Newbie here.. could use advice.

Thx for the advice Brian,

I think when I had the blowback I was burning down some of the coalbed, and I had the door closed, and the ashpan door open to force the air up through the coals. Can't say for sure if damper was full open or not, but I am thinking it was. Furthermore I was sitting on the couch drinking a beer and watching the light show in the stove when it erupted.

There was obviously still enough off-gassing from the coals to build up and then ignite. As I said, it scared the crap out of me.
I will likely use it as you state, but will ALWAYS keep one hand on the door, and leave main door cracked some for good draft.

Does me no good to have an awesome stove if I burn down the rest of the house.

Chaz

 

Oh, as an aside, I had to empty out the ashpan today.
18 days after initial install.
Only fine ash, NO charcoal chunks!!
Simply amazing.

My hat is off to Woodstock Soapstone. They made a wonderful stove for us to enjoy.

Chaz

 

I pretty much load it 3/4 full to packed running east/west with a north/south stack on the left side since all my wood was cut to 16-17". Like this:

I tend to run right at the 1/4 (first big notch open from closed) mark for a majority of my burning. A temp around single digits gets set a small dash above that. Below zero gets set at 2 above that. Warmer gets set 1 or 1.5 dashes below 1/4. I also have a pipe damper installed that gets shut down to 1/4 open, more or less depending on outside temps. Its set point coincides with the air damper settings pretty closely. I have it figured out pretty well and have no issues keeping 3100 sq ft of new construction warm on 2 loads a day. With sun and temps above about 25, I can get away with 1 load every 24 hrs. I do that by closing down the air in the AM to preserve the coals during the day. Get home open air and damper wide open and hot reload coals in 10 mins.

I also use different types of wood like many others on here for warmer temps. Same load size just a different amount of btus so less overall heat. Lots of playing and experimenting and you'll get it dialed in!! Play away! Have fun and ask plenty of questions.

 

Well, again, leaving the ash pan door cracked (handle turned so that it is just barely caught by the latch but loose so it leaks some air), main door closed and draft wide open should both start a fire quite quickly as well as safely burn down coals. The stove should not back- puff in that condition as long as you do not have it full of lumber scraps, house shingles or wood 'bricks' (compressed wood blocks meant to be used as fuel in woodstoves) because all of those things have far less moisture in them than any naturally dried firewood. But using firewood splits that are properly dried.... or even just close enough to properly dried should not allow it to back- puff with just a little air from under the grate.

Think of it like a human and water: drinking the stuff by the glass is fine but putting a garden hose down a human's throat and turning on the valve is going to result in at least something unpleasant. So the problem is not the water, which is actually fine and good for us, it is the delivery. Same thing with bottom drafting a stove; a reasonable amount is fine and can be beneficial but too much might not be so great.

Keep tinkering around though and you will learn what makes it easy to start, what produces the amount of heat you need in your house, etc. Lots of choices and we have not even talked about andirons in / andirons out, loading east / west or north / south, etc., etc.

Brian

 

It's funny you mention the E/W N/S loading. When I first started reading here to research stoves, I was absolutely lost on what that meant or why it would even matter, it's a woodstove, not a compass.

Couldn't fathom why no-one said Front-Back and Side-Side.

I still don't understand any reason it would burn better or worse depending on load direction. Is there some airflow difference that would make it burn better or worse?

I loaded her up pretty full last night, and dampered it way down (~1/4). Had some great secondary burn action, and when going to the B'room @ 4AM took a look at temps, still 73 with lots of wood left in stove.

Wife (who is retired) wakes up between 5:30 and 6:00 AM and she said she threw more wood in, 5 or 6 splits, but I don't think any wood was actually necessary at that point. She also said it was 71 in the living room.

As stated, we will have to experiment to find out what works best, I don't really need the house in the 70's when we're in bed, but I do want good coalbed for some heat and re-starts in AM. I'm contemplating packing it in the evenings around 7 PM, dampering it down, and see how that works in the AM. If on low it might be just what I'm after, without burning wood excessively overnight.

Last year was quite a bust in bringing in wood due to several reasons, but I packed in only 7 of the 10 face cord I like to have ready for winter. Worst winter we had we went through 8+ face cord. I figure we've got 3 of the 7 face cord of wood we started the winter with, we went through a LOT of wood during the cold snap with the old stove. We may be relying on the Fuel Oil furnace before the end of winter, but we'll see how things go. Not much I can do about it now anyways.

Chaz

 

NS might breath better as you don't have those no oxygen areas behind the big EW logs...and fewer clinkers.

The real advantage is simply how large of a load you can run.

 

Yeah, lots of debate on how to load a wood stove. My own personal opinion, specifically for an Ideal Steel is.... I do not know.

