Production Woodstock IS

Not really new. The main part of the house was built in 85. We added a 24x27 6 yrs ago. The farthest area where you can barely see the celing fan is the newest section.

 

No holder for me. If you look at my post on page 52 you can see my hearth and stove. I place one row of splits hanging over the edge of the hearth on the left side of the wood stove. It goes about four foot long and I stack it up about four foot high!

 

The Ideal Steel is kicking @$$ so far. They key has been to give it a full load, engage the cat when flue temps have breached 500, let the cat get rockin and then cut it back to a little less than 1/4. My wood is 2 year old white oak and the stove loves it.

Throw in two nice sales hits in two days, a 12-pack in the fridge, a toasty warm house and Old Man Winter can get stuffed.

 

Is anybody running on the 1/4 mark for overnight burns? I am using locust and white oak. It is extremely cold and windy tonight. I have been using the #5 notch so far.

 

I'm running on the #4 to #6 notch. We're still burning through a bunch of cherry that I picked up in 2013 so in these cold days we're loading the stove more often. Its well seasoned and I don't mind burning cherry, but its not locust, oak or ash.

 

I ran 1/4 overnite last nite, kinda had to. And tonight is the same, the wind is finding places to sneak in my 1880's farmhouse and the IS is working hard to keep the peace. I had an 8 hr overnite burn last nite at 1/4 and woke up to 64 deg house. It was 9 above. I think they are predicting about 0 tonight. brrrrr

 

I just want to make sure 1/4 on a full load won't melt the stove with that kind of btus inside it.

 

I peaked out at 600 on the stove front when I left mine alone before bed. It seemed as if it wouldn't get any hotter so I felt comfortble leaving it alone.

 

I've run it at 5 a good number of nights, and set it at 6 last night after hitting 600 degrees on the stove top thermo. The temp plateaued for a while and then went slowly down before I called it a night. I wouldn't worry about an overfire with my setup, but of course your results may differ!

 

I'm at 1/4 (#4) right now on a big load of cherry, and my stove top is around 550.

 

I know if it were just cold out the IS would do fine, but this wind and lack of good wall insulation is probably going to make my bedroom cold. I think I'm going to fire up the Franklin to help it along tonight. I have been meaning to swap the Franklin with my Quadra-fire I have out in the garage. I could really use that old friends help tonight.

The good news. I was away from the house 12 hours today and it kept the upstairs at 68

 

I had a funny feeling thats what you had on your mind. Fire the old girl up and help yourself keep warm!

 

What kind of stove pipe temps is everyone running on these cold nights when you're pushing stove top temps in the upper 500's to lower 600s? My probe Bacharach probe thermometer on our double wall black pipe is showing temps in the upper 500s to 600 running these stove top temps. I guess that's the equivalent of 250-300 on a surface thermometer on single wall pipe. I just don't remember the Beta running this high once I engaged the cat.

 

With the cat engaged tonight, on a load of red oak and ash, I'm running at 600 stovefront and nearly 350 on the surface therm on the flue pipe.

 

Ok, then my probe temps are right in line with that. I ran the Beta during shoulder season for several months before cold temps so I think I'm misremembering the stove pipe temps I had when burning hot.

 

Tonight I am. It is 5F outside w/ 10 MPH average winds (bigger gusts). Loaded the stove to the brim with big splits of only oak so hope to find that in the morning 1) the house is warm (70F or above would be great but really, expected) and 2) there is a coal bed in the stove.

Brian

 

If there is any such think as typical, and really I do not think there is, I try to keep the flue temps (internal probe) at or below 400F, the stove top in the 425 to 475F range and the draft below 1/4. Temps. in single digits are considered quite cold here (RI) and below zero is pretty rare. I suspect it is colder, longer where you are and of course we have different houses, different chimneys, etc. Very tough to compare I think. What I shoot for is a combustor temp. at least 300F above the firebox temp., and flue gas below 400F (via probe inside the pipe) to keep efficiency high.

Tonight will be my first below zero night of the winter. Not sure how it will play out but opened the draft a bit more than usual (1/4 and perhaps a hair more) and loaded the stove full with all oak, all large splits, at 10:30 PM. Will see how it worked out tomorrow around 7:30 am and solid 9 hour burn.

Brian

 

Well the 1/4 mark did the trick. 68 upstairs this morning. 5 outside with real feel of -12. Plenty of coals. The Franklin was stone cold. Haha I filled it up, but I'm only giving that thing credit for the first 2 hours.

 

below 0 here in Michigan with a lot of wind. We have had to stretch the legs of the IS the past couple of days. We have a very drafty house with little to no insulation. Running at stove top temps of 300-600 and stove pipe temps (external) of 250-400. With a full load of wood I have been running at 33% (notch 7-8) down to notch 5. Once the wood coals, I have had to kick the intake up to 50% or 100% to keep the stove top temps above 300.
The furnace (heat pump to you east coast fellas) kicked on once the night before and at least twice last night. We keep our thermostat at 62, but it is not in the stove room.

With a full load and a lot of air, one needs to keep an eye on the temps. If all of the wood gets to a certain point in outgassing, you will need to cut it back to 25% or lower and then slowly bring it back up.

 

So I usually don't mess with the andirons, but today I did. They seemed tight. Sure enough it is warped. I'm glad I could still get it out. I inspected the firebox. Everything else looks prefect. I think this may be victim to the harsh elements of burning down my locust coals. It should be an easy fix.