Navajo Testing is Complete!

Navajo Beta Stove

A little over a year ago, we started working on a design for a clean-burning wood/coal stove for use in the Navajo Nation, located at the “4 corners” where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet.  In February, 2017, we installed a series of “beta” stoves in Navajo homes on the reservation, as well as test homes here in New Hampshire.  An early test model is pictured here.  The stove has undergone significant changes, which we will detail in subsequent posts.

We finished with the design development last summer, and recently completed testing for EPA certification, and a listing to UL 1482.  Those test reports have been submitted, and we hope to have approvals before the end of the year.

The stove is a hybrid wood stove (with secondary combustion and a catalyst), and an underfire coal stove (with significant secondary combustion).  Part of the design challenge was converting the airflow from wood to coal.  

Model of Airflow in the Navajo Coal/Wood Stove

The average weighted emissions for wood was 1.048 grams per hour, with efficiency of 79.43%.  Average emissions with coal was 4.95 grams/hour, with efficiency of 59.7%.  We sacrificed quite a bit of efficiency to clean up the coal emissions.

It is a small stove, with a firebox of just 1.15 cubic feet and heat output of 15,332 – 27,294 BTU/hr burning wood, and 7,741 – 10,189 BTU/hr burning coal.

More details in the coming days...

The Second Beta Stove Installation at the Navajo Reservation

Moving in the new stove

The second beta installation was for a young family in Lupton, AZ.  Just starting out with their own little home on familial land, Amber & Leonard, were in need of some economical heat.  They were incurring huge electric bills each month from using space heaters.  The addition of the stove will off-set these high electric bills while keeping the family toasty warm.

Leonard and his family prepared for their new stove by building a hearth.  They laid down flooring, insulated and put sheet-rock on the walls, finished the ceiling, and tiled the walls and floor.

The beautiful tile job needed a bit of expanding to accommodate for the front loading door, so our crew set down a freestanding hearth pad on top of the existing tile.  Amber and Leonard choose the stove that was painted a metallic blue to grace their home.  It was the perfect choice.

Installing the chimney

Once the stove was in place and a safe distance from the wall, Glenn and Jack got started on the chimney installation.  While they were busy installing the chimney, Lorin tiled the hearth, discussed how to operate the stove with the new owners, and played fetch with the Blue Heeler.

With the installation complete and the stove was fired up, Amber had fun seeing the change from smoke to no smoke coming out the chimney once the combustor was engaged during the wood fire.  By the time the crew left, the Navajo stove had warmed Amber and Leonard's home nicely and the kids were enjoying the heat from the stove!  

The Navajo Stove: The Rumors are True...

Navajo Beta Stove - Gasket is Added

Here at the Woodstock Soapstone Company, we have been very busy.  For the past 3-4 months, we have been fervently working on a stove designed for use by Navajo American Indians who live on the Navajo Nation Reservation at the “4 Corners”  (where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet).  The first beta stoves were shipped by truck transportation to the Navajo Nation earlier this week, and three of our crew are flying out on Sunday to install the stoves, train operators, and learn more about how the stoves will be used.

The Wood/Coal Challenge:
On the Navajo Reservation, the residents burn wood and coal in their stoves – and not just any coal, but sub-bituminous coal.  The coal is mined on the Navajo American Indian Reservation, and is used for the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona, but is also used for residential heating on the reservation to achieve extended burn times at night.  It is a low-density coal with high water content – and a very high-energy content.

The dual fuel design requires two different airflows – one for wood, and one for coal.  Our design turned out to be a small hybrid wood stove for clean wood burning, and a coal draft system powered by under-fire primary air and lots of secondary combustion.  Needless to say, we are really looking forward to beginning the field-testing of our design.  Beta testing will begin next week in Navajo American Indian homes in Arizona and New Mexico.

Doors are painted, handles are added

Race to Zero Emissions:

This project fits perfectly with our mission to design cleaner and cleaner stoves.  We have always focused on wood, but when the EPA asked us if we could try to design a  dual fuel stove specifically to meet the needs of the Navajo American Indians, it fit right in with our interests, so we jumped at the opportunity.  We expect to learn quite a bit in the  next six weeks of beta testing!

