Another Progress Hybrid installation, replacing Fireview, work in progress

WarmInIowa · Feb 14, 2012

oldspark said:
With that big an area to heat do you use another heat source, seems a stretch for one stove.

Yes, I have propane as a back-up. It doesn't get used much, as it is expensive. When we have visitors, we might turn it on in the morning to get the temp up quickly if it is really cold out, then the stove will provide heat all day. For example we ran it Sunday morning to bump the temp up 2 degrees, and it has not run since. I don't expect to run the furnace for another week or so looking at the forcast with highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s.

The stove isn't rated to heat this much space, but it does. I do have a daughter who likes her room to be 80 degrees, so she has a space heater in her room. My exterior walls are 2x6 with decent insulation, but I also have a bunch of windows and they aren't anything special. We also added some blown insulation to the attic a few years back; that was a good deciscion.

WarmInIowa · Feb 16, 2012

Quick update - wow, I love this stove! I load it twice a day; I still haven't emptied ashes. Last night and tonight it is sitting at 550F just coastings along throwing lots of heat. Our home is warmer all day and night. One really funny thing is as the cat has "broken in" the fire has become less active.

For example tonight I reloaded it around 7:30 and I added new wood, closed the air a little to control the flames in the box, then engaged the cat after about 15 minutes. I left the air just barely pinched open ( I would say about 1/16") for another 10 minutes because I wasn't certain the cat would engage as the draft seemed slow. The stove was basically black at this point with no flames and not even any glowing logs. Here it is 3 hours later and stove looks the same - if you walked by it, you would think it hadn't been in use - unless you saw that the temp was 550F or realized that my furnace is turned off.

My wood 2nite and last night is 3 pieces of the pallet/box it came in, 1 large split of locust, and the rest oak. The locust and oak were split 1.5 years ago. It takes two 5 gallon buckets of wood to stuff the stove. Between 6-9 pieces depending on how big they are.

If I want to see flames, all I have to do is pinch open the air. Very pleased !!!

smitty79 · Feb 21, 2012

I have also had a problem with the smoke smell when engaging the cat... I noticed you had the smae problem, but haven't mentioned anything else about it. Has that gone away? Did you figure out a better way/time to engage it that keeps the smoke smell away? This is my first stove, Cat or otherwise so I'm learning...
Thanks.

WarmInIowa · Feb 21, 2012

smitty79 said:
I have also had a problem with the smoke smell when engaging the cat... I noticed you had the smae problem, but haven't mentioned anything else about it. Has that gone away? Did you figure out a better way/time to engage it that keeps the smoke smell away? This is my first stove, Cat or otherwise so I'm learning...
Thanks.

No it didn't go away; I haven't posted about it because I don't have a working solution yet. At this point I have replaced the door gasket, and it didn't work out yet. WS thinks there might have been too much cement in the channel because I couldn't get the new gasket in and the door closed. The bottom of the groove is rounded, so I made a tool from a punch that is rounded on the bottom which just fit into the channel and carefully tapped it with a hammer to remove all the old stove cement. Now the gasket fits so I'll see what happens shortly.

** *Note to any future door gasket replacers: you may need to get the old cement out before installing the new gasket. You can figure this out by dry fitting the gasket or gaskets into the door channel, then putting the door on the stove and trying to shut it. If you can't get it shut, don't bother with the next step of adding cement yet. Back up and clean the channel better. This would have saved me a lot of time had I thought to do this first. *** It took two people to get the door closed the first time, so be sure you try pretty hard. I pushed on the door with all my strength and my son pushed down as hard as he could to shut the lever. I let it sit 15 minutes then was able to get it open and shut myself after the gasket compressed a little.

