Woodstock Progress Hybrid Smoke Smell

I know the smoke smell problem has been solved in the newer Progress Hybrid stoves, but what was the final fix for the original older stoves? I have a stove purchased in Spring of 2012 and I get a smoke smell especially when the cat bypass is closed. There is no visible smoke, and the smoke alarm does not go off. I have already replaced the cook top gasket with little change. I love this stove and it does a wonderful job of heating my house. 8 to 10 hour burns with only a half load are the norm for me.

 

Thanks Dennis. I sent an email this morning and will follow up with a call after the holiday. I have every confidence that Woodstock will have a fix for this issue. The stove is fantastic in both form and function. All my friends love the way it looks and heats the house. It sips wood and provides tons of heat. Happy New Year.

 

What happened with this? What was the solution to your issue?

 

No solution yet. Lorin said that Woodstock is doing some sophisticated testing on the Progress Hybrid to try and isolate where the smell might be coming from on those stoves that have a problem (most do not). They are also looking at other variables like tightness of house and quality of draft. I sure hope they come up with something soon - I have had to shut my stove down. At least the cold snap has ended for the time being.

 

I just wanted to post some positive news. Last night I used my stove for the first time in a week. I decided to do an experiment and open a window about a half inch near the stove. I did this before I started the fire and kept it open for the entire burn cycle. I noticed about at 50% or more reduction in the smoke smell. There is still some odor, especially when I engage the cat, but much less. It was actually very pleasant using the stove for the first time. .

 

Mine being one of the newer stoves from last year gets a faint smoke smell right above the corner of the door at the back top of the stove... I can just smell it in the room at times , but my wife can't... If I put my nose up to the area I can smell it... but very faint, but there.. My gaskets look good... Now today I don't smell it ... I'm thinking maybe I'm smelling a stalled cat at times.. No cat probe, I can't really see what's going on... I might at some point change the door gasket as the upper corners,,,, the rope gasket was pulled tight around the corners, leaving a gap at the very corner... A dollar bill test shows everything is very tight...

 

Charlie, that is exactly where I am getting the smoke smell. After my experiment with leaving the window open a small bit, I do believe my house is too tight and I might benefit from an dedicated outside air source. I also notice if I turn the air completely to the off position I get a dark firebox with a burst of flame every few minutes. But if I open the air just a crack and allow a very tiny constant flame, the smoke smell is also reduced. Slowly but surely with the help of Woodstock and other PH owners, I am getting this stove figured out. And I must say it is one good looking heating beast. Would I buy another one..........ABSOLUTELY.

 

Dave I have an 1840's farm house, it's post and beam... The owners before us left all the walls , lathe and plaster but then reframed the entire home with 2x4 construction inside with 3.5 inches of batt insulation plus one inch high R foiled board.. Now we just had the whole place vinyl sided and high end insulation board was installed on the entire outside before the siding.. Siders who have been in business since the 50's told be the insulation board they use will not pull away from the seams over the years... more money but better stuff... All Anderson windows... Laid up 1740 stone foundation and some air leaks in spots.. Old double layer floors have some air leaks that you can feel from the cellar in spots in the stove room...I will be putting bubble foil insulation on the under side of the floors at some point... So what I'm getting at is I don't believe my house is too airtight...

I like you love my stove, I would buy another as well... If the stove needs to be taken apart and more detail to gasket placement then that's what will have to be done down the road... The stove is way to nice not to do what ever it takes to address the issue.. I want to keep the stove...What ever causes that has to be a very tiny issue... First thing I will do is to change out the door gasket sometime, make sure the rope really lays out so it fills up the very outer part corners... I have 22 ft of insulated liner and come out of the top of my stove , into a 90 into my wall to my masonry chimney. I rise about 3 ft from my stove to the 90 that goes into my chimney... I do think it's not a draft issue... I know Woodstock sent out people to re -gasket one PH on here with a smoke smell and the stove has been fixed and so well the owner said the stove even burns with more control then before.. I think it was Machria's stove...

 

Charlie, I have been in contact with Lorin from Woodstock and she said they just got a very sensitive sniffer machine and are in the process of isolating exactly where the smell is coming from. She told me to hold off on replacing the gaskets until they have the problem pinpointed. Since I have addressed my 'tight house' issue, the smell is not nearly as noticeable. However, there is still a smell that I would like to be eliminated. In the meantime, I am burning again.

 

Glad to hear your burning again... The wood smoke smell is very minute , but there at times... I feel bad for Woodstock because I know how much they care about all their owners having a quality product... I know they will get to the bottom of this tiny smell.. Tough thing is you have cast iron and steel , both expanding and contracting a different rates... maybe impossible to deal with an issue like this , being the nature of the beast with unlike metals fighting each other to keep a air tight seal between the two... I have confidence they'll get to the bottom of things.... Woodstock cares!

