24 hour burn in the new Woodstock Ideal Steel stove

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BrianK

ArboristSite Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2012
Messages
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Location
West central PA
Hi folks,
I am running a Beta version of Woodstock's new Ideal Steel stove this winter. Photos of the stove can be seen in the second post on this thread.

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I built a fire yesterday at 3:00pm with the 3.2cu ft soapstone lined firebox solidly packed with 3"x6" oak blocks that were on average 10"-12" in length, EW load, moisture content 10 to 14%. Cold stove, 2" bed of ashes.

I lit the firestarters at 3:00pm on full air, room temp at 68, outside temp 37. I let the flue temps on my Bacharach probe thermometer on the double wall stove pipe get up to about 600 degrees, then engaged the cat at about 15 minutes into the burn on 100% air. After an hour stove top temps were at 475 next to the collar on top, and room temps went up from 68 to 72. I turned the air down to about 10% at one hour for a long low burn.
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Two hours into burn on 10% air, not much visible activity in firebox, stove top temps have leveled out around 350. There is a hot spot just above the middle of the door on the front of the stove just below the lift off top that is consistently running around 450 on the IR thermometer. Most of the heat from this stove comes off the door glass and the top front, not the top rear near the flue collar.

There's a little soot on the bottom left corner of the door glass, and the bimetallic coil for pre cat air is just a little open now. Outside temps now 35, room temps up to 74 from 68 at 3:00.
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Five hours into burn, the two pieces on top front were a piece I split in half longways to load up to the top of the firebox in the front. One of them just started to coal and a piece broke off but the rest of the logs are still 95% intact.

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Almost 8 hours into burn, house furnace had been off all day. Outside temp was 21 at this point, 71 in the stove room now and throughout the first floor. 68 on the second floor.

Stove top temp staying right at 300 on 10% air. Hot spot over door at 380. Double wall stove pipe probe thermometer sticking on 380.
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At nine hours since I started this burn cycle, the air was still at 10% but stove top temps had creeped up to 325 , the hot spot on the front above the door is up to 400, and I'm seeing more of a glow but no flames in the stove. I wonder if the colder temps outside were increasing draft? Outdoor temp was down to 19 at this point and first floor temp had dropped to 69, second floor temp to 68.


At just shy of 10 hours into the burn, stove top temps settled down to 305, room temps holding at 69, outside temps were holding at 19 and the video above shows the firebox.


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17 hours into this burn cycle this morning. I expected to come downstairs to a cold stove and a firebox full of ash. But stove top temp was 225 and the hot spot on the top front of the stove was 300 and I was still getting plenty of usable heat. The firebox looked like it was still a third to half full of wood. I wasn't sure if it was just coals ready to collapse into a heap of ash so I opened up the air to 100%. In the past when I've done that on a bed of coals the coals glowed and got hotter but I've never gotten flames. This time I got flames. I took photos before and after opening the air, as well as a quick video about 5 minutes after opening the air to 100%. To say I was surprised is an understatement.

I had the house furnace thermostat set on 65. With a low of 19 last night, it was too cold for a long low burn to keep inside temps where we like them, and the furnace kicked on sometime after 6:00am this morning. So current inside temps don't mean anything at this point. I cut back the thermostat to see how the stove carries the temps from this point forward.

At 10:30, 19 1/2 hours into the burn. Stove top temps are at 225, top front of stove is at 325 and this thing is definitely still throwing usable heat. This is a quick video of the firebox with the door open. It started sending up some small flames when I opened the door. Still usable fuel in there. I opened up the air to 100% at this point to see if it would heat up to any extent at this point in the burn. After 20 minutes on 100% air, at approx 20 hours into this burn, stove top temps climbed back up to 325, front of stove above door is at 350 and there are small flames in the firebox.

21 hours into the burn cycle. I opened up the air to 100% almost an hour prior (once I passed 20 hour mark in this test I figured I accomplished my goal) to burn it down and make some heat. Stove top temp was back up to 330, top front of stove above door is at 390, probe temp on the double wall stove pipe is 500, and its throwing off a lot of heat again, with some fire in the firebox now, not just coals. Room temp is back up to 71 with no assist from the natural gas furnace for the last couple hours, outside temp is 30.

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22 hours into burn cycle, outside temp 33, first floor 74, second floor 70, stove on 100% air for just over 2 hours. Stove top temp 300, stove front above door 350, still pumping out more than enough heat. Coals are burning down slowly but steadily, no active flames in firebox now.

