Production Woodstock IS

Agreed, to include the cat probe I'm using.

 

wow, 800 is quite high.

 

I've enjoyed catching up on everybody's experiences with the IS. Thanks for posting. I'm curious if anyone has had the stove "run away" on them as I feel I did one evening a couple of weeks ago. It was incredibly windy and fairly warm outside. I kept trying to cool the stove down but even when the draft was all the way closed I had some primaries and thermometer beside the cat probe port at 700. Eventually things cooled down when fuel started to run out. Since then the stove has behaved normally. Could the wind have caused this? Any ideas on how I could have cooled things down?

 

Some of the IS guys have had their stove front and stove tops over 800 deg.
I'm not quite sure they considered the stove a run-away or not. I have had mine
up to 700 a few times and I thought that was too hot. Closing the damper
and disengaging the cat worked for me.

 

I find it cool and this particular stove handles it quite well. Some stoves can get pretty nasty when the gasses in them (and the thimble and the chimney) ignite all at once like that- I had a Tempwood that has a 12" cast iron disc on the top of the stove that served as the 'door', and when it puffed, it would lift the lid pretty high.... and of course the iron made quite the clang when it hit the stove again. Plus the puff of smoke in the house usually set the the first- floor smoke detector off. So by comparison, the I.S. is very mild- mannered. Just a few times I have had the stove puff hard enough to blow a little smoke out the cat. air supply door on the back of the stove but never enough to set a smoke detector off.

What is happening is that the stove is full of volatile gas but there is not enough oxygen to allow it to burn. But the oxygen level continues to rise until the wood gas / air mixture will ignite, and it does, all at once. As others have said, the way to eliminate it is either to open or close the draft a bit and get away from that 'magic' spot where the gasses can collect. Another fix is to throw a less- seasoned piece or two into the stove if you have any and the small amount of moisture usually tames the burn down enough to prevent back- puffing.

Brian

 

Here are my observations after a few days of use:

This stove takes a while to get to cruising temperatures. If I reload on coals, I will open the air intake to 100% and leave the bypass open until flue temps reach 250-300. Maybe I should be looking at the stove front temp? I have been unable to get the flue temp over 325. When I reload, it takes about 1-2 hours for the stove to cruise. I leave the air intake open to 100% until I see the stove front temp up to 400-700 range. I normally then start to get the beautiful secondaries and I turn it down to notch 3-6 depending on the heat I want.

After cruising temps, I shut it down and the load lasts several hours. The stove does not blast or radiate heat like my pre-epa metal box Lopi (unless I open the door). However, the heat seems to last longer and steadier than my old stove. I have been routinely getting 8 hours on a load before reloading on a large coal bed. The IS seems to keep the house at a more moderate temperature longer. I agree with the previous poster that it is not a stove that you throw a stick or two every hour. Load her up, get her going, and turn it down.

The secondaries are really cool. Sometimes I have jets shooting out of the top, and other times have this ethereal ghost type flame! It is like watching the Northern lights.

Questions:
I am afraid to set stuff on the cooktop yet. My wife used the soft brush on the vacuum to suck up some dust on the stove and the paint scratched Tonight I finally set my cast iron teapot steamer on the side burners. But it doesn't seem hot enough to drive out much water.
How tough is the paint in your stoves? Does it scratch easy?
How hot are your burners getting? I can keep my hand over the burners within a couple inches and not be uncomfortable.

Just trying to learn the intricacies of the stove.
Burn on!

 

It shouldn't take 1-2 hours. I load on coals and engage the cat 5 minutes later. Then I immediately begin shutting it down. The cat takes over and it cruises on up to 5-600 degrees with a black box. The side burner holds my steamer and that begins steaming within 10-15 minutes. If your having a long delayed start up you either have wet wood or poor draft.

 

Once we engage the cat we are shutting it down to 1/4 open. This gives me a steady temp climb that allows us to choose our temp. We can be up to 550 in about 30 min and can then close it a notch or two more and it will stay there. Very predictable.

 

I agree with JA, shouldn't take any longer than 10-15 mins to reload, open the air all the way, get to temp and engage the cat, knock down the air damper and then it cruises from there.

 

A quick question, I am setting up the venting for the IS, Woodstock provides two height numbers 35 1/2 and a" flue height to center of 29 1/2" ( at max leg height) .
What does that mean, and how tall is that flue connector that bolts on to the top of the stove?
I guess what really need to know is the height to top of that connector at max leg height.
thanks

 

What does Woodstock recommend as minimum chimney height? Do directional caps have much effect on draft?

I have some oak that has been stacked up for almost five years, if you want to try some different wood. Though it got a good coating of ice yesterday

What worked with your old stove may not work with your new one, both draft and wood.

 

HMMM, this morning it only took 5 or ten minutes to fully engage the wood with the door open a crack. Then I shut the door and left the intake open for a few more minutes before reaching temps to engage the cat. The wood has been under 20% according to my Moisture meter. Draft seems fine with all the tests I have done (flame with a match, plastic bag on the [cold] stove pipe opening, only time it spills smoke is when there is little coals and I take a long while to reload).

My steamer is still mostly full after a full night of burning. I have it on the side burner. I might move it to the center.

Has anybody done any food cooking on the stove yet?

 

I am afraid of that.
I was working on the car early in the morning, and had the children help me bring in an half a face cord of wood. It was icy and wet, but had it dry before using it by setting it close to the stove.

We are noticing that we don't get the room nor the house as hot as the old stove, but the temperature does not drop like the other stove.

