I know at least one of the beta testers moved from a Fireview to the Ideal steel. What are your thoughts on the heat output and burn time comparisons between the two stoves? Im starting a new career thats going to keep my away from the house for longer and I'm looking to move into something with a larger firebox. Thanks.
Fireview to Ideal Steel Q's
- Thread starter chance135
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
- Status
Congrats on the new career. How long a burn time do you need? Hybrids have both secondary and cat burns and may not achieve your goal. The best long burn times reports we see here are with Blaze King stoves.
Have you been following Flamesteads reports on the Ideal Steel? That will give you some idea of how long you can expect a normal burn to go.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/beta-testing-woodstocks-ideal-steel-hybrid.119701/
Have you been following Flamesteads reports on the Ideal Steel? That will give you some idea of how long you can expect a normal burn to go.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/beta-testing-woodstocks-ideal-steel-hybrid.119701/
From what I have read, hot burning seems to be in the 8-12 hour range, and low output burns leave plenty of coals after 24 hours. Sounds like a cat-only burn is possible, and it is easy to regulate heat output.
Better make up your mind. Their intro pricing was supposed to end Friday. When I talked to Ron on Thursday, he said that wasn't absolute, and it would be fine if I called this week.
Better make up your mind. Their intro pricing was supposed to end Friday. When I talked to Ron on Thursday, he said that wasn't absolute, and it would be fine if I called this week.
Woodstock rates their stoves for burn times and none of their stoves are anywhere near 24 hours.
Op: do you need a larger stove or just think that's the only way to get more burn time?
I guess what promoted my post was the BTU rating for each stove. The Fireview maxes out a 55,000 btu's but the Idea Steel only puts our 5000 btu's more. My guess is the IS can put out the same # of btu's for a longer period due to the much larger firebox. Highbeam, a 12 -14 hour burn would be great for my schedule. The fireview can hold coals that long but I need to reload every 7-8 hours to keep the heat output where I need it. I'd love to try a blaze king but they don't have any rear exhaust stoves yet which is what I need since my setup feeds into an existing fireplace.
Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Or maybe all the beta testers are fibbing.
Last edited:
That's why I might be inclined go for the IS. Then you have the versatility of secondary burn or cat only depending on the amount of heat vs burn time needed. The IS box is half again as large as the Fv, so even on a cat burn it will crank out heat at a good level for longer since the larger amount of wood will gas for longer. But if your house is tight and well-insulated, and not too big, maybe even a Fv could handle it, even in So. Me.
JA600L
Minister of Fire
The Progress Hybrid might be a good one too as the soapstone should hold the heat much longer. It sounds like the Ideal Steel has great low end control. I talked to Lorin the other day at Woodstock and she told me just the other day she got a 14 hour burn out of it without even trying. I was assured these long burn times are realistic.
The simple formula has been expressed here for years. It's largely a matter of firebox size with a secondary one being that cats do tend to burn longer. So, in theory, both the IS and Progress should be capable of much longer burns with a good bit more heat output than either the fireview or, in fact, most other stoves (most are simply not as large).
As BG says, though, the IS is optimized for efficient burning, not for max. length of burn. Realistically, very few people burn stoves over 10-12 hours on a regular basis. Given hardwood, this should be easy with either of those stoves once you have the variables such as chimney draft, wood length and type, etc. under control.
As BG says, though, the IS is optimized for efficient burning, not for max. length of burn. Realistically, very few people burn stoves over 10-12 hours on a regular basis. Given hardwood, this should be easy with either of those stoves once you have the variables such as chimney draft, wood length and type, etc. under control.
I'm sure she is correct, but at what outdoor temperature? It may be easy when it's 40 outside, but what about when it's zero? I suspect that at hour 12-14 the heat output is going to be significantly less than at hour 1-8. If the house holds the heat well this is not a big deal. If not, then expect a cooler house when you get back home 10-12 hrs later. If that means just 5 degrees cooler, then no big deal, the stove should have things back to temp in an hour or two. If it's 10 degrees or more then it could be a challenge.
Last edited:
JA600L
Minister of Fire
I'm sure at that point it depends how well insulated your house is. To me, just to be able to open the draft and get the fire hot again would be huge compared to a burnt out fire in my Quad. I work 10 hours.
After running two cord through the IS this is exactly how I would describe its operation.
Flamestead
Feeling the Heat
The only Fireview I've met in person is in a very small house, and I've never seen it stretch its legs, so I can't give you a direct comparison.
I had some people contact me directly with requests for shoulder season information, so we took a few notes and photos. We have been reloading the stove mostly full at about 10pm onto coals from a small load we tend to add around 8pm (sun goes down, we feel cool). I have not been trying to really pack the wood in, and it is Red Maple and Ash split at 3-5". Evening room temp around 68-70 degrees. I have been leaving the damper open about half an inch at night - could close it more, but haven't.
In the morning (7am) the firebox has been about 25% full of coals that still bear some resemblance to logs; 70 degrees inside, 35 outside, 300 stovetop. If it were cooler out we would definitely reload then, but we have been gone for the day, so we've been leaving it untouched in the morning. Then 5pm 70 inside, 60 outside, 150 stovetop, and finally 7:30pm 70 inside, 55 outside, 130 stovetop. Restarting is trivial due to the amount of coals still remaining.
This is not the winter routine - we burn about 8 cord per year and expect to add a second stove (and a lot of attic insulation) this year. In the winter I'd call a 400 degree stove nearly gone out.
Our door gasket is not perfect, but adequate (they have modified the design since this early beta version). With a better gasket and some Red Oak or other wood more dense than Red Maple, as well as larger splits, I'm sure you could stretch the usable burn out over more time (warmer stove stove in the morning and the afternoon). We could try the damper shut more, but we like the heat in the evening/night, and really don't care about a higher temp on the long tail-end of the burn this time of year.
After 14 cord through the PH, and 7+ through the Ideal Steel, we are torn which to use as the primary stove next year, but expect it to be the PH back in the kitchen, with an Ideal Steel as the secondary stove.
Thanks for the update Flamestead. Your reports are always informative and helpful. How would you compare cleaning of the cat or cat screen between the two stoves? How often are you doing this?
Flamestead
Feeling the Heat
The Ideal Steel has no screen for the cat, and with our burning conditions needs less cleaning than the PH. (We didn't do a good job of recording this, but both of us feel we cleaned the PH cat more often.) I think the PH cat and screen was needing cleaning at 2 weeks in the heaviest burning periods. We've had times with the PH where it was obvious that we had to cool it down and clean, and we never had it get to that point with the Ideal Steel (I think we were cleaning at 3-week intervals, weather depending).
I should note that we only burned a cord or so in the PH after its rebuild last summer. They increased the size of the PH bypass door, and I didn't get enough steady burning with it to say what difference it makes. I am going to try burning without the PH iconel screen, but am not overly optimistic that there will be an improvement at the cat - I think the PH firebox airflow is more turbulent in general.
I am stuck burning a lot of Red Maple because that is what I'm thinning out of my woods; I've read here that it tends to produce more ash than some other woods, and I'm sure that doesn't help.
I should note that we only burned a cord or so in the PH after its rebuild last summer. They increased the size of the PH bypass door, and I didn't get enough steady burning with it to say what difference it makes. I am going to try burning without the PH iconel screen, but am not overly optimistic that there will be an improvement at the cat - I think the PH firebox airflow is more turbulent in general.
I am stuck burning a lot of Red Maple because that is what I'm thinning out of my woods; I've read here that it tends to produce more ash than some other woods, and I'm sure that doesn't help.
- Status
Similar threads
