Keystone Observations

[leeave96]

Running the Keystone this afternoon while watching some football and I've got it cranking.

550 stove top, 310ish stack temp and a 97 percent clean glass - YIPPIE!

Beautiful flames across the firebox rolling up from the logs and wicking the bottom of the cat shield. Also, at these higher temps, I've got a goodly amount of active cat going. Anyone else seeing an active cat, at high temp burns without the damper turned down?

No visible smoke out the chimney - amazing. For the first time, my neighbor's chimney isn't spewing smoke either - he must have let the fire go out....

One thing about pluging the ash pan hole is that my burn is now totally burning from front to back. As the front logs start to clapse as they burn down, they reveal the logs stacked at the back of the stove - still looking pretty solid. My guess is that the hole in the back of the ash pan housing feeds the fire for these back logs for a more even burn across the bottom of the stove. This additional air may yield more btu's, but for now, I like the burn front to back and knowing I have apparent total control of the air coming into the stove and all of the incoming air washing across the front of the glass.

Bill

 

[Todd]

Yep, that's just how mine burns, split by split, front to back, same with the Fireview which doesn't have any stinking hole underneath into the fire box.

 

[Todd]

Thought I'd bump this thread up and do a little bragging this morning. Last night at 8pm I loaded the Keystone up with 4 good sized Oak splits and was burning with a good amount of flame with an air setting at around 1.25. After about an hour the stove top was up around 600 so I decided to turn her down to the lowest setting I could since I didn't need all that heat. I got her down to .75 and it snuffed the flame and the coals turned a dark red but cat continued to glow. About 40 minutes later my dark fire box erupted to those familiar ghostly floating flames and continued for about another hour. At 11 pm stove was still hovering around 500 and I went to bed. This morning at 7:30am stove top was at 200 and I had enough coals for a fresh load of splits to light off again. I'm very impressed with this stove so far, 11 hour burn is awesome for a small 1.4 cu ft fire box and if you need the heat it can pump it out as well. :cheese:

 

[leeave96]

Thought I'd bump this thread up and do a little bragging this morning. Last night at 8pm I loaded the Keystone up with 4 good sized Oak splits and was burning with a good amount of flame with an air setting at around 1.25. After about an hour the stove top was up around 600 so I decided to turn her down to the lowest setting I could since I didn't need all that heat. I got her down to .75 and it snuffed the flame and the coals turned a dark red but cat continued to glow. About 40 minutes later my dark fire box erupted to those familiar ghostly floating flames and continued for about another hour. At 11 pm stove was still hovering around 500 and I went to bed. This morning at 7:30am stove top was at 200 and I had enough coals for a fresh load of splits to light off again. I'm very impressed with this stove so far, 11 hour burn is awesome for a small 1.4 cu ft fire box and if you need the heat it can pump it out as well. :cheese:

Todd,

My stove is a completely different animal since I adjusted the airwash plate and plugged the hole in the ash pan. My glass stays clean - totally and my stove top temps easily hit 500 - 600 plus degrees. On the flip side, if I load-up the stove and damper down for the night with some red coals on the bottom and a glowing cat, I can get a good overnight burn with coals and on the bottom and at the very back of the stove instead of coals, I've had a chared, but solid unburnt split. The glass may have a bit of haze, but clears away when I load-up and open-up the damper in the morning.

The way the stove has been burning, I'm having to relearn the damper settings and what works and what does not as far as running the stove. I'll be with the stove all weekend and will have a better idea of what and how it runs.

BTW, when I ordered the stove, I got a set of soapstones to put on the top of the stove to raise the surface above the cast iron - basically to allow a flush/flat stove top with the idea of making it easier to set a pot or pan on the stove. I'm gong to dig those out and give them a try this weekend. One of my goals with this is to store more heat so on an overnight burn, as the fire burns down, I still get some radiant heat for a longer period.

