New member saying Hi

Been lurking around for some time and thought I would finally say hello.

I have been researching a new stove to replace our aging Hearthstone and the WS Ideal Steel has really peaked my interest. I have read just about everything I can about it and this site seems to have more happy WS owners than any other I have seen.

Looking forward to how the rest of our extended shoulder season goes for the IS owners.

Cheers!!

 

WELCOME!!!

also check out the new absolute steel, and the progress.

 

Welcome aboard there, woodwiz . If you get much closer to Canada, you'll need dual citizenship.

 

My Dad was born and raised in Canada, si I am much closer than just geography.

 

The Absolute looks like a promising prospect, just waiting for more Beta testers to start chiming in. For the price, the Ideal seems like a better deal IMHO. I do like the Progress but with mouths to feed and many other home improvements to be done, it is too cost prohibitive right now.

 

Welcome to da club , been out your way before , nice over there

 

Welcome! I just ordered an IS for that reason - better deal and I needed more stove for more house. I also kind of grew to like the changeable stove customization and extra soapstone panels besides soapstone in firebox.

 

Welcome! Could you describe your house, sqft, insulation, etc.. we could probably help you make that final decision. For my house a 2.5 cf (Quadra fire) stove got the job done but not to the comfort level I wanted. Going with a bigger box and the technology in the Ideal Steel my house stays comfortable at all times.

 

Glad to have you Woodwiz.

 

Welcome aboard.

 

In 2011 my wife and I purchased a 1900 sq ft L-shaped ranch. It is a 2x4 stick built home, foundation is a crawl. I will assume R13 fiberglass in the walls and somewhere around R30 blown in the ceiling. The house was built in 1981 and is sealed relatively tight with decent double pane, double hung windows.

Our current stove sits centered in the room in one direction (chimney exits close to roof peak) and about 15' off the other exterior wall (kitchen is behind the stove). The Heritage does a nice job of keeping the house warm even when temps hit the teens (can load a hot stove at 10p.m. and no coals but stove is still warm at 5a.m.), it is however terrible at getting the house warm unless outside temps are above 20-25. We also love the heat from the soapstone but it takes about 90 minutes from cold for it to start radiating good heat. What this all boils down to is that unless we are home all day, the stove is just supplemental heat due to the fact that we can only stretch about 8 hours of usable heat out of it and can only expect a relight on coals after about 5 hours.

The biggest thing that is steering me to the Ideal rather than the Absolute is the log/split length and the firebox size. Longer logs = less work.

What are your thoughts?

 

Welcome! Are you a yooper or a troll?

I like the idea of a larger firebox. I'm only able to load e-w with the 16" splits I use.

Have fun and post some pics when you can!

 

Welcome I am a new ideal steel owner and can't be happier best decision I made

 

Welcome to the group

 

Welcome woodwiz. You'll get lots of good advice from this group. I dont know anything about the stove you have or the one your planning to have but wanted to come on and say hi. Also wanted to say that your world will change if you get a stove that will be able to be loaded to the gills at 10 pm and still be able to do a reload off of coals the next morning. Im working off of 10 hours from my evening load of larch and havent reloaded my stove yet.

 

Welcome woodwiz, I am new ideal steel owner around 15 miles from border.. but 800 miles east wife and daughter a dual citizens but since it's Quebec her entire family is franca is oui. I don't have the BIG lakes like you but am a mile or so from Champlain at the wide spot. Made the IS choice for many reasons you stated.

Shoulder season, heck all this winter has been for me. I prepped 5 cord of popular and ugliest for shoulder season and still burning it! Easily getting 12 to 16 hours of heat and reloads on coals unless like today since it's 40 let it cool off to vacuum cat. still 72 in stove room I shoveled most coal at at 7 waiting for glue to dry before re- lite..