Replacing Fireview with....?

I’m in the same boat I have a fireview but it’s not quite enough to heat the whole house. We struggle to get each end of the house warm in the middle of winter and we’re thinking about upgrading to the progress hybrid but we’re afraid it will run us out of the room.

 

I've been running partial loads all Fall to help control the heat output, and reloading just once or twice a day. Last night was our first full load of the season.

 

My wife shares your opinion on this one. Soapstone is beautiful, and holds great heat. I've torn the fireview all the way down and rebuilt it and with that said, not sure I want to go through that process again down the road with a progress!

 

For the record, I have a 6" center brick chimney lined and insulated. Without measuring and remembering correctly its about 24-26 feet total.

I believe the princess is still sitting at a 6" flue. I'm having a super hard time stomaching looking at one all the time, would be fine if it was in a basement installation, but hard pressed in a living room. Tempting because of their proven results though.

 

I've been down that road against advice before too with a baro, works as advertised but I did not like the results it did on the first 4 feet of flue pipe. Majorly cleaning.

I've got a turn key damper and a manometer on my stack. Too complicated for my wife to fiddle with though if I am not around.

 

Good point, I've noticed that too with front loaders, more smoke escaping. Wish I could swap an IS just for a day to see for myself on my setup!

 

You all bring up great points for anyone reading about firebox size and heat output. X amount of wood gives Y amount heat. Z is the variable on how long that heat is released for at "Said" efficiency rating.

On a side note, the poor good folks at Woodstock had a bad hard drive failure and have to rebuild their site. I talked with them on the phone today.

 

The BK princess/king is a pretty ugly beast of a stove. No doubt, but the window doesn't get black. It doesn't stay fully clear though, it is somewhere in between. Those of us that use them and run them on low all the time end up with about 50% of the glass totally clear and the other 50% with varying thickness of accumulations that are mostly amber to black in the very bottom corners. It's only single wall glass. You can always see the fire and or glowing coals when they are present in the firebox.

Yes, I wish the glass stayed as clean as other stoves. I've seen plenty of pictures of IS owners that were able to blacken their glass too!

That PH is a nice looking stove. Might be too fancy for some places but is less ornate than the fireview wouldn't you say? Still pretty small at just 2.8 CF.

 

I’ve just now as I type got the first fire of the season started and it’s not even cold outside but tomorrow’s low is 29* so I’m getting it warmed up now. I’m going to let it go out and then crank it up again tomorrow afternoon. This season I’m going to play with insulation and fans and see if I can’t get better results but the PH is still on the table.

 

For whatever it is worth, IMO and IME, the Ideal Steel, which is even larger than the Progress Hybrid, can be driven so slowly and yet still cleanly and efficiently that I can maintain a full fire in it when the outside temps. are into the 40's. It is simply amazing how slowly it will run cleanly. That is where the stove truly shines, again IMO. The key is the shape and design of the firebox, especially the top, and the location of the combustor along with the very close radiator just above the combustor. These three things combine to allow the combustor to work properly at amazingly low amounts of fuel (smoke) and temperature because it is both in the hottest part of the firebox as well as being greatly shielded on two sides and its top. The downside to that is that the radiator (just a piece of bent steel, not complicated nor expensive) warps, sags and spalls but even so, the design is more than worth that small flaw. Besides, it is easy enough to straighten out in a hydraulic press (read: wood splitter bucked with hardwood planks) or a mechanical press (read: sledgehammer) every couple of years.

A little later tonight or tomorrow, I will upload a graph of an all- day, half- night burn on an I.S. The inside of the firebox is black, including the glass, because the firebox is running so low in temp. but the stove's flue gasses are clear and the combustor is cleaning up the mess being made by the firebox in the first place. My flue exit temps. are below 250F and occasionally dip below 200F, effectively yielding a true condensing wood stove, something that is usually in the same category of unicorns and chicken's teeth.