However, one of the things I am going to try to do - is on the center stone that I add, I am going to try to cut a round hole in it for my stove top thermeter to fit into such that it sets on the stove's stove top so my temp reading is not biased by two deep stones.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Todd]

Thought I'd bump this thread up and do a little bragging this morning. Last night at 8pm I loaded the Keystone up with 4 good sized Oak splits and was burning with a good amount of flame with an air setting at around 1.25. After about an hour the stove top was up around 600 so I decided to turn her down to the lowest setting I could since I didn't need all that heat. I got her down to .75 and it snuffed the flame and the coals turned a dark red but cat continued to glow. About 40 minutes later my dark fire box erupted to those familiar ghostly floating flames and continued for about another hour. At 11 pm stove was still hovering around 500 and I went to bed. This morning at 7:30am stove top was at 200 and I had enough coals for a fresh load of splits to light off again. I'm very impressed with this stove so far, 11 hour burn is awesome for a small 1.4 cu ft fire box and if you need the heat it can pump it out as well. :cheese:

Todd,

My stove is a completely different animal since I adjusted the airwash plate and plugged the hole in the ash pan. My glass stays clean - totally and my stove top temps easily hit 500 - 600 plus degrees. On the flip side, if I load-up the stove and damper down for the night with some red coals on the bottom and a glowing cat, I can get a good overnight burn with coals and on the bottom and at the very back of the stove instead of coals, I've had a chared, but solid unburnt split. The glass may have a bit of haze, but clears away when I load-up and open-up the damper in the morning.

The way the stove has been burning, I'm having to relearn the damper settings and what works and what does not as far as running the stove. I'll be with the stove all weekend and will have a better idea of what and how it runs.

BTW, when I ordered the stove, I got a set of soapstones to put on the top of the stove to raise the surface above the cast iron - basically to allow a flush/flat stove top with the idea of making it easier to set a pot or pan on the stove. I'm gong to dig those out and give them a try this weekend. One of my goals with this is to store more heat so on an overnight burn, as the fire burns down, I still get some radiant heat for a longer period.

However, one of the things I am going to try to do - is on the center stone that I add, I am going to try to cut a round hole in it for my stove top thermeter to fit into such that it sets on the stove's stove top so my temp reading is not biased by two deep stones.

Thanks!
Bill

Those extra panels sound like a good plan. How much did that cost you? I might do the same.

 

[leeave96]

Todd,

I don't remember how much they cost - but it wasn't very much. They don't necessarily match the stove's soapstone grain and are a bit rough at the cut - so I'll have to dress them up.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[leeave96]

Update: I wasn't able to add the additional stones to the stove top this weekend, but may get to it today - we'll see.

The temperatures have dropped in my neck of the woods and we got some snow over the weekend and I have been burning the stove hotter and hotter as winter begins to really set-in.

Just for kicks, we are keeping our furnance turned down and trying to heat our house with this little Keystone - so far, so good. I think that once the January temps hit, we will need a little furnance heat in the mornings as the heat from the overnight burns drop off. Its not helpful that my house is so drafty. Prior to the woodstove install, we were conditioned to think it's normal that the furnance would kick-on with some frequency during low temps, but when you are working the stove hard and reloading to maintain the home's heat, it becomes quicky apparent that better windows and more insulation are in order.

When burning hot and reloading hot, I am finding the hot coals build-up and don't go to ash like an overnight burn To get coals burned down to ash so I can get them raked into the ash pan - WHICH I LOVE!!, I will load one large split - let it burn with flames to max out the heat in the firebox, and give the cat some smoke to burn. This gives me a decent heat output and air to the coals so they can burn to ash.

I've also abanded raking the remaining coals to the front of the stove when re-kindling in the morning. I rake them around get ash into the ash box and then level them out on the bottom of the stove. The idea here is to start loading the stove with the hot coal levels minimized so I can pack-in as much wood as possible. The wood seems to relight fine and since plugging the hole in the ash pan housing, no matter how I load the stove, I get a front to back burn.

Also, since closing the ash pan housing hole and adjusting the airwash plate, my glass stays totally clean - yippie!! The only exception is sometimes there is a mist of flyash on the inside of the glass and a hint of my Wife's housecoat melted on the outside of the glass ;(

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Todd]

Sounds like your getting this stove all figured out Bill. The Keystone ash pan is great, wish the Fireview had one. This could be a big no no but I wonder if you could just open the ash pan door to burn those coals down? I know it could lead to overfire if you forget to close it after you reload but I don't think it would hurt anything just burning down the coals?

