle of the stovetop over 620F before shutting it down. Soon after I had the back door open, the ceiling fan on high, the living room window wide open, and I still had to strip out of my clothes--- which means there are no pictures to post.

 

I'm curious as to how well this stove can be controlled.
As in, can it be turned down to say, 400° for a few hours?
If so, it might work here.
I can really use 600-650 for a few hours in the cold that we've been having, but don't need it most of the time.

 

It's very easy to control this stove. When I put the air down to 5% the firebox goes black. Holding it at 400 is no problem at all with the air at approx. 15% on my stove.

 

Brian, thanks for that.
How much wood in the box when you do that, or does it not matter?
Oh, and I was over at AS earlier looking at your thread.

 

Honestly, it doesn't seem to matter. Obviously the amount of wood at least in part determines the BTU output, but we've packed this thing with small kiln dried oak blocks and it doesnt run away. Its very controllable.

You should have seen it before AS deleted the commentary on that thread from another forum's owner and a moderator.

 

Very good control is HIGH on my list of needs for a new stove.

I was pretty disappointed in the attitudes over there.

 

Today I filled it to about 85% full, let the stovetop run up to 475F and shut it down completely. It cruised between 450F and 500F for at least an hour and probably much longer but we left to do some errands-- actually right down the road from WS.
I noticed I am not able to get the "lazy" flames I have seen in other Cat stoves, even at 0% "throttle". I partially covered one of the inlets (on the right hand side) as an experiment and the flames slowed down and looked perfect for a low cruise. I don't know if I have more draft than others or if the air control was adjusted for this beta stove.

 

I've been lurking and reading, occasionally engaging with beta questions here and there. I'd be curious to ask if WS has reached out to any of the forum members with regards to pre-production notes, production timelines or design changes?

I have been on the fence for a change in stoves in my home due to weak burn times overnight. The IS seems to fit the bill for many reasons and the beta info seems very promising so far.