New here, new Progress, same old questions

Hey guys and girls, first off, thanks for all the help previously. I got plenty of help without anyone knowing. I used to frequent another mistress, and hung around a room with boilers. My plan was always to get an inside gasser. I had a Lopi Leyden that was doing the chores in a fireplace. I thought I would keep that for ambiance and run the boiler. But the Leyden became problematic with cracked refractory, ruined secondary combustors, etc. So the Lopi could not be trusted anymore, and I could not swing a boiler and new stove, so I have put the boiler quest on hold and purchased a Woodstock Progress Hybrid.
I installed it about 1 week ago and will post pictures after I get through my first post. I know it does not exist without pictures, but let's just say hypothetically I am having quicker burns than expected. I have a masonry chimney that is lined with a SS 6 inch liner about 25 feet tall interior, sealed at the cap and lintel. We have been without power for a few days, so when it cools tomorrow, I will do the dollar bill test on the seals, but observations give no indication of air leaks. I have not "loaded" it fully, but when I shut it down after the cat engages, I still have quite a bit of flames on the splits for quite some time. When they finally diappear, all I have left is Coaling. STT measured just to the right of the blank cover plate have not exceeded 500, and generally are closer to 425 throughout the cycle.
So a couple concerns, how long after shutting down do you guys see active flames, not just secondaries? I know I have room for more wood in the box, but I am only getting maybe 7 hours currently. With STT, in this range, I am concerned about heating capacity when it gets cold here.
Maybe I am just a new Dad, and you guys just need to reassure me.
At any rate thanks for the help in my stove choice, and I look forward to learning more here.
Oh, wood is mainly red oak, just turned 2 years CSS this month

 

Welcome, Vande!

Like you, I'm learning a new stove this season. Trust me when I say, you will have lots of questions, an there is a ton of information and helpful folks on this site to guide you. As you learn to load the stove, and fiddle with the controls, you will likely see longer burns. There are so many variables to long burns, as I'm finding out. Last night I had my first 12-hour burn on crappy wood, and it felt pretty good to reach that milestone! My only advice is to keep trying things. Load the box basically full, let the STT come up to 400 or so, engage the cat, then adjust the air. Some flames in the box will reduce the heat from the cat, as there is less smoke to burn. At times - about 15 minutes after a reload - I've found that getting any flames can be challenging. Even with the air pretty far open, the cat keeps things tame. Sometimes I want to watch the flames, other times the "black box" (with some red coals) is OK too. The air adjustment, timing of the "shut down", and draft will all make for different flame scenarios.

 

I don't have a progress. But I do have a woodstock ideal steel. I'll tell you that if I want to I can extinguish flames at will with my air control. I would expect the same from the progress. I'd be looking for door gaskets and ash pan gaskets.

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Very nice install!

I’ve got a big, old house, so most of the winter we run the stove at 500 to 550, and are reloading 3 to 4 times a day, depending on our work schedule. To get more heat you will have flames, and the load gets burned more quickly (I think there is a Law in that regard). There is a big difference between a mellow firebox with 45o versus strong rolling flames and a 600 stove top. This stove sends a lot of heat out through the glass when run hard.

We’ve always had trouble running a completely dark firebox on the PH. It will cruise ok for half to three quarters of an hour before switching to a series of backpuffs (sudden flares of flame, mildly explosive). So we err on the side of some flame.

Here's how we are running tonight

 

We had much more luck running a dark firebox on the IS than with the PH. The air control on the IS is much, much more refined, especially at the low end.

We did add a stovepipe damper and found that made the PH air much easier to adjust.

 

With a good draft you can sometimes see leaks as fingers of flames coming from around the door. I haven’t heard anyone with new WS stoves having gasket issues right off. I have replaced my door gasket after a couple of seasons.

 

Thanks guys for the kind words and advice. Yeah, I think timing from reload to shutdown seems somewhat critical at my current level of experience, that may become routine later, hopefully. I was thinking of an inine damper, and I knew it would be tight,but opted to pass on installing it when I finally saw how little room I had from stove top to lintel bottom. But may have to review this decision

 

I bet the tertiary air on the IS supports the dark firebox.

 

I do have a bit more fireplace width to play with

 

I'll stand corrected. But you can get the box to slow down with the air control? I read the OP s post as saying the air control had little to no effect on the flames in the box

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Yes, it is on both sides, while the PH has just one, dead center.

 

Does the progress burn those little jets into the top of your splits like the IS does?

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The air control does slow it down but, it takes quite some time, maybe an hour or more before I see no flames

 

I wasn’t under the impression the PH has the tertiery intake. This is the bimetallic flapper valve that opens automatically.

 

Not meant as a correction - just meant to also share our experience, with our conditions! We have strong draft. WS says crazy-strong.

Finding the sweet spot on the PH draft is a fiddly process on our setup. A very fine line between all and none. The cruising position for us is down in the last inch to half-inch of movement on the handle.

 

The PH has an unregulated hole drilled in the bottom front of the firebox. {Edit: I could be wrong to call it tertiary}

 

I can see that- to me those holes are part of the primary air system. I think the independent cat-air system supports the dark firebox because you can run the air box lower and still hit the cat with oxygen.

 

The IS has dainty jets compared to the PH. The IS was mesmerizing at low air!

 

Careful, it almost sounds like you miss it lol

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When we were beta testing, people would ask us which we liked better. It wasn’t an easy answer. They are different, but both are a lot of fun to run, and we love the looks of the PH.