Progress owners, give me a hand here!

SO, KSC, are you continuing the burn with the air a bit more open?

And, how full was the firebox when you put all that wood in?

 

Okay. So, 10-12 hours are small split soft wood. Thank you for doing this.

 

I loaded it back up and went to bed. I had about 2" of ash and a few small coals when I initailly loaded it up. I normally get about 7-8 hours out of a softwood load, which is about 2/3 full. I like to reload before the stove drops below 200. Now that Dec. is here I'll be burning some better wood, a mixture of ash, maple and honey locust that's been css for 2+ years.

 

Hey Browing Bar, I posted about a long, slow burn on another site last year and I'm pretty sure you saw that thread. Unfortunately, I didn't closely monitor stove temps during that burn. The result was that I reloaded after 17.5 hours but still had enough coals that I could have reloaded after 20 hours easy. That was with the stove packed full but only with 16 to 17 inch splits.

The keys to a long, slow burn with the PH is to use good hard wood (duh), pack it in really tight with big splits, and turn the air down before the secondaries go too crazy. I do not run completely closed for two reasons. The first is that I had a pretty scary backpuff doing that one time while sleeping, and the second is that I can get a bit of that stubborn smoke smell if I completely snuff out the flames. The smoke smell issue seems to have been fixed based on reports but I have not upgraded yet. There have been several upgrades to the stove and owners who have upgraded seem very pleased with the improvements. I also have an oversized chimney (7X7) which probably doesn't help with the backpuffing.

I will try to do another long, slow burn on a full load when I get a chance. I do have 19 to 20 inch splits now so it would be a better test.

I think that yes, you should be able to consistently load the PH after 18 to 20 hours if it is packed full with large splits of hardwood. However, I still think that it would roast me out for a time in real shoulder season temps. That really might not be a huge issue for you since you have such high heat demands. I also seem to get slightly better burn times than other PH users and we haven't really been able to figure why.

 

All right. Tonight is the night! Look for a new thread in a few........

 

Excellent. Thank you. Could you post a few pics of the firebox so I can see how full it is and what the burn looks like. I am really leaning towards a King/Progress/Steel combo right now if I can swing it.

 

Finally got though my very dead ash... Today I loaded some hard maple into the PH for the first time... Wow , hole different ball game... Mistake I made was to let the flue gas get to 500... I think 400 would have worked.. anyways I shut the stove draft down 100 % and wound up with no secondaries or flames what so ever... Strictly a cat burn and that was at about 12:30 this afternoon.. Let me tell you that cat burned the smoke it liked that wood... Stove eventually got to 650 and cruised there for over 2 hours.. Another mistake I made, ,,, had a big coal bed on the reload plus should have closed the stove up sooner. 4.5 hrs later the stove is still at 475 , draft completely closed and still not one flame... so far this is burning just like the Fireview , all from burning a harder wood... I believe my ash was too dry, some of it just on the verge of being punky. So the learning curve with the PH continues... I'll have to split a piece of this hard maple and check the moisture content... I'm happy still seeing not a flame... So the PH is a different stove according to the wood size, species and moisture content for sure..

 

Wasn't it in the upper 50s for you today?

 

Charlie, I burn mostly maple, beech, ironwood, some hickory, little ash...mine hasn't yet been decimated....I close the bypass as soon as my flue probe thermometer reads 400. Works well for me.

I cannot imagine the stove top at 650. Did you have your windows open???? What happens to room temp when the stove gets that hot? How long was it above , say, 550?

 

Yes sir,,, 52 a good day to experiment,,, hey even had a good draft with the stove shut down 100%

 

Was above 550 for at least 3 hrs... No windows open... Just didn't have the Esse going and the back part of the house kept sucking up the heat... Still not one flame,,, all cat burn... Next time I'll shut her down when the probe reads 400... I emailed Jamie about the 650 temps,,, he said no problem, you just wouldn't want to constantly run it there day in and day out... Nice to know that I can back down the load that I'm into a little better wood... I would have loved to have had a cat probe today...

 

I think the reason I wasn't driven out,,,,, no secondaries blazing heat from the glass... It was actually a comfortable heat with just the cat going for how hot the stove was... Same feeling of heat I use to get with the Fireview, pleasant..

 

Well, when the 30 hits 700-750 with the blower on, I can get this room north of 90 if outside temps are 25 or above.

 

Well my first burn with harder wood in the PH turned out to be 100% cat burn... I feel like I have an over sized Fireview ... The heat without the secondaries was really comforting.. just smooth heat from all that stone... What a nice feeling being able to just have a cat burn in a Hybrid stove.. It just keeps getting better with the PH... Now A nice big coal bed to burn f0r hours , all on smallish splits of hard maple...

 

Yeah, you can't compare overall heat between an all cat burn and a secondary or secondary/cat mixed burn by using stovetop temps. I am a bit surprised you hit 650 on the all cat burn. I've had mine climb pretty fast under the right circumstances though. This thing is, in that situation, you may have a really hot spot right over the cat but the rest of the stove is relatively cool. When you have secondaries going (or flame at all), your getting way more overall heat from a stovetop at 450 than you are with an all cat burn at 650. I'd bet one reason your climbed so high is that your cat is still pretty new and is a little bit of a hyper kitten. If you ever want to cool the top down when that happens, just open the air a little. The top will cool right down (of course the rest of the stove will warm right up).

You can't compare the PH with a stovetop of 650 on an all cat burn with the 30 cranking away at 700. It really is apples to oranges. When I did my test burn, I had a some secondaries going (although not many) the whole time. That made for less food for the cat and a lower top temp, but more heat out the window and probably a similar output overall. It's cold out tonight so I'm bringing a decent size load up to temp right now. Secondaries are just cranking away but the stovetop is only at 440 (same as my low burn the other night) as it's still coming up to temp. Overall heat output right now is probably 3 times what it was doing my low burn at least.

 

What is Woodstock's recommended top temp for the stove? 600?

 

The nice thing being in the 50's today, I found out I could load less would and have a nice low cat burn all day, stove drafting fine while warm out,,, yet with the draft being able to be surprisingly closed 100%... Lot's of fun learning about running the PH... I'm almost tempted to throw in a new pipe and damper sometime, just to see what that does... First I'll get more familiar with the PH.. Just the cat burn provided some really nice heat today , not driving me out at all... it was nice seeing that under the right conditions this is possible... This is showing me that the PH is more versatile then I thought possible.. It's all a learning curve and a rewarding one for me....

 

Is does take a while. I'm just feeling like I've got in down now and this is my third winter!

 

IIRC, it's 700. I believe Hearthstone says 600 and WS says 700.

 

When I talked to Jamie at Woodstock he wasn't concerned... Safe zone on the stove top temp says 700... I was reading kind of where the cat is located... Hottest part of the stove.. I'm sure the main part of the stove was maybe at 500-550... I know Dennis has ran his Fireview at a constant 600-650-700 for years with no issues... Jamie said he just wouldn't constantly run it at 650 all the time... I'm sure with the stove just coming up to peak those temps is not an issue... I will just close things down sooner and load with a smaller coal bed next time... I'm just happy to see I can get 100% cat burn now... That really gives me two stoves in one... Blasting heat when I want and slow steady smooth heat when needed.. To me that's real control..