Got my Woodstock Ideal Steel hooked up and burning

Mainely Saws · Feb 10, 2015

Thanks Begreen , I guess somewhere between 65 & 85 would be the best . Right now with the winter we are having a large amount of available heat over an extended time sounds great but the cold can't last , can it ??? I'm really curious about the smaller version of the IS coming out this fall ........... might be just the thing I need ...........

Tenn Dave · Feb 10, 2015

Mainely Saws said:
Thanks Begreen , I guess somewhere between 65 & 85 would be the best . Right now with the winter we are having a large amount of available heat over an extended time sounds great but the cold can't last , can it ??? I'm really curious about the smaller version of the IS coming out this fall ........... might be just the thing I need ...........

They will be beta testing that new stove soon. Should be very interesting.

JA600L · Feb 10, 2015

Mainely Saws said:
It's an old house Begreen with mostly 2x4 walls, newer windows & an open floor plan . The floors are uninsulated . It's a 3 story house ( up/down duplex) & the stove would be heating just the first floor . I suppose if it got too hot I could open a door into a common hallway ............... I just wouldn't want to have to run the stove at half it's capacity all the time in order to maintain a comfortable temp in the house ........

This stove will run very low and clean no problem. It has incredible control on the low end. It sounds like you have plenty of draft. When you need heat it will wake up and give it to you.

JA600L · Feb 10, 2015

pdxdave said:
Thanks! I was thinking, we need to develop a protocol for explaining the draft settings on the IS.. since it has major and minor notches. Maybe something like 0.0 (first notch, fully closed), 0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4, 1.0 (first major notch), 1.1 etc... When you say notch 2.. do you mean the 1 notch over from fully closed (the second visible notch, since closed is on the first notch) ? Or 2 notches over ?

OK LOL i will stop over-thinking this. The second night I ran the stove, I just dropped it full closed when it was hot. No stack smoke and only a bit hazy glass the next morning. Not black glass by any means.

I go by actual notches carved into the lip. So #2 is the 2nd line from fully closed.

When you closed it the whole way did you keep an eye on temps to make sure the cat stayed active? Both times I ran on full closed the cat stalled about an hour into the burn. When you close the draft on the Ideal Steel you are seriously shutting down the air supply. Maybe you have a better flue then mine but I can't run on closed. Just be careful not to plug your chimney.

pdxdave · Feb 10, 2015

JA600L said:
I go by actual notches carved into the lip. So #2 is the 2nd line from fully closed.

When you closed it the whole way did you keep an eye on temps to make sure the cat stayed active? Both times I ran on full closed the cat stalled about an hour into the burn. When you close the draft on the Ideal Steel you are seriously shutting down the air supply. Maybe you have a better flue then mine but I can't run on closed. Just be careful not to plug your chimney.

When I shut it down completely, I had all the wood charred and some already coaling so it was OK - I kept an eye on the temp to make sure it didn't stall. Starting from a fresh load I agree with you I wouldn't shut it completely, right now I have it at notch 3 and it likes it cruising ~450.

Setter Fan · Mar 1, 2015

Hi Dave, can you give me a quick comparison on how the Ideal Steel heats your home vs your old insert? I have a Jotul Rockland, pretty similar firebox as your declaration and was curious if you are getting your house significantly warmer. Maybe help me understand temps in the room the stove is in compared to other parts of house.

Like my Rockland but it really has trouble keeping up when the temps drop below 30.

pdxdave · Mar 1, 2015

Setter Fan said:
Hi Dave, can you give me a quick comparison on how the Ideal Steel heats your home vs your old insert? I have a Jotul Rockland, pretty similar firebox as your declaration and was curious if you are getting your house significantly warmer. Maybe help me understand temps in the room the stove is in compared to other parts of house.

Like my Rockland but it really has trouble keeping up when the temps drop below 30.

There's no comparison, the IS pumps out a ton more heat, not even remotely close. If I had to estimate I'd say 5x more heat for the same amount of wood, maybe more. We've having a very mild winter with most temps 45-55 during day and 35-45 overnight, so tough to compare to what you have out east. I have ~2000 sq ft and the IS sits downstairs at one end, our upstairs bedroom on the other is typically 10 degrees cooler. But the stove room will keep that room in the 80's usually and still above 75 every morning 12 hours later. So our bedroom stays very comfortable.

JA600L · Mar 1, 2015

Are you enjoying the nice long cat burns?

pdxdave · Mar 2, 2015

JA600L said:
Are you enjoying the nice long cat burns?

Absolutely. Today I was just thinking about how awesome the secondary burn is, I really think that even without the cat this would easily be among the best secondary stoves, ridiculous control and burns clean at pretty much every level as soon as it starts to get hot. Having the cat and ability to drag the burn way out is just an added bonus... It's kindof sad though when I have a beautiful secondary burn going and I drop the cat and the box goes dark

But it's great when the house is still warm in the morning and I'm not having to scramble to get the thing relit.

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Got my Woodstock Ideal Steel hooked up and burning

Mainely Saws

Feeling the Heat

Tenn Dave

Minister of Fire

JA600L

Minister of Fire

JA600L

Minister of Fire

pdxdave

Burning Hunk

Setter Fan

Member

pdxdave

Burning Hunk

JA600L

Minister of Fire

pdxdave

Burning Hunk

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