Woodstock Stove Questions

[Risser09]

Well, now that the temps here have dipped into the 30s at night, I will be burning my Keystone 24/7. I had good success this weekend with the heat it put off and the transfer I am getting from my basement to the first floor via floor registers. Stove temps maxed out at 425º, basement temps (across the basement from the stove) maxed at 82º and first floor temps maxed out at 77º. 3/4 of what I burn is cherry and 1/4 is ash. I am looking for some insight or even just how you operate your stove.

Is it necessary (optimal?) to have a flickering/dancing flame when you set your air control back and have the cat on? I found that this provides the most heat, and gets the cat glowing much brighter. To achieve this I have it set right on 1.

When I spoke to my sales rep, he said to run the stove between 400ª and 550º, but I haven't made it past 425º yet. Am I going to have to load the stove with tiny splits to achieve that kind of surface temp? Do I need to put oak in to get there? Seems weird that I can't get the stove that hot when the surface thermometer shows overfiring at such a high temp. Is anyone else able to get that high? How do you achieve it?

Does the cat have to be glowing to be burning smoke? I know this may have an obvious answer, but if my surface temps are showing 250º+ and I have the air control down far enough, the cat might not be glowing red, and the flames might not be flickering, but a coal bed is well established. Are these undesirable conditions for the stove?

I might have more questions, but that's all I could think of right now. Thanks everyone.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well, now that the temps here have dipped into the 30s at night, I will be burning my Keystone 24/7. I had good success this weekend with the heat it put off and the transfer I am getting from my basement to the first floor via floor registers. Stove temps maxed out at 425º, basement temps (across the basement from the stove) maxed at 82º and first floor temps maxed out at 77º. 3/4 of what I burn is cherry and 1/4 is ash. I am looking for some insight or even just how you operate your stove.

Is it necessary (optimal?) to have a flickering/dancing flame when you set your air control back and have the cat on? I found that this provides the most heat, and gets the cat glowing much brighter. To achieve this I have it set right on 1.

When I spoke to my sales rep, he said to run the stove between 400ª and 550º, but I haven't made it past 425º yet. Am I going to have to load the stove with tiny splits to achieve that kind of surface temp? Do I need to put oak in to get there? Seems weird that I can't get the stove that hot when the surface thermometer shows overfiring at such a high temp. Is anyone else able to get that high? How do you achieve it?

Does the cat have to be glowing to be burning smoke? I know this may have an obvious answer, but if my surface temps are showing 250º+ and I have the air control down far enough, the cat might not be glowing red, and the flames might not be flickering, but a coal bed is well established. Are these undesirable conditions for the stove?

I might have more questions, but that's all I could think of right now. Thanks everyone.

It is not necessary to have a flickering/dancing flame. We have not had that yet this fall nor will we until it gets real cold outdoors. We simply do not need it yet

Running that stove between 400-550 degrees will work fine once you need that kind of heat but I doubt you need it yet. We haven't been over 350 degrees and I'm not sure we've even been that high yet. However, once we're keeping the stove going 24 hours a day we'll be reaching higher stove temps.

Burning cherry and ash will get you lots of heat from that stove. It is good wood and both are low moisture so need less seasoning than other type woods. We burn some cherry, some elm, lots of maple and even more ash.

I'm not sure what the Keystone overfiring point is but the Fireview is 700 degrees.

The cat. does not always glow. It depends upon the temperature. If you have a hot fire, it will glow. As the fire dies down, it will not glow, but it is still working. It sounds like you are doing things right.


Risser, it will take a little time to become very comfortable using the stove but you will soon learn the best way. It is perhaps strange sounding, but the way we burn our stove is different from what a lot of people do with the very same stove!

I think I've described what we do in fall and spring. We burn small fires and let them go out. Otherwise, we'll roast. During the winter months we burn 24/7 as this is our only source of heat. During the daytime is when we burn mostly maple but it is also a good time to burn some of the junk wood, such as knotty stuff or some starting to get punky or short stuff. Anything like that. Nights are reserved for the ash and occasionally some oak, but we have very little oak.

Mornings, depending on the type of day expected, we'll get the fire going using maple. During the day if any wood is needed, that is when we look for what we call junk wood. By evening we'll usually add a couple more maple splits. Before going to bed we load up with ash.

When we put wood in the stove, the first thing we do is disengage the cat. and open the draft full. After a minute or so then we'll open the door to add wood. As soon as we get good flame, we close the draft half way. Usually within 10 minutes but sometimes 15 minutes the wood will be charred and then we'll close the draft to about 1/4 of the way to the first number and engage the cat. Then we can basically forget it until later in the burn when we open the draft a bit more.

When we start from a cold stove, we put a few pieces of kindling in and some small splits. Once the kindling is burning good, we then begin closing the draft. That is contrary to what most people do. But first we'll dial it down to 2 (ours is numbered 1-4). We find that if we leave the draft wide open all the heat goes up the chimney and it takes the stove a lot longer to heat up. People talk about soapstone taking longer to give heat and I believe that is the reason why. Anyway, we soon dial it down to 1 and finally down to 1/4. When the stovetop temperature reaches 250 degrees is when we engage the cat.

Hope this helps.

 

[Risser09]

Dennis,
Thanks for all the info. I think I will be leaning toward keeping the house warm, because I have a basement installation. For me to start a fire from scratch, heat the stove up adequately, receive warmth from the stove, and then get it distributed on my first floor takes quite awhile. A thoroughly warm house will take me longer to achieve than someone with a first floor install. The only dry wood I have right now is cherry and ash. Also, getting the stove higher in temp will result in the stove staying warmer longer, as work becomes an obstacle for tending a fire. Admittedly, I will probably feed the stove much less during the day during these shoulder months.

You're right that people will burn differently, even from stove to stove. I am very curious to see what other intricacies people have with their stoves.

 

[Highbeam]

Once the wood burns down to nice coals then I would expect there to be very little smoke emissions which are what the cat feeds on. No smoke = no glowing cat.

 

[Todd]

This is how I reach max temps on my stove. Full reload of good dry hardwood on a good bed of coals, run with the damper open for 10-15 minutes, close damper to engage the cat with the air setting at about #1, then after a few minutes turn it down further to that sweet spot. I have found that just about every time I engage with a full load the cat will glow within a few seconds til the flame settles down to a flicker or ghostly bursts. The glow just means it has reached a temp over 1000 degrees, it doesn't have to glow to be working. Maybe #1 is a little too high and doesn't slow the smoke enough for the cat to burn it and your losing some heat up the chimney? These stove can be really sensitive as far a air settings go.