Newbie here.. could use advice.

Hey all,

I lurked the site for a while in the past year, as well as some other sites while I was trying to make a decision on the new woodstove for our house (~1100 sq ft downstairs with upstairs relatively closed up and unused but for storage). I thank you all for the insights that you offer(ed) here.

Ultimately I decided on an Ideal Steel Hybrid from Woodstock Soapstone.

Wife and I are extremely happy with the purchase, the stove is as beautiful as it is efficient.

We generally do small fires, only adding about- 4-6 splits every few hours or so. We get light to moderate secondary burn, and the cat is working great.

I have one major question that nags my mind. Would we be better off to load the stove up (for good secondary burn), let it get going, and then damp it all the way down and let it "simmer" all day long?

I worry that it will put out more heat than I can generally tolerate if we go that route. We have never "filled" the stove up for a burn since it was installed on Jan 11th.

We received the stove towards mid-December (even though it was to ship on the week of Dec 1 and be here by my B'day of 12/4.) We did not get a chance to install until 1/11 due to extreme cold temps in which I was completely reluctant to open the house up to for the initial burn in period. So we waited for the temps to cooperate.

I also added an additional 3' of chimney pipe to ensure adequate draft for the stove, and everything seems to be gangbusters so far (although it is very slow to "relight" when new wood is added, but I can only compare that to the very inefficient stove we were using previously that would literally "roar" to life and sound like a rocket engine until damped way down by chimney damper.).

With this wonderful stove I can throw 5-6 splits in late evening, damper it down, and when wife wakes up around 5:30-6:00 AM there is still heat and coals to relight the stove. Old stove was purchased second hand and wouldn't have but a good handful of coals in the AM and no heat at all.

Sorry for the novella that I seem to have written, but I wanted to give all available information.

Thanks for the site, and any advice offered.

Chaz

 

Welcome to the forum, Chaz. I can't help you with your question, 'cause I have a very different non-cat stove. On my stove, however, I find it is best to occasionally feed it, rather than filling and damping. I suspect that is true for most stoves, really. Do a clean burn, and the cat and burn tubes don't need to clean it up. Clean burn usually means more efficiency.

Someone will pipe in better info for your stove real soon, I am sure.

 

Welcome to the hoard Chaz . not sure about the answer to your question but if it was me, I’d start experimenting. Load the stove full. If you get too much heat, open a window... congrats on the new install.... but of course, if you don’t provide us with pictures, it never happened! happy burning!!!!

 

Wow, thx for the nice reception guys. I haven't been here long enough to figure out pic allowances and such, but will definitely post some of the beauty we installed.

Chaz

 

Hi Chaz,

Most of the answer depends on how you choose to use your stove really. There is no 'right' answer. But the I.S. will perform well if filled as much as possible, on top of a decent (1 to 2" thick) bed of coals, and damped down for the 'long burn'. As someone already said in asnwer to your question- give it a try and see how you folks like filling the stove. It certainly will not hurt anything but will probably burn somewhat differently than short- loading the stove so you will have to find out which way(s) you like best.

As far as putting out too much heat, this stove damps down really, really well with a good, active combustor (meaning it will run very slowly inside the firebox but the cat. temps. will remain more than high enough for the stove to burn extremely clean, even while putting out relatively little heat) so I would not be overly worried about that. Especially in the middle of the winter; it might be more of a problem in the shoulder seasons when the outdoor temps. are higher and you only need a small amount of heat, such as when it is 50F or higher outside. But again, as long as the combustor stays 'lit' and the stove runs clean, no harm will be done so try it. The very worst thing that may happen, and not likely in the 'real' winter anyway, is that you may have to crack a window for a few minutes but then you will know what to expect going forward.

Brian

 

Thx Brian,
See you also have an IS. I only wish we'd have had the money to invest in this stove years ago.

We sold our (her childhood home) in 2010 when we purchase our new place. We sold it then on a land contract so it was kinda "rent to own" situation. Finally he decided to finance the remainder and paid us off which put some seriously needed coin in our pockets.

Then the stove research began. It finally came down to the BlazeKing King as our old was a pedestal stove and we were very comfortable with the look of the stove. Ultimately I liked the IS more in terms of looks, and of course price. Coming in a few hundred less than the BK did influence the decision.

I will take the advice given and run a "full load" and see how things go.

I do think that is more what the stove was designed for, as when I'm outside, I can tell when Jill puts some new wood by smoke output. I figure that it is meant to be used in the least polluting way, which would lean towards a bit of smoking getting things up to temp and then damp down where there is absolutely no smoke coming from the chimney.

I will still have to figure out posting of pics, but I did find out the size structure required and did some resizing of pics.

Chaz

 

Trying pics,
We'll see how it goes.

New compared to old.

A beautiful sight.

A top view.

 

Forgot a side shot

 

With decently dry wood, and a fairly fresh combustor, you can re-load the stove and immediately close the bypass and damp the draft down to the 'long burn' setting. The combustor will re- light in a matter of a minute or two and the stove will run super- clean regarding smoke and creosote output. The firebox temp. will drop way down but that is fine as long as the combustor temp. climbs and burns all the smoke, which it will do given the above conditions (reasonably dry, not perfect but reasonable wood, and an active (read: not old and 'shot') combustor).