Typically we are getting 8-12 hours of burn time on a load. We would have come home to a cold house with our old stove when we were gone for several hours yesterday. But, it was the perfect time to load up! 7pm to 7am! I opened the intake to 50% at 3 am and later opened up to 100% to burn down the coals.

 

Before you load, rake the coals. Get the hot coals front and make sure the front isn't blocked with ash. Leave it alone on full air with the door closed for 5 or 10 minutes to super heat the coals and establish more draft. I usually close the air adjustment completely before I open the door to pull more vacuum through the door opening and avoid smoke spillage. Throw your splits in. Close the door and open up the air. If everything is working like it should (including dry wood) it should self ignite and be ready for the bypass to close in 5-10 minutes. There is no reason to leave the door open for start up.

Are you burning hard woods or soft woods? If you want to rule out your wood quality go cut up some pallets and put that in the stove.

 

17ft of total vertical is the minimum. I had the min and it worked okay (slow cold starts) had to leave door open for way longer than it ought to take. Added a another 30in section of pipe a week ago and now it is a much much better animal.

Coach, put the kettle up top next to the flue gets hotter quicker. Less steel to go threw.

 

Mine measures 38" from the floor to the top of the flue connector but the stove is set quite a bit higher than the minimum height of the legs. I believe the 35 1/2" spec. is the distance from the floor to the top of the discharge collar at the stove's lowest setting.

I believe the second number, 29 1/2 is the center of the flue adapter if you rear- vent the stove.

By the way, you cannot use the lowest setting on the stove's legs if you have the ash pan option; the stove has to be raised a bit (an inch or two) to clear the ash pan and allow you to open the ash pan door).

Brian

 

Hi Coach - I've been using the cook top quite a bit. My wife is a pretty good cook, but doesn't enjoy doing it as much as I do. Yesterday I used the center burner to make some cast iron skillet English muffins and the side burner to make black bean soup. I've used it a number of times to make applesauce. Sometimes I remove the center burner to cook right on the cast iron, but sometimes not. I haven't scratched up the burners too bad, but have had some food splash onto the burner and body of the stove that have been hard to remove.

I like the even heat of the stove with my cast iron especially. I have a hard time not browning scrambled eggs in the pan with the propane burners, and the griddle I used with the gas stove was overcooking the muffins last night. The wood stove is much better with both.

I'm treating this stove as a multi-purpose working stove (that is, it doesn't have to look perfect), so the minor scratches and splashes don't bother me much. In the summer I'll get some paint and touch up the burners, a simple enough project.

 

Just like you, all my previous stoves have been 'metal boxes' and not lined. This stove, like all modern stoves as far as I know, is very well insulated around the firebox and will act very differently than the non- insulated types of stove.

This stove really responds well to being fully loaded with wood. A lot of air comes into the firebox from the secondaries (the perforated stainless steel plate on the top of the stove) and the closer the top of the fuel load is to them, the better it seems to run.

The primaries on this stove are relatively small; they are perfectly adequate for running the stove during any type of established fire but make it difficult to start the stove and bring the fuel up to temperature, at least my stove is with my chimney. Opening the door helps.

There is a very significant learning curve with this stove when coming from an old 'steel box', especially if the old stove had a bottom draft of significant size. My last stove had a 3" X 5" draft under the grate that was used both for drafting the stove as well as for starting it (rolled up newspaper slid into the draft door with the draft wide open would make Vulcan's forge out of a cold stove in about 60 seconds). The I.S. is much, much slower to start, and it takes a while even with an established fire to start radiating a great deal of heat into the house. The I.S. is an excellent wood stove in my experience (got mine in Oct. 2014) but there is a learning curve and I have to do things differently; the reward for that is much longer burning time, much better control of the stove overall, and outstanding efficiency (the amount of heat for the amount of wood used). It is more than worth the effort IMO but it does take a while to learn to 'dance with her'.

Brian

 

Another tidbit about where the IS primary air enters the firebox: it depends on where the control indicator ( graduated lever left end of ash lip) is at. With the control full open, most air comes as window wash air from the slit on top of the door opening. At that setting, little air comes through the secondary ceiling ports. At about 3/4 open the air wash is reduced some and slightly more comes through the ceiling. As the control is moved more closed, less air gets through the window wash and more via the ceiling. At around 1/2 open the window air is mostly off and the ceiling air really flows. You can get scary (noisy like a jet takeoff) secondaries to happen specially if your load is up near the ceiling. As the control is moved further closed nearer to 1/4 open, the window air is off and the ceiling air gets slowly reduced. At 1/4 open or less, the ceiling air gets further reduced but never stops and the small EPA air holes become noticeable.
IOW, the relationship between the two primary supplies is not linear at all through the air intake control travel. Other posters in this thread have described this tidbit but no need now to read all 50+ pages. We can see the effects by watching the flames at different settings. I've never had to crack the door to start or restart a load - the door air has always been adequate to ignite the front of the fuel if you put smaller splits in front.
In fact, I find cold starts and reloads both launch better with the door fully closed.

 

You might need to lay in a supply of soft Maple or Cherry and get it drying for next season. It's useful for starting a new load because it burns hotter and faster, gassing a lot of wood at the start if you want, short, hot shoulder loads, etc. I'm experimenting right now, putting some soft Maple in the stove where the load burns last, and Oak more in the center and front. I'm hoping this way, the Oak coals will burn down earlier and I'll be left with only the soft Maple to burn down when I'm getting close to reloading. It seems to increase the heat output at the end of the load too, as the soft Maple burns faster. I'm thinking that any Maple coals left at the end will be a lot easier to burn down than Oak coals.