WS is also sending a thin gasket that will fit around the top and two sides of the cat to block off any air passages around it to make sure no air is escaping around the cat. I will report back later this week once I have these changes made.

smitty79 · Feb 22, 2012

I had a problem with the installer..the T broke on the bottom side when he moved the stove back into position and there is a pretty sizeable hole there where it broke. My draft is pretty strong, and the hole is on the bottom of the pipe, so I never saw any smoke coming out, but it made sense that smoke could be coming out of there. The smell for me is random (as far as I can tell). I tried engaging the cat at a higher temperature yesterday (around 300) and I didn't have the smoke smell at all. I'm going to try that again and see if it works.
I'm not getting the long burn times (12+ hours) others are getting. I'm getting around 7-8 on a full load. The wood I'm burning (oak) was split last spring/summer so I 'm thinking it may be the moisture content of the wood.

smitty79 · Feb 24, 2012

My installation issues were corrected today...I fired up the stove and I'm still getting the smoke smell. I'm going to try to eliminate some causes.

scotsman · Feb 25, 2012

oldspark said:
I've got a Marantz 2325 that I would love to get refurbished, not sure I want to do it my self, I have a Rabco ST7 and a Infinity Monitor II speakers also.

WarmInIowa · Feb 25, 2012

I put in the 1/2" white door gasket a few days ago and the stove has been much less smelly the last couple days. I still might try doing the two gaskets like a few others have.

Today I recieved the gasket for adding around the cumbustor, so I installed it around the top and two sides. Unfortunately a huge windstorm came through just as I had started damping down the stove on restart and I had my back turned for a minute and then noticed smoke pouring out the back - CRUD! I quickly opened the window behind the stove, but the room was already pretty filled. Now I won't be able to tell for another day if the new gasket is working. It tucks very nicely around the combustor, so I'm guessing this will help.

I added a pot of vinegar to the stove top to simmer away and get rid of the smoke smell in the house. That works pretty good. Hope you all have a nice weekend!

HollowHill · Feb 25, 2012

WarmInIowa said:
I put in the 1/2" white door gasket a few days ago and the stove has been much less smelly the last couple days. I still might try doing the two gaskets like a few others have.

Today I recieved the gasket for adding around the cumbustor, so I installed it around the top and two sides. Unfortunately a huge windstorm came through just as I had started damping down the stove on restart and I had my back turned for a minute and then noticed smoke pouring out the back - CRUD! I quickly opened the window behind the stove, but the room was already pretty filled. Now I won't be able to tell for another day if the new gasket is working. It tucks very nicely around the combustor, so I'm guessing this will help.

I added a pot of vinegar to the stove top to simmer away and get rid of the smoke smell in the house. That works pretty good. Hope you all have a nice weekend!

Could you explain this smoke incident a little more? What caused the smoke to come out the back of the stove? Was the stove door open?

smitty79 · Feb 25, 2012

I have had puffs of smoke come out of the back of mine as well. It comes out of the Flue opening, I think it was because the draft hadn't been established yet. I'm pretty sure that the door was closed. I still can't figure out when/where the other smoke smell is coming from. It seams pretty random, although I definitely notice it more if I'm starting a new fire or adding to one that has started to cool down (~200 degrees). I had the stove running all day yesterday and all night last night. I didn't smell anything after the temp got to about 300.

HollowHill · Feb 25, 2012

smitty79 said:
I have had puffs of smoke come out of the back of mine as well. It comes out of the Flue opening, I think it was because the draft hadn't been established yet. I'm pretty sure that the door was closed. I still can't figure out when/where the other smoke smell is coming from. It seams pretty random, although I definitely notice it more if I'm starting a new fire or adding to one that has started to cool down (~200 degrees). I had the stove running all day yesterday and all night last night. I didn't smell anything after the temp got to about 300.

Mine seems to come from the back right corner - where the top joins to the cast, at the underside of the back right corner cast molding above the door, and sometimes at the top of the door hinge. Try sniffing there, especially when you get the gasses igniting like aurora borealis (after turn draft down on load or reload, when you have the darkish stove with not much flame)

charly · Feb 25, 2012

It's been discouraging to me reading how a lot of the new PH owners have been having smoke and smoke smell issues. Should the PH have been built with an 8 inch pipe? Another thought I had ,,,, I read Woodstock ran the new PH with a draft inducer. Were these issues masked by the draft inducer? Just considering one of these stoves for next winter , but really can't see having a new stove that your chasing problems down. That will get old fast.

