How are you loading your Ideal Steel stove?

I don't do top down fires personally. I use some lumber scraps and a Rutland fire starter square. Then I add some more kindling which is basically 2x4 cut offs that I split. I leave the door cracked using the notch for the door handle. Within a few minutes I'm able to add a layer of splits. I make it a loose layer, around 4. Once that gets going I add the rest of the splits and close the door but leave the air totally open. I keep an eye on it and watch the probe thermometer that's in my double wall pipe. Once it gets over 500 I shut the air down and engage the cat.

The IS has a huge door and I'm at 2 feet below minimum recommendations for chimney height which will be solved very soon. You need a lot of draft to keep smoke from spilling into the room. The smoke shield does help.

I usually load the big heavy pieces on the right, and smaller pieces or kindling on the left. I find once it is going, this box very naturally promotes a top down burn, regardless of how it is lit. IE the fire moves to the top no matter what. I load for a left to right burn because it seems to send more air to the right, so it burns the coals down more evenly by doing this, whereas big chunks on the left can leave unburnt coals after a slow burn.

The other night I experimented with a giant unsplittable piece of Doug fir that I'd been hanging onto for a couple years. It barely fit through the the door. I added a few smaller pieces to get it going, not super packed but close to full. I left the air at 1/4 because due to it's size I wanted to make sure it kept burning. Turned out really nice ! Took 12 hours to come back below 300, and when I got up in the middle of the night to feed our baby it was blazing hard with the box around 500. Moral of the story, use BIG pieces.

I have the same issue with less air in the bottom left, & it really seems to torch better on the right side of the stove. I also do not do top down start-ups, but it seems to start burning that way once the cat is engaged. For reloads i've just been raking coals to the front, getting a nice tight stack behind the coals, close door fully with air completely open for a bit & then once my single wall thermometer hits 250-300 I engage the cat & gradually close down the air, never going lower than 1/4. Working great so far after 1 week...

Bottom left corner is always the dirty side for me too.

Looking at the Ideal Steel to replace an 30NC. I am wondering where the air comes in once you shut down the primary air to keep it glowing/going. The 30NC continues through the doghouse and at times this seems to not be enough or widespread enough. Plus I want the longer burn times.

There is a small hole in the stove that you can't see with the door closed. The air then channels to the left and right side. In general it seems a little bit more air gets to the right side though. No a big difference mind you, just slightly noticeable.