New Progress install, want my fireview back

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In speaking with Lewis at Woodstock since I had initial issues with not being able to throttle down the fire, he mentioned that the screen is accounted for in the design and that its restriction is taken into consideration for the draft. Removing it would effect performance.
 
I have expressed to WS some of the same ideas mentioned here. Primarily, my thought is that the stove has a more difficult / torturous draft path and does not draft quite as well as the fireview. It would be interesting to know what the differences in "pressure loss" through the Fireview is compared with the PH.

I also wonder if the people having issues with the PH are mostly those with a mediocre draft (like myself). I wonder if those with better drafts don't experience as many of the smoke smell and smoke leakage upon door opening issues. What say all you out there?

I'm wonder if the stove needs a little redesign of the flow through it to help out.
 
I have asked a couple Progress owners about their chimney setups, and from what I can tell the ones that have no smoke spillage problems have well insulated liners. I wish we could make this into a more scientific poll and figure out what each user's settup is and what experience they have regarding smoke issues.
 
It does seem like better draft would equal less smoke on reload.

I have no real issues and the funny thing is my flue is 7X7 so it is quite a bit larger than a 6" circle. But, it is about 25 feet from stove to cap and it is in the center of the house. I've always thought I had pretty good draft but nothing crazy.
 
I guess there is the proof, a tall 7x7 interior liner (Waulie) beats a shorter uninsulated, exterior SS 6" liner (Tony). I hope to report back next year with an insulated liner and better results. The only option after that is the Electro-Binko draft control!
 
Survey: Waulie 1, Tony 2, I'm 3: Interior double wall, 30 + feet, Zone 5, faces North over long lake, very good draft. no smoke or cat issues.

I had smoke smell once (no visable smoke) but was coincidental with totally clogged cat and screen - IMO caused by suctioning of ash during a terrifying, pipe rumbling instantaneous incinerating whoosh that lasted a second or so. Never again will I start a top down fire with newsprint.

Don't have a problem with smoke spillage while tending fire.
Checked cat and screen today. They are fine. Fine white fluffy ash in firebox. Entire firebox clean, light colored.

I'm very happy with this stove. Perfect for my set up and my needs.

Have a fire going now with two six inch splits of 37 year old sugar maple...still have 2/3 of the cord of beautiful clear maple that was c/s/and stacked in the basement when we built the house. Occasionally I add really special perfect rounds of ironwood to that stack. My reserve.

My stove only makes noise I notice for a moment when reaching somewhere in the 400-425 range. Other times just the occasioanl refined ping or tic.
 
"Have a fire going now with two six inch splits of 37 year old sugar maple" Did you check that with a MM, not sure if its dry enough.
 
I had smoke smell once (no visable smoke) but was coincidental with totally clogged cat and screen - IMO caused by suctioning of ash during a terrifying, pipe rumbling instantaneous incinerating whoosh that lasted a second or so. Never again will I start a top down fire with newsprint.

Interesting thought on the screen clogging. I have cleaned mine twice in 2 months of use, which to me is excessive and a real PITA. The first time it clogged, I hadn't been paying much attention to it until I started to get smoke spillage on reload. Then I looked and it was completely clogged. After the first cleaning, I kept my eye on it. I swear it went from almost completely clear to almost completely clogged within 3 days. It seems like there must be an event that happens which clogs the screen.

I have never witnessed any event like you report, but both times the screen clogged I was away from home and my wife was tending the fire. Hmmm. If I could figure out how to only need to clean the screen once or twice a season, this stove would go from a solid A to an A+ in my book. It's the only thing I'm really not happy with.

I'm not sure my screen is in correctly. It fell out the first time I cleaned it and I had a real struggle getting it back in. The first time I cleaned the screen, my cat was completely clean. The second time, after I had replaced the screen, it was pretty clogged with ash.
 
rideau said:
Survey: Waulie 1, Tony 2, I'm 3: Interior double wall, 30 + feet, Zone 5, faces North over long lake, very good draft. no smoke or cat issues.

I had smoke smell once (no visable smoke) but was coincidental with totally clogged cat and screen - IMO caused by suctioning of ash during a terrifying, pipe rumbling instantaneous incinerating whoosh that lasted a second or so. Never again will I start a top down fire with newsprint.

Don't have a problem with smoke spillage while tending fire.
Checked cat and screen today. They are fine. Fine white fluffy ash in firebox. Entire firebox clean, light colored.

I'm very happy with this stove. Perfect for my set up and my needs.

Have a fire going now with two six inch splits of 37 year old sugar maple...still have 2/3 of the cord of beautiful clear maple that was c/s/and stacked in the basement when we built the house. Occasionally I add really special perfect rounds of ironwood to that stack. My reserve.

My stove only makes noise I notice for a moment when reaching somewhere in the 400-425 range. Other times just the occasioanl refined ping or tic.

