Got my Woodstock Ideal Steel hooked up and burning

[pdxdave]

Wow - this has been a journey...

Ok for some background - me and my family moved into our house in 2010, at the time I was hugely looking forward to having our own house so we could setup a wood stove. After looking around we really liked the look of the Lopi Declaration, and sprung for this, the whole deal including installation.

I got it up and running, but I had some questionable wood that first year (~6 month), so really didn't get much out of it. The second year, I knew I had good dry wood, tested below 20%, but still I had issues getting good hot fires, and found I had to do frequent reloading and a ton of babysitting. What ensued was a multiple year project trying to get some good performance form the stove - this included all sorts of craziness, block-off plates, modified air controls, modified burn tubes, if you can find it mentioned anywhere on these forums then I tried it - but absolutely nothing seemed to work very well. I finally accepted the fact, this stove would simply never get an overnight burn or be able to effectively heat during cold weather. Again, not to bash the manufacturer, but these particular stoves (their flush inserts) are simply ill-suited for the task of maintaining fires and heating.

So finally, fall of 2014, I pulled the trigger and ordered an Ideal Steel after reading all the reviews. I had some concerns, mainly that I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so we have milder winters, and I also have a 15 foot exterior lined chimney, and going with rear-venting.. on to that later...

After a few anxious months of waiting due to backlog, the stove finally arrived at the shipping warehouse just last Friday. I went out that night and got it loaded in my truck. Saturday was the big day, fortunately I had help, from various people throughout the day for each part of the process. Had a friend help remove my insert and get it into the garage - that was dead easy. Then I spent a few hours hooking up the piping for the rear vent. Next had a few great neighbors help get the IS off the truck and onto the hearth. We had 4 people - anything less and the task would've ranged from dangerous to impossible. We were good though, it was tough but 15 minutes later the crate was landed on the hearth.

Next I unpacked everything for a while, and a bit later had a good friend come over and helped move, position everything in place, then cracked into the beers and made the first fire.

I was NOT dissapointed. With the rear vent, then a 2 foot horizontal run into a T up a 15 foot single wall chimney... there was zero draft issues and this was on a rainy 55 degree evening. The wood fired instantly, and I had the door shut within 5 minutes, and started building heat and had to turn down so it didn't race past 400. That was a 3/4 load of softwood (mixed Douglas Fir, Alder and Cottonwood), and I have gotten 12 hours with easy relights since then (just put in my 4th load Monday morning here). I don't know what else to say - it's amazing, burns long and the stack is transparent. Here's a vid:

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The only downside right now is the paint cure is a bit obnoxious - any idea how long this will last ? I'm on the 4th load, and have peaked at 550 - tough getting it past that, the stove really likes to slow burn, and I like it too. It's still gassing a little now but not as bad as it did on the first startup, where it literally had visible smoke rising off of it.

Here's some pics right from the Declaration (beautiful stove!), to the IS - please I understand the hearth is not the greatest - however it functions fine and mostly meets code. I need to cleanup the surround area as it was previously covered, and sadly when they installed the insert they jack hammered out 3/4ths of the back firebrick to make it fit, so I'm investigating options to clean up that area also, any suggestions ? My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner!!

 

[jatoxico]

Ohh pretty! Glad that it's working out so well.

 

[Tenn Dave]

Wow - this has been a journey...

Ok for some background - me and my family moved into our house in 2010, at the time I was hugely looking forward to having our own house so we could setup a wood stove. After looking around we really liked the look of the Lopi Declaration, and sprung for this, the whole deal including installation.

I got it up and running, but I had some questionable wood that first year (~6 month), so really didn't get much out of it. The second year, I knew I had good dry wood, tested below 20%, but still I had issues getting good hot fires, and found I had to do frequent reloading and a ton of babysitting. What ensued was a multiple year project trying to get some good performance form the stove - this included all sorts of craziness, block-off plates, modified air controls, modified burn tubes, if you can find it mentioned anywhere on these forums then I tried it - but absolutely nothing seemed to work very well. I finally accepted the fact, this stove would simply never get an overnight burn or be able to effectively heat during cold weather. Again, not to bash the manufacturer, but these particular stoves (their flush inserts) are simply ill-suited for the task of maintaining fires and heating.

So finally, fall of 2014, I pulled the trigger and ordered an Ideal Steel after reading all the reviews. I had some concerns, mainly that I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so we have milder winters, and I also have a 15 foot exterior lined chimney, and going with rear-venting.. on to that later...

After a few anxious months of waiting due to backlog, the stove finally arrived at the shipping warehouse just last Friday. I went out that night and got it loaded in my truck. Saturday was the big day, fortunately I had help, from various people throughout the day for each part of the process. Had a friend help remove my insert and get it into the garage - that was dead easy. Then I spent a few hours hooking up the piping for the rear vent. Next had a few great neighbors help get the IS off the truck and onto the hearth. We had 4 people - anything less and the task would've ranged from dangerous to impossible. We were good though, it was tough but 15 minutes later the crate was landed on the hearth.

Next I unpacked everything for a while, and a bit later had a good friend come over and helped move, position everything in place, then cracked into the beers and made the first fire.

I was NOT dissapointed. With the rear vent, then a 2 foot horizontal run into a T up a 15 foot single wall chimney... there was zero draft issues and this was on a rainy 55 degree evening. The wood fired instantly, and I had the door shut within 5 minutes, and started building heat and had to turn down so it didn't race past 400. That was a 3/4 load of softwood (mixed Douglas Fir, Alder and Cottonwood), and I have gotten 12 hours with easy relights since then (just put in my 4th load Monday morning here). I don't know what else to say - it's amazing, burns long and the stack is transparent. Here's a vid:

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The only downside right now is the paint cure is a bit obnoxious - any idea how long this will last ? I'm on the 4th load, and have peaked at 550 - tough getting it past that, the stove really likes to slow burn, and I like it too. It's still gassing a little now but not as bad as it did on the first startup, where it literally had visible smoke rising off of it.