Brian

 

I agree with BDF but IS also shines in 2500 sq. foot house on many levels with vaulted ceilings at 30 below and wind.. just not 12 hours burns it might on better wood like oak but I managed that on marginal wood popular cherry soft maple that was almost dry 21% MC I'm about 7 miles south of 45th parallel or Canadian border next to a 15 mile wide 100 mile long lake that at those Temps is referred to as the icebox..

my real life experience and opinions... your in Minnesota so I thought that might be more relevant Temps than Brian in Jersey or high beam on wet side of Washington.. whose temperatures may be more moderate... not trying to be negative towards then just adding perspective

 

All things are governed by a basic set of rules that really are pretty simple. Firebox size will always carry the day simply because there is no magic method of getting more heat out of a given quantity of fuel.

The number one consideration with any woodstove (or any fuel burning device) is firebox size. Same thing applies to boilers for heating homes: need more heat, you need more boiler, specifically the firebox.

The next thing that I think should be considered is what type of use the owner expects; long, even burns point toward a catalytic stove (I lump hybrids in with catalytic stoves for basic purposes). When time is not so important, perhaps if a family member is a stay- at- home Mom or Dad say, then a simpler, possibly less expensive secondary burn stove may fill the bill. Once those two parameters are set, then it is down to what are the smaller points IMO, such as how the owner wants to load the stove (front, side, top), whether or not the owner wants a grate and ash pan setup or will shovel the ashes out directly, what style the owner likes, what colors, and things such as modern, old- time, steel, iron, soapstone, etc., etc.. But I believe this is the most reasonable way to approach the problem and always, no matter what, ignore 85% of whatever the manufacturer says in the sales brochures 'cause 1) they are stretching the truth or outright lying 2) the spec.s they print are not what you really care about and 3) they will distract the potential owner from real issues such as 'how are you going to clean the glass on that stove' and so forth.

Brian

 

Absolutely, you (Canadian border VT, and everyone in the Rockies in Canadia where Sasquatch lives) are in a much colder area than I am. My area has full, 'real' winters but not nearly what norther New England sees. No offense taken and I agree with you.

In another two months, I too will be kicking the stove in the pants a bit and running it harder. The glass will stay clean and the burn times will decrease but the stove will deliver very well for my needs. But I find running a stove this size so slowly and yet cleanly to be more surprising than when it is used in the heart of winter, so I tend to mention that point more I guess.

The Ideal Steel is considered a large stove I guess, with the handful that are larger considered extra- large. So it is probably adequate to heat the majority of homes in the US and maybe even most in Canada. But I am a fan of the belief that 'nothing exceeds like excess' and a bigger stove would be considered a plus in my mind.

By the way, I am in RI, not Jersey (Joisey); in New England, just like you but about as far south as you are north w/in New England. New Jersey is a little more temperate yet than RI, which in milder than VT of course.

Brian

 

I’m thinking sealing some leaks to the attic and then a whole bunch more insulation up there will pay big comfort dividends for us. We had 16 degrees this morning and are expecting a high of 32 on both Friday and Saturday.

 

This mornining I was reminded that one of my main preferences of the PH over the IS is coal management. We can put more wood through the PH in a day than the IS, at similar flue temps, largely due to the ability to get rid of coals more quickly in the PH due to its stronger primary airflow. Again, the difference washes out on longer burns.

This thread is picture-deprived...

 

Got a pretty good wind clip going and supposed to be a low of 5 tonight. Ice is already forming on the lakes, I've burned almost a cord of wood this year already. Crazy!

I already feel like I am a day late and a dollar short this season.

I really want to try a blaze king for a season or two, and have found a good deal on a princess, but my wife is pushing on the progress, ideal steel or possibly the Lopi cape cod. That magic thermostat that everyone talks about makes me want to experience it.

 

That can be important if you have to fly out the door in the morning and do not have time to baby sit burning down a huge pile of coals.

The fireview is Mr. Automatic in the morning doing a restart.

 

I upgraded from the Fireview to the Ideal Steel.
I WANTED a Progressive Hybrid.
But I couldn't beat the deal on the IS !!

The IS is a heating machine!
With a huge fire box.

Is there more than one flue?
(How about 2 Fireviews? Or an IS or PH with a Fireview for supplemental heat?)
An IS is half the cost of a PH, and a few hundred cheaper than a Fireview

 

Yes, I’d like to try a blaze king, too, just for the fun of it, but I’m pretty sure that won’t be happening. We’ve been unseasonably warm, and I’m still burning wood left over from last year’s mild winter - we had almost 2 cord left over. Hoping to get a bunch of wood brought in under cover this weekend.