Your story is quite similar to mine, old house was likely built around the 40’s-50’s and drafty as ever. The stove I had put in was as central as I could do so safely, no problem heating the place. Sometimes I’d have to keep a door open but then that heat was going out rapidly that way too, the balance was iffy. On the flip side: kept everything warm until morning. Burns were not incredibly long and stove was epa not cat so burns weren’t too long. 6-8 hours was pretty long for that stove. Hopefully woodstock is in my next in line for another stove installation and hopefully your new stove works for you!
The other night when I did the first "real burn" I got the fire started around 5 pm or maybe a bit after but not much. I put a couple smaller pieces of wood in there once the fire got established and then I put in 2 of the wood bricks that I have because I wanted to get the stove up to temp. A couple of times this summer I burned a piece or two of kindling in there but not a full or sustained burn. So this was the real deal- ok I'll get to the point.... ...After it got up to temp I engaged the catalyst and played with the air control on the front which simultaneously controls the primary and secondary air flow- attempting to answer what billb3 had asked/referenced earlier in this thread the slide of the air control is unencumbered - it just moves without a terrible amount of resistance. Coming from my old stove, this feels like a space ship. But coming from a different model that might have a notched or numbered air control lever- this might take some getting used to. I can compare it to this... My father's old pickup had a clutch that let out almost as soon as you began lifting your foot. I had an old VW that had a clutch that felt like you needed to let it out almost all the way before it would catch. That comparison isn't perfect but when I would drive his truck I would stall a few times before getting used to it, when we would drive my car he'd be peeling out all over the place. The air control was reactive, and I could see an immediate feedback from the flame activity inside the burn chamber when I would adjust it. Not having a whole lot to compare it to I'm going to get along fine with this, but if someone was coming from a notched or stepped air control, this might take some getting used to. With that in mind I don't think it would take much work to mark the front of the stove in a discrete way to give yourself the "numbers" - I may one day find thats the route I'll go, but for now I still need to get better acquainted with this thing before I start trying to personalize it as some might say, or deface it as others might say. This also kind of reminds me of when I make coffee in my press. At first I used a sharpie marker to put lines on the side of the cylinder to notch where to pour the water to if I was making 1, 2 or 3 servings, but having made coffee that way for the last 15 years, I can eye ball it pretty well. Back to the burn.... I had the stove where the catalyst was engaged somewhere around 6 pm I think. I would roughly estimate I had perhaps as little as 1/4 or a much as 1/3 of the stove filled with a charge of wood, and it was still burning with the catalyst engaged at 9:30 pm when I went up to bed. Granted, the wood had broken down to coals, but it was glowing red like the end of a cigarette. I get up at 5, so when I went down to the stove in the morning it was cold to the touch, and it was all fine ashes inside, however I used the poker to stir the ashes a little and there were maybe a half dozen embers still in the bottom of the stove. They were small- approximately half the size of a regular match head, but were in fact glowing bright red. That would have been about as improbable as I could imagine with my old stove on a full charge of wood let alone a smaller break in fire. That's about all I can think of at this point. I'd welcome any questions or comments- I'm still learning this thing.
RGrant , is your pipe single or double wall? If single wall, I would suggest another thermostat 18in above the collar on the stove pipe. The thermostat will read about half the temperature of the inside of the pipe. This is how I run my Woodstock IS. When the thermostat on the pipe reaches 250 degrees then I engaged the cat and set the air wherever it needs to be. If you have double wall pipe this can also be accomplished but you need a probe type thermostat. And the temperature needs to be 500 Degrees.. On the IS there is actually a probe hole on front to get the cat temps. Cat temps are to engage catalyst for clean burn. Stove top temps, STT, are for how much heat you need.
The stovepipe exiting the stove to the thimble is double walled. I tried a few locations on the stove top and got different readings, so I emailed my contact (Mike) at Woodstock Soapstone and he replied right away. I'll copy the email below- <Hi Richard, If you place the thermometer on the raised portion of the top plate, you would want to get a dry lumber kindling fire up to 250 degrees before engaging the combustor. The thermometer is calibrated to be about 1/2 of what the inside of the firebox is doing and catalytic combustors light of internally at 500 degrees. There are markings on the thermometer so when it hits the gray zone, that is where you would close the damper across the door and adjust the air control in the door as long as you don't close it all of the way to starve the firebox of oxygen. Any other questions, please let me know. Best Wishes, Mike> Those guys are nothing short of fantastic with customer service and help. I've traded about a half dozen emails with Mike and he always promptly responds. This is a great company. In short, I have the thermometer where Mike indicated to put it on the raised top plate. I'm glad to know that the calibration is approximately 1/2 the STT. Pretty cool, I don't know if I ever had heard that before or read it somewhere so this was definitely news to me. This stove has a very precise feel. Edit: thanks Canadian border VT for the question- I'm unaware of a probe hole on the front of my stove, but that certainly doesn't mean it isn't there! I'll take a look when I get home.
Assuming you will be operating that stove in cat mode primarily (longest most efficient burns). Especially for overnight burns. This mode will result in zero active flame in the cat stoves I am used to. Something a bit tough to comprehend coming from older stove designs! Figuring out when to engage the cat is important. Learning how long to let the full new load actively burn with flame before reducing your air setting takes time/experience as well. You will soon learn that cat equipped stoves are primarily full batch burners for most users (no occasional opening of the loading door to add a split or two) a no no on a engaged Cat. Load her up. Get the cat engaged. Burn at a high rate for a determined time. Shut it down to Cat mode and go find something else to occupy your time with. The beauty of Cat stoves Generally this is my sequence of events as well as others I am involved with. Your setup may or may not follow mine closely! Enjoy your new tool.
