More Fireveiw questions

[Rowski]

What works for best timing the tour at Woodstock? Morning, afternoon, by appointment. Any particular day of the week? What the name of the place for lunch that's really good?


Will the Fireview work on a interior masonry brick, 8" round clay liner new this past fall? has an 8" thimble.


Does the surface temp of a cast iron stove say at 450* feel the same as soapstone at 450*?


What is the lowest continuous soapstone temp (surface) while the cat is still burning? I'm talking after the wood is chard and the converter has been running to get it to temp.

What is the hottest comfortable surface temp and how long can it be held, full load with good wood?

Thanks

Derek

 

[Todd]

What works for best timing the tour at Woodstock? Morning, afternoon, by appointment. Any particular day of the week? What the name of the place for lunch that's really good?I would call them and ask, maybe they can set up a personal tour?

Will the Fireview work on a interior masonry brick, 8" round clay liner new this past fall? has an 8" thimble.The manual states an 8" chimney will work on all their stoves. Since yours is interior it should work fine.

Does the surface temp of a cast iron stove say at 450* feel the same as soapstone at 450*?No, it's a more gentle even heat, not the searing blast of steel or cast.

What is the lowest continuous soapstone temp (surface) while the cat is still burning? I'm talking after the wood is chard and the converter has been running to get it to temp.Depends on what kind of wood and how much you stick in there. Softer woods won't give as many btu's as hardwoods. If you want a slow shoulder season burn say around 300-400, fill the fire box half full, for a hot burn of 500-600 fill it up.

What is the hottest comfortable surface temp and how long can it be held, full load with good wood?Full load of Oak can reach up to 700 degrees if you want, I like to keep it in the 500-600 range and it can hold there for 3 hours before dropping off slowly.
Thanks

Derek

 

[Backwoods Savage]

What works for best timing the tour at Woodstock? Morning, afternoon, by appointment. Any particular day of the week? What the name of the place for lunch that's really good?

Will the Fireview work on a interior masonry brick, 8" round clay liner new this past fall? has an 8" thimble.

Does the surface temp of a cast iron stove say at 450* feel the same as soapstone at 450*?

What is the lowest continuous soapstone temp (surface) while the cat is still burning? I'm talking after the wood is chard and the converter has been running to get it to temp.

What is the hottest comfortable surface temp and how long can it be held, full load with good wood?

Thanks

Derek

Derek, Todd gave some excellent answers. I will just add that on your question of the lowest temp while the cat is still burning, the cat will glow bright red for a long time. Still, once the smoke is gone, the cat will not glow. That does not mean that it is not working though! It just means the smoke part is gone.

Once you engage the cat you just leave it until the next time you fill the stove. Nothing to worry about there.

We've had our stove over 650 degrees but only once or twice. 700 is considered too hot for this stove and I certainly do not want to try to get it there. In mid-winter when we need the most heat, after engaging the cat the temperature will go up over 600 but I really can not say for how long. That is because when we fill the stove that full, we simply go to bed! However, there has been a couple of times during the day when we had it up there but did not time it so I have no idea how long. I can say it kept us warm all day long without adding more wood.

It will take a little time to find the best methods for your stove. We've burned wood for a few years but we still had to learn the best way to operate this stove....which proved to be quite simple indeed. One of the hardest parts was the coaling. We built up so many coals there wasn't enough room for much wood. Although at the time we couldn't seem to get any answers, we found that when the wood was all red but not yet broken into just coals, we open the draft to half way. When down to just coals we open full and wait for a bit to add wood.

Setting the draft is another thing. It depends upon your draft and your wood as to where to set the draft. We've found we can set the draft to .25-.5 almost every time after the cat is engaged. That will still get the stove top temperature up to 600 or more and will give a long burn.

Good luck with your trip to Woodstock. Have fun while there and ask lots of questions. When you buy, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Rowski]

Thanks

A few more questions.

Is it possible to get a 250* (relatively consistant) surface temp with cat burning for say 6 hrs?

How deep is the bottom of the firebox to the bottom of the loading door?

What is the average "big" sized wood you prefer to use?


Derek

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Your stove will stay above 250 degrees for much longer than 6 hours! Even in spring and fall we can keep the stove above 250 using very little wood and that does not mean filling the firebox. This time of the year we rarely put in more than 3 pieces of wood. It is when we like to burn what I call our junk wood; that is, knotty stuff, odd shaped pieces; small chunks, etc.

Not sure how deep below the loading door and I'd answer that now except we have a fire going. I'm guessing 2-3" but that is only a guess.

Big sizes for us now are only around 5" max. We've also found if we put in a 4-5" round in the rear bottom, a fast burner, like soft maple in the front bottom and then fill with hard wood, that is how we get the best burn. The fast burner helps to get the fire going good, the hard wood will hold the heat and that round will keep the stove above that 250 mark late in the burn, so that is what we do for overnight burns.

Hope this helps Derek.

btw, occasionally you'll see an ad at the top of the page (there is one right now) that advertises an ash caddy. Woodstock also sells that very same one. We've found that is a perfect fit for the Fireview. You can sit that ash caddy right up to the stove and slide the ashes into it as it exactly matches the height of the fire door. Just a hint there. No charge. lol

 

[Chief Ryan]

Make an appointment with Mike H or Lorin D. Afternoon is fine. Be prepared to spent a lot of time. Go to the 7 Barrel brewery. The answers to all of the technical questions can be answered by the PDF downloads at the Woodstock site.

