progress hybrid warm in the morning

[georgepds]

So I'm a new owner of a progress hybrid, and I love it. One the things I like is how warm it feels in the morning , even if the fire went out sometime the previous evening.

This morning I measured temeratures on different places on the stove with an IR thermometer. The cast iron on the top was ~150 F, the soapstone on the top was ~250 F. My interpretation is the heat capacity of the soapstone is much greater than the cast iron . What this means is,after the fire is out, the stone stays warm a lot longer than the iron ( sort of a mini masonry stove). If someone has another interpretaion, I'm all ears.

BTW, I can get the stove to go all night by putting in more wood. The above meansurements were made using three 16 inch splits put in at midnight on a coal bed, and measuring stove top temperatures at 8 in the morning.

As to settings, once the flue temp is above 250 (single wall pipe) I switch to cat mode, and, after about 15 min, reduce the air to a smidge above full close

 

[Machria]

So I'm a new owner of a progress hybrid, and I love it. One the things I like is how warm it feels in the morning , even if the fire went out sometime the previous evening.

This morning I measured temeratures on different places on the stove with an IR thermometer. The cast iron on the top was ~150 F, the soapstone on the top was ~250 F. My interpretation is the heat capacity of the soapstone is much greater than the cast iron . What this means is,after the fire is out, the stone stays warm a lot longer than the iron ( sort of a mini masonry stove). If someone has another interpretaion, I'm all ears.

BTW, I can get the stove to go all night by putting in more wood. The above meansurements were made using three 16 inch splits put in at midnight on a coal bed, and measuring stove top temperatures at 8 in the morning.

As to settings, once the flue temp is above 250 (single wall pipe) I switch to cat mode, and, after about 15 min, reduce the air to a smidge above full close

That's about right. If your putting in 3 MEDIUM size splits at 12, I'm guessing at 8am your fire probably "just" went out within the last hour or two. And the 250 top temp confirms that, Throw in a 4th or 5th split and it will still be raging at 8am.

And yes, the soapstone holds and delivers heat for many hours after the fire has gone out which is pretty nice. The only downfall to that is, when you cold start the stove, it takes an hour or 2 to get the stones up to temp. The heat they steel in the beginning, is returned at the end.

PICS!!

 

[Waulie]

Sounds about right, George. My stove is basically warm all winter, whether there's a fire in it or not.

It works nice for me in the shoulder season when night and day temps might vary by 20 or 30 degrees. Have a decent (but not huge) fire at night and let the stone radiate all day.

Enjoy your stove!

 

[rideau]

I love the way one small fire a day keeps the home nice and warm in the Spring and Fall. One can go from three smaller splits when nights are freezing but days are warm, to 2 splits when nights hit a low of 40, to one split when the evening cools off to 50 and it's just a bit too chilly to be comfortable and who doesn't want to spend the late evening in front of a nice fire in the PH anyway?

Half way through the summer, I'm getting anxious for an evening that is cool enough to let me light a fire.

Re soapstone getting warm:
I find it only takes about half an hour or so to get the stove to about 250. At that point it is radiating some heat, but the early soapstone radiated heat isn't really a concern to me, because the stove is already throwing so much heat out the glass. The stove gives off a tremendous amount of heat in the first two hours.

The heat that is stored and radiated as the coals burn down, and after the fire goes out, is really nice, though,

 

[Machria]

It's been mid 40's here at night, approaching 50 some nights. I've had a fire every night anyway. I've been burning some oddball chunks and smaller splitts. Nice soft heat taking the chill out of the house. This is one thing I love about the soapstone!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That's about right. If your putting in 3 MEDIUM size splits at 12, I'm guessing at 8am your fire probably "just" went out within the last hour or two. And the 250 top temp confirms that, Throw in a 4th or 5th split and it will still be raging at 8am.

And yes, the soapstone holds and delivers heat for many hours after the fire has gone out which is pretty nice. The only downfall to that is, when you cold start the stove, it takes an hour or 2 to get the stones up to temp. The heat they steel in the beginning, is returned at the end.

PICS!!

Now this just does not sound right at all. We're read similar comments from Fireview owners but it need not take that amount of time to get the stove throwing heat. As rideau stated, 30 minutes to get the stove top to 250 and we know the Progress throws a lot of heat out the front even at that temperature.

If it is taking that long, perhaps you need to change something. With the Fireview we find that the key is to not leave the draft fully open while the stove is heating up. By cutting back on the draft once the fire gets going, the stove heats up much faster but not so fast as to harm the stone. We typically get our Firevew stove top to 250 in 30-40 minutes and then the temperature rises fast because that is when we engage the catalyst.

 

[Machria]

Keep in mind, I didn't say it does not give out heat in the at 1 to 2 hours. It gives off plenty of heat from the cast iron and thru the glass before the stones get up to temp. But it takes a full hour and sometimes up to 2 hours before my "top stones" are up to temp. The side stones get hot alot quicker as does the cast iron and glass.... but the top stones can take a long time to heat up.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Machria, you have me curious. What are you calling, "up to temp?"

 

[Machria]

Anywhere between 250 and 400 depending on how hot/big a fire I'm making....

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Interesting that it takes you that long to get to that temperature. I'm a bit confused....but that seems to be normal with me anyway.

 

[Machria]

Interesting that it takes you that long to get to that temperature. I'm a bit confused....but that seems to be normal with me anyway.

Partly has to do with the new heat sheild under the cooktop. As I said, the sides and rest of it heat up much quicker, it's just the stones on the top that take a long time...