Progress Hybrid , closed off air feed

Took and dropped a small button head machine screw in the front air feed hole on my PH.. This is the air feed that is always feeding air even with the draft closed 100%.. Well I noticed that air feed was needlessly burning down all my usable coals for my next fire.. Now with the bolt in place I have a big coal bed left, and better control of the stove, nicer slower secondaries instead of ragging secondaries.. which just wind up charring the wood down to coals in a quick manner.. Now I have a nice slow controlled burn.. I'm liking it so far.. still get secondaries but they drift in and out as the wood is now burning at a much slower rate.. I'm burning almost too dry ash, some almost lite as to not much weight... Anyways so far so good...glass still stays clean as well.. I run with the draft just cracked and see 500 degree stove temps... She is one heating machine even with the draft closed, the draft blades still allow a smidgen of air to come in.

 

It will be interesting to see what effect this has on your burn times.

 

So far I can tell that my coaled wood is taking longer to break apart, so I'd say it's providing longer burn times seeing that.. stove burns fine too, no back puffing and a smoke free chimney top too. Just seemed like this stove has a lot of air coming in, maybe because of the long smoke path. I seem to have a very good draft, never any smoke out the door while loading or on start up...

 

Keep us posted if you see any other changes.

 

I'm watching....

 

Keep us posted Charlie. (I'm picking up the Beta Ideal Steel Saturday in DC.)

 

Post plenty of pictures Brian.

 

Wow, you have to be excited! You keep us posted as well Brian.. So far with the air bleed closed I seem to have more coals left over in the morning and a little more control at times, depending how long I let the new load get going... Only thing I do notice, is you don't have as much start up power on a new load, but I'll take that being able to have a slower burn .. I just like not having the air bleed burning up all my coals when they could be stretched for the next needed reload as the stone carries you over quite a bit...

 

Interesting.........

 

My one single issue with the PH is for some reason, and I have not figured what the reason is yet, some loads seem to really take off via very strong secondaries blasting away. And when this happens if you shut the air down to try and slow it down, the flames will go out, and you will go into a "pufff/black" cycle, (black for 1 mintue, then a PUFF!, then black again.....). It's as if certian loads just seem to out-gass a ton of burnable gas, as if it is full of propane or something. The only thing you can do is leave the air open a bit (1/8 or 1/4 open) and let it rage for an hour or 2 before it will calm down. I "think" it has something to do with how many coals are left in the stove, and how hot they are. The "cooler" the stove is (least amount of hot coals possilbe), the better and slower it seems to start off with a new load and go directly into cruise mode instead of ragin for the first hour or two.

Charlie, you had mentioned this somewhere one..... Do you guys rake all your coals forward before a reload? Or do you leave them spread out of rake to the rear? I always rake to the front 1/2 of th stove floor, so I can place a nice big split in the back on the floor so it is not touching any hot coals. This ussually ends up the last split to burn.... How do you guys do this?

Anyway, I'm getting 10 to 12 hours burns with 3 or 4 medium to small splits (~1/4 load), which I am very happy with.

 

The other day our Fireview had a back puff, the only time we've ever seen it with this stove. Firebox was black and it lit up suddenly. Smoke even came out around the door. Never happened before or since.

 

I just spread my coals... I noticed the same thing about the secondaries... I think it's a matter of not letting the new load go too long before you close things down... Personally I think those ragging secondaries waste wood..

Talk to Ron today at Woodstock, just told him what I was up too... He agreed with what I'm seeing with the air hole plugged... Guess they added the air hole for start up and to keep the glass clean... So far the glass still stays clean... I'm am finding I have a much slower burning stove and tonight she's burning like my Fireview did, just a cat burn... So I'm thinking plugging the air hole is giving me more of a cat burn.... I'm liking that.. it's been over an hour on a reload, and still no secondaries..just cat , stove is running at 500 with the draft just cracked... I think I just might be taming the PH into some nice long slow burns... I'm liking what I'm seeing ,, no flames and 500 degrees... It's like a massive Fireview Just starting to get some very light secondaries now, almost an hour and 45 minutes. Not ragging either.. I think that air hole burned needless wood.

 

I don't get any smoke, but I do get those "puffs" of flame, I thought those were the infamous ghost flames, no?

I also got my first "rolling flames" the other night where a steady flame just lifts off the wood and hovers just below the cat.. at the top of the window. Awesome!!

 

Charlie, did Ron have any concerns about your modification? And please let us know if you see an increase in your burn times.

 

Ron had no concerns about dropping a bolt in the air hole.. Sure seems to be burning longer as there are no more ragging secondaries. You can get them if you want, but now I seem to have more control and just have some hit and miss secondaries.. They just come and go, now back to no flames at almost 2 hours into a reload, just the cat.. So far so good...

 

It's like free heat when you get that. I've got it right now.. black window on a almost full load I just got charred and closed down.. look up into the cat and it is glowing bright orange.. stove top is 450'F. If you sit back and look at the stove it looks like it's not even going. I've noticed it cruises like this for a few hours before there's some ashing and coaling.. as it transitions to the next stage of the burn.

Charlie, I think you've got such a nice draft going there that you don't need the secondary (EPA) feed. other installations probably need the extra help to get those secondaries going, in your case the draft is so good, (Machira's too) that blocking that feed a bit fine tunes the draft for you. You are dynotuning the PH.

 

Yes that's a nice feeling, having black looking glass yet lots of heat coming from the stone! Sounds like your enjoying the Fireview! Can't be that cat! Those Fireviews are just great stoves ! Really nice stoves to run...

 

Those waterfall looking flames are very cool to watch! All good heat going into the stone...

 

No, this was a back puff, it was a warm day, probably weaker draft due to the weather and temps. I think the fire was smoldering and the smoke lit off, like what happens in this video at around 5 seconds, but mild in comparison and only once.



We do routinely get the "ghost flames" and the aurora type rolling flames at the front top of the stove on a routine basis.

 

Oh! thanks for the video. No I don't get any of that. Yuck!