Keep your eyes on our blog, we will be posting more after we are "on the ground" in the Southwest.

A Visit to the Factory

A recent visitor to our factory graced our facebook page with a beautiful collage of pictures taken during a tour.  You can view the page here. We are thrilled our visitors shared their pictures.  We thought we would take a moment to share them with you, and hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

If you are in the area, we invite you to stop in and visit our showroom, explore the stoves we have on display, and take a tour of our factory.  Our showroom/factory hours are 9:00 to 5:00, Monday thru Saturday.  No appointment is needed.  Our fabricators, welders, and other employees are busy in the factory until 3:30, Monday thru Friday, but they do not mind a visit from you. 

Ideal Steel Hybrid with Maple Leaf Design

When you first enter our factory area, you may come across an Ideal Steel Hybrid stove (or two, three or more) that are in the inspection phase.  Before your stove is shipped, it gets thoroughly inspected to make sure everything is working as it should.  This particular stove has the maple leaf design (NAT006) on it. 

Front of Ideal Steel Hybrid

Looks like these folks are getting a close up view of the front of the Ideal Steel and the ash pan.

Absolute Steel in Black with Metallic Mahogany, Prairie Wheat Pattern

Sitting near the Ideal Steel Stoves, waiting for inspection, is our newest stove, the Absolute Steel Hybrid.  This one is black, and has the Prairie Wheat pattern in Metallic Mahogany.  We have been building Absolute Steel beta stoves for test purposes.  We should have comments and results regarding UL clearance and other information for our new Absolute Steel Stoves posted soon.

Ideal Steel Andirons

As you walk towards the rear of our factory, you will go through the area where our Fireview, Keystone and Palladian stoves are made.   This picture shows some of our Ideal Steel Andirons which are lined up, waiting to be installed into a stove or shipped to a customer.

Fireview ready for shipment

Moving along through the Fireview section, we find a Fireview stove which is complete, waiting to be crated for shipment.

Section of our Factory

Section of our Factory

For over 38 years we have been building stoves and warming homes. From cast iron, soapstone, tubular steel, flat sheets of metal, designer art work, with fewer emissions and greater fuel efficiency, our engineers and employees never stop creating and designing.  We all work hard to bring the best product we can to our customers.

We enjoy having folks come to our showroom, and to see first hand what we do and how we do it. We are open 9-5 Monday thru Saturday.  You may have a factory tour any time we are open, with no special arrangements needed ahead of time.  Keep in mind that the shop is active until 3:30 in the afternoon, Monday thru Friday.  We hope to see you soon!

New Design Survey Results, Comments and Suggestions

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we have tallied the results of our New Design Survey and the top three are: “Au Naturel,” the “Cottage,” and the “Prairie,” in that order.

In reviewing the comments, we were surprised and intrigued by the spectrum of  opinions and ideas.  Some folks felt the designs were too busy, many wanted more design added.  The primary source of debate is the wings.  The number of requests we received to produce the Absolute Steel Hybrid without wings has led us to the idea of providing you the option – wings or no wings.   We believe, because this will be your stove, you should have it your way. 

We thought you may enjoy reading some of the comments/suggestions we received. They are:

New Design Preview: Modified Designs

We are still working on our designs and changes to our beta designs. Thanks to everyone who responded to our Design Preview and Survey!

We had almost 600 surveys and over 1700 comments so far on our beta designs. The Tall Shaker design has elicited the most number of comments and questions. Based on those comments, we have new previews of a few potential design changes. The stoves have been digitally placed in a home setting to help give a better visual perspective.

New Hybrid Dimensions and Specifications

These are projected dimensions and specifications for our new steel hybrid.  They won’t change much, but as noted below don’t build a hearth or install a chimney thimble based on these specifications.  EPA testing is scheduled to begin in 3 weeks, with UL testing (clearances) following immediately thereafter.

