Production Woodstock IS

No I was just asking. I have a Fireview and it comes apart. I have a new Absolute Steel as well and I'm not sure what the frame looks like in that, and I don't want to open and find out because I have the fire going during this cold spell here in New England.

 

Is bricks worth the investment? I know (from what I hear here) they have some intense BTU heat and endurance. Is it cost effective as a supplement?

 

On straight price as a full-time fuel, assuming you have the land to get 3 years ahead on stacked and drying, no, the bricks are not worth it.

If you're land challenged and can't stack 3 years' of wood, then bricks are a good alternative since you can buy them the year you need them and they'll take up a lot less space. I've seen guys in New England suburbs trying to dry wood and it's taking up every bit of yard, driveway, and sidewalk they have just to get enough storage get it to dry out in their climate. Buying a ton of bricks as you need them would allow them to give their kids room to play or something.

If you're just starting out and didn't start stacking wood 3 years before you put in a stove, then bricks are a great way to make the first season or two or to "stretch" a smaller quantity of dried wood (or nearly dry wood) while you wait for your long term plan to dry out.

If you walk in to one hell of a deal like I did (1 ton of bricks for less than the price of 1 cord of green rounds), then bricks are worth it.

 

Just for sh*its and giggles, whats the ratio of of splits to brick so someone like me can get a sense of say 5 cords to bricks.

btw, I have enough room for 3 yrs on my property and another 2 yrs on another piece. Just curious on the bricks.

 

The bricks are compressed hardwood sawdust. Hardwood, in split form or in sawdust form, has a pretty consistent BTU per ton. The reason different woods give different BUT heat outputs is that they're more or less dense (heavier or lighter per cord). So in that sense, 2,000lbs of bricks is worth 2,000lbs of split wood at the same moisture content. The brick makers will make the argument that, because the cordwood is wetter than their bricks, you're going to spend some of the energy in the cordwood to drive off the last of the moisture (as steam) when you burn it in your wood stove. Because the bricks are so much drier than most cordwood, the brick makers say the amount of heat you get released into your room from the stove is about the same with 1-ton (2,000lbs) of bricks as it is with 1 cord (3,000-5,000lbs) of "average hardwood".

So roughly 1 ton of bricks is a cord. How true that is depends on how dry you get your wood before you burn it and what species of wood you burn (how dense it is and how much a cord weighs).

 

The ultimate argument is cost. As most of us here are hoarders in a sense, the cost of bricks to splits must be a serious difference.

 

Well, when you can get most of your firewood for the cost of the work you put into it (like most of the guys on here), nothing else can compete economically.

 

I agree, considering most everyone here uses cordwood the bricks would be a supplement or an emergency heat source. I wouldn't mind buying a package just to see how it reacts in the IS for my personal know how, so to speak.

 

Put 18 bricks into the stove tonight. It relit perfectly off the remaining coals from 13 hours ago. Shut the draft to zero after an established burn. Stt at 450. A few secondaries dancing around. It's 8 deg. Outside. Time will tell.

 

What temp do you light your your CAT? and shut dow the main air for cruise control?

 

Compressed bricks do vary a lot just like firewood does so you'll just have to experiment. But I've heard other say that the Redstone ecobrick/enviro brick are pretty good product and the only other one that might be better are called NIELS or something like that (northern idaho energy log I think?).

Well my burn last night was a bust. Came home got out of car and heard the propane furnace exausting outside. Dam, furnace was set on 60 not a good sign. Went in and my pellet stove had shutdown, no clue why. Looking at the hopper it must have shut down soon after I left for work, was practically full. And with the IS set for a low burn it wasn't nearly enough. And it looked like it might have stalled a bit or at least didn't burn as hot as the other night despite the setting being slightly higher. I turned it up when I got home like always and went to bed. When I got back up 6 hours later the stove was warmer than when I had got home lol. Colder tonight, I did about the same load again, this time put it up to notch 3. Pellet stove was running good though. Hopefully house will be a bit warmer when I get home in the morning tomorrow than it was today!

 

Typically I set the cat around 300 stt Seams like that works pretty good. If I set the cat at a lower temp, that cat will light, but I don't get higher stt.

 

Has anyone had to replace the gasket on the ash pan door? Can some of you take a look at the bottom of yours for me? Seems like it would be the last gasket to go but it sure does look like it's cooked.

 

I was going to this summer Jeff a finisher at Woodstock said he recommended it because if wear out no way to control fire.. so for me it will be every 2 seasons..

 

Brand new stove and I already have problems with the ash pan door/gasket. Initially, it stuck to the stove itself and half peeled off the door the first time I opened it. It was nearly impossible to shut the door until I realized the gasket was supposed to be down in that little channel on the door. Now, the bit at the bottom/back where the two ends meet is coming up constantly. It gets ash/cinders behind it when I take the ash pan out to dump it and, if I don't catch it, means you can't shut the door. This gets exciting quick when you're trying to dump the pan with coals still in the stove because you're trying to get rid of ash so you can reload off hot coals!

Also, getting the lid on and off my ash pan is a major battle. I've been meaning to call Woodstock to talk about this stuff but I keep forgetting during business hours.

On the topic of the ash pan house, are you guys having MAJOR creosote buildup on your ash pan door, ash pan (towards the back) and under the ash pan between the rails the ash pan rides on? Since it's my first stove, I have no idea if this is normal or not.

 

Ash pan - yea I get a lot of creosote in there. Stove is new as of September - been burning steady since then. 1st weekend in December I pulled two spaghetti sauce jars worth of creosote out of the ash pan housing. Yea it's a concern. I'm also probably toning to have to replace that ash pan door gasket after the season is over.

Burning 18 month CSS black Walnut and 1 year CSS pine.

 

Yep, these stoves do that. I posted a photo of mine, probably in this very thread, about a million posts ago.... My ash pan door was so loaded with creosote in the 'chewing gum' state that it left big stringy, hanging threads all over the place when opening the door.

Believe it or not, it is actually a sign of efficient combustion, assuming the combustor is working properly. What is happening is that the stove is being used at such a slow burn that there is not enough oxygen inside the firebox to make flame so the wood pyrolysis, exactly like a cigarette- it smoulders and produces large amounts of both smoke and wet creosote. This would normally be an awful, dirty and very inefficient way to burn wood (about the worst way possible) but this is where the combustor comes in and burns all that smoke, both cleaning the exhaust and producing a LOT of heat. So the stove is burning slowly, as we generally want it to do but is still very efficient. The downside is everything below the combustor, including the inside of the firebox as well as the glass on the door, is covered with that black, sticky and obnoxious glazed creosote. If you live in a cold enough area, you will eventually burn it all off as you run the stove harder so that more combustion (actual fire) occurs in the firebox and less creosote is created in the first place.

Another thing that really helps reduce creosote in the ash pan is to introduce just a little air under the grate. Of course I have no personal knowledge of how this might be done but from what I hear- tell, it works great and really enhances the stove's overall burning characteristics.

Brian

 

I think that's because it's constantly compressed wherein your door gasket gets opened and closed a lot. I'm not at home but is the ash pan gasket recessed? I think it is. I forget.

On my IS the ash pan gasket looks cooked due to the creosote in that area. It seems that creosote builds up and drips into the ashpan during low and slow burns. That might be the issue.

 

Yup. The back of my ash pan is as black as coal.

 

I waited 16 hours before loading 12 more bricks. They burn really good and quite a long burn time. At 16 hours there were def lots a coals left over.
I'll have to take a look at my ash pan. I haven't used it. I've been just shoveling the ashes out.