New woodstove owner needs advice

[Poindexter]

If your wood sounds like bowling pins at the far end of the alley, your wood is probably dry.

On my different make catalytic stove, black glass is part and parcel with low BTU output/ long burn times. When it gets colder and I run the stove hotter, the glass cleans up. Thing is, if the catalytic combustor is in the active zone, your chimeny should be pretty clean because it is on the exit side of the combustor.

You may brush out your chimney every cord until you are convinced, then every two cords, I am up to every 4-6 cords burnt between sweepings now, but it took a bit for me to trust the technology.

 

[John B]

One other thing I wanted to mention. The cat temp probe (on the side of the stove) may not be accurate, it may actually read higher than it should. I just recently purchased a Woodstock Ideal Steel that has a similar probe, and it simply isn't accurate. It seems Woodstock used to provide Condar brand probes which are accurate, but this new one they are using, in my experience (having tried two of them) is that they read too high. I actually called and complained, and they sent me a new one, which also reads too high.

I had an unused Condar probe which I swapped for the factory one on the Ideal and then got much more accurate readings. I know this because if I take an IR reading just around the probe on the face of the stove, with the Condar the IR reading is 1/2 the probe reading (which is correct) versus the factory provided guage which can read 300-400 degrees hotter at the same time.

That being said, its possible yours is accurate. I know the Ideal and Absolute use different length probes, so it could just be an issue with the ones for Ideal, it could even be a bad run of them as well. But either way just something to keep in mind.

 

[Amanita Cottage]

We can only go by what has been shown to us. 700º on the black and silver catalyst thermometer (inside) is not the same as 700º on the Imperial stovetop thermometer. As the instructions note, the cat thermometer can read 1400º. It's the stovetop Imperial thermometer that should not go higher than 700º. My comment is on these reported temps which show a moderately warm stove, but certainly not hot.

View attachment 287657

This is a pic of where I normally burn for low and slow 14 hour burns. When it’s 700 it is 700 on the left outer dial and close to 1200-1400 on the right internal dial.

 

[Amanita Cottage]

Burned several times well into the overdose ran e and glass would not clean. Ended up using ash and water on a rag to clean the the interior and it’s sparkling. Now if I have a hot fire- nonissues- but if I do low and slow overnight burns I am back to square one and have to use ash to clean. I am heating up the stove to the point it’s singing and the metal glows inside- not sure going hotter is good for the stove or will help.

 

[wjohn]

What parts were glowing?

I don't think having to clean with ash to get clear glass is uncommon for many stoves. My stove is non-cat but I pretty well have to clean it every fire or two if I really want to impress guests or something. Otherwise I just leave it alone and maybe wipe it with ash once a week. I get some black buildup towards the rear of my stove but I haven't really worried about it.

700 on the Imperial stovetop thermometer is getting up there, but those things are also not consistently accurate. I have a similar one, but different brand, and it reads about 100 degrees too low. Most complaints I've seen is that they read too high. I got a cheap IR thermometer that seems to be much more useful.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

When you dial it back alot, dark glass should be expected. One of the keys to clearing up the glass in the morning is to put a split near the glass to burn it off. If you have a lot of wood in the stove and most of it is back off of the glass your just cooking the stove and defeating the purpose. You 2ill get darkened glass when the wood has not off gassed. You can get the stove to almost the coaling stage and turn the air all the way back and your glass will stay clean