 

[leeave96]

Sounds like your getting this stove all figured out Bill. The Keystone ash pan is great, wish the Fireview had one. This could be a big no no but I wonder if you could just open the ash pan door to burn those coals down? I know it could lead to overfire if you forget to close it after you reload but I don't think it would hurt anything just burning down the coals?

Todd,

The way my mind works or make that doesn't work, I'd burn the house down if I left the ash pan door open. I am having good luck just setting a single split on the coals and burning them down. I will say that I had fewer coals left over and more ash before I plugged the little hole in the ash pan housing.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[leeave96]

Update:

Let the Keystone die down to minimal coals overnight and gave the inside glass a cleaning. Only thing on the glass was flyash and a bit of dust - no blackened stuff like in the beginning - same wood as in the beginning, same burnining style, the only difference is the adjustments I made to the airwash plate, plugging the hole in the ash pan housing and opening the damper a bit more than what others use to overcome what I think is a good draft - just not as strong as a 30 ft chimney draft. This is the first time in what seems like 2 weeks for cleaning the glass - I'm a happy camper.

Added my three soapstones to the top of the stove. I couldn't bring myself to cut a hole in the center one for the stove top thermometer - but just laying the stones on top of the stove - the minimal heat still retained on the original stones quickly transferred to the top of the new ones. The addidtion of the stones may not impact the reading of the thermometer - just take a longer time for start-ups and re-kindles. But with the flue thermometer, I have a second source of temps I can read that are independent of the stove top temps. I am hopeful the addition of the stones will give me a bit more heat after the fire burns down and it gives me a smooth stove top for a pot or pan and a place for my Wife to put the coffee mug without scratching the original stones.

Wonderful stove!

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Todd]

Bill,
could you post a picture of your stove with the extra stones on top? I'd like to see how it looks. Thanks.

 

[leeave96]

Bill,
could you post a picture of your stove with the extra stones on top? I'd like to see how it looks. Thanks.

Todd,

I e-mailed you some pics. I think the stones look pretty good. On start-up, I am finding they slow the rate of heat output, but over time, they get hot and radiate heat as one would expect from a slab of soapstone. Initally, I thought the heat would go right through them and not impact the stove top thermometer, but I believe they do. Having a goodly bit of experience with this stove under my belt, I can almost look at the stove and tell when it's 200-250 on the stove top and of course, the stove pipe thermometer gives me a good indication too. Once the stones get saturated with heat, they should throw off the heat and on the downside of the burn, I think the extra mass of the stones will continue to radiate until I re-kindle. I just need to be careful not to overfire due to the lag in stove top thermometer readings as the stove comes up to full burn and continues heating up.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[leeave96]

Well, I removed the additional soapstones today and observed the following:

While the additional soapstones add more mass to the stove, it appears to dampen the stove top temps anywhere from 60 to 100 degrees and that translates to cooler room temperatures. I thought they look OK on the stove and liked the flush surface - but for now they are under the stove adding mass to my hearth pad.

Does anyone know if the top stones are factory double thickness (i.e. two slabs) like they are on the sides and back?

It was almost like the stones were an insulating blanket on top of the stove. I will likely try them again and again and again......

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Todd]

The top stones are only single slabs about 3/4" thick, this is why I think the Hearthstones have lower stove top temps and a 600 overfire temp verses Woodstocks 700 temp, Hearthstone uses thicker stone on top.

I bet you are getting tempted to cut a circle in that extra center stone to get a more accurate temp? Wonder if drilling a hole would effect the thermometer since it would be surrounded by soapstone? Maybe it would read higher?

 

[leeave96]

Todd,

I can't bring myself to cut the stones to fit the stove top thermometer into them - they just look to nice! If I don't use them, the square one will make a dandy coaster for a coffee cup.

