Woodstock Progress Hybrid performance

You should be able to heat 1000' easy, I don't care if you have no insulation and leave the windows open. I suspect your problem is more related to getting air moving around in the house. It sounds like you have a lot of small rooms, all blocked with walls... I think your going to need some fans blowing into the stove room. Not out of the stove room, blow the cold air from the far rooms toward the stove room.

If your stove room is 300sqft, you should be really hot in there. Figure out how to get some of that air out of the stove room, that is the trick. I'm not an expert on that part. Mines in one big open great room of about 1200 sq ft. It gets way too hot in here most of the time, I can't imagine running it in a 300' room.

 

Thought of a good analogy for what I'm saying with the stove top temp vs amount of heat released. I have a Mini Coopers S (turbo) and a ford F-150 truck. Both of them are capable of going 70 MPH. My Mini Cooper motor will turn at 8000 RPM's easy to push the car 70 MPH. My trucks motor will turn at 4000 RPM's to push it 70MPH. So the tuck hits speed at much lower rpm's than the mini does.

Likewise, the PH seems to run at much lower surface temps to generate heat than many other stoves.

 

Dhumohr: Is that Rutland Stovepipe thermometer magnetic or probe? I'm guessing magnetic, given the temp range they recommend....
I use the a Condor Probe thermometer on my stovepipe to judge when to engage the cat.
I could never burn for even five minutes with my air completely open...the stove would be roaring....so perhaps I have massively more raft than most?
Anyway, my procedure on a reload with hot coals present is:
Open cat
Open air all the way
Slowly open door
Load wood, front first (I too have a problem with heavier logs - of course, the drier the lighter for any species, so dry is good -so I place my heaviest log in first, when it won't be hung up by other wood. I use the poker or shovel or rake to even the ash/coal bed first and make sure I don't have a pile at the far end that will make it hard to get the log in all the way). If the piece is heavy, I try to slide it along the door frame a bit, while pushing down on the outside end so the far end doesn't bog down before the split gets the length of the stove. Next I put a good size split in the back, then smaller splits or rounds on top as they will fit. Then I put a good number of small branches if I still have any in on top. Those get the stove very hot VERY fast.

Close the door, lower the air immediately by at least 1/3. within minutes the stove starts to roar. I lower the air to about 1/2 or lower if it is still roaring, and watch the pipe probe thermometer. As soon as it is at 500 I lower the air until the flame is not going to go out of the firebox then close the cat. I almost always have nice secondaries at this point. I let that establish for a few minutes. Then, outside temp and inside temp determines what I do next. If the temp is good inside, I close the air all the way, then crack it open about 1/2 inch for a long slow cat burn, where I usually see lazy secondaries and the occasional spurt of more fire; if it is really cold out, I open the air gradually until the stove is putting the heat I want out the glass, then I leave the air in that setting for the burn.

I believe I get more overall heat when I burn with a slow cat burn, because the cat has time to burn all the smoke. However, I get more immediate heat burning faster.

I don't worry at all about the stovetop temp, although I am usually aware of it.

 

I'm thinking the recommendation on an over-fire is to open the bypass, not draft, to allow the heat to leave the stove more directly and to essential shut down (or at least greatly slow down) the cat by not directing all the smoke through it. My over-fires have been of the fingernail chewing but no action necessary type (680-700 degrees), so I don't have firsthand experience with this method.

I like to think of these stove as having two separate fires - one in the fire box, and one in the cat. They interact with each other, but function differently. The Ideal Steel really helped me see this distinction. I could have the firebox black (no flames at all) and could leave my hand within half an inch of the glass but have the stovetop running over 500 due to the cat. Right now my PH has the secondaries rolling and the closest I can hold my hand for a length of time is a little more than a foot back from the glass, but the stovetop is just under 500.

