On warm weekends I do as you describe Osage. Week day mornings are too hectic to worry about relighting a fire at 7am.
Burning over night
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I hope you'll report on your progress and conclusions. We have an older Waterford Stanley cookstove, too. I removed the cook top and cemented it back in place, so the stove is pretty tight. There is an factory-built "leak" in the left front corner of the firebox I now wish I had plugged when I had it apart -- but it's too late, now.
The "leak" notwithstanding, I am able to load it at night and awaken to a nice bed of coals in the morning. Of course, the flue damper and the draft in the ash drawer door are closed. I also close the oven damper, which seems to help. Usually, I can throw a few sticks into the firebox and it takes right off. Occasionally (probably due to inadequate filling before bedtime), there are only a few small coals and getting the fire going is more trouble.
I hope the trucking and setup go well and the stove is an improvement for you. Let us know.
Brett
Nice to have another Waterford Stanley user on site. After researching cook stoves now on the market it is even more clear that the very user friendly Waterford is a great overall design. When loading for the night do you load at all from the top? How does that go for you?
The seller will be building a cradle to move it and has a machine to load it on my truck. Local stove dealers are far too busy to pay to move it into the house. I should be able to get some local help but will try to get a mover first. Having minor surgery this week is delaying things. Will post on the stove.
I agree. We replaced a Kitchen Queen 380 with the Stanley. The Queen is far superior as a heating stove, but does not hold a candle to the Stanley for cooking. Further, as you point out and in my opinion, the overall design of the Stanley is great -- much better than the Kitchen Queen.
Yes, I load from the top all the time, except when I am adding sticks to the coal bed. I find the front door is too low to be effective for filling the firebox. How does it go? I'm learning. 🙂 This is our first season using the Stanley. I have had to learn not to try to put in more wood (from the top) too soon after a previous load. With the flue damper open, sometimes it works alright, but too often it smokes even then. So I try to be ready to fill it all at once. Again, I'm learning!
It sounds like you found a very helpful seller. That is surprising, since this is a seller's market. Waterfords are hard to find these days. Removing these stoves from their previous home and loading them onto a truck or trailer appears almost always a challenge. My seller had a fork lift, which made the job possible. But I had to travel 400 miles one way to pick the stove up. Here at home, my loader tractor was an essential tool.
I wish you the best inserting your new stove into (and removing the old one from) your house. Also, I hope your surgery goes well. Been there, done that. It usually goes fine.
I will look forward to hearing more about your Waterford swap.
j7art2
Minister of Fire
I always do the opposite of this I guess....
Normally I'll try and have a smaller or softwood fire around 6-7 to start ramping up the heat and dumping it quickly into the house for the evening. Normally we keep the house/main room at 70-73, but before bed, I'll ramp it up to at least 76 (overshooting is fine) then I put in a load of rounds (size dependant of course depending on how cold it is) and "simmer them" low and slow to idle my heat to get me to morning. If I go to bed at 10:30pm, by 5:15am when I wake up, I've still got coals for my next fire. On a warmer day like last night, the house was 70 when I woke up. When it's -30 out, I'll be lucky if we're not using propane when I wake up.
Is it needed? Probably not. I don't mind waking up to a 60-65 degree house, or even a 58 degree house for that matter. My wife on the other hand is frigid under 65, and that's when our propane furnace is set to kick on regardless of how many times I change it. I'm not home enough apparently to be allowed to control the thermostat.
Normally I'll try and have a smaller or softwood fire around 6-7 to start ramping up the heat and dumping it quickly into the house for the evening. Normally we keep the house/main room at 70-73, but before bed, I'll ramp it up to at least 76 (overshooting is fine) then I put in a load of rounds (size dependant of course depending on how cold it is) and "simmer them" low and slow to idle my heat to get me to morning. If I go to bed at 10:30pm, by 5:15am when I wake up, I've still got coals for my next fire. On a warmer day like last night, the house was 70 when I woke up. When it's -30 out, I'll be lucky if we're not using propane when I wake up.
Is it needed? Probably not. I don't mind waking up to a 60-65 degree house, or even a 58 degree house for that matter. My wife on the other hand is frigid under 65, and that's when our propane furnace is set to kick on regardless of how many times I change it. I'm not home enough apparently to be allowed to control the thermostat.
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Ive downsized to a Ranch home. The stove is 56 feet from the last bedroom. Dead of winter theres no way
I let this stove go out. Its not roaring when I leave it, but it does maintain 70s at that end of house and 60s in bedrooms.
I like a few coals to fire up in the early am.
I let this stove go out. Its not roaring when I leave it, but it does maintain 70s at that end of house and 60s in bedrooms.