Some things are pretty obvious; loading N/S with a front draft supplied stove (most modern woodstoves with glass in the doors introduce the primary air in the front), the fresh splits will start faster than if loaded E/W because some air can flow between the splits from front to back.

With a side loading stove, it is virtually always easiest and best to load them E/W; the stove will fill better, can use much longer splits, and is pretty easy to fill very full of splits.

Front loading stoves are less obvious as to the best way to load them. The Ideal Steel throws another wrench in the works because the top of the stove is tapered toward the back, so while there will be room for an entire row of splits in the front, you cannot get them in there because there is no room at the back. But because the stove is considerably wider than it is deep, if the firewood is cut to load N/S (about 17" or 18" max.), then it will not fill the stove when loading that same wood E/W. Of course if the wood is cut for E/W loading, then the stove must be loaded that way 'cause the splits will break the glass in the door every-time it is closed

What I started to do is to cut my splits to 20" for E/W loading but then ended up with a mix of wood I cut and wood purchased, the bought stuff cut short, to about 16" so that whole plan went down the drain. Still, I think that is the best way to load an Ideal Steel: E/W, with longer splits and pack the stove to the gills. There will be a little airspace of the side of the firebox but hey, it it tough to fill any stove like a Tetras game anyway. Besides, even if one loading is just outstanding regarding the amount of wood you got in the stove, the next one will be different anyway.

Brian

 

BDF, my stoves gets 2 layers n/s and a couple of longer ones EW on top., its full, way I have found to get most wood in. More wood equals more heat.

 

Funny that you mention that, as I was sitting here reading, it occurred to me that if it starts faster/better with N/S splits, then one layer of N/S with E/W on top of that.

As to log length, I unfortunately am not very disciplined when it comes to cut length. My main objective is to keep around 18" as that is bar length and somewhat easy to gauge. That being said, it is not surprising for me to have a mix of 20-21" in the mix as I can't bring myself to sacrifice the extra inches when I come to the end of a log. If need be I'll cut 2 shorty's rather than have the waste.

Quite often the shorty's are set to the side and stacked for outdoor recreational burning.

Chaz

 

Yep, the goal is always to stuff more in there (Boys!). And I do load the shorter stuff N/S because it absolutely does fill the stove better. But as an inherently lazy guy looking for the fast and easy solution, I am going to again try for 20" splits, loaded E/W and hope see how that works for me for a season or two.

My stove needs should DRASTICALLY change as this house re-build progresses too, so jamming the last stick of wood in the stove will not be such an issue.

Brian

 

If you can not hold the wood length pretty consistent, you will be much better served with 16" to 17" wood, which can be loaded either way. And if that varies to 19", it can still be loaded E/W.

When I cut to 20", not only can the splits not be 20 1/2", but the larger splits sometimes will not even go at 20" because the far edge of the split hits before the near edge will clear the door opening. If I am not very careful, I end up with a fair number of splits that end up needing a little trimming on the porch to get into the stove, and that is a pretty big pain to keep a saw out there, cut the end off a split that is sitting on a pile of wood in a trailer, etc. Put another way, it is 'not slick'.

In the end, I may end up back to 17" to nearly 18", pull the andirons out and basically load N/S. It probably is the best way to most consistently load the stove over the long haul.

Brian

 

Glad to hear that I'm not the ONLY inherently lazy guy on the forum.

WARNING.. POST GETS VERY LONG AFTER THIS POINT.....

ENTER AT YOUR OWN PERIL..

ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE...

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!

I read through your thread on fuel oil v wood pricing and can definitely understand where you were coming from.

When we bought this house in 2010, it's a cinder block construction with only 2 insulated walls, and only the living room and near the furnace has built up flooring, and that is because of the fuel oil line routing. Everything else is either carpet or linoleum on bare concrete. Needless to say, less than ideal.

It's the posterchild of inefficient, but it came with 22 acres (~12-14 wooded) and a trailer that my parents could move into. Due to circumstances my parents lived with Jill and I, and well, it gets crowded, and complicated at times.

The first year we were here, our fuel oil was running at ~$4 per gallon w/150 gallon minimum on delivery. It cost us over $1300 to heat over the winter. Roughly averaging $250-300 per month.
Second year was about the same, with some rigorous use of hoodies and blankets while on the couch.

Due to issues with tax escrow that wasn't properly calculated, our mortgage went from $625/mo to $1250/mo. We ended up having timber taken off the hill giving us a much needed $5500 to cover everything and keep things afloat.

That left us with a LOT of tops up on the hill, and when the furnace mucked up in spring of 2012 I decided to put in a stove vs fixing the furnace. 2 yrs of $1300 expense just was killing us. At $1500 to install a second-hand stove,it was a bit more than anticipated.