It takes heat in the firebox to generate the smoke (off-gassing of the wood) that the cat needs to burn. If I want the stovetop hotter, I get the firebox hotter by opening the draft in order to be able to generate more smoke for the cat. As the firebox gets hotter I can cut the draft back to slow the fresh air going in (and heat going out -- as I cut it back my stack temp drops), and the cat will continue keeping the stovetop hot. As the secondaries die out, more of the wood gasses are available for combustion up in the cat. On the PH I generally can not reduce the stovetop temp once the cat is lit. I can get it to level off, but I can't close the air enough to get it to come back down.

So I first get my reload going well, with cat engaged, and then use the draft control to get the stove to the heat level I want. Maximum output will come from both a hot top and rolling secondaries. Be ready to reload within 4 hours when burning at that rate, and you'll need to be willing to tolerate higher stack temps (less efficient). But it will really crank out the heat. This stove at 650 versus 500 is very impressive.

 

So that's how you're chewing through all that wood each year. We're using a similar technique to keep our home warm. I may join you in the 9-10 cord a year club.

 

I am into the first year of burning wood in the PH that was cut to length and split with the PH in mind. And I am hearing about it from 'Mrs Flamstead'. The splits are long and heavy, and she has trouble holding them from the end. Going from 18" to 21" is a 16% increase in length/weight, and all that extra is out at the far end of the split.

The stove works quite well with 18", so that is one way to address the issue.

 

Ive been using this method and wow it works awesome, its cold tonight (20's) and supposed to get down to below 15, I have the stove cruising at 600 with some small secondaries rolling at the top with a full firebox. This stove is impressive, high 70's lower level, mid 70's upper level, just a little cooler in one room. This stove is everything I hoped it would be.

 

Forgot to add the photo

 

Weatherguy,
You'll find you get very attached to this stove.......
Delighted things are working so well for you.
The stove really is very easy to start and to run, once you become familiar with it.
I'm sure you and yours will get as much warmth and enjoyment out of your PH as I have from mine.

 

Thanks for the explanation of this--it's very clear now.

That's great, and the length isn't the problem here, it's the huge split size-we don't split our own wood so we have to deal with the weight for this winter, sigh... The next wood we get will be split to smaller size, though, I guarantee you!

We've managed to get to 550 so far, and that's made a significant difference, as has loading more often and using more draft. So thanks for the advice!

 

Sherwood, it's a magnetic thermometer.

We're doing much better, thanks to your advice and Flamestead's. But we can burn with the damper all the way open, and usually that's how we get it up and over 500 now. We seem to have an OK draft, but obviously yours is better.

Getting the temp up to 500 and keeping it there for a while is heating the house much better, though there's no way the heat is driving us out of the house. As I've said, the most important rooms are adjacent to the dining room where the stove is, and they're being consistently at about 65 to 70 now, as is the kitchen, so that's great. We like the bedroom cooler and it's nice but not cold.

Yes, we're attached to the stove already--we love the looks, the heat, and the longer burns--overnight we can go about 10 hours and still have the stovetop temp at about 300, which is great for a reload--takes off right away!

 

Interesting to read your temps--upper level lower 70s? How many sq ft are you heating? We have the upstairs closed off because we don't use it unless we have company. How did you get your PH to cruise at 600? We've been up to 550, but not higher.

 

I'm close to 2800 sf but one room that my wife spends most of her time in stays cooler so she has a little heater. Whatever I have to do to NOT burn oil. I should note my house is newer and I have good insulation and had MassSave come out and tighten things up, my walls are 2 x 6 also.
I have a super draft, if I leave it 1/4 open it will take off past 700, I have to turn it either all the way down or just a hair open when its cold or it'll take off. I've been burning at around 500 the past week since it hasn't been that cold but if I need the heat I can let it run hotter before turning it down, course I lose an hour or two off burn times but if I need the heat I'll take it.
I think the draft is the difference between our two set ups cause this thing can really pump out some heat.
I have 2 years worth of 16" wood since I cut all the wood I have for my old stove. I have maybe 1/4 cord of 20", I knew I was getting a new stove so I didn't get that third year I usually get until I made my decision so from now on (starting in two years) all my wood will be 20-21", that's 20-25% more fuel so that should give me a better burn time.