 

[Rowski]

Your stove will stay above 250 degrees for much longer than 6 hours! Even in spring and fall we can keep the stove above 250 using very little wood and that does not mean filling the firebox. This time of the year we rarely put in more than 3 pieces of wood. It is when we like to burn what I call our junk wood; that is, knotty stuff, odd shaped pieces; small chunks, etc.

Not sure how deep below the loading door and I'd answer that now except we have a fire going. I'm guessing 2-3" but that is only a guess.

Big sizes for us now are only around 5" max. We've also found if we put in a 4-5" round in the rear bottom, a fast burner, like soft maple in the front bottom and then fill with hard wood, that is how we get the best burn. The fast burner helps to get the fire going good, the hard wood will hold the heat and that round will keep the stove above that 250 mark late in the burn, so that is what we do for overnight burns.

Hope this helps Derek.

btw, occasionally you'll see an ad at the top of the page (there is one right now) that advertises an ash caddy. Woodstock also sells that very same one. We've found that is a perfect fit for the Fireview. You can sit that ash caddy right up to the stove and slide the ashes into it as it exactly matches the height of the fire door. Just a hint there. No charge. lol

Thanks Dennis.

I didn't phrase the question right. I'll give it another shot. Is it possible to keep a consistent 250* (not any higher) for 6hrs on a single load or partial load?

Derek

 

[rickw]

Not sure where you're going with this, but I would say no - temps tend to spike a bit as the cat lights off. I would say you generally have at least a couple of hours at 350+ or 400+. Once some of the volatiles have come off then a long burn near or below 300 is possible. You're not getting a hell of a lot of heat at 250, maybe that's what you want for spring? It's not a thermostatically controlled stove.

The evenness of heat output is still way better than most non-cat stoves.

 

[Todd]

You won't be able to keep the stove top at a consistent 250. The cat lies right under the top lid and once lit off at the required 250 it will raise the temp because the cat is going to get hotter. You can however control the amount of heat the stove produces by turning the air setting down. There are times when my stove top temp can be over 600, the cat is bright red, the fire is smouldering with little redness in the coals, and the stove isn't pouring out tons of heat, while other times the stove top could be 500 with a good deal of flame and red hot coals and the stove is producing gobs of heat. What I'm trying to say is, you can't just rely on the stove top temp as your tool for heat output with this stove.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Derek, I'm guessing that you want periods with the stove giving some heat but not a lot. For a constant 250 degrees for 6 hours, I say no.

We have had times when we've kept the stove around the 300-350 mark for long periods simply by putting in junk wood and leaving the draft barely open. If you wanted to keep the stove closer to the 250 mark, you could conceivably do that simply by not engaging the cat. However, you would lose quite a bit of your heat up the chimney; but, it could be done.

But, and this is the big but, I doubt you could do it for 6 hours. For a fire to burn 6 hours it needs quite a bit of fuel. And the bet way to get the longest burn from that fuel would be to engage the cat. Once you do this, the temperature will go up.

On the whole though, you will find that even warmer temperatures with this stove is not uncomfortable. The heat from this stove will feel much different from an all steel or cast stove. You've probably heard the term "soft heat." I scoffed at this idea at first but now I have the stove I see exactly what they mean. We can have our stove cooking at 500-600 degrees and stand right next to it and not be uncomfortable. You will find it is a radiant heat which warms the objects in the room more than it warms the air, or at least this is how it seems to us.

So, for a 6 hour burn, I'd guess that you should put in 4 small or medium splits of hardwood, but it will take some experimentation.

 

[Highbeam]

I get what you're asking rowski. You want low and slow. That is the benefit of a cat stove IMO, the ability to load a pretty large stove pretty full and set the air control for high burn times and low output. Why else get a cat stove? That said, the fireview stove top temps are much higher than the rest of the stove since the cat is the source of heat on a low burn and it sits right under the stove top. When these owners measure 400 on the stove top I would not expect that stove to be putting out as much heat as a 400 degree non-cat stove that actually has a hot firebox full of fire. Maybe that's what Todd was getting at above.

A 250 degree stove is hardly making any heat. You can nearly hold your hand on that. Given the construction of the fireview I would propose that a 400 degree fireview stove top temp is going to be equivalent to the 300 degree cast iron VC that you're used to and desire.

You asked about split size. The fireview takes a 16" max log length. Many of the VC stoves take very long wood so your stack out back may be too long.

 

[Rowski]

Yes... Thank you... Slow and low... that's what I mean.

That's another answer I was looking for. 400* temp on a cast iron vs soapstone is different. My cast iron when it cranking out heat is like firing and arch on a sugaring rig. I've been told by 400* is 400*. Like a pound of feathers vs pound of bricks.

My stack outback has been long once already. Had to trim some of it down during the winter. I've got about 1/3 of a cord left. That leads me to this winter and having (getting) dry enough wood.


Thanks all!


Derek