Not trying to clutter up your thread; IS and AS are very similar stoves; those temps are why I got the bigger one.. Glad your learning your stove; once you figure it out it’s easy to run… On the bright side, After those temps your not going to have mud!!
You're not cluttering! I just hope to never see -25 degrees! I tired of mud, but -25 would give me much larger problems.....
Yup... Getting ready for cold here, as well. Not quite that cold but we'll be -13 and -17, Friday and Saturday.
30 below wind chill with south winds, lot of south windows, still learning after one year how to run the IS during these conditions.
oldspark, what have you found to work best in that type of condition...anything specific? Like have you honed in on liking any particlar wood, or loading timeframe?
Well, crisscrossing when i need a quicker hotter fire, north south for overnight longer burns or when temp isteens or above. Still need to try some other configurations, if loaded correctly the IS will burn good sized pieces. Been mixing oak, red elm, and ash, i think most stoves benefit from a mixed load. Short answer crisscrossing in the morning for a cool house with these temps Retired so i can watch the stove.
Not stove model specific, but certainly applies to most any wood heater, especially if its a tad small for a short burst of extreme cold temps/wind, but starting to raise the temp of the house ahead of time gets the "heat flywheel" spinning faster and keeps the place from cooling off so fast, as the whole house and its contents (mass) absorbs that extra temp, raises the average. Some people would rather be a lil cool than too warm though, so each to their own.
So, the last night or two, when I've put wood in for the night and set the air down, it seems like I ca smell a bit of smoke. Can't see any, no haze in the room, but just a slight smell. Thinking back, we may have smelt it before, but attributed it to a bit of smoke coming out when I loaded, or some wafting in from outside if we had stepped outside. When I try sniffing around the stove, seems like I get a smell from the front of the lid in the middle. Next time I let the stove go cold (probably Tuesday or Wednesday) I will take off the lid and look at the gasket. Thinking maybe I need to squeeze it a bit/ fluff it up? Is it OK to wait that long, or should I do it sooner?
Hmmmm..... Reloaded while ago with 3 good sized pieces of white oak. Let it burn a bit and threw the cat. All the wood was not charred, but good coalbed and stove was hot and had just been in cat mode. Allowed some flames even after throwing cat, then turned the air down a time or two. Black box, but could see the wood sparking and glowing some. Bout ready to go to bed, one of the stovetop thermometers had dropped some, so I decided to step out and look at chimney. Wow significant smoke, like smoke dragon. Came back in and turned air wide open. Just a bit and the wood is now flaming. That's the first time that I definitely didn't get, or lost, the cat in a burn (that i know of). The glass wasn't getting dirty, no visible smoke in the box. I'll give it a bit of good fire, and go back out and check the exhaust again.
What I thought was interesting was the glass was staying clean. I would have thought there would be some visual signal in the box (glaas getting dirty, visible smoke, but I guess not, or it was so subtle I didn't see/recognize it. Or, since the cat is above the box, maybe it wouldn't show in the box...... I ended up getting it back before I went to bed. There was still the slightest bit of smoke showing, but it's a bit hard to tell/ visually deceiving with a spotlight at night. I expected dielrty glass am, but it was very clean except for an edge/corner, which is excellent. Had more good coals than I expected as well, and an easy relight. At work, hopefully things will chug along un-interestingly while the wife is there. I am a bit...eh nervous...since it's supposed to get windy, and I haven't burned much in wind, much less try to direct the show from afar.....
Yah, the wind has been interesting to me as I get to know my stove. When it's real gusty, like over 40, of course I could always hear it in my house, but now I can see it in the stove. A gust will actually suppress the flame. It's pretty interesting. Of course, after the gust is done, the flame comes right back. But I've kind of wondered if that apparent over-pressure in the stove could ever be dangerous?
You flooded it; clean glass Choked it dirty glass just how my simple brain thinks of it if you had just left it alone; eventually the off gases which cat burns would’ve been low enough for it to fire off.. no harm no foul
Ok, so I hate to show my stupidity and ignorance, but here goes...I am zero percent mechanic. Can you please give me a bit more on the flooded-clean glass/choke -dirty glass thing?
It all has to do with draft. With a stalled cat, the draft is still fine, just not hot enough for the cat to clean up the smoke. If your draft is choked(low draft) then smoke remains in the firebox longer, increasing the chance of buildup on the glass.
No specialist on cat stoves here but i think you need to load your stove differently or you are rushing the process, i believe your wood is below 20 percent correct. My fire never tries to go out after i started loading it to allow more air to flow through stove.
MikeInMa & Eckie I have exceptional draft .. there are times in a stall, where the wood is not fully charred, that I have given Cat more fuel than it can burn at one time, it stalls like on a chainsaw you pull the rope 7 times and see you forget to flip switch to run. So fuel is now flooded spark plug is wet and does not have proper air fuel mix to fire off.