 

Maybe it's just me, but smelling burnt wood in the stove room with a new stove would have me on the phone telling them to fix it or send another one that is. I know Woodstock owners are loyal and all, but you've got a defective product! And it wasn't cheap either. How do they get a pass for selling a stove that is potentially dangerous? Sometimes, I believe you have to speak up.

I hope I didn't offend anyone. My intention is to keep everyone safe, and breathing clean air within their home.

 

You didn't offend me.. I called Woodstock and have told them that I smelled a slight smoke smell in that one area by the door a few months ago... They are aware... It's so faint that my wife can't smell it, but I can when I walk into the stove room.... This is my first season with this stove... and my later production stove, this problem has been dealt with on assembly .... I was shown what they felt the issue was when I was at Woodstock picking out my stove... simply not over tightening a steel plate the bolts against the door area.. Just today I started to burn my stove different thinking maybe it's the way I'm running my stove... I have now let my flue gases get to 550-600 before closing my by pass damper,,,, before I would close it at 450-500... Now I've really had no more smell... What I'm thinking is I haven't been getting my new wood load charred enough before closing down the stove, thus smelling a smoldering stove that wasn't hot enough to light my cat off... So I will keep an eye on things and see if it was solely my burning practices or I do in fact have a smoke issue... I agree,, no way you want to be breathing a smoke leak in 24/7... So far I haven't had the smoke smell all day after letting my new load burn until my flue temps are 550-600.. Shutting things down too early,,, maybe with the big mass of this stove it took a long time to light off the cat, thus the spoke smell... Everything has to go though the cat...cold cat I'm betting smoke smell..

 

Tenn Dave has also mentioned that Woodstock is working on the problem... Not all stoves had the smoke smell either...

 

Charlie, letting the flue temps get up higher might be enough to do it. Not having a good char will make more smoke too.

Tenn Dave said it wasn't on all of them, leading me to believe some must be defective in some way. As long as you're not getting CO into the living space it probably is safe, but I am curious as to why some leak and some don't.

Good luck with it, and please keep us posted.

 

Al, I appreciate your concern.. Yes I am going to get a CO detector for that room... And again, so far no smell... Always a learning curve with a new stove... The fact that I was trading in my Fireview for the PH and I had mentioned to them about the smoke smell issue, I know they did make sure they had it fixed... Tenn Dave I believe has an early model , one before they heard of people having smoke smell issues. My smell was so slight that you didn't smell it after a while unless you went outside and then came back in, or put you nose up to the stove corner... So far I think I found the problem to be my light off practices... I'll keep ya posted... A CO meter will let me know if there are issues as well... I think it was just me running the stove... I'll be happy if I was the problem... That's an easy fix...

 

Charlie and Al,
I spoke with Woodstock today via email. As we speak, they are in the process of running tests to determine the exact cause of the smoke smell in some units. As Charlie mentioned, I purchased mine in early 2012, but only put it into service in late 2013. My smoke smell has been somewhat reduced by opening a window a crack near the stove. My house is new construction and is very tight. I will probably need an OAK, or a heat recovery ventilation system. On my next reload I will also try what Charlie mentioned and let the wood char more before I engage the cat. I think all these things may help, but the bottom line is that my stove is leaking a small amount of smoke, I have contacted the manufacturer, and they are working on a solution. In addition I have put a CO detector in the stove room and a second CO detector and smoke alarm in the hallway off the stove room. None of the alarms indicate there is any problem.

 

I'll speculate that it is to some extent draft related. The exhaust path on the PH is pretty long, if the draft isn't up to snuff I could see it causing issues.

They'll get it figured out, it's a bummer that people had/have to deal with it. I believe a lot of the people with issues have the early discounted stoves, I'm sure they were aware there may be some bumps along the way to perfection.

 

Al, this has nothing to do about loyalty. I have contacted Woodstock and they assured me they are aware of the problem and are working on a solution. If that were not the case, I would definitely be very vocal about getting a resolution. I completely agree that breathing wood smoke in my home is not acceptable.

 

The good news,,,, Woodstock will fix what is causing the problem....I'm getting ready to add more wood this morning,, as per yesterday I'm going to shoot for 550-600 flue gas temps before closing her down and make sure the stove top is at least 250... I believe it was at 275 the other day when I shut things down... So maybe it's all about getting the wood load charred enough... The PH does have a big long exhaust path , which I can understand if you have a poor draft you could have issues....Hopefully my issue was all in getting my wood charred enough.. It's funny my wife is at work all day, I'm around the stove 80% more then her and she couldn't really smell the smoke... You'd think it would have been the other way around.. Neither one of us smokes...