This stove took the house from 70 to 74 in two hours, from the 20 hour to 22 hour point in a burn cycle. That is pretty impressive!
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23 hours into this burn, stove top has dropped to 290, top front of stove is at 325, outside temp is at 34, and first floor of the house is still holding at 74. We don't need to reload just yet, there's still a lot of usable heat coming off this stove.

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Ok, currently at the 24 hour mark on this burn, stove top temp is down to 265, top front of stove is 280, first floor temp is still holding at 74 so there's still enough heat coming off the stove at 24 hours to maintain an inside temp of 74 while outside temp is currently 34.
 
I think my stove would get 24 burn time if I were burning kiln dried oak lumber.

This wood was not kiln dried (though I have purchased kiln dried ends from a hard wood products manufacturer north of here.) The pallet manufacturer where I bought this wood receives it in 6"x6" green lumber and cuts it down to the sizes they need for various products, then puts the cut offs in a pile outside. So it was fairly green when we got it 22 months ago but being relatively short it seasoned well. Its been in my basement for the last 5 months or so.
 
I just did a small reload since the coal bed was still hot. The wood caught fire while I was reloading. Amazing, after 24 hours, no need for kindling, blowing, firestarter, etc.
 
That's pretty great my only concern is the idea of letting house get into the 60"s at that point I ( my wife especially ) would be dissatisfied and need to bump up the intake resulting in half that burn time but I could see it being really comfortable in the shoulder season .
 
I'm lost on the point of it... seriously. (And I ain't tryin' to be an azz... I'm 100% serious, I'm lost on the point.)

What good is a 24 hour burn cycle if it can't maintain room/house temperature?? I guess, my thinkin' is... it don't mean cold squat.
I mean... seriously... my old 4x4 pickup will get 50 MPG if'n I drive 10 MPH.
In my mind it ain't about... never has been about the burn time... it's the heating time that keeps ya' warm.

The most important question is... how long can that stove keep your whole house at 70° or so, during a mid-winter night, before a reloading is required??
The second most important is... how many times did you have to mess around adjustin' the stove, and "stirrin" the fire to get that amount of time??
('cause I ain't about gettin' up 2, 3, 4 times a night so the appliance keeps heating "enough" to keep up)

The length of burn time I "can" get don't even make the list...
 
I think its cool .But sometimes for me personally...I keep in mind what my auto shop teacher always said........ K.I.S.S. :) For me...when things get too nit-picky and comlicated..Im out !! Maybe I just have a simple brain . I set in my mind that I want the house at 72 degrees all the time.....and thats what I strive to do . I just have a regular thermostat for the "other" furnace.....and thats my only gauge . So I have to get up and feed a log every now and then......no biggie for me !!
 
Pretty slick heater, man! I guess nowadays two grand is like what, average for a new nice stove?

Not as fancy a test, but my record with a woodstove is friday night to sunday afternoon, burning one big fat gnarly twisted dense ugly chunk of..I forget the species now (this is back in 76 or so..), in an ashley oval top loader. biggest mambo chunk I could drop in. Can't say the house was warm when we got back, but it wasn't frozen out either and this was in maine in mid winter. And enough coals left to restart it quickly with some kindling.

The heater I have now is quite similar in construction, an oval top loader, but the ashley was much better quality and burned a lot better all the time, from my recollection.
 
I'm lost on the point of it... seriously. (And I ain't tryin' to be an azz... I'm 100% serious, I'm lost on the point.)

What good is a 24 hour burn cycle if it can't maintain room/house temperature?? I guess, my thinkin' is... it don't mean cold squat.
I mean... seriously... my old 4x4 pickup will get 50 MPG if'n I drive 10 MPH.
In my mind it ain't about... never has been about the burn time... it's the heating time that keeps ya' warm.

The most important question is... how long can that stove keep your whole house at 70° or so, during a mid-winter night, before a reloading is required??
The second most important is... how many times did you have to mess around adjustin' the stove, and "stirrin" the fire to get that amount of time??
('cause I ain't about gettin' up 2, 3, 4 times a night so the appliance keeps heating "enough" to keep up)

The length of burn time I "can" get don't even make the list...

I prefer a hot fire on a 12 hour reload schedule which is what this stove excels at. I don't need 24 hour burns but quite a few folks interested in this stove asked me to run a long low burn cycle on good hard wood. So I obliged and recorded and reported my results.

On a medium to a hot 12 hour overnight burn I don't anticipate any problems keeping my drafty old house up to temp. Neither will I be messing with it or adjusting it through that type of burn.

I'm just reporting an experiment. For some folks in milder climates the results are applicable.
 
