Comparing the Ideal Steel to Progress Hybrid

The Ideal Steel is 3.2 cu ft.

 

Cert, the IS is 3.2
Brian caught this faster than I.

 

Ok Guess I was wrong for some reason I though I had read it was 2.8. Maybe that was the Progress?

That picture of the wood must be deceiving then as it didn't look look like as much as I put in mine........ I will go back to my corner now

 

Question for the beta testers. I clean chimney top down and just remove the baffle from my quad so that I do not need to remove the chimney from the stove. Can you get access to the chimney on the IS to catch or vacum out the ash after cleaning? Also, durning the cold periods, how long was the burn times with the stove opened up?
Thanks,

 

Not sure I can answer the cleaning question. So access from inside the stove to vacuum out what you cleaned. Going from memory, I would guess you could by opening that top and either reaching past the cat sled with the vacuum, or just pull the cat sled out (simple, just lift it out) and I would think you would have room. Don't take my word on that as I am assuming, based on the drawings, that you would have access to the back of the stove where the stove pipe connects. This just isn't how my set up is, so not something I have looked at. I would just unscrew the 4 screws that hold the stovepipe on the top and gain access that way.

Burn times for me on cold periods. Well during cold spells (sub 0), I would load the stove full in the morning, full again late afternoon/evening, and then toss in some later in the night (not typically a full load). I am finding with the warmer weather lately (20+) I do the full load in the morning, then a load in the evening (full or not depends on the temp). And that's it. Having said that, I am getting complaints of the house being too warm lately. At which point I ask if they turned the air down further during the day so the stove temp is down.....which is met with the...well I didn't think of it.

This is with a mix of bricks and ok wood. And sometimes, just the ok wood. I am sure people could to better with nice wood. But I am happy with this routine.

 

About the cleaning- I have never cleaned top/down so I am not sure how much and how big the ash/soot is. I think it is promising since you can lift the lid, remove the cat/sled and probably get a hose in there. Next time my stove cools (it won't be until next week) I can take a peek inside.

When I run the stove moderatley hot I get 8-9 hours. Similer to deathandtaxes, I fill it at 6:30a, put a small load in around 3p, and then fill it again about 8p. This is when it is 0 degrees, give or take 10.
I am getting better at "idleing" the IS. Yesterday I ran it low from 6a until 8p without touching it.

 

Mr & Mrs - So 10 minutes to engage the Cat? I know my wood isn't great, so maybe your wood is that much better. What was your stove temp before you loaded? What was you stove temp when you engaged the cat? and where is your Thermo located for these temps? Also, what is the smoke situation? I assume you have smoke during start up, but when does it turn clear? how long does that take after you engage the cat?

Some times I am clear very quickly. Other times it takes a long time (hour or 2 before it is perfectly clear). Because I have times when it takes 20 minutes to be clear and works great those times, I know it's not the stove. It's either how I am using it, my fuel, or my draft changing with the weather. Just trying to learn how to use it best (I am new to cat stoves). It could very well be that I have crappy wood mixed in with my "ok" cord wood and those are the loads I struggle with, but I want to make sure it's not how I do things.

 

Have you tried cracking a window when it is slow to get going? It could be a "chimney not warmed up" problem.
A few days ago I couldn't even keep the match lit to get a supercedar going. Everytime I put it inside the stove it would blow out. I opened a nearby window and things worked much better. A couple times with my old stove I would have a reverse draft situation where smoke would pour into the house at startup but never had a problem keeping a match lit!

 

Good point! Totally spaced that one. I have never had to do it before, so I forgot about that trick, but that is certainly worth a shot.

 

Mine should be cool enough tonight when I get home to take some pictures of the cleaning. I have actually been contemplating if I can get a brush up and passed through anyways so it'll satisfy my curiosity.

Matches are fussy and bore me, so I use one of these to light my fires.

 

The Alderlea stoves are great! I've only seen a T5 in real life and they are beautiful, my understanding is the T6 is the same only bigger!? Must be awesome!

 

The wood is 2yr-old Red Maple with some Black Cherry. That load caught quickly - some loads are much slower due to the coals being blocked/covered by splits (if we want a fast start, we run on piece N/S and the rest of the load E/W).

We spent time burning down coals to make it a more fair comparison. There was still 2-3" of coals. Stovetop was probably 300 when we loaded. We have three magnetic thermometers on the stove - one each to the left and right of the top-vent cover plate, and on one the front, right of center. Our stove is an earlier beta, and runs hotter on the right than the left.

I haven't gone out to check for smoke in some time (but I used to, a lot!). Generally I expect the smoke to clear to nothing within minutes of closing the cat. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes we are perplexed by what we see on the thermometers when we still see smoke; likely there is real physics/chemistry at play and not just mere whim of the stove, and I'd like to get a better handle on what is happening in there those times. I am quite eager to run the stove with a cat probe in place. But based on our flue cleaning after 2 cord, day-to-day there is very little smoke going up the chimney.

 

Her

Here are some pictures with the stove top opened. I pulled out the radiator to take the pics.

This one is taken under the lip looking towards to vent. Mine is top venting.

And here is a shot that shows the rear vent location covered by the plate and the top vent.

Kinda hard to get pictures in there, only about 3-4" of clearance, shouldn't be a big deal get a vacuum in there at all, little more work to get an ash shovel or some other clean out tool, but should be quite doable.

 

Thanks Zee and everyone else. That was some of the info that I was looking for. Hoping the tax return will be enough, even if not thinking hard to take the plunge. Just love the way the Quad has been working.
Thanks again to everyone helping to make this a very hard decision.

 

Nice secondaries

 

Thanks, it's small but loves to roar! 600* stovetop really makes things happen.

 

Are you talking about smoke in the firebox or smoke outside the chimney? I notice more smoke from the chimney than I used to but I suspect it has to do with the cold weather.

 

I was talking about smoke from the chimney. I believe Flamestead is also. Sounds others are seeing similar things as me. I haven't cleaned the chimney, like Flamestead, but I am happy to hear his report of little residue in the chimney, although I haven't been concerned about build up, as it hasn't been a large amount of smoke, and it's not all the time.
I was just wondering if I was missing something obvious in what I was doing.