It sounds like you are almost cold- starting the fire with the bypass open and perhaps even the ash pan door open to get the new wood and the firebox temps. up and all the wood involved before going into 'cat.' mode; no need to do that and it is actually pretty inefficient. As I said, just reload the stove full, close the door and the bypass and set the draft to the place you want it for the next 8 hours or more. Usually this is somewhere around 1/4 draft opening or less but it does vary a lot depending on your chimney, just how dry your wood is, etc.

Give this method a try and I think you will only see smoke for literally 2 or 3 minutes and then the exhaust will be clear or pure white: white exhaust that fades quickly is just steam and not real smoke, so that means the stove is running clean.

I have used other cat. based stoves and this one is extremely forgiving regarding hot reloads because the combustor is in the center / top of the firebox, and the firebox is so well insulated. I find the I.S. is very easy to use because of this and it is not only not needed to 'coax' the stove into burning correctly and cleanly but actually counter- productive to manually try and get the firebox engaged after a reload in my experience. Unfortunately this will not be true once the combustor gets old and 'sluggish' but until then, they really are very robust regarding running conditions and requirements.

As to the Blaze King, an awful lot of people really like them and they have an excellent reputation from everything I have read / heard. The King is more expensive than an Ideal Steel but it is also a bigger stove by quite a bit. A better comparison would be a Blaze King Princess I think. But having more than one or two great products just makes everything better for us, the consumer, I think.

Brian

 

Yes, I did do that during/after initial install. The guide sent with the stove said to never operate the stove with the ash pan door open. I found out pretty quickly why they tell people that, as the gasses built up and it pretty much erupted. So much so that I don't think the chimney needs cleaning soon (creosote from chimney on the snow everwhere).

I can tell you honestly that I will NEVER do that one again, it scared the crap outta me and I worried that the carpet would catch fire.

I gotta say that the Princess, while much more compatible with our needs, just didn't do it for me aesthetically.
The IS is literally a work of art, that keeps our house nice and toasty. I cannot be happier with my decision.

Chaz

 

Welcome Chaz - You're gonna like it here, I guarantee it! We like pics, dogs, beer and spending your money on accoutrements to support your new addiction, er.... I meant hoard. Lots of knowledgeable folks here always eager to help. Sounds like you're off to a great start. Nice to meet you!

 

Chaz, this is a very good place.
Ash pan door can be used, but only with very close supervision. We use ours during cold starts and very briefly, often times keeping a hand on the ash door and feathering if needed.

Sounds like you are an experienced burner, the fact that creosote was blasted out onto the snow would have me looking at how clean the chimmney is - I have learned to err on the side of caution.

 

Heya Stumplifter,

I did use the ashpan door, but like you I now realize it needs constant monitoring to keep the gasses under control. I have only used it after the first blowout to help burn down coals, and then only with the door cracked to ensure good draft.The creosote blown out was pretty much from the spark arrester on top of the stack. With the old stove it would get caked with creosote when the wife runs real low fires only putting in a couple of splits at a time.

As to the experience, I have learned a bit, but still a LONG way to go. We installed our first stove 6 years ago when the fuel oil furnace went out on us in the spring. Total cost to fix it was quoted at $700, and minimum FO delivery is 150 gallons at $4 per gallon at the time.

I figured I could install a woodstove for a comparable cost. It ended up costing $1500 when all was said and done, and as I posted, the stove was a second-hand that was/is not efficient at all. After 2 winters of wood/electric heat I tore into the furnace and fixed it myself for around $250 in parts.

Reading Backwoods Savages' primer, I do realize that my wood is likely not as dry as it should be, as I generally cut in spring, split over summer, then burn that winter. I am hoping that with the increased efficiency of this stove that I can get about 2 yrs worth cut/split/stacked over this spring/summer season and continue to advance on it so that it will be properly dry in future winters.

Thx again everyone for the warm welcome to the site.

Chaz

 

Hey Ashwatcher,
Thx for the welcome.

The Ideal Steel woodstove is DEFINITELY dog approved.


This our rescue dog Holly who came to us through a rather circuitous route, and we are extremely happy to have her.

You might also notice the pan of chicken par-boiling on the stove. Perhaps she was just hoping for an accident.

Chaz

 

Chaz, welcome again, Brian BDF is a IS genius, but in short load it up damper it down and let it heat your home. If it gets too hot your wife will crack a window

 

You don't know my wife.

If I didn't keep the temp in the 75°F range, it'd be 80°F all day long.


Chaz

 

Well, the key thing with introducing air under the grate is to manage it and not let it 'get away'. It is not really such a terrible thing to do and in fact I am a big fan of injecting a little air under the grate but you do have to throttle it. Also, opening the main draft all the way while getting a fire going goes a long way to not allowing the ash pan door air to overwhelm the stove and build up those combustible gasses in the first place. Also, just 'cracking' the ash pan door to get a cold fire started works very well with almost no risk but again, you really do have to be there and attend it- I would NEVER leave any woodstove with an ash pan or bottom clean- out door open any amount at all. They can take off really quick and even leaving the room for a couple of minutes is dangerous.

Glad to hear you like your stove- that is the goal after all. Best of luck with it although I know it will perform well for almost anyone with pretty 'regular' needs.

Brian