New Woodstock Keystone install

[Woody Stover]

The data you show indicates how informative that cat probe could be if, for no other reason, just to indicate a stalled out cat. It beats going outdoors to look at the chimney exhaust. Yeah, I'm anal - I want a clean chimney/burn and don't want to pollute if I don't have to. I'll probably install that probe in the spring when I am done burning. I don't feel like crawling behind the stove and uninstalling the heat shield to get the cat probe in before then.

For sure. I've seen begreen say that the thermocouple "will change the way you run the stove," and I agree. As you may have seen me say in my 'hearth brutha' thread, I now have instant feedback on what the cat is doing. As long as it's above 500, I know it's doing its job. I just make air adjustments as needed in order to keep it above 500 as much as possible--no need to guess what the cat might be doing, glowing or not, or to go outside to look at the plume.
You have more good burning weather left than I do, and installing the Auber is easy to do (maybe slightly easier for me since the back of the stove is flush with the fireplace opening.) But why not go ahead and do it now? Just think of all the additional nerdy fun you'll have yet this year! 😏👍

 

[DBoon]

I did venture behind the stove and into the alcove, and what I realized (correct me if I am wrong) is that there is no location to insert the cat probe if the stove is connected for rear-exhaust. Is that the case? Woody Stover - is your stove top exhausted?

 

[Woody Stover]

Stove is rear-vented into the masonry fireplace, into a tee, then liner on up.
The hole on mine is about even with the center line of the rear flue exit, in the back of the air lever/bypass lever housing right below where it goes from sloping to vertical, about an inch out from the edge of the flue collar.

 

[Woody Stover]

I know that one of your priorities is to burn as cleanly as possible at all stages of the burn. I've found that on startup, if you have some flame right around the bypass exit, then go out and look at the stack, that flame appears to be eating a lot of the smoke as you are burning in the new load. 👍 I'm leery of having too big a flame hitting the bypass frame, but moderate flame still works well to clean up the burn-in.
So how's it been going with the new stove? Any noteworthy things you've come across?

 

[DBoon]

The hole on mine is about even with the center line of the rear flue exit, in the back of the air lever/bypass lever housing right below where it goes from sloping to vertical, about an inch out from the edge of the flue collar.

Very interesting - no hole there for me (unless I am just blind to it, or maybe it is just hidden too well under the rear heat shield. I'll have to call Woodstock one of these days and ask them where to find it.

I know that one of your priorities is to burn as cleanly as possible at all stages of the burn. I've found that on startup, if you have some flame right around the bypass exit, then go out and look at the stack, that flame appears to be eating a lot of the smoke as you are burning in the new load. 👍 I'm leery of having too big a flame hitting the bypass frame, but moderate flame still works well to clean up the burn-in.
So how's it been going with the new stove? Any noteworthy things you've come across?

Hey Woody Stover, thans for all the advice and encouragement this winter. I definitely got better with the startups as the winter ended. I think I had a patch of not as dry as desired wood, which caused some problems with incomplete cat combustion. I got better with burning the stove with some smaller chunks of wood just by shutting the stove down earlier. I did find that loading on a bigger coal bed at about 300 degrees stovetop allowed me to have a better, faster, cleaner controlled shutdown, and that once I had a little more flame I could be really aggressive about shutting it down fast and hard (which is what I think you described above).

I love the stove. I've started cutting some new rounds to 17" long just to give me a little extra wood in the firebox (a big side trunk from a neighbors sugar maple tore off and landed in my yard during a windstorm - 1-1/2 cords of free wood for me!) and a little more heat for the really cold days. I think the stove runs really well on one really big split, a couple of medium ones, and two or three smaller ones - it has what it needs to start well and burn clean, and then burns for a long time. It is sweet watching that stove top temp bump back up from a 450 stovetop (and falling) back to over 500 for another 40 minutes when that big hickory split starts its final burn sequence.

I like the ash pan - bought the spare and so I just swap it out. That, and the side opening, minimize (but don't eliminate) ash dust in the house quite a bit.

I also learned not to shut the pipe damper so much - just keep it at 60 degrees or maybe a little more. I had it completely shut (not the best idea, in retrospect) and that caused some particulate leakage into the house. I bought a little HEPA filter and located it in the alcove behind the stove - helped but did not eliminate the problem. Then the "duh" moment - just don't close the damper as much. Still runs fine (not overly hot) with the damper more open. The cat seems to slow the draft down pretty well as well - with my old tube stove that burn was off to the races full nuclear with the damper fully closed. I think I have a pretty good balance now.

I'm still mystified why the wood floor gets so hot in front of the stove despite my meeting all the clearance requirements, but I solved the problem with a 12" strip of aluminum foil in front of the stove the width of the stove. It looks terrible but it works really well - floor completely cool underneath the foil. If I had the room I would move the stove another 2" back, but I don't have the room and still be able to open the side door or get the ash pan out.

Would definitely recommend the stove. Looks very nice, burns very cleanly, and very economical on wood. It's a great size for my house - not too big that it overheats me, but augments my radiant floor heating system quite nicely when I load it twice per day.