Frustrated..

I've spent the last two or three days trying to document various aspects of the Progress Hybrid burn in response to several varied requests. I've had good 12 hour burns, consistently, small coal bed to small coal bed, even with last night's -11 F and wind. This on decent but not by any means full loads.

I've got good pictures of the burns, of the stove's responsiveness, of the time from loading to full flame,of the coals toward the end of the burn and at the end, but I cannot get pictures that do justice to the actual flames. I have always found this to be a problem. The beautiful blue flames just don't show up in the photographs. I'm believing that this is related to the IR coating Woodstock put on the glass to keep heat transfer through the glass down. At some point soon I'll probably load the pictures to this site, but they are frustrating. The PH gives such a beautiful fire show, and one simply cannot convey it by photography, in my experience.

 

I'm 11 hours into my current burn at the moment, and my stovetop and flue are both at 320. The stove is still putting a nice amount of heat out the window.
I shoveled the massive coals at the back forward about an hour ago, because I wanted the coal bed to burn down quickly and provide more heat per hour because of how cold it is out. I opened the bypass before doing so, and the air all the way. I closed t he air about 1/2 way as soon as I closed the door, and after about two or three minutes (to warm any cold air I let in), I reengaged the cat since the firebox was quite hot, and cut the air down to about 1/4, where I have been burning it since. The coals are burning down fairly quickly in this set up, and putting out nice heat while doing so. I should have a small coal bed for reload in about an hour.

 

What are you taking pictures with? I've found my current phone much better than the last one, and way better than any low end digital camera that I've ever had.

Not that serious about photography. Only time I've ever spent more than $100 on a camera was when digital cameras were very new technology

 

Nice to see WS PH burn info here.
I know there are many IS threads and well over 1,000 posts
but these two stoves are very similar in alot of ways.

 

I had the same problem taking pics when I had a nice secondary burn going, I ended up not posting the pics. Try what Dennis suggests and do a video, I haven't because I wasn't sure how but I'm sure playing around a little bit I could figure it out.

 

Not sure why, but Firefox hates our forum.

 

If yer camera has an aquarium setting on it, try that. Or use the manual setting and fight yer way thru it.

 

I have a Panasonic, which I bought because it has a Leica lense, a little known fact. Makes a fabulous deal on a relatively inexpensive digital camera. The lens is quite good.

 

I have found it hard to capture the awesomeness of the fireview. Sounds like the progress is treating you well.

One take away I have had from reading all the posts... PH burns down the coals alot better than the IS. I think that is a real benefit to the working Joe on the go that needs to load and run.

I find it really annoying to get up later than I should to find a box full of coals that need to be burned down and not have the time to deal with it.

 

I uploaded a video to photobucket. Now how to a upload the file to here, or link it to here?

 

Firebox loaded 10:31 PM 1/24
Nice flames 1:10 AM[/ATTACH]

 

Air in above photos was about 1/16 open. Shut the air at 12.12.
Stove burned with a red glow until 3:50, when flame erupted. I'm going to try to post photos at 12:12, then at 4:08.

 

Slept for a few hours. When I woke at 6:58 there was a big bed of coals. Opened the air a bit, and the fire picked up. Down to coals again at 7:43, so I opened the air all the way and let the coals burn down. Photos at 6:58 and 7:43
Stove was putting out good heat.

 

The videos are much better. Hope I can figure out how to post them.

 

That evening's fire: Shortly after loading, photo taken at 7:43 PM, wood engulfed, fire burning vigorously ] I shut the air from 1/2 to about 1/8, and took videos immediately(also at 7:43), at 7:44 and at 7:45. There was significant decrease in flames, going to only secondary flame. Then took a photo at 7:46:
Immediately prior to the 7:46 photo, I shut the air all the way for the long cat burn. If I figure out how to post the videos, I will. Did this sequence for someone who requested it in a post about going from raging flames to secondaries in 15 minutes. Took me one minute to secondaries.

 

This is the same fire, an hour later at 8:49, air still fully closed:

None of these photos really do justice to the flames. And, I had not cleaned the fly ash off the window in a month when I took the photos, so the glass was by no means clear.