Production Woodstock IS

I think it's really awesome that Woodstock was able to engineer a self-closing door for these stoves!

Light the fire, put the door on the cracked-open step of the latch, and then wait. When it's time to close the door, you'll hear a muffled THUMP and the stove will suck the door shut and drop the latch handle into the slot. All you have to do is go over and push the latch handle all the way down to tighten the door onto the gasket.


Honestly, it did confuse me the first several times the draft sucked the door shut because I could have SWORN I hadn't closed the door yet and then walked over to close it and found the already closed. Had to scratch my head.

 

My old one does, I bought a new one so I could do a quick swap, when I was cleaning the old one I heard the rattling. No clue what it is, maybe hardened offgasses.

 

Another warm day today. I decided to sweep the chimney. I've had the stove since October of last year.

I used a standard poly brush. Since I can get on my roof and to my chimney easily I tried the old school method instead of my sooteater. I can see how it can work well but I'm not a fan for my stove. The standard brush and rods work just fine. I ran the brush up and down 5 times. I can't say exactly how much dropped into the stove since I used my ash vacuum to clean it out but it was maybe 2 cups. Last year my wood wasn't near as good as this year. Plus the chimney was used the year prior for a smoke dragon. (Support box to cap, got double wall pipe when i bought the IS.) Here's a picture. Kinda hard to tell.



I also took out the cat. Gave it a good vacuum, flipped it, and put it back in. I noticed my radiator was slightly warped last time I cleaned it, so I took a quick picture of that too. Using a 2 by 4 for a straight edge so you can see the severity of the warping



Should I call Woodstock?

Other than that I'm still very pleased with the stove. She's burning right now. All cleaned up.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to run my new IS (my first wood stove). About 2 hours ago I engaged the catalyst and turned the air down to notch 2 (if notch 0 means all the way off). Stove top temperature at that point was 310F and I have a catalyst probe that read 910F. Now, 2 hours later, the stove top temperature is 316F and the catalyst probe is about 1000F, so it would seem like everything is going fine, but when I went outside to look at the chimney with a flashlight, quite a bit of smoke is coming out of it! Is it possible that smoke would be coming out with the catalyst probe reading 1000F? Or could it be water vapor, and if so, how do I tell the difference?

 

I would venture to say that is steam. How far from the stack does the trail last? A couple of feet off the cap, or 10 or more feet. Is it white or blueish?

Woodstock IS

 

It's almost certainly water vapor. When it gets real cold you see that and it is harmless. Check the color when it is light outside if it helps your anxiety about it.

 

Thanks for the responses. It is hard to see the color with a flashlight, but I'd say probably whiteish. The trail goes from probably 30 feet from the chimney. It is about -15F here so I know even a small amount of water would condense. It just seems kind of surprising because the wood looks pretty charred, I would think that after 3+ hours all the water would be gone?

 

You can tilt up the top plate with a gloved hand, & with your other hand, use the metal "helping hand" that came with the stove to lift the front of the radiator hood...which allows you to peak at the cat. If need be, have someone kill the light switch once you get the cat exposed. The cat will be glowing red if it lit.

If you lift the top plate too high, the burner cover will fall off. You may want to remove that first.

 

I'm not sure it is from the wood. The air outside the chimney is condensing because it starts so cold and heats up quickly.

 

Thanks, I had gone to bed but I can try that next time.

 

Something odd I've noticed and wonder if anyone else who horizontal vents has noticed it too. I'd think the top flue cover would be one of the hottest parts of the stovetop. But I've found the area of the stovetop right next to it is hotter. This is the area where many who vent out the top place there thermometer anyhow. Why is this still hotter? For example right now that area near the 'corner' of the top flue plate is reading about 420F on my Woodstock magnetic and on my IR I get 410-420 just to the front of it and around 380F to the back of it. But when I shoot the top cover the hottest part drops down to 350F (front edge of it) and dead center is 338F. I get it'll go the further along it gets but the front area of the cover is about even with the thermometer placement. Just thought it a bit odd.

Also to those that horizontal vent what are your flue temps out the back? With the above stovetop temps (and cat probe currently at 850F) I'm reading around 250F on the top of the pipe mostly even across the first foot before it disappears under the lintel. It's a modest burn but still firing with the secondaries today, a load of short pieces (stacked full but the pieces are like 13" or so so only 3/4 full) and running one notch below first big one and getting some secondaries.

 

The cat is under the stove top. That's why it might be hotter. I find a spot about 2 inches to the right of the flue pipe (vertical) to be the most consistent.

Truth be told I rarely look at stove top temps. I just look at cat and flue (probe not surface) temps.

 

Welcome to the group that is all trying to figure out how to run our ISs.

If the stuff coming out of the chimney is water vapor, it will be white or light gray and dissipate into the surrounding air leaving nothing visible. True smoke would be much darker and drift away without actually disappearing. It is not likely that your stove is producing any, or at least not very much at all, smoke as the combustor is new, hot and you have the draft set so low (there is little gas passing through the stove).

You must have an excellent draft to be able to run the stove so low. Then again, as you say it is -15F where you are, most everybody's draft is pretty good by those temps.

Brian

 

Thanks Brian. I've been reading through the thread and you have a lot of helpful posts. I'll have to try it out soon in the daytime and see what color it is. Looks like we'll have another cold stretch next week. We ended up hitting -22F last night. The wood stove is only heating part of the house, so that's why I haven't opened it up more, as I don't want to overheat things too much overnight. I don't know much about chimney draft but I haven't noticed a problem with it. I know that every time I open the stove door when the fire is burning I haven't smelled any smoke, and I haven't needed to put down the smoke flap either. I'm hoping that means my draft is good enough. I think the chimney is 19.5' from the stove to the top.

 

Well, my stove was very naughty tonight.

It set the ash vac on fire!

 

What exactly did you vacuum up?

Woodstock IS

 

Turns out the ash that ended up on top of the ash pan lid when I pulled it out of the stove last night also had some embers in it the size of about a half a grain of rice. They blew up onto the filter and burnt through the filter, then got into the works after that. When I ran outside in a hurry to dump the vac on the driveway, I could see little flecks of light in the ash I dumped out.

First time I used the dammed thing too.

 

Yeah, I have had that happen to me too (hot embers and ash on top of the ash pan cover, not the vacuum part). What seems to work well is to pull the ash pan 1/2 way out, put the cover 1/2 way on, then pull the rest of the ash pan out while sliding the cover in place. Keeps the 'stove debris' inside the ash pan even if it is falling through the grate when changing out pans.

Brian

 

I find that pulling the ashpan out a few inches and giving it a quick shake brings down the pile if ashes in the middle. The edges and corners don't fill up as fast as the middle which results in a pile higher than the top of the ash pan. Then I slide the cover on as I pull it out. Occasionally I'll pull the ash pan out slowly and just plop the cover on upside down. Seems to work pretty well.

 

I'm not sure how you figure. If anything I think the center should be hotter because the cat is centered under the stove top (yes, of course I know the cat is under the stove top silly ). I rarely look at stove top temps either. That might be why I am only asking this question now after already running the thing for over a year. Just a curious observation. I didn't mention it before but my theory is more heat must be coming out the front of the radiator and going around the sides, so the heat is getting to that spot on the corner of the top flue outlet before the very center, or it's some kind of 'eddy current' of sorts that causes the hot gasses to linger in that spot longer.