Comparing the Ideal Steel to Progress Hybrid

You can, that is exactly what it is designed to do. BUT, what I'm saying is, I'd like to see them change it so you can slid it in, over the pan/under the grate, to block off the grate, before removing the pan. This will keep any ash from falling into the pan compartment while the pan is removed, and keep excess air from entering the firebox while the pan is removed and pan door open, assuming you have a fire going. Then empty the pan, and slide back in, then remove the "cover" and shut the door.

Anyway, CRAZY weather!!! Currently 53 degree's! It was 29 yesterday at 5pm, by midnight it was 48, now it is 53. Tonight, there are windchill ALERTS in effect with 45mph winds, and a low temp of 8 degrees! Who the hell confused mother nature??

 

If you match the hearth and back wall to the stove color family it is not that noticeable. And the function is sweet.

 

I usually just rake the ash from the coals, then remove the pan... I usually have nothing fall from the firebox when removing the pan. I've looked in there when installing the pan, nothing to really worry about...maybe a fine film of ash if that..

Yup was in the high 30's here today, melted everything, and now it's a big ice mess where I kept the snow plowed... Going down to 5 tonight..plus what ever the wind chill will be... Spread some ashes on the icy area's this evening..

 

So an advantage to living near West Lebanon is that we can drop in without much prior planning, which is what happened on Saturday, and we were lucky enough to catch both Lorin and Lewis. We kept Lorin busy answering questions while Lewis got a shorter set of andirons finished (they weren't expecting us), and then we had a good talk with both of them about our experiences with the stove.


Bottom (inlet) of cat after two weeks of a lot of wood. The PH cat would be noticeably more covered at this point. This was just a light dusting.


New andirons, installed with no tools needed, with a small starting fire. We took the time to clean the glass while the stove was cooled down, but it stays much cleaner than the PH glass for us.

 

Oh, there's definitely something to be said for that. Nice.

 

I like the shorter andirons. Should make loading a little easier and you may not even need to fold them down to load the stove.

 

That's about what my CAT looked like last year after the entire season. I never really get anything on it...

 

No, but she sure is FOOLING us!

 

Same here with mine,, just had it out about a week ago,, needed no attention at all... I was surprised...

 

I just heard from Tom that they are sending out a shorter set of andirons for our stove too.

I think we're going to like the shorter ones. Like BBAR said it will make for easier loading.

Presently the only time I use the andirons is for EW loads, which only represent about one out of every 7 or 8 loads for us now.

 

I'm a big fan of n/s loading and that's the only way I load. I can't imagine ever wanting/needing to load EW.

 

I have some long pieces that won't fit NS so I set them aside for an occasional EW load.

 

Well, in the PH You always load E/W by definition. BUT, you are really loading N/S because the door is on the side. And I agree, I could not see having to reach over and around splits.... It's just so easy to slide them in lengthwise.

But the Ideal lets you do whatever you want which is really nice, especially with short splits as I'm into right now.

 

I put them to the side then shorten them up when I get enough to make it worth firing up the saw. Since I process most of my own wood that doesn't happen too often anymore. My old stove could take a split that was slightly longer so every once in a while I run into one of those. I'm just about through the wood that was cut when I had the other stove.

 

Gloves: I never used gloves to load the PH, and almost always use them for the Ideal Steel. This is partly due to the bigger door opening (more heat radiating out) of the Ideal Steel, and partly due to E/W loading of wood. The PH is an end-loader, and we just got into the first of our 20" wood, cut back in 2012 specifically for the PH, this year. It is a long reach to the back of the Ideal Steel's firebox to pack in a load E/W, so stove gloves are very handy. They also worked well for tipping out the taller andirons and then tipping them back up, but now we are loading over the top (leaving the shorter andirons in place when we load).

Gloves generally are not necessary for either the bypass or the door handle - I just opened both bare-handed with the stovetop at 375-400. I don't use gloves for the damper, either, but the ash lip can get quite hot - I think the IR thermometer readings have been up in the 200+F range at times.

 

Seems about right. Never met an ash lip yet that wasn't hot.

 

About 1.3 cord has gone through the Ideal Steel. The day it came we swept the liner (6", 32', insulated, interior chimney). We have a cold spell coming, so we took the opportunity to do a check of everything, and swept the liner while we were at it. With the PH we would not have bothered to sweep at this point, but we were curious. We sweep bottom-up; I run the rod through a hole in a kitchen trash bag, and while I sweep my wife holds the top of the bag around the bottom of the liner.

Here's the bag afterward, held up to the light; all light powder, and very little of it. We were both quite pleased...

 

I am digging that setup...some stoves have ash cleanout ports that require the stove to be cold, which isn't very helpful. The Ideal setup seems to allow you to rake ash into the pan while retaining your coals which is a great feature. There was something similar on the Harman TL200....not sure if it's still a feature on their current TL300. Any updates from Woodstock on release date?

 

1. Ash pan on the PH and Ideal Steel is really, really well designed. Since childhood I've burned and cleaned at least 8 other stoves, most without an ash pan, and this design is a winner.

2. Release date. No inside information, but this is a simpler stove than the PH, and in my view, after putting +2 cords through it, was 95+% of the way to being a marketable product by the time we got this beta model. I'm not aware of any hurdles - I suspect they are polishing, getting necessary certifications, and working on production efficiencies.