Production Woodstock IS

I know you aren't supposed to vacuum hot coals but I am surprised those are so easy to set on fire. I've never been THAT careful with mine. Doesn't sound much safer than a normal shopvac.

 

Wow, that post could have used a few 'Easy Boys' sprinkled about.....



Brian

 

Feel free to edit and send it back to me to be resubmitted

 

Anyone have a hot side to their stove? Mine is the right side. The air definitely comes thru the EPA air holes more on the right versus the left. My reloads always light up on the right side and the coal beds always glow brighter on the right side.

 

Same here, right side.

 

Ditto

 

Yeah, my stove too- the right side air jet is more active than the left. Although most of the time both jets are covered in coals anyway and they do not seem to be very active.

Same thing happens if I crack the door to get a freshly loaded stove started, the air moves from left to right and the right side is where the fire starts and is most intense.

Brian

 

Yup, the right side is stronger fire for startups and restarts. The tiny EPA air jets have almost no effect with the adjustable intake mostly open. However, I drilled out the left side EPA jet about twice its size, and for those all-cat black-firebox burns, there are no longer those unburned dead coals on the left side like there used to be.

 

Has anybody replaced the door gasket on this stove with generic rope? 1/2 or 5/8"? I would like to order the correct one from Woodstock but I've got tractor supply right down the road and have free time today. It appears to make decent contact but I can slide the dollar bill in and out without much effort. Any thoughts on the ash pan gasket too?

 

You must be one of the first replacing gaskets JA.

As for me, just exchanged a couple emails with Woodstock, got a new upgraded radiator being sent out free of charge by the great folks in NH.
It was warped to the point it was touching my cat probe so figured it was time. I was surprised when they responded that only a few folks have had this problem, not many, and they attribute it to excessive draft or over-dried wood loco: :crazy. For one thing, I run the stove pretty mild, rarely go much more than 500 on the stovetop, and after the cat got through its initial hyper-ness I rarely run it much over 1100F this winter. How many here have gone at least a year and not seen warpage on the radiator, just curious? Is it really a minority? I mentioned in response that I have a good draft but I wouldn't say excessive since it's a pretty normal 22', horizontal exit, and entirely controllable - and a flue damper as well if needed. As far as over-dried... this sounds like old school advice to me, as long as it's completely controllable why would too-dry be a problem? If it burns to hot or fast just dial it further back and slow it down right? I didn't mention I had run ecobricks which are obviously very dry, but typically I run them on the long burns and the cat temps are even lower than a usual burn with cordwood so why would that matter? They said to season wood 1-2 years, max 3 to prevent it from being too dry. My ash is a bit over 2 years stacked and spruce at 1.5 yrs. But the advice sounds bad but I did not want to try and argue. I also think this is not what is causing the problem... I actually think running lower might be more an issue since all the heat is on the radiator from the combustor taking over primary, with a strong secondary fire the heat is more dispersed in the stove across all the channels it travels before hitting the combustor. Just a thought.

 

T-Stew mine was replaced less than 6 months of burning I have never over fired this stove.. but if steel bends at 900 and my STT is 600 on outside.. the cat is firing.. no way that piece is not seeing 1000 degree temps inside.. why the have a liner..

in fact the new one will bend also just not as much or as fast with SS plates attached

 

I had to chime to in. My steel plate warped after 2 months of burning. Took some pics and sent them to wood stock. They said it's normal. And I've never over fired the stove. It's just the center area that's warped. And gets worse when stove is burning.

 

it is normal when it gets bad enough it will catch closing the bypass... with a thud.. you can alway take it out and bang it back straight...

 

mine is bent, but I will fix it or replace it when it gets bad enough. It is time for me to replace the gasket under the cat.

 

Oh I'm familiar with a lot of them being warped, what I wonder if there is even a single one of us with the stove over a year old that isn't warped. Anyone?

 

Mines warped. Picture a few pages back.
One full season and half of this season. Never been over fired.

 

heck my new one with stainless is starting to warp!

 

stainless warps faster the carbon steel

 

not less warp with twice as many cord through... just a hot part of the stove... the stainless does prevent the flaking on to the cat though!

 

The new stainless steel versions are just the original carbon steel versions with a thin stainless steel cover over the center, at least the ones I saw this last fall. The S.S. covers will greatly reduce or eliminate the flaking or scaling of the carbon steel but will not do much of anything to prevent the radiator from warping.

I really cannot think of a long- term fix for this situation; any material, at least any iron based material, that is exposed (Easy Boys!) to such high temperatures is going to sag over time. The radiator really is a sacrificial part IMO. But that is not so bad because 1) they are inexpensive and 2) they will last quite a while; has anyone actually eaten through the entire thickness of the radiator yet?

Brian