Progress Hybrid , closed off air feed

Charlie, it just keeps getting better. I have a feeling the colder it gets, the better it's going to get. It's not even breathing hard heating this place, even on the day it was 18'F in the AM and didn't get past 25 in the afternoon. ...I hate to say this, but I am looking forward to deep cold.

PS The lady of the house is liking the mellow heat, as opposed to the blast furnace smoke dragon.

 

I think you are mixing up the two. I think what Charlie did was close off the secondary air that prohibits you from totally shutting down the stove. Now, when he closes down the air, it has no air source to draw from. This means he will need to keep some of the primary air open in order to give the stove some air. This could give him more control over the burn.

 

Well I've decided to take the screw out of the air feed hole... I found out that it took too long to start up a new big load of wood.. that air feed really helps with the start up.. Now I'm into my bigger splits and not seeing the ragging secondaries with a new load of wood... That secondary air feed hole looks to keep things going when in a cat mode with the draft shut 100% I'm learning that the PH likes the bigger splits. Also you don't need to burn the new load very long before closing things up, that's key as to not having ragging secondaries very soon. Took that cat out tonight to check things after a month, since I was learning about the stove,,, the cat looked great, nothing plugged at all and very clean.. I was pleased to see that... Just tapped the side with the wooden handle on the paint brush that I was using to lightly brush off the cat... So it's back to running her like the factory intended.. It was fun seeing what happened when blocking the air hole... Overall I think my ragging secondaries came from leaving the new load in the bypass mode too long , along with smaller splits and very dry ash that was so dry it had no bark and was almost , punky.. The PH seems like it has the power to burn through even less then ideally seasoned wood... Big and blocky seems to be the fuel the the PH likes..

 

Charlie, nice job of reporting your hands-on experience with the Progress Hybrid. As usual, I am finding your posts very helpful and entertaining.

 

Dammit. I thought you had something there for a moment.

Could you post a picture of the large splits? Maybe with a measuring tape or something to show size. One man's large is another's medium and what not. Just trying to wrap my head around how it burns.

 

I'll get some pics of my split sizes in a bit... headed out back to go hunting

Yes I thought I had something too blocking the air hole. Yes, a little slower burn, but when I wanted to load the stove and get going to do something, it was a slow process at times to get the stove wood charred up to where the temps were good ... Guess that was the trade off...

 

Here are some pics of my standing dead ash.. I'm burning.. Most was around 16 inches and cut for my Fireview. At the time I didn't realize I would be up sizing to the PH.. Stuff on the left pictured is the bigger splits that seem to give me more control of the stove.. I was burning a lot of the smaller splits on the right with just one or two splits from the left mixed in... I will now keep my splits sized like the splits on the left if not bigger as well.. I initially split wood small to make sure the wood was extra dry for the Fireview... My Super Split log splitter makes quick easy work of splitting your wood down small, so it was no big deal to have smaller wood that would dry better. Now the PH isn't fussy with the wood it's fed , so all this really dry wood takes off every easy in the PH..

 

That is interesting. These pics really help me understand what you are working with and how it might apply to me. Your large splits fall under the smaller end of medium for me.

 

Unfortunately all of next years wood is like my bigger splits so after next winter I will make sure I have nice large splits along with some smaller splits as well.. My Esse cookstove can take a 19 in long piece of wood so I will try to lengthen my wood as well.. to at least 18 inch splits.. I am still very happy with my PH...Bigger splits I have plenty of coals left... Sometimes I'll add wood half way through and start massing a big coal bed as this just keeps the stone hot for a very long time... Like a deep cycle battery. If you can't get to the stove , it's still making nice heat with just the coals.. Definitely a good heater with it's 80,000 max BTU rating.. I checked my cat after a month of just starting to use the stove. Looked great! No issues, comes out easy too.. Just pull it out and then when it goes back in place there's a 3/16 gasket that you just push in around the top and sides of the cat.. All done easily with the top of the stove open..Total time to clean the cat and back in could be done in about 5 minutes... Along with the Fireview, a very enjoyable stove to service...

 

Glad to help you out BB.. Feel free to let me know if you need anymore info...I'd be glad to try to help you make a decision on your new stove quest..

 

Interesting and it makes total sense. It will be interesting so see if that changes when the temps drop way down into the sub zero realm. Of course when that happens you prolly want the secondaries doing their dance!

 

Well, it just goes to show that all those air holes were well thought out on the PH... There for a reason..

 

I'm getting some amazing burn times right now. I'm buring 2 year old (css for 2 years) sugar maple 16" long, about the same size as Charlies (4 to 5" splits x 16") with a few small peices (really thin 2" splits) of junk wood (cotton wood or tree of heaven). Last night (11pm) on an almost dead fire (just a few 1" chunks of hot coals left) with a stove top of 140, I loaded in whatIwould call 3 medium maple splits, and 3 really small junk splits on top. I closed it down after only about 4 minutes at which time e front splitlit up a bit and the pipe temp was just over 200. I've been findng as Charlie mentioned, closing it down pretty quick helps alot, it keeps it from getting a rager going to quickly. At 10am this morning, the stove top was just under 200 (180 - 190) and there was plenty of hot coals for an easy and really quick reload. Could have waited another 1/2 hour so. So that was an 11 hour burn, on 3 medium maples splits plus a 3 small junk splits. the load barely made it up to th bottom of the window, so the fire box was maybe 1/4 full. It was 29 degrees out at 11pm, and it went down to 28. It was 36 at 10am with the sun up.

I'm going to try and take some pictures of a load, pictures of light up, burn after a few hours, then morning....

 

Glad to here your PH is burning well... Your right about closing the stove down early... it's all a learning curve for me having a new stove...
I think that front air hole really gets the fire going no matter what. I like that PH is not fussy about wood... My main goal is to get a cable type probe from Condor and take out one back bolt on the PH, and snake the probe up to the front of the cat, which is actually the back.. I'll high temp silicone the bolt hole closed that the cable passes through.. Then I can see what the cat is doing.. That will really allow fine tuning of the PH in my eyes... I do like my PH, cause she's one great heater!

 

Charlie, it sure would be nice and helpful to know exactly what that cat is doing.......

 

I was talking with Jamie a while back.. He said they have thought about a cat probe set up for the PH, but it's kind of on the back burner.. as to maybe not seeing one until next year..

Meanwhile I was told as you open the top and look in at the cat, your actually looking at the exhaust side of the cat. this is were you want to lay the probe that's on the end of the cable , that condor makes.. I was told you can remove a bolt on either side on the back of the stove, that's nearest to the flue pipe. Then snake the cable into that hole up to the cat.. I would then just use HT black silicone to fill the hole around the probe wire where it passes into the stove.. Things don't work out for some reason, just reinstall the bolt into the back of the stove.. Yes I would love to see what the cats doing... I think that would really help everyone running the progress to fine tune their burns... Right now I just do the chimney top check.. No smoke , good to go. Plus my flue gas temps. Took my cat out the other day to check it out after burning this new stove for a month.. Looked great! Besides just stuffing the thin gasket around the cat, which was quick and easy, it comes out and in as easy as my Fireview did.. I like that...

 

All your experimenting and reporting are proving very helpful to me. Thanks again !!

 

Once I get the probe set up, I might plug the air feed in the front of the stove again, just to see how the cat works with and without that air supply... I think that would be interesting to see...

 

Here's what I want to install. Comes with a remote monitor..

​