Help with Ideal Steel?

A couple of months ago I posted on here about the arrival of my Ideal Steel. I think my post was Oct 7. Since then, I've burned at least a couple of cords in the stove, with mixed results. I talked to the nice salespeople at Woodstock, and they suggested I check with some of you in the forums who are using this stove.

Basically, I don't seem to be getting the heat production others are. Some background: I wouldn't consider myself an expert, but I've been heating my house in Wisconsin with wood almost exclusively for five years. My previous stove was a hearthstone homestead, which I loved, but was too small for my 2200 sq foot house. After reading this and other forums, I decided to go with the ideal steel, which is my first cat stove.

Just to get this out of the way, I'm now burning 1.5 yr c/s/s ash, along with some red elm and a little oak, all good dry stuff, even measured under 20 percent with a gadget. My draft was fine with my old stove, seems OK with this one.

When I engage my cat at about 300 or 350, many times the temp will sit, or even drop a little, after half an hour or so, at which time I open things up, and re-engage after I get more flame. I've done this dozens of times. Now quite tired of fooling with the stove, especially with these temps. I can't really afford to have the stove sit at 300 for an hour before it starts to heat up. My house temps plummets if I do.

Even when I am able to to engage the cat with some certainty, I'm still not getting the heat some report. I have a hard time getting the stove to 500 degrees, which is where I need it to be to heat my house. With my old stove, I would just keep adding splits. Can't do it with this one because it holds coals so well, the firebox would soon fill up with coals. I've really been trying to do complete burn cycles, but it's frustrating when my heat tops out at 425 and then drops off from that after a couple of hours. I've been keeping notes on the last few fires. I'm getting what I call useable heat (400 or above) for about 2-2.5 hours. The whole cycle for me, from 300 and back down to 300--lasts about 3.5-4.5 hours. This is no better than the little homestead. (Though I do have much better coal retention).

Any ideas? I'm very frustrated with the dozens (and dozens) of hours I've spent trying to get this thing dialed in.

I should also add that I've cleaned out the cat more times than I'd like to admit, and I've been using the cat "by the book" engaging it with flame in the box and with the temp 350 on the stovetop (not the flue because I have a double wall), then moving the air lever back to 1/3. I've had more luck waiting to engage the cat at 400. But the guys at woodstock say don't do that. I guess at that point, much of the good that the cat is supposed to be doing is lost.

Thanks! I will give this a try. Guys at Woodstock also suggested this. It's a cheap check and worth it?
I do stack single row, and bought the gadget this year just to be sure of moisture content...

Another good idea. Thanks. I wonder if many people criss-cross their firewood in the box, as in a top down fire. I did this a couple of times, but the pieces have to be the right size and you can't load as much. With my Hearthstone, I had to start from a few coals each morning, so I build a kindling fire, adding bigger pieces along the way. This way the temp got up fast and I had a sure fire. With the IS, I have so many coals I can just load it up, no kindling necessary, just some smaller splits or branches. It's easier this way, but I wonder if the fire is getting enough air.

jeff_t said:

How tall is your chimney?

Gotta watch the supermarket wood bundles. They aren't necessarily all kiln dried. Heat treated to kill bugs, in many cases.

Click to expand...

About 5 feet inside. Another 7 outside? One 45 elbow.

Tenn Dave said:

WOW, with only 12 feet this could really be a draft problem.

Click to expand...

Thanks again for the replies. I should measure before I answer, but it's so cold out! Inside is 6 six feet including bend. I suspect outside is more like 8. It's stainless steel, double wall. Chimney was here when I moved in, which is why I never checked measurements. I suspected the draft was too much, with my old stove, because of how quickly it ate up wood, but it could be, with the cat, that it now needs more draft.

weatherguy said:

My PH has done what your describing a couple times, it happened when I switched to my oak that's been split for 3 years but a lot of splits are large so I figured maybe it wasn't as dry as it should be. I tried what Jo described and its been burning fine now with the big oak, maybe you just need to let it burn hotter before turning it down. I also put some smaller stuff on top of the large oak splits and that seems to help.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the great replies. I suspect that since the stove seems to work mostly as advertised sometimes that the problem is mine. I did just recently get to the part of the woodpile that has the oak mixed in (though I did measure that too after a fresh split: <20). Also, some of the pieces are larger than ideal, I think. I used to mix larger and smaller pieces because I needed the larger chunks to save coals overnight. Also, I split by hand. So, the wood may actually be part of the issue. Also, the chimbley. You'd think after I put so much time into the install that I would have checked to see if it was high enough. I did knock out a one-foot pice to raise the hearth ( and higher legs), but didn't think that would be an issue because my draft was so good before. I'll measure the outside length today and see if I can extend. Thanks for directing my attention there. It is cleaned out, as of the beginning of the season.

Part of my issue to is that it's been mild, mild mild, and then wham, below zero daytime for a week. So I wasn't really needing to test the stove, and, in this weather, I don't think any stove would heat my house adequately (2200 sq feet, lots of windows, high ceilings). There is definitely a lot more to think about with a cat stove.

Thanks again everyone. Here's my stove/install

branchburner said:

I don't know what it is about oak, but I don't go by the moisture numbers, I go by the length of time c/s/s. I try to keep my oak stacked separate and give it three years min, while all other species get 1-2 year min. The ease of burn and heat output is SO MUCH better when my oak is older.

I also notice my stove may not perform well if I am using only large splits, and not mixing in some small (and very dry) splits, scraps or branch wood.

And I agree that extending the chimney might help greatly. Addressing not just one but all three of these factors should get your temps up, I think.

Click to expand...

I'm sitting here now with a stove top temp of 505, air control set at 1/2, with a mix of ash and red elm (love that elm, it's always dry). I think I'll try to pick around my oak. Also used kindling as huntingdog suggested. Funny after 5 years I had to unlearn that, and it may have ben the wrong move. Will plan to use more small pieces each time. However, I did wait until 400 to engage cat after trying and "stalling" at 350. 400 just seems to work better for me though it goes against the recommendation of the manufacturer. Maybe it's my draft or wood supply or whatever. I'll just err on the hotter side, at least during this extended cold snap.

A quick question about cat/secondaries. Do you all try to get the cat-only burn in a black box, for as long as possible, before the secondaries kick in, or do you not worry about it? The several times my stove has climbed to 500 on cat-only, I really feel like I'm getting away with something. But I can't replicate it with any certainty.