I like a few coals to fire up in the early am.
No.
I can (and have) wake up to a half full firebox of fuel with whispy flames going. That's quite more than "hot coals".
Of course that is not in mid winter when I need more heat and I can only run 10 hrs or so.
I can (and have) wake up to a half full firebox of fuel with whispy flames going. That's quite more than "hot coals".
Of course that is not in mid winter when I need more heat and I can only run 10 hrs or so.
My bad, we are having winter weather so that is what I am talking about. I don't run a stove in mild weather.
You are saying you can burn overnight with visible flames the whole time? I know I can't either the princess I am using. If I go to bed with it set to be running with active flames there will be pretty much glowing charcoal in the morning. Maybe an occasional wispy flame but far from what I would call active flames
I can't say it's the whole while - I'm sleeping after all.
But I can have a (7 hr) "(sleeping) break", and come down with a large pile of stuff in there, with whispy flames coming out one or two canyons in there. That is *not* running the lowest I can - then there is no flame (and far longer burns, or better, smolders). This is running around 4 pm on my swoosh (with the max being at 6 pm). The load lasts 12-16 hrs or so (though "lasts" is a vague notion) after I reload right before going to bed. Then 7 hrs later, yes, there will then be flames. I'm only halfway thru the time to the next reload then.
This was (this year) with 4 year old oak.
But I can have a (7 hr) "(sleeping) break", and come down with a large pile of stuff in there, with whispy flames coming out one or two canyons in there. That is *not* running the lowest I can - then there is no flame (and far longer burns, or better, smolders). This is running around 4 pm on my swoosh (with the max being at 6 pm). The load lasts 12-16 hrs or so (though "lasts" is a vague notion) after I reload right before going to bed. Then 7 hrs later, yes, there will then be flames. I'm only halfway thru the time to the next reload then.
This was (this year) with 4 year old oak.
Yep. Our inside walls a couple layers of some kind of plaster-aggregate board, about an inch total thickness. If I let it get cold, I can only gain about a degree an hour with my smaller stove and all that thermal mass to re-heat.
For me that would be the opposite of how I would burn my stove. It gets colder at nigh which is when I want the stove to heat the house and save on energy costs. Besides we like the house warm when we're sitting around in the evening and then just reload for bedtime. During the day unless it's cold we'll just add a few splits in the morning when we're drinking coffee and having breakfast and then just let it go the rest of the day, cast iron stove and rock hearth hold a lot of heat. Usually there's active coals when we dump the ashes and throw some kindling in and restart the process.
As far as burning all night I can not engage the cat and burn my stove overnight with no problem. Yes it smolders and yes the chimney will build up and need cleaning.
For a few years it was a dead cat so I didn't bother. Now I've replaced it and it's not cooperating. It will take off and over fire, trying to figure it out.
How so, is this measured by the cat temp, the stove top temp, or flue temp?
Was the replacement cat gasketed? If not, it may be bypassing some flue gas.
Another thing to check is whether the bypass door warped due to continuous running with no cat.
If the cat is new it'll be hyperactive;i.e. its temperature may go high, even beyond best practice limits.
That is normal. It'll settle down after a while (face cord burned?)
That is normal. It'll settle down after a while (face cord burned?)
I have a Thermocouple at the cat I can monitor, magnetic thermometer on the stovetop and a magnetic thermometer on the flue adapter. Both thermometers check good with my IR gun. Flue thermometer is on the adapter now because I just changed to DW pipe and I haven't drilled a hole in it yet. No gaskets on factory cat or any replacement. Sits on an edge then refractor panel goes in and the cover gets attached over it all. By bypass door I guess you mean the damper, it's in good shape I removed it and replaced the gasket on it.
It might be as stoveliker suggested. New cats tend to be hyperactive for a week or two of fires, but if not we need to know which stove. Is this a Vermont Castings or Harman stove? What model?
Old VC Encore model 0028 cat is new from Midwest heart manufactured by Applied Cermaics. The one thing not really clear is what the secondary air control does. Mine was closed cold and everyone said it should be open about 1/4 cold. I just installed the new probe with the coil on it and it was open 1/4" cold now and closed when it got hot without the damper closed so I don't know what it does.
Tonight I came in and my wife had the fire going and the stove top at 575 with the primary air cut back. It had been burning for a while and the box was maybe 1/2 full. I engaged the cat and it slowly climbed into the 900's and was OK. We'll see how it goes from here.
Tonight I came in and my wife had the fire going and the stove top at 575 with the primary air cut back. It had been burning for a while and the box was maybe 1/2 full. I engaged the cat and it slowly climbed into the 900's and was OK. We'll see how it goes from here.
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