Production Woodstock IS

I slipped up, it was meant for the discussion not the thread. I took it out. My bad

 

Great idea there. Agreed, the ash pan is a big selling point of this stove and it's proving to be a great feature. No more fly ash all over the place, no more ash mess around the stove, and coals stay where they belong: inside the stove. I really believe that the ash pan is not just a convenience of cleanliness feature, it is a safety feature because I'm no longer shoveling hot coals out of the stove as was the case with the prior EPA tube stove. Improper ash disposal is the cause of many woodstove-related fires.

 

Whew! That was close! You almost let the secret I.S. feature slip out to the public! They are just not ready for it quite yet.

OK, I'll tell: while the I.S. cannot burn for 40 hours and put out 40,000 BTU per hour, what it CAN do is reload itself every 12 hours! Not sure how this works, maybe there are elves that hide in the stove, but whatever the mechanism, they load the stove and take out the ash. Those of us who own I.S. stoves really have not touched them since the third time we tended them, I assume that is the learning curve for the elves. I have never seen the little fellas' but sometimes, in the morning, I have found tiny little footprints going out to where the wood is stored....

Brian

 

-1 for a high today, sipping coffee in the 80 degree stove room watching the Daytona 500 with my buddy the Fireview and having fun reading the forums.

 

Today I am having a banner day with the IS. Reloaded at 7:30 am and I still have formed logs in coal form giving me a small flame in a mostly dark firebox. It's 32 deg outside and sunny, feels like 50 considering the weather we have been having. It's 70 inside with the front door open (glass on the storm door).
Stovetop is holding at 300, cat still working and stovepipe at 225. I'm gonna see how far it will take me

 

Yeah, me too- stove is still 1/2 full, the stovetop is at 210F and the flue is under 185F: amazing, it is effectively a condensing wood stove in my house. I just opened the draft to 1/2 and the inside sparked to life. The stove will carry the house the rest of the day and might go overnight but I will throw a few splits in there as it will dip into the teens tomorrow morning.

An amazing, beautiful day in the 40'sF and sunny. We took the opportunity to put a 'hurtin' amount of wood on the trailer because all the slush on the ground is going to be a skating rink tomorrow when the temps. go below zero (current prediction is -9F). How does it go? If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute....

Brian

 

Yeah and that weather is working its way east. I loaded a trailer full of wood today in shirtsleeves and was soaking wet before I was done.... tomorrow it will be -9F overnight. This winter has not only been cold, it does not want to let go apparently. Hey, it is just an opportunity to run the I.S. in 'window cleaning mode' anyway.

Brian

 

I had all the windows open and aired the place out pretty good. Then I let the Ideal Steel heat things back up. A little fresh air doesn't hurt.

 

And now it's cold again....

 

Got cold again last night, -7f this morning, with a low of -9.4F. I loaded the stove at 10:00 PM, set the drafts, and left it alone. At 7:30 AM, the house was 70F (!!) and there were about 3 solid inches of involved coals in the stove; a quick scrape and a re-load and all is well.

It took a while but I have found out how to draft the stove so it burns through the coals bed and keeps going after the wood is consumed. I will check later on the overnight temperature data but I suspect that the stovetop temps. were more even without the fall- off after the wood proper is consumed.

Great stove!

Brian

 

I tried to clean the glass once so far. I let the stove get cool, but the glass was not cool enough. I have the grey haze now on the bottom 2/3rds. Not bad since the fire has been going since Jan 1st. I just need a warm enough day to let the stove cool a bit.

 

You can clean it hot if you use a razor blade and blade holder. Use long gloves and a shallow angle on the razor, and it will be easy to clean. When the razor no longer cuts easily, just flip the whole thing over in your hand and keep going; you can clean the glass in a minute or so.

Brian

 

GREAT idea. I have a plethora of razor blades as I use straight razors and DEs. I will just have to find the right holder. Maybe I will just load up a sacrificial razor and give it a shave.
One day I will need to let it cool down. I was hoping to clean with the Rutland cleaner as it helps keep the glass cleaner longer. But, I have never had a fire go so long and keep the glass clean as long as this stove has either...

 

Small world, I too shave with straights and DEs. I think a DE blade will be too thin and weak to scrape the glass through. A single edge works well, as does a larger, replaceable blade glass scraper as long as you hone the edge first (factory they are wavy and not keen).

Shoulder season, if we ever have one again, are great for a little stove cleaning and maintenance. As the woodstove is the only source of heat in my house, mine has been running non- stop for months.

Brian

 

I also have a GEM Micromatic that takes the single edge blades. Those can go in a window scraper and they are shave worthy - I know I have some used ones laying around that might do the job!!! Thanks for the hints.

 

Oh yeah, a used and 'it is not useful for shaving anymore' razor blade will work perfectly scraping glass. I normally use a single edge razor in a small, hand held blade holder and just wear a wood stove glove to clean the glass. The glass stays very clean on an I.S. in the cold part of the winter but burning low and slow in the fall did turn it black with creosote, which is to be expected with any stove I think.

The first time it got cold and I kicked the stove in the pants a bit, I was amazed at how a warm fire (not even a hot fire, just hotter than idling along) cleaned the glass. It was like a magic trick.

Brian

 

No need for razor blades, scraping etc.....just get a jug of Purple Power and spray the glass full strength. Even the worst gunk wipes right off.

 

OK but that certainly is not a good idea while the glass is hot.... you only do that when the stove is cool, right? We were talking about how to clean the glass while the stove is hot.

Brian

 

I started to clean the glass ONCE when I thought the stove was cool....... I tested with a slightly damp towel and:
SSSSSSSSS
it wasn't cool. I have found the Sprayway glass cleaner works really well and the Rutland gel keeps the glass cleaner longer with some sort of film...

 

And now for something completely different.... It seems we all drag the coals to the front of the stove, load it and then get the new splits engaged and burning. I too have been doing this right along this season with my IS. But I have noticed that the stove seems to burn very well with the fire a bit more toward the back of the stove; this way the smoke path goes up and past the entire secondary plate, and it seems to be more efficient, at least right after loading it.

So tonight, I did it 'backwards'; I raked the coals to dump the ash, and then pushed all the coals to the back corner of the stove. Put some small (maybe 4") splits on top of them and then some large 'uglies' on top of that to burn them before I need any real heat (it is in the high 30's F here). For whatever it is worth, this load caught faster and got engaged better / faster than I can remember ever happening before. The flames are rolling up the back of the stove and across the secondary plate, and the stove is putting out zero smoke on start- up, which is unusual and IMO, just great!

Maybe what we all know to be the correct way of doing it has not really been the best way? Of course this is exactly 'one in a row' so I am not really sure if it will work out great over the long haul but it does show promise....

Brian