Finally got the Fireview installed upstairs.

[huauqui]

I have been carrying wood down the basement stairs heating our house from there for the last 10 years. So about two years ago, we decided to move our unused Fireview upstairs to our living room. Well, things change, plans get delayed, you name it, but it finally happened. We married the last kid off this summer and decided we didn't need to heat the basement anymore, so I finally got around to installing the Fireview upstairs over the last couple of weeks. In the process, I did a minor rebuild on the stove and put in a hearth pad. With the corner install and finally being above grade, I went ahead and installed the rear heatshield and the adapter for an outside air feed. I also replaced the cast iron scoop with the new stainless version (I really like the finer mesh screen on it.) My old ceramic cat was showing its age, so I replaced it with a new metal one from Woodstock. It had its first little fire yesterday late afternoon than last night, we put her to good use. Temps are crashing here over the next couple of days, and I am happy to have this stove working again. I will put some pics of the hearth build, the heatshield, and the installed stove here, then in the next post, I will add some obligatory first fire pics.

 

[huauqui]

Here are some pics of the first fire and my standard settings for running this stove. The picture of the chimney temp is just after I closed the bypass, the temp fell steadily down to about 375-400 afterward. The stove top temp is about 40 minutes into this load and peaked at about 525-550. I really have missed this stove, even though I love the BK Princess that we have been using in the basement.

 

[Woody Stover]

Very nice job, and good color scheme! 👍
Whew, carrying the wood downstairs...I'd have probably ended up putting in a rubber wall and throwing it down. 😆
What did you do in the "minor rebuild" on the stove?
I have both scoops, cast iron and mesh. Sometimes with a ceramic cat, I'll use either scoop. But with the steel cat I keep the mesh in there to catch more dust from plugging the smaller holes.
That flue temp appears a bit high...must have been either toward the beginning of a load, or trying to crank out higher heat. The Fireview definitely has another gear over the Keystone, as far as heat output.

 

[huauqui]

Very nice job, and good color scheme! 👍
Whew, carrying the wood downstairs...I'd have probably ended up putting in a rubber wall and throwing it down. 😆
What did you do in the "minor rebuild" on the stove?
I have both scoops, cast iron and mesh. Sometimes with a ceramic cat, I'll use either scoop. But with the steel cat I keep the mesh in there to catch more dust from plugging the smaller holes.
That flue temp appears a bit high...must have been either toward the beginning of a load, or trying to crank out higher heat. The Fireview definitely has another gear over the Keystone, as far as heat output.

Woody,
Yeah, I have been carrying to the basement for 10-12 years. My knees, back, and fat belly all told me to quit doing that.

The minor rebuild was a new scoop, cat, and door gasket. It was quick because I needed heat for the blizzard that never came, but the cold behind it was awful. When we get out of the deep freeze for a three or four-day period, I will do the rest of the gaskets, including the window gaskets, bypass gasket, cat gasket, both top gaskets, and replace the andirons and window plate that help hold the glass in, and re-chink some of the insides of the firebox if/as needed. The stove is a 1995 vintage, and these are the first things other than a cat, a door gasket, and adjusting the door seal regularly. My cast iron scoop has a slight bow, but I will keep it just in case. The new stainless scoop seems like a good "upgrade." I will see if I like the steel cat more than the ceramics.

The flue temp was unusually high for this stove. It was right at its peak and headed down on a hot reload. This was during our -14 degree cold snap, and I was pushing her a bit. The wood caught fast, and I was a bit slow, bringing the air down. It did come back down quickly after my brain caught up with the stove, and I adjusted the airflow correctly. I have not burned the Fireview for three years, as the Princess in the basement has been my go-to for heating the whole house from there. I am relearning this stove and enjoying how simple it is to use/burn.

We are enjoying having it upstairs, especially the view. It puts out nice even heat and is just such a nice looking piece of furniture during the off-season.

huauqui

 

[Woody Stover]

....and re-chink some of the insides of the firebox if/as needed.....stove is a 1995 vintage....cast iron scoop has a slight bow, but I will keep it just in case....I will see if I like the steel cat more than the ceramics.
....flue temp was unusually high for this stove. It was right at its peak and headed down on a hot reload. This was during our -14 degree cold snap, and I was pushing her a bit.

I think the first year for the 205 was 1996, but your stove could have a 1995 mfg. date..?
I don't have the Fv now, sold to my BIL. And my SIL has a Fv that she bought used. I still have the cast iron scoop and cat housing, and I'm running a ceramic in hers right now with the old cat housing, but with the stainless scoop/screen.
I've also got a ceramic in the Keystone now, but I'd like to try the Woodstock steelie now that they are making them in-house. Not sure I'll be able to tell any difference between it and the older steelies, that I think were made by Clariant.
When you were pushing the Fv for heat, were you running a little flame in the box? That seems to get the sides hotter, cranking out more heat faster. I've experimented some with that, but I need to start going outside more to check the plume to make sure I'm still burning clean. Seems that before, when I've run flame in the box, I've gotten to the point that some unburned smoke was making it through the cat...I guess it didn't have the "residence time" for the cat to catch it all.
WRT the interior cement seams, I did a patch job on my SIL's Fv, working through the load door. That was really hard to do, and probably wasn't a great job, but it helped. In the following thread, I saw that you can pull all the guts out of the top of the Fv, which looks like access would then be good to all the seams.
When I had a vertical/front seam leak in the Ks, I took the window out which allowed better access than the load door would have, but still not as good as the open-box Fv. I don't think the guts could be pulled out of the Ks as easily as the Fv..