Cordwood Cold Start Test Data

We have shared “beta” aesthetic designs for our new hybrid, and we also plan to share “beta” test results for those who are interested.  This is the first of what will be several posts about beta emissions/efficiency testing for our new (and still nameless) Model 211 Hybrid, which is scheduled for EPA emissions testing in January, 2016.

New Stove Design Preview

Form & Function! As a wood stove manufacturer it has always been important for us to produce stoves that will perform year after year to keep you warm, as well as compliment the home. The wood stove is often a central fixture and the majority of our customers want a design that will look good all year round. As part of our Beta testing process for our R2Z Stove, we are presenting a few designs with varying styles. Our goal is to offer a stove that is versatile; tall or short legs, ash pan or no ash pan, right or left loading door option, as well as top or back venting. Going one step further we would like to offer a basic version without the Franklin style wings for those who prefer a clean look, as well as several embellished options. 

Click here to look through our current designs, then we welcome you to fill out our design survey and let us know what you like and don't like about our proposed designs...and if you have other design suggestions, don't be shy, let us know!

New Stove Design Preview

Zero Woodstove Emissions... Is It Possible?

Our Favorite Beta Tester Comment EVER!

4/7/14

"Loaded the stove 75% full as we were headed out the door for the hospital.  Sydney was born that morning.  We came home 3 days later and still had enough coals in the IS to start a fire, easily.  56 hours later!!!"

Doug K. 

Newbury, VT

More Improvements: IDEAL STEEL Hybrid

Here are a few other improvements we have made recently to the Ideal Steel Hybrid:

We cut a damper adjustment scale in the ash lip.  Lots of people operate their stoves in a narrow range for long periods of time, and this makes it easier to remember your best operating settings.

The andirons have been tricky.  Before we settled on andirons that folded forward, we prototyped andirons that folded over on their sides, moved laterally to both sides of the load door opening, folded in the middle, and/or were removable.  We still like our current version best, in part because it is simple, and in part because one can move the andirons with a poker, or the toe of a boot.  The andiron plate also acts as an air deflector that helps eliminate smoke spillage in installations with marginal draft.

To lessen ash spillage onto the ash lip, we have added a slot between the front of the andiron and the body of the stove so that fly ash on the andiron plate will slide back into the stove instead of onto the ash lip.  We have also shortened the andirons from 7” to 5” so that it’s easy to load over them most of the time.  We’re also working on a little tool to brush ash off the andiron plate before folding it forward.

New Andirons, like the dragon pictured above, are 5" tall, 

rather than 7". This makes it easy to load over the andirons

if you wish. A slot in the front of the andirons allows fly ash

 to fall back inside the stove.

The damper adjustment scale is cut into the edge of the ash lip.

The NEXT Gearhead Hybrid Stove

Basic version

The next Gearhead Hybrid Stove is under construction right now (prototype only).  We are building a slightly smaller firebox (about 2.6 cubic feet), and version 3.0 of our hybrid combustion design. The Ideal Steel Hybrid (going into production soon) had the lowest high burn emissions on record, and with new regulations coming, there’s an incentive to flatten the emissions curve even more.  One of the most important things for us is the combustion design, but we'll do a lot of testing over the summer before “going public” with the internal workings of this stove.

This stove will definitely be sideloading (left or right), and have a top and rear vent. We plan to make an inexpensive basic version - a utilitarian workhorse that is easy to use but has some nice details (see Basic Version, at right).  Then we think we will make a steel Franklin stove.  Some of our favorite antique soapstone stoves have Franklin stove designs, and we manufacture three gas stoves with Franklin designs, including our unique 17 inch tall Mini Franklin gas stove.

Franklin Stove Design lends itself perfectly to steel fabrication.  We plan to alter the shape of the wings, ash lip, and door as well as the stove ornamentation, to reflect different periods:  Arts and Crafts, Gothic, Transitional, or Modern for example.  The sketches at the right and below are not final by any means, they are just offered to show the general direction we are heading in.

1800's Franklin Soapstone

We plan to beta-test this stove extensively next winter, and have it available in June/July of 2015.