WarmInIowa · Feb 25, 2012

Due to the location of my chimney, design of the house / roof related to the chimney I get wind induced down drafts a few times a year. I can usually avoid this with timing if I know the wind is coming, I'll make sure the stove is good and hot befor it starts. Hotter flue temps discourage the downdrafts.

As mentioned earlier in my posts, I have a lot of windows in the back of my house to take advantage of a nice view. I'm about 80-100' overlooking a river, so there is a steep rise up to my backyard, it levels off at my yard. Winds will sometimes come down the river "channel" up the steep bank then they hit the back of my house with nice force. In addition the "normal" wind is coming sqaurely at the back of my house from the NW. My chimney sticks up a bit - it follows the guidelines but is not near being over the peak of the roof because it is a fairly large and tall roof.

In this case, I didn't know it was about to get windy and I'd let the stove burn down so I could pull the cat and add the insulation. The wind gusts came in just the wrong way at just the wrong time - as I was starting a fire. Whamo - downdraft - and the smoke follows the path of least resistance - back out the air intake in spades until I open a window on that side of the house - which takes 0.57 seconds if I'm paying attension. The open window relieve a little of pressure put on the house by the wind. Once I opened the window and the gust was gone all was well. In this case had I left the draft wide open it likely would not have happened; I was slowly cranking it down about 5 minutes after the fire catching. If I would have known about the wind, I would have left the draft open, maybe even cracked the window and all would have been well. My house still stinks this morning. However I do have a nice pot of oatmeal with shredded apple and cinnimon on top for breakfast, that smell is starting to overtake the crummy smoke smell.

Here a pic out the back window, that will give you an idea of what I'm referring to.

HollowHill · Feb 25, 2012

WarmInIowa said:
Due to the location of my chimney, design of the house / roof related to the chimney I get wind induced down drafts a few times a year. I can usually avoid this with timing if I know the wind is coming, I'll make sure the stove is good and hot befor it starts. Hotter flue temps discourage the downdrafts.

As mentioned earlier in my posts, I have a lot of windows in the back of my house to take advantage of a nice view. I'm about 80-100' overlooking a river, so there is a steep rise up to my backyard, it levels off at my yard. Winds will sometimes come down the river "channel" up the steep bank then they hit the back of my house with nice force. In addition the "normal" wind is coming sqaurely at the back of my house from the NW. My chimney sticks up a bit - it follows the guidelines but is not near being over the peak of the roof because it is a fairly large and tall roof.

In this case, I didn't know it was about to get windy and I'd let the stove burn down so I could pull the cat and add the insulation. The wind gusts came in just the wrong way at just the wrong time - as I was starting a fire. Whamo - downdraft - and the smoke follows the path of least resistance - back out the air intake in spades until I open a window on that side of the house - which takes 0.57 seconds if I'm paying attension. The open window relieve a little of pressure put on the house by the wind. Once I opened the window and the gust was gone all was well. In this case had I left the draft wide open it likely would not have happened; I was slowly cranking it down about 5 minutes after the fire catching. If I would have known about the wind, I would have left the draft open, maybe even cracked the window and all would have been well. My house still stinks this morning. However I do have a nice pot of oatmeal with shredded apple and cinnimon on top for breakfast, that smell is starting to overtake the crummy smoke smell.

Here a pic out the back window, that will give you an idea of what I'm referring to.

What a fabulous view! With the leaks I have in my house, it's like there's a window open all the time, hence I never have that problem :lol:

smitty79 · Feb 25, 2012

Separate from the puff of smoke coming out of the flue, I have noticed the smell on the right side of the stove. I don't think it's coming through the door though (my door is on rt. side). I closed a dollar bill in the door and checked the seal all the way around...the dollar wouldn't budge. I just don't get why I don't get the smell all the time....

rideau · Feb 25, 2012

Interesting, because I notice in my stove there is usually a little whirling dervish of flame in the upper right corner before any other flame.

smitty79 · Feb 26, 2012

My stove temp hasn't dropped below 300 in the past day and a half...I haven't had any smoke smell during that time.

smitty79 · Mar 3, 2012

Don't know why, but I haven't had the smoke smell in about a week...the stove has been running 24/7.

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