Here's some pics right from the Declaration (beautiful stove!), to the IS - please I understand the hearth is not the greatest - however it functions fine and mostly meets code. I need to cleanup the surround area as it was previously covered, and sadly when they installed the insert they jack hammered out 3/4ths of the back firebrick to make it fit, so I'm investigating options to clean up that area also, any suggestions ? My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner!!

Thanks for sharing your story, video, and pictures. Great looking stove and dog. Enjoy the good life and what's important in it.

 

[Plow Boy]

oh man, you guys are going to have to quit talking up that ideal steel. I am putting in a used stove this week and you've got me contemplating.........

 

[begreen]

Well done, congratulations. The stove looks like it has good DAF too.

 

[pdxdave]

Thanks for sharing your story, video, and pictures. Great looking stove and dog. Enjoy the good life and what's important in it.

Thanks! Ernie loves it. The pic of his head is what I sent to Woodstock and they made up the side plates based on that.

On a side note, I'd like to fully recant my statement that the stove likes to burn slow - that was all me. I decided to try to fully cure the paint once and for all, loaded up the stove and let it go. 600+ in less than 10 minutes. This should take care of it.

 

[Tenn Dave]

Thanks! Ernie loves it. The pic of his head is what I sent to Woodstock and they made up the side plates based on that.

On a side note, I'd like to fully recant my statement that the stove likes to burn slow - that was all me. I decided to try to fully cure the paint once and for all, loaded up the stove and let it go. 600+ in less than 10 minutes. This should take care of it.

Good job.....I'm sure the paint is now cured. You will look at those side plates of your stove in years to come and it will bring a tear to your eye and great memories of a good loyal friend.

 

[Plow Boy]

awesome, enjoy your new stove. I dont think you will have heating problems with this one

 

[pdxdave]

Well done, congratulations. The stove looks like it has good DAF too.

Shoot... I still can't figure it out and have to ask... DAF ??

 

[begreen]

Dog Appeal Factor

 

[pdxdave]

Dog Appeal Factor

Nice !
I figured the D was for Dog, didn't know the rest. I swear.. sometimes his fur gets almost too hot to touch with your bare hand, but he doesn't seem to mind

 

[begreen]

Our cat is the same way. It's 55F outside and still he sits on his rug in front of the stove and meows at me to make a fire.

 

[rideau]

Certainly looks as if the stove has passed the Ernie test. He looks quite content. Beautiful pet. Looks like he has been a faithful, well loved companion for quite a while. Have to admit, Tenn Dave's post brought a tear to my eye. We get incredibly attached to our wonderful, loyal dogs and independent cats.

 

[JA600L]

Very nice! Congrats! My recommendation for your temperature zone is to run it on notch #2. If you don't like the black glass bring it up to 4 or 5. After months of trial and error these appear to be the sweet spots.

Get ready to save some wood usage!

 

[begreen]

Daytime temps in the 55F range predicted for the rest of the month. We are definitely saving on wood out here.

 

[clark77]

Daytime temps in the 55F range predicted for the rest of the month. We are definitely saving on wood out here.

Not so much here in the north east. 55 sounds like tee shirt and shorts weather to me right now!

 

[Jo191145]

Good to hear the IS is treating you and the dog well.
As for your firebricks I'd remove the last few remaining on the back wall and paint the mortar black. That's the easiest way out. Doesn't look like much is seen anyway.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Looks great! Its neat how customizable the IS is

 

[pdxdave]

Very nice! Congrats! My recommendation for your temperature zone is to run it on notch #2. If you don't like the black glass bring it up to 4 or 5. After months of trial and error these appear to be the sweet spots.

Get ready to save some wood usage!

Thanks! I was thinking, we need to develop a protocol for explaining the draft settings on the IS.. since it has major and minor notches. Maybe something like 0.0 (first notch, fully closed), 0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4, 1.0 (first major notch), 1.1 etc... When you say notch 2.. do you mean the 1 notch over from fully closed (the second visible notch, since closed is on the first notch) ? Or 2 notches over ?

OK LOL i will stop over-thinking this. The second night I ran the stove, I just dropped it full closed when it was hot. No stack smoke and only a bit hazy glass the next morning. Not black glass by any means.

 

[pdxdave]

Love this thing, just loaded it with a 1/3 load of softwood. Got up to 300, dropped air to 1/4 and turned on the cat. Clear stack, this should easily be good until bedtime (its noon here now)

 

[Mainely Saws]

Any chance the Ideal Steel would work in a cold climate , 30+ ft interior chimney but only 1000sqft ?

 

[begreen]

It was designed for cold climate use. With a 30ft chimney you will likely need a key (butterfly) damper in the flue pipe. How well insulated is the 1000sq ft.?

 

[Mainely Saws]

Well , I know the IS is really to much stove for the space I want to heat BUT I just spoke with Woodstock & they tell me that they hope to have the smaller version of the IS out by this fall .................

 

[Mainely Saws]

It's an old house Begreen with mostly 2x4 walls, newer windows & an open floor plan . The floors are uninsulated . It's a 3 story house ( up/down duplex) & the stove would be heating just the first floor . I suppose if it got too hot I could open a door into a common hallway ............... I just wouldn't want to have to run the stove at half it's capacity all the time in order to maintain a comfortable temp in the house ........

 

[begreen]

Well, it's overkill, but probably would work as long as the stove is content to run at low idle a lot of the time. If you like it to be 65F most of the time I would consider a smaller stove. If you like it to be 85F, then go for it. Another stove to consider would be the Blaze King Sirocco 20.