Woodstock Soapstone Fireview Refurb and Hearth Build

Hi all! I thought I would share a progress build of refurbing my Woodstock Soapstone Fireview and heath. I bought the Fireview on Craigslist for $260. It was in pretty rough shape but these stoves are pretty hard to destroy and I love the fact that you can order every part for it online. I...

www.hearth.com

 

[huauqui]

Finally had time and a warmer stretch a couple of weeks ago to do the rest of the gaskets and reseal the seams in the firebox. I will attach a couple of pictures that show how it came out. For what it is worth, with the glass removed doing the seams was an easy task (not sure if taking the rest of the guts out would have made it any easier.) We went on a trip to babysit our grandson while his mom and dad were at the hospital bringing our newest grandson into the world so the stove sat for almost 2 weeks after all the work. I replaced the glass retainer and andirons that hold it in place as mine were showing their age. The new glass retainer is not a cast piece it is heavy steel as are the new andirons. We shall see how they hold up. I like the look of the new andirons you can see them in my next post.

 

[huauqui]

Here are a couple of pictures of it running now. I am very happy with the control I have regained over the fire. I must have been leaking more air than I thought through the sides of the stove. You can see the new andirons in these pictures. The stove is behaving wonderfully with the ability to extend burn times and has more control over the burn and to run lower/slower burns too.

 

[Woody Stover]

Good work! 👍 Probably a little better access with the guts pulled out, but looks like you were able to get to the seams well. Shoot, I didn't even have the glass out when I did SIL2's...pretty cramped working through the little load door. 😣
What was wrong with the old andirons? I wouldn't think that they could get damaged..? The new ones do look cool, though!
I generally have the stovetop meters over the cats on the Ks and Fv, about midway front to back along the center rail in the case of the Fv, since that's the hottest area of the top..

 

[Woody Stover]

I loaded and started the cold Fv at SIL2's earlier and man, you can stuff quite a bit of wood in there, compared to my little Ks. 🙂

 

[huauqui]

Good work! 👍 Probably a little better access with the guts pulled out, but looks like you were able to get to the seams well. Shoot, I didn't even have the glass out when I did SIL2's...pretty cramped working through the little load door. 😣

I can't even imagine doing that without the glass out. It would take a contortionist to do that

What was wrong with the old andirons? I wouldn't think that they could get damaged..? The new ones do look cool, though!

I probably could have gotten by not replacing them. The old glass retainer was warped a bit, and it made them tilt toward each other. I wasn't sure if they were actually straight or if they had a bit of a warp. They were almost welded onto the glass retainer. I also like how the new ones look.

I generally have the stovetop meters over the cats on the Ks and Fv, about midway front to back along the center rail in the case of the Fv, since that's the hottest area of the top..

I have been moving it around trying to see if the plate directly above the cat on the lid causes the temp to be slower to rise in the center. So during start-ups, I have been putting it there but during the main burn, it is back where you described. (As a side note, I see a higher max burn temp in the center than towards the back by nearly 100 degrees.)

I loaded and started the cold Fv at SIL2's earlier and man, you can stuff quite a bit of wood in there, compared to my little Ks. 🙂

The little K is such a pretty stove. But yeah, I need the extra BTUs in my situation.

 

[vap0rtranz]

Late reply after seeing your link to this rebuild @huauqui . Thanks for sharing your process. I've done the same rebuild steps as you except the front glass. How easy was it to do remove the glass and redo?

I wanted to ask ...

It did come back down quickly after my brain caught up with the stove, and I adjusted the airflow correctly.

Did you add an in-line stovepipe damper? I have one but haven't added it yet. My Fireview only got hot once, not overheated but close to redline, and I think the outside was just the right situation where I couldn't fully control the burn just with primary air. I have a tall chimney (2 story house, steep roof near 12 pitch, chimney exits at peak, and the top is a good 12' above the peak, and stove is on the 1st floor).

I have been putting it there but during the main burn, it is back where you described.

Nice to hear others have been moving their thermostats around, because I thought I wasn't doing something right! I've noticed that the top on the left side (facing the glass) above the cat heats up fastest, so I'd started to keep my thermostat there.

Still, I've wondered if the standard surface thermostats don't really tell what's going on in the cat because they're measuring soapstone for our stoves -- not the usual heat from cast iron or steel that rapidly heats up after the cat ... I did get my thermostat from Woodstock, if that matters.

 

[begreen]

It's great to breathe new life into these stoves. I just noticed that Woodstock is sold out of Fireviews for 2023.