Wood Stove Review of the Ideal Steel Hybrid Catalytic Wood Stove by Woodstock Soapstone Co Part 1
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- This is my honest, unpaid review of the Ideal Steel Hybrid Model 210 Wood Stove by Woodstock Soapstone Company. This wood burning stove is a hybrid burn stove, using both secondary burn tubes and a catalytic combustor. The stove's also made of thick steel and soapstone.
My follow up review of this wood stove, which shows it's first burn, as well as burns over the following few weeks, and my opinion of this stove after owning it for ten months, watch here: • Wood Stove Review of t...
I'd always had a Sears cast iron wood stove that never gave me any problem. But it's not EPA certified, requires reloading every 3 hours with pine or every six hours with pecan. Getting tired of that, I researched wood burning stoves, read scores of customer reviews of their stoves and of customer service when something goes wrong. I also looked into wood stove manufacturers' current quality of workmanship. I chose the Ideal Steel Hybrid Wood Stove from Woodstock Soapstone Company.
Switching to a steel and soapstone wood stove, when I like cast iron, took me out of my comfort zone. But of the many wood stoves I investigated, this wood stove got consistently good reviews, was the grand prize winner in an international wood burning stove contest for stove makers to design a highly efficient, very low polluting, user friendly wood stove. Unlike many other wood burning stoves that advertise long burn times which owners complain are greatly exaggerated, this hybrid burn wood stoves' advertised burn times are real world burn times, according to the stove owners.
In addition, I found no complaints anywhere about this stove manufacturer, the Woodstock Soapstone Company, whereas I read many customer complaints about other stove manufacturers either not honoring their warranties, making stoves that burn only half as long as the manufacturer says it will, stoves that crack, soap stones that break, steel that warps, and changing company ownership.
There are more beautiful looking stoves, but none that meet my criteria of quality manufacturing of a wood stove that does what it's advertised to do with honest customer service.
Another appealing factor is that this wood stove manufacturer sells directly to their customers. I don't have to go through a retail store to purchase. Where I live, we have only one wood stove retail store, in addition to the wood stoves sold at the two big box stores. None of them carry stoves that burn with both secondary burn tubes and a catalytic combustor.
If you want to explore the Woodstock Soapstone Company, their line of wood burning stoves and gas stoves, visit their website: www.woodstove.com
To see the Ideal Steel Hybrid Wood Stove, here's the link to the stove:
www.woodstove....
To see the international wood stove design challenge competition which this Ideal Steel wood stove won the Grand Prize:
• Inside the Wood Stove ...
These links are Not affiliate links, nor am I paid by anyone to review this stove. I simply love it so much that I've decided to review it. I don't even miss that it is not cast iron. The soapstone in it retains heat marvelously.
It's almost Oct 1, 2021 and I began burning with this stove again this week. We had a ton of rain this summer with highs in the mid 60s, so I needed a fire at times this summer. Instead of burn with this stove, I made fires in my old cast iron one, with a firebox size of about 1.5 cubic feet. This also let me keep the Ideal Steel out of service awaiting the chimney sweep.
Just have to tell you all that if you think this Ideal Steel 3.2 cubic foot stove will burn you out of your house, it won't. My little cast iron stove burned me out of the room, had me sweating, and since it isn't EPA, even when stuffed full of wood, the burn time was only three hours long (on fir and pine.) So after the chimney sweep came and the temps have begun to drop at night, this past week I returned to the Ideal Steel and boy howdy, do I love it. In spite of how big it is, the heat from it is gentle and, as it is shoulder season, a load of pine and fir's lasting 24 hours before I need to reload the stove.
So if you can, get this stove with the soap stones. Those stones really make a difference. I'm enjoying this long lasting, gentle, thorough heat. Also, this past winter we had some cold days. One night it got down to - 9 degrees below zero. I loaded the Ideal Steel up with pecan and fir. It burned all night, as usual, but as the night got so cold, the cabin cooled off to 68 degrees by morning, the stove still putting out plenty of heat against such a cold night. I don't have to get up in the night to tend to this thing, ever.
great review. I love how you get to the point and keep it very information-dense.
Thank you very much.
What an excellent review, thank you.
Glad it was helpful. I still need to do the second part, where I show it burning and tell about how it burns. It's now May. I'm at 9000 feet so I still use it. But with shoulder season a load lasts 24 hours or more! Dead of winter, 12 hours. My place is not well insulated.
Nice review! I've been burning a Woodstock Fireview for for 12 years now. What a great company. I'll never go back to a straight secondary burn tube type stove but someday might try a hybrid.
They are indeed a great company. I saw the Fireview and it is beautiful.
Fantastically helpful. Many thanks!
My pleasure Jamie!
Don't forget to put those Andirons back up before closing the door. ^.^
Imagine this thing with a steady draft. A chimney bend pipe that always rotates so that the opening is down wind and an adjustable chimney barometric damper with outside air kit. Then, get enameled cast iron dutch oven while at it.
Where would you get the soap stone to line the firebox?
Woodstock Soapstone Company does that. It comes with it in there, as the video shows you.
Looks nice but I don't want a catalytic converter.
It is both catalytic combustor and secondary air tubes. I've found the combustor very easy to take out and clean. I spray it with vinegar and water combo, then let it dry. Do that about once a month. Nice thing is the stove without the combustor in it still stays hot, I guess due to the secondary air tubes.
What are your burn times?
Gosh I still need to do that follow up video! My own burn times have been 12 hours. Though the longest burn time I've had has been 15 hours. My 12 hour burn times are burning pine or fir (soft woods, prevalent in my area.) When I burn pecan, my burn times have been around 14 hrs but when I've had milder weather (highs in the mid 40s, lows in the 20s), using a mix of pecan, juniper and pine is when I've had the 15 hour burn time.
I never shut the air all the way down. I keep it at 1/4 open to the next higher tick mark. Burn times might be longer if I shut the air intake all the way down, but I don't since the manual says not to.
Desert Rat Gardener another video would be cool! I think this is the stove I’m leaning towards over the blaze king. Waiting for hopefully a good April or May sale.
@@TheCCConcrete I will do a follow up video in the next few weeks. As for the Blaze King - I know that the folks who have that stove swear by it. Some claim they've gotten 36 hour burn times. It's a catalytic stove, I don't think it has secondary burn tubes. Plus, where I live, it's not sold, and one must buy from a dealer, instead of the manufacturer. The nearest place I could get a Blaze King, as I recall, is Albuquerque, which is a few hours away. But with the Ideal Steel wood stove, one orders directly from the manufacturer, getting rid of the middle man local dealer shop. That matters to me, when the manufacturer is top notch, which Woodstock Soapstone Company is.
Keep an eye out for those sales. I bought this stove without any sale, and bought the Ideal Steel wood stove "the works" version (soapstone firebox, soapstone panels on the outside, 'geared 4 U designs', ash pan (but I asked to not have an ash pan, and they applied the cost of an ash pan to the cost of shipping). I paid about $3000 for the stove. Since Woodstock Soapstone Company paid for $650 of shipping cost, and they took the ash pan price and added that savings to my shipping cost, I paid only $200 or so out of pocket for shipping from New Hampshire to New Mexico.
If you get the basic version of Ideal Steel wood stove, you don't get the soapstone panels nor soapstone firebox, nor get to design your own stove decorations nor pick and choose decorations from their 'geared 4 U' design book. The designs are instead fleur de lis for everything that can be personally designed on the stove. But the price is less, around $2200 I think. I left links in the description, so check those because if they have a sale, it should show on the Ideal Steel link.