I'm with spidey on a couple of points, what good is it if it can't keep the house at your desired temp and how many people would have the wood or take the time to pack a stove that tightly?
I think it's great that it can go that long, I'm sure most people would be happy with 10 hrs burn time. How big is your house, how are the windows and where are you? You should do another test when it actually gets cold out (it was 6 deg above zero at 6 this morning here in the northeast). 30 years ago I had a Hearthstone soapstone stove and I could easily get a 10 hr burn/heat time. Much after that depending on outside temps I needed to reload bad!
I think for the type of stove, size and technologically advance that 2k is a reasonable price if it lives up to your expectations.
What is the overall size and weight?
dave
 
The most important question is... how long can that stove keep your whole house at 70° or so, during a mid-winter night, before a reloading is required??
I'm figuring 12 hours on good hard wood based on what I've seen so far. Admittedly I've only been burning this stove for a week, but I burned a Woodstock Fireview for two years before that and I've spoken to numerous people burning the Woodstock Progress Hybrid which has a similar hybrid design but smaller firebox.


The second most important is... how many times did you have to mess around adjustin' the stove, and "stirrin" the fire to get that amount of time??

I adjusted the air down to 10% at about one hour into the burn then never touched it again until 20 hours into the burn, at which time I opened it back up the whole way.

I never touched the wood or the coals in the firebox throughout the 24 hour burn and never added wood. I only opened the door to take some quick photos and videos.

That to me is not messin' or adjustin' or stirrin', that's very minimal user input during a very long burn with usable heat output.

In reality, in real world use, I would have opened up the air to about 20% when I went to bed and the house would never have cooled off enough to kick on the furnace. But that would have decreased the total burn time to 16 to 18 hours.

This burn was simply to demonstrate a long low burn for several people who requested I run one.

And for fun.
 
I'm with spidey on a couple of points, what good is it if it can't keep the house at your desired temp and how many people would have the wood or take the time to pack a stove that tightly?
I think it's great that it can go that long, I'm sure most people would be happy with 10 hrs burn time. How big is your house, how are the windows and where are you? You should do another test when it actually gets cold out (it was 6 deg above zero at 6 this morning here in the northeast). 30 years ago I had a Hearthstone soapstone stove and I could easily get a 10 hr burn/heat time. Much after that depending on outside temps I needed to reload bad!
I think for the type of stove, size and technologically advance that 2k is a reasonable price if it lives up to your expectations.
What is the overall size and weight?
dave
As I said in my last post, this stove will more than adequately heat my old house on the coldest of winter days here, on medium to high burns on a 12 hour reload cycle. I just did this burn as an experiment to answer questions I had received about this stove.

Stove weighs 650lbs. Stove top is 28" wide, 23 1/2" deep and on the highest leg setting is 35 1/2" tall. On this Beta unit there is about 4" of adjustment on the legs so minimum height would be ~31" on this particular unit. Firebox measures 22" wide, 18" deep, 11" tall at rear of secondary air plate, 15" tall at front of secondary air plate.

Our house is 80 years old, extremely drafty with only a little insulation in the attic, none in the walls, and old fashioned windows, about 1800 ft of living space, 2.5 stories with finished attic. We are in the mountains of west central PA.
 
That is impressive really. Pretty much the sparky equivalent of hyper mileing.

No doubt the Cat is a big part of the ability to squeeze that much heat on such a low burn.
I wonder what the Maint. cycle and life of the Cat would be, with regular low burns like that.

I considered a Cat stove/fireplace when we were shopping for ours, but the flexibility to run greenish wood if needed, and reality of seasoned but wet wood always bieng present, put me off of the then new Cat stoves completely.

Cleaning a Cat in mid Febuary is NOT my idea of fun. I hope those guys got a handle on thier design, and the thing works out really well.
Using less wood is always a darn good thing.
 
Cleaning a Cat in mid Febuary is NOT my idea of fun. I hope those guys got a handle on thier design, and the thing works out really well.
Watch how easy it is to access and remove the cat on this stove, no tools required. Please disregard the background noise :rolleyes:
 
Hey thanks for the wright up and pics/vid. Very impressive. Cat access well thought out not like some which is why I have a 30, ( that & I'm cheap). As I do not have audio what was that item you pointed out on the back side?
 
As I do not have audio what was that item you pointed out on the back side?
There is a bimetallic coil on the back of the stove that opens up a small damper during hot cat burns to let in air just before the cat but after the firebox. They call it pre cat air supply. It helps the cat run more efficiently and cleans up the emissions even more. See this Woodstock blog entry for an explanation:

Under the Hood 4: Catalyst Air: we apply an old idea in a new setting
 

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