This Stove is Amazing Me

[valuman]

I reloaded the stove at about 11:00 tonight and after gradually closing the damper down to one I now have a stove top temp of 600 degrees with no flames in the firebox. The Cat is dancing and glowing cherry red and the water in the cast iron teapot on top is boiling. And there's no flame. Did I mention that part? Holy crap!

It's 3 degrees outside, the house is warm, the boiler's not running and I'm a happy camper.

 

[Simonkenton]

A beautiful thing. A warm house on a 3 degree night. Sounds like a great stove.

 

[weatherguy]

Im loving my Woodstock too, Im running mine a bit over 600 and its 8 degrees out, house is between 70-80 depending.

 

[prezes13]

My lopi was able to keep my house 74-76 and it was 20 during the day and kissed 4 at night. All that on three loads. But I have to admit a lot of flames.

 

[Kevin Dolan]

I reloaded the stove at about 11:00 tonight and after gradually closing the damper down to one I now have a stove top temp of 600 degrees with no flames in the firebox. The Cat is dancing and glowing cherry red and the water in the cast iron teapot on top is boiling. And there's no flame. Did I mention that part? Holy crap!

It's 3 degrees outside, the house is warm, the boiler's not running and I'm a happy camper.

You guys with your cat stoves make me feel a little jealous with the long burn times. Glad your stove is keeping you cosy.

 

[terry205]

Got my new LOPI in yesterday hope i have the same results.

 

[toddnic]

Woodstock does an awesome job! Just make sure you have dry wood. The stove can handle wood that is somewhat moist but it really is awesome with the dry stuff. Enjoy!

 

[valuman]

Woodstock does an awesome job! Just make sure you have dry wood. The stove can handle wood that is somewhat moist but it really is awesome with the dry stuff. Enjoy!

Yea, I'm looking forward to next year, assuming I have wood left over from the five chords I bought last May. I took a shot in the dark and guessed I'd burn 2.5- 3 chords this winter, leaving me 2- 2.5 for next winter. For now, I bring in a cart load of wood for the next day and stand it by the stove to do some power drying and it's burning pretty well. That said, 600 degrees is about as hot as I've had the stove top so far. All in all I'm really satisfied with the way this wood burning thing is going so far.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

All he flame is in the cat.

 

[thedriver]

those stoves sound awesome !! what size fire box & what kind of burn times of usable heat are you all getting ??

 

[Tenn Dave]

My lopi was able to keep my house 74-76 and it was 20 during the day and kissed 4 at night. All that on three loads. But I have to admit a lot of flames.

But, flames are sure nice to look at.....

 

[Tenn Dave]

Woodstocks and dry wood - perfect together

 

[TheRambler]

Valuman, what size house a you heating with your fireview? Glad to hear its treating you well

 

[valuman]

those stoves sound awesome !! what size fire box & what kind of burn times of usable heat are you all getting ??

The firebox is about 2.2 cft and the stove will make heat for over twelve hours on a load with the stove top dropping to 250 or so at the end. If I'm home I load it more often, especially in the temps we've been getting for the past week. Eight hours of heat with a 325- 350 stove top temp at the end of the burn and a long period between 400 & 600 degrees is what I'm seeing. Keep in mind that I'm really new to running this stove so my experience might not be typical, I don't know.

 

[valuman]

Valuman, what size house a you heating with your fireview? Glad to hear its treating you well

I'm only heating the downstairs and that's about 1,000 sft. The house is old and I have much more work to do in upgrading the efficiency of the envelope. Although I have the upstairs closed off, I'm losing a ton of heat through the ceiling to the upstairs and the basement is at about 48 degrees with no barrier between there and the main floor but the floor itself. Next year the basement walls and sills will get 3" of closed cell sprayed on them and the upstairs is slated for gutting within the next 2- 3 years, at which time it will be completely spray foamed. At least that's my plan.

 

[begreen]

Woodstock makes good stoves. If they put an attractive cast iron jacket on the Ideal Steel I'd consider getting one

 

[Swedishchef]

I am hoping to move in the next year. And the place I am thinking of moving to has pretty high electricity rates. All that to say I would likely install a stove wherever I live. I am considering pellets and wood stoves but seeing/reading a thread like this makes me want to put in a CAT stove. Agh!

AKA I am jealous.

Andrew

 

[thedriver]

The firebox is about 2.2 cft and the stove will make heat for over twelve hours on a load with the stove top dropping to 250 or so at the end. If I'm home I load it more often, especially in the temps we've been getting for the past week. Eight hours of heat with a 325- 350 stove top temp at the end of the burn and a long period between 400 & 600 degrees is what I'm seeing. Keep in mind that I'm really new to running this stove so my experience might not be typical, I don't know.

Thank you for the info. that's much more than a non cat stove . enjoy

 

[Rossco]

Good for you guys.

Iam a little smug at the moment as well.

 

[Woody Stover]

stove will make heat for over twelve hours on a load with the stove top dropping to 250 or so at the end. If I'm home I load it more often, especially in the temps we've been getting for the past week. Eight hours of heat with a 325- 350 stove top temp at the end of the burn and a long period between 400 & 600 degrees is what I'm seeing. Keep in mind that I'm really new to running this stove so my experience might not be typical

That sounds about right. Yessir, the Fireview is a good rig, and tosses a bunch of bone-warming radiant heat.

 

[fire_man]

I liked my Woodstock so much, I added a second one at the other end of the house.

I'm running the Progress as the main stove, and supplement with the Palladian when it gets real cold (<20F). Now the house is a nice even 70F on the entire first floor (2250 sq ft 1st+2nd floor).

 

[valuman]

I think I'm going to use this thread to chronicle my experiences and learning curve through my first winter living with a stove since we ran a big Glacier Bay in a rental house, way back in 1989- 1991. As a side note, my wife has been pushing me to get a woodstove in the house ever since then.

I've been working from home this week due to a nasty cold and that's given me the opportunity to really run the stove and learn more about how best to keep the house warm with it. Yesterday the high was about 14 degrees F and after I strategically placed a fan to draw air out of the cool room that has lots of windows and unconditioned space underneath, I was able to keep 66- 67 degrees in the windowsill that's furthest from the stove, and 68- 70 degrees in the kitchen that's around the corner from the stove in the opposite direction. Even after reading a lot about folks using fans on this BB, I was pleasantly surprised at just how much of a difference it made in evening out the heat in the house. Wow!

This morning it was -11 F and the windowsill thermometer was reading 62 degrees when I awoke at 6:30. I had loaded the stove at 11:30 last night and and at 7:30 the top reading was 330 degrees. Up until now I've had a bed of large coals in this scenario, but this morning the front section of the firebox was burned clean and the only large coals were from the big chunk of red oak that I'd placed against the back wall of the fire box at the bottom last night's load. I'm guessing this difference in burn is attributable to the increased draft created by the cold outside temps, but I know there are other variables as well. Anyway, I broke that coaled oak up a bit and spread it out before reloading with five splits of mixed hardwood types.

I'm getting the hang of getting a fresh load of wood started to the point of engaging the Cat and gradually decreasing the draft to optimize the burn. It takes about 20 minutes when there are large coals to put the new load on top of. At that point I've got the damper at just under 1 on the scale and this morning, the stove has settled in at 520 on top with an external flue temp of 225 degrees. The cold windowsill is at 65 degrees now with an outside temp of -1.

Where I'm sitting affords a view of the chimney of my neighbor's house across the road. It's a second home and no one's there now, yet their boiler has been running non stop all morning. Is it bad Karma to gloat about that?