Production Woodstock IS

I knew the 12-14 hour burn rating on Woodstock's website was conservative, but its still nice to experience it for myself. Defiantly burns longer than any stove I've had/used before.

My Wife is originally from PA and generally complains about the cold all winter long (and how long the winter is) but after almost 15 years, even she thinks the last couple weeks have been "nice"

 

Its about 2300ft, but its one of those houses that has been added onto several times, and now its kind of a split ranch laid out in an "L". So it takes a little creative heat management to get the heat out of the basement of the old part of the house and into the addition(s).

 

Ah, the old 'good news, bad news'. Just got the call that my Ideal Steel is finished, crated and waiting to go on the truck. That would be the good news. Bad news is that I cannot take it right now- we are headed for a snowstorm on Wed / Thurs. Calling for 13" to 15", not a clogger but it will slow everything down and leave snow all over the place where the truck has to come onto the property with the stove. That is probably like 30" for you folks in the snowbelt.... I do not have my conversion table handy but I think it is also about 3 1/4" in Washington DC.... no, wait, that would be a true clogger. Anyway, looking forward to getting the stove back but not able to just yet. I promise photos when it does arrive.

 

Finally, cold enough to light it up.

Well, I have been waiting for daytime temps to remain below 40 and nighttime temps to be in the low to mid 20s to fire up the stove this winter. Here in the foothills of the Ozarka in our well insulated newer home, the IS is more for power outages and colder days. Have been itching to burn. 2nd 24 hour period without the heat pumps running, just two large loads so far. Third load I am trying, just for experimentation a load of 6 Compressed Fire bricks from Tractor supply, just to compare to my ultra seasoned Oak, Maple and Elm, rounds that I have stored in the woodshed from the past 5-8 years.

My first two loads about 3/4 full lasted about 12 hours of good very useable heat and good chunky coals with warm soap stones went another few hours. After the last load I tossed in the bricks. I placed a few pieces of fat wood on the coals and the bricks on top and around and after about 30 seconds of intense smoldering the fat wood took off, and the bricks ignited quickly after that. Decent burn, not as much spike at startup compared to my good wood, but flu temps reached my normal Cat range pretty quickly. We shall see how the burn compares. 6 bricks seems about like barely a half load as far as volume, (closer to 1/3) so I suspect the times will be less.

I do love my Elm rounds that are in my wood shed. Burns with a great blue flame. Love the secondaries when they are lit and going.

 

I too love burning elm, those blue flames are awesome to watch in the Ideal Steels large window. I don't like splitting it, but like burning it. I've missed several free scrounges of elm on Craigslist but hopefully I'll be able to get back at it once all of us are healthy.

I had to buy some Almond from a local feed store a few weeks a ago, and since my NG furnace is damaged, we've been heating the house 100% with the Ideal Steel. 2 loads a day of the Almond and it stays running strong and warm throughout most of the house the whole 24 hrs.

 

I try and not split Elm, I try as hard as possible to cram those rounds into the IS! Lol. Love the large front door.

 

Update, 6 Compressed sawdust hardwood bricks in the IS basically lasted 5 hours, with enough coals left to ignite my three hardwood rounds added to get through the next few hours before I load er up 3/4+ full for another 12 hour burn overnight. Not the best, but 6 of those bricks was at most 1/3 full if that.

 

Sorry to be such a pest, but hey, been nearly 10 months since my last burn. Probably the last night for at least a week with the warmup coming.

Question, will it fit? Why I like the big door on the IS, and prefer it to side loaders. Much easier to get unusual shaped forks and pieces including this 8 year old piece of hardwood. 21” edge to edge.

and bonus points for naming the type of wood.






Yes, it does fit, along with some other oddball pieces and forks.

 

Nice!!! I have a big split of Almond I've had sitting in the wood rack for the past 3 years. I know it fits but I'm waiting for some really cold night to throw it in there I guess.....

I like your stove's color too!!! Here's a good picture of the almond I threw in this morning burning good and hot.

 

Great minds think alike with stove colors! Never burned Almond ever, but love storing big stuff long term.

 

I like the music theme you have on your stove! I drew up some Bull Elk themes for mine.

 

Yes indeed, very nice.

 

Good looking stoves.

 

chance04 Call them up, they can send you spray can versions of what they use. Any color for stove body and accents. I believe the brand is stove bright.

 

Im sure they would ship me a can without hesitation. But it's been back in service for a little over a month now I suppose. You can hardly tell. Shes not cool enough to get that close for inspections this time a year anyway. Lol

 

Well.... We've had to run the stove for a month straight with no cool downs (which is what most of you guys do yearly I know). I remember last year several IS owners getting "the crack" on the top door hings side of the stove body.

I think my stove is on the way to developing the same crack. Its not quite there yet, but definitely developing. Here are two photos, one from November of 2019, and the other from today.

Definitely a change in the steel....

I will be keeping a close eye on that area from here on now...

 

Are you talking about that line thats level with the top of the hinge?

 

I circled the change in the steel I saw today. There's a slight mark there that has appeared from last November.

 

Thanks, I saw that on the pic, almost looks like an indentation. For some reason I was thinking that was the older pic.

 

Yeah it looks just like an indentation, just keep an eye on it now.