This is the beauty but also the bane. I’m used to loading but I guess the loading of wood has become a natural thing. Not because I don’t like it, in fact I love it. I’d have a hard time not opening the stove for more wood because I guess I like paying attention to it? If I did get one of these cat stoves, I wouldn’t be getting rid of it. It would take some getting used to but it is one of the stoves I’m wanting to focus on because I love wood heat. Maybe I will have to wait? Who knows.
That’s another thing I hate about some stove manufacturers, like VC. The dealers tell me they want you to fill the stove up to capacity...every time? Sorry! That won’t fly here. Sometimes I don’t want a full load and more importantly sometimes I don’t need a full load depending on the temperature. This is what’s throwing me off... Some folks say get a bigger stove so you have it when you need it and you can always build a small fire...which generally goes against some manufacturers operating specs. Yet others say to get a stove that fits the space...and often when temps dip down for extended periods this can lead to not enough heat and a quickly burned out stove and time to buy another.
Not as much of a direct response to your post Hoytman so I'm not quoting your post but my ethos is in the direction of "do more with less". As for how exactly that pertains to my stove- that remains to be seen for the most part, but it does fit in really well with my home. I have a rather open floor plan for the style of home I have- a cape cod- and I get a significant amount of sunlight through my front windows- so much so during the day that if I keep my windows open it knocks off some of the "shoulder season" burning I might otherwise find myself running. My thoughts on the matter revolve more around personal preference... and again matched with climate, location, so on and so forth. I had a bigger stove in my home and wasn't really happy with it. Edit: For clarity- I meant keep my curtains open- not my windows.
I like the big stove idea.You will always need that heat when the real cold sets in.I also like to use a pipe damper to prolong the heat output.My soapstones work well when I need small fires.After the fire burns out the stones are still giving off useable heat.
Guys what are you talking about? What am I missing? Get a BIG stove.. If not that cold burn pine and poplar. If cold burn oak or high BTU wood.. A fellow hoarder lives in NJ has the Ideal Steel, 3+ cubic feet, just like me. He turns it down keeps his STT around 300. Here is 40 or more degrees cooler I keep STT at 600.
I never said not to get a big stove. What I did say is there are those that do not promote getting a big stove, rather one that fits the house...these folks I am referencing are talking about buying a modern stove. My stove is non-epa, circa late 70’s, and is way too big for my house most of the time it’s in use. That’s both god and bad.
Woodstock still doesn't have an online manual and I can't find an answer to this question on their specs page: Is this an ember protection only hearth stove ?
Tiny update for anyone who is finding this stove somewhat interesting or amusing- the thing I was most hopeful for appears to be true. Quick backstory- I used to fill my old stove before bed, it would run crazy hot and at some point go out in the night and the furnace would kick on in the morning somewhere around the 4 am hour. The stove would be cool to the touch and seldom if ever would there be any coals left. On a chillier than normal night last week I put maybe a 2/3 or 3/4 load into the already established fire in the Survival- engaged the catalyst and set the air control to low- I went to bed somewhere between 9 and 9:30. While it certainly wasn't "cold" out and my furnace wasn't on in the first place- when I went downstairs it was- I guess I could only describe it as room temperature- neither hot nor cold that I could tell.
I can check the manual when I get home- but I'm unfamiliar with the meaning. Where would that information be found? For clarity: I don't know what an ember protection only hearth stove is.
It's usually on the safe distances to combustibles page but not always. Might/should be on the EPA label on the back of the stove. Usually a stove with an ash pan doesn't get very hot underneath and only needs the protection on the floor from hot ashes or embers spilling out. Some stoves radiate heat down and require a substantial hearth to protect combustable structure underneath. It's probably safe to assume it needs nothing but ember protection on the floor but I often get into trouble assuming things.
Thank you for the clarification- I will check when I get home, however in my particular install I have a prefab hearth pad, for the sake of assurance under that I have 1/2 inch of cement board (2 1/4 inch boards) and the stove sits atop all of that on a 24 x 24 x 2 patio stone. The over kill on the patio stone was to get the height needed for the new stove to fit the chimney piping. Someone else probably would have figured out a sleeker way of hooking this up, but I'm hoping to get a prettier hearth pad maybe next summer.
I like the patio stone actually. It looks like a purposeful jobsian/jony ive minimalism . Interesting that it is function before form and not the other way around.
I'll keep up the info flow as I've got anything of interest to post- but anyone with questions, send them my way. One of the biggest drives to get this thread going in the first place was I couldn't find any information out there on this stove other than the coal burning version they have out in the west. So to your question, the short answer is, "I don't know, yet." The long answer which I'm sure you guys have come to expect is, it really hasn't been cold enough to merit a morning burn. And there's another member I'm almost certain its Canadian border VT who has a home in the northern climate but has good southern exposure. I have really good southern exposure so I don't always need to go around the clock. Even if it's quite chilly outside, if we get good sun, the house can get into the low 60's without running the furnace or getting the stove going. Different story however if it's cloudy or raining- and if it's very cold, all bets are off. So with that in mind as autumn grows long and heads into winter, I'll have a much better idea of how the stove can operate. I can't imagine however why it wouldn't be able to relight.... but I'll definitely let you all know for sure.
