My Ideal Steel Is Pooping Creosote onto the Hearth Pad

Gang,

This one has me a bit concerned. If you recall, ABF Freight was kind enough to spear the stove and bang it like a tambourine when they tried to load it onto my trailer. It seemed that damage was paint scrapes and a cat that made noise, but please take a look at this-here is a puddle of creosote on the hearth pad at the rear of the stove. Notice that the gasket in the first photo is "clean" towards the outside of the stove, but darkened towards the inside. Any ideas on what this is and what to do?

 

Send those to WS. Maybe you can just replace the gasket.
What's behind the little door? Is it obvious that is where the creo coming from?

 

For what it is worth.... I have found that loading EW and a long slow burn really pyrolizes the wood, especially in back. Maybe a full load ran low might cause this? Just a hypothesis.

 

That is the cover for the draft plate (whatever W.S. calls them) to be installed. It is part of the intake or draft of the stove and would supply both the primary and secondary air intakes. You can easily take that plate off and take a look inside; you will see at least 2 channels and the draft plates that move on top of the bottom plate of the stove. Use a strong light and maybe even a mirror and see if you can see where the creosote is coming from.

As far as I know, that intake is sealed and should not leak to the inside of the stove. As someone already said, send the photo along to Woodstock and ask them about that. The formation of creosote is the firebox is not a problem or concern; when I burn my stove very slowly, the inside, including the window, look like someone brushed it with roofing tar. But I do not see how anything from inside the firebox could leak into the draft channel(s) of the stove as I would think they would have been manufactured such that there was no leakage possible.

But certainly give W.S. a call and I am sure they will help you through this problem. Just as an aside, I would guess they should be open tomorrow: I do not think yesterday / today's snowstorm clobbered them too bad and besides, they are northern New Englanders, used to a lot of snowfall and touch, not wussies like us southern New Englanders (just resting right now before assaulting the last of the driveway with some of Honda's finest whirling, twirling machinery).

Brian

 

I've seen similar pictures of this happening to other stoves especially Jotuls. I think they figured it was gasket glue or cement that leaked out from stoves that were pretty new and not fully cured.

 

Did you happen to contact W.S., or take a look in that intake tract yet? Just curious as to where this goes.

Brian

 

ABF and Woodstock need to hash this out. Your wood is almost certainly wet but creosote should not be pouring out. Your stove arrived with a defect. Very unfortunate. Good luck.

 

Well, my wood is white oak measuring single digits on the outside, low to mid teens on the inside. That should be thermonuclear. It looks like we have a snowstorm scheduled for tomorrow, the first day of spring (yey!), so a teardown is probably not in order this weekend.

 

golf66

Based on the dates of the posts,you have been burning this stove for 2 months. Do you still have black puddles forming on the hearth? Did you ever call WS or remove the OAK cover like BDF suggested?

btw, thanks for taking it on the chin this time for snow. Our 4 feet in Northern MA is over half melted and we don't need more.

 

Two years never cut it for me with white oak. Your situation might be different. Was the tree dead standing or live when cut? Are you doing mostly cat burns?

 

I was Ideal Steel Pre-Order #1 and took delivery of the stove in late October 2014. Woodstock was contacted in early February about this issue, they asked me a few questions and then went radio-silent when supplied with answers. The creosote puddle looks like it is not growing, but that is of little consolation....the source of the leak could have been plugged by creosote. Don't get me wrong, I love this stove. I don't love the leaking creosote and how Woodstock has let this fall through the cracks, no pun intended.

 

I stand corrected.

 

Lorin Day

 

WS in my experience is extremely responsive.

They are overwhelmed this year but I am sure with another attempt or two on your part - you will get an answer.

 

You dont have to have wet wood to have creosote.
Still see a lot of misconceptions about burning wood correctly.

 

Low flue temps are going to give you creosote.