I have to say, after burning all afternoon, the stove performs much better for our house. The temperatures have moderated up to the low to mid 30's and my wood consumption has gone way down. I have been adding a few splits every couple of hours - just maintaining the house temperature at a comfortable 75ish and giving the load of hot coals in the bottom of the stove a chance to burn down to ashes.

Back to the stones, I had thought about cutting the stones to get the thermometer down to the factory soapstone, but also thought it would be biased by the surrounding soapstones and the temperatures sucked out of the top by the additional stones too. My brother, when he saw it, thought I ought to cut the hole in the stones to keep the flush stove top with the additon of the stones vs temperature considerations.

The stones are removed (for now), the glass is clear, it is cold with a mix of rain and some snow and sleet outside, Christmas tree to my right, football game on the tube to my left, the Keystone in the middle and I am glued to a very comfortable lazy boy recliner - I'm a happy camper!

Bill

 

[Todd]

Woodstock wants $80 for the extra top stones. I don't know if I want them, they would cover up the great veining top stones I already have and probably wouldn't use the stove much for cooking anyways.

 

[leeave96]

Update:

As I posted on other topics, my Keystone now has a new stainless steel liner to vent into and has changed from a top to a rear exit set-up.

I had plugged the hole in the ash pan housing which gives me a very nice front to back burn, but have been playing around with plugging the hole and observing how the stove performs vs the hole open. To seal off the hole, I have been using a small round magnet.

One of the things I recently encountered was lack of draft and a lot of large coals after a burn. The presence of a lot of coals combined with a small fire box made it difficult to max out the stove with splits. I'd have coals up to the glass - all of this while the ash pan hole was plugged. I also found the cause of the lack of draft to be the bottom cap on my liner had fell off and once I put it back on, the draft is very strong again.

To combat the coals build-up, I wanted to re-open the ash pan hole to let some air come into the stove up from the floor. This reduces the stove burn time to some extent, but has some apparent advantages too. The first is that the coals across the bottom and expecially the rear of the stove burn down into fine ashes and easily fall through the slots in the stove bottom to the ash pan. Coals build-up problem solved - for now.

The second benefit from re-opening the ash pan hole is that when the air hits the coals in the bottom of the stove it makes them red hot and helps to burn the splits at the rear of the stove, I get more heat off the stove - which is a benefit when the temps are very cold outside.

So what I've got now is a Keystone that's hooked-up to a good drawing chimney liner, burning the coals to ash - giving me more firebox to work with at the end of a burn and more heat output.

At least that's what I think is going on

Happy New Year Everyone!

Bill

 

[Todd]

I would of thunk with that new liner you would have stronger draft and less coaling problems? What kind of air settings are you burning at? I engage the cat at 1.5 and adjust down to #1 after about 15 minutes and this gives me a nice lazy flame with a glowing cat and 600 stove top. The splits burn from front to back and burn down to a fine ash if I let it go out. I'm still sold on plugging the hole, no coaling problems here and my burn times drop by almost half if the hole is open. Is you glass still clean?

 

[leeave96]

Todd,

With the new liner, I'm crusing at 500+ stove top and flames wicking the bottom of the cat shield at about 1.25 to 1 on the damper settings. I'm still wrestling with damper settings and they seem to change a bit with the outdoor air temperature as well as the amount of heat I want to put in the room and with the type and size of splits. Right now, the stove is set at about 3/4 with a nice glow in the cat and in the coals. The only flame is intermediate flash burning of secondary gasses. I am burning oak and some maple. I've got more locust, but haven't worked my way to that part of the pile. At the end of the burn, I definately am getting more coals to fine ash than when I had the hole plugged. Take my observations with a grain of salt because I keep tinkering and in doing so coming to different conclusions different days

The glass is very clear - much different than when I first installed the stove.

It is amazing how much better this stove performs and responds to damper settings with the new liner and much increased draft.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Todd]

Yeah, I'm still tinkering as well with my air settings. Weather does make a difference, it was only in the single digits today with gusty winds and my usual low burn #1 setting turned into about .8. If I go any lower it snuffs out the flames and the coals turn black. I usually don't need to burn the Keystone hot since the Fireview is doing most of the load but she can really throw the heat at about 1.5