For the next 2 yrs it was wood/elec for heat. We'd come home from work to a ~55F house, start the woodstove and 2 hrs later it'd be comfortable/warm. Once again, less than ideal.

I fixed the furnace and that would supplement the woodstove for the next 5 years.

Now, 2018 we start a new journey with our efficient and CLEAN new IS woodstove.
Everything else in the house is elec as we live in the "sticks".

The irony of it is, while others garner the benefit of low cost Natural Gas at their homes, I have an NG pipeline that crosses the property, and they purchased lease rights for a second one last year. However NG is NOT an option at my house. (On the plus side they paid me for fair market value of the tree's that would be cut down, and yet I get to keep all the wood[which has not been cut down yet]. )

I started buying wood in triaxle loads as it became easier and more time efficient to me to do that vs cutting down more trees after tops were mostly all cleaned up and I spent more time carting wood around than cutting or splitting. Time I felt was wasted time.

Not knowing what I was doing I lost a lot of good wood, I didn't know enough to get to the maple before the ash, and lots of that went punky and rot as I have many springs on the hillside.

In our worst year, we burnt through ~8 facecord of wood to heat. As mentioned previously, my lengths vary a bit so I don't want to entertain the arguement of whether or not they were 'true' face cords or not. I only go by the 4*8 method when measuring my woodstock. You know, 4'wide by 8' tall.
Makes it great fun for Jill that measures an even 5' on a day that she's 'standing tall'.

Wow, this is turning into a novel, I only intended a short story.

Short story long, I have a relatively inefficient fuel oil furnace that when it runs the only thing I can think of is $$$$ flowing out of my wallet. It was cheaper to refill the tank this year after 2 or so winters, we took on less than the 150G minimum but they didn't charge us delivery fees as it was 'close' and a fill was asked for.
It was I believe (it would take time, but I guarantee I can find the bill) $2.35/G.

I have been paying $850 per tri-axle load, and we get roughly 20 face out of a load, and I've purchased 2 over the past five years. I haven't finished off the second load yet. Did I mention that I can be very LAZY?? But I am an AWESOME procrastinator.

For me, the math leans in the wood direction, as indicated by the purchase of the IS.
I can end up paying ~$350 per year for wood heat that is consistent, or $600+ for forced air fuel oil heat that is loud and temp swing sucks.

Now with your new and efficient boiler system, it seems like it would be much more consistent on temp swings, just cost less than wood for primary heat. Makes sense you'd go FO.

I am still better off being a bit annoyed by all the "move wood here, then there, then there, then into the stove".

If I had the money, this place would be solar/hydroelectric/geothermal/wood all the way.

Chaz

 

8 facecord isn't a lot of wood, so I wouldn't say you were really burning that heavily.

BTW, like your attitude of continuous improvement

 

Procrastination can be a very powerful tool... just sayin'.

I tell myself that with way too much frequency.

 

I had an inefficient oil boiler when I moved into my house 3 years ago. The main reason was the "service company" (who also sold the oil) never installed the boiler correctly (no variable stack draft) and it would have been impossible to achieve the max efficiency. I actually considered gas and got a very highly recommended gas installer to give me a quote. First thing he said to me "you know you get a lot more BTU's out of a gallon of oil..." And this is coming from a guy who only installs gas. Then I discover the propane gas price depends on the size of your tank. So, I took it upon myself to learn the ins and outs of installing an oil boiler and associated hydronic floor heating and just did it all myself. No more service calls or cleaning by someone who really doesn't care about MY efficiency. Less efficient? More oil sold.
Find out what your efficiency reading is after your furnace is serviced, get read out, and keep in mind you can not adjust a furnace without proper metering equipment.

 

Yeah, we really should not get too deep into the whole topic of method of heating, cost vs. returns, etc. in this thread. But I will say that a lot of it depends on your age: I am far too old to invest in any large- scale system and have any hope of ever breaking even. If one were thirty, on the other hand, investing in as much solar power as possible WOULD work, as would a wood- fired boiler coupled with large scale hot water storage, heavy insulation installed well and a host of other things. Unfortunately, when I was 30, I did not have the expendable cash nor the knowledge to pull off any of those things, plus solar energy was not nearly developed enough to be viable as it is today. But if at all possible, do spend some time and money, as you are able, on things like insulation and increasing the efficiency of all major power using devices; things like a new burner even on an old boiler or furnace often make a big difference in efficiency. Just replacing all lighting with LED's will also pay off in a decade and then just keep on making a return on the initial expense.

Best of luck to you on all of this.

Brian

 

All good advice here Chaz, I often procrastinate too, I tell myself I am waiting for effective use of resources. Cutting and splitting in deep snow or ice is not efficient. The 3 year plan really aids in this procrastination.