:lol: ONLY 37-year-old maple??? Would you like me to send you some REALLY old wood? :lol: (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
 
I don't get any smoke smell. I have a pretty good draft. On my old stove, it used to be able to suck the door closed. :)

The Progress is connected to a 'T' in the fireplace, then straight up about 25 feet of insulated SS liner inside of a massive interior chimney. Block off plates top and bottom.
 
Waulie, call Woodstock and get them to e-mail you their directions for replacing the screen. They have good directions, and also gave me a tip (I think from Ron) about bending the tabs one way a bit to help keep the thing in place. First time I took mine out (only time) I was so frustrated, couldn't get it back. Not even sure how it was supposed to go. Called Woodstock, told of my frustration, asked Penny if she had ever tried replacing the screen herself. They e-mailed me really good directions right away. When I spoke with her later, she had gone out to the fabrication area and tried replacing a screen. Great customer service. They care. I'm sure they will include screen replacement instructions in the manual if they haven't already done so. They realize replacing is frustrating and are working on the screen issue. For all I know they may have solved it.
 
I have had mine out once even though it was clean. I did it to see what was involved in re-installing it.
I found it quite uneventful and easy. What I did was take the top stone and heat shield out. Then I removed the 2 bolts that hold the bypass door in place. Now you slide the door toward the cat in order to clear the rotating latch rod.
With the door out of the way, you can just reach in there and remove and install easily.
I can see it being extremely difficult to re-install from inside the fire box.
The above way takes less than 5 minutes.
 
binko said:
I have had mine out once even though it was clean. I did it to see what was involved in re-installing it.
I found it quite uneventful and easy. What I did was take the top stone and heat shield out. Then I removed the 2 bolts that hold the bypass door in place. Now you slide the door toward the cat in order to clear the rotating latch rod.
With the door out of the way, you can just reach in there and remove and install easily.
I can see it being extremely difficult to re-install from inside the fire box.
The above way takes less than 5 minutes.

Those 2 bolts you're talking about, they are the ones that hold the rectangular bits of metal that you then slid over to allow the door to move? Or are these bolts right on the door? Or where??? I know I tried this once before and undid the bolts to the rectangular bits of metal (about 2" long) and it didn't seem like I could do much with the door as it was still attached to the rod that opens and closes it.
 
Thanks guys.

Yeah, one of you sent me a PM with the screen instructions when I was having an issue. I think the real problem was that my screen was really out of shape so I have to tweak it to fit. After I got it back in, someone commented on removing the bypass door and that makes sense to me. I'm not going to mess with it until the season is over but then I'll remove the bypass door, clean everything, and make sure I get the screen in properly.

I still believe the screen set up is basically fubar. If I'm trying to heat my house, I really don't want to let the stove get cool enough (which is really darn cool) to remove the lid, remove the bolts, fiddle with the screen, etc. And, there isn't really a good way to clean that thing with it in place either (although that's what I did last time). Either way, once a month is way too much IMO. The stove stays so warm for so long (which is obviously a good thing) that you really have to plan ahead and count on no heat for awhile to clean the screen. There must be a better way to keep the flyash out of the cat. They should have just designed it with a deeper channel for the cat with a screen piece that fit behind the cat. Then, pull out the cat, pull out the screen, clean and replace.
 
Looking at that diagram goes back to what we were afraid of in the VC,too many moving parts.Looks expensive to replace parts.
 
I had suggested removing the bypass door to make screen replacement easier.
The procedure is to remove the stone off the top of the stove, then remove the stainless steel heat shield.
The bypass door is now exposed. You will see that the bypass door is held on the left and on the right side of the door.
Take those bolts out where the bypass door is hinged (it's easy to do).
The door is now free except that you can't lift it out because the damper control rod is still going thru it.
All you need to do is slide the door toward the back of the stove and slightly rotate the control rod at the same time. it will slide right out.
Now just reach in thru the opening and either remove or re-install the screen.
It's far easier to do than to describe.

Good Luck!!!
 
fire_man said:
I guess there is the proof, a tall 7x7 interior liner (Waulie) beats a shorter uninsulated, exterior SS 6" liner (Tony). I hope to report back next year with an insulated liner and better results. The only option after that is the Electro-Binko draft control!

I'm a total newbie and I'm having a lot of trouble getting my fires started. I have had tons of smoke. I think my draft is poor. What is an Electro-Binko draft control?
 
Sarad said:
fire_man said:
I guess there is the proof, a tall 7x7 interior liner (Waulie) beats a shorter uninsulated, exterior SS 6" liner (Tony). I hope to report back next year with an insulated liner and better results. The only option after that is the Electro-Binko draft control!

I'm a total newbie and I'm having a lot of trouble getting my fires started. I have had tons of smoke. I think my draft is poor. What is an Electro-Binko draft control?

Or your wood is questionable.
 
I don't know where the Electro-Binko name started. My user name is Binko and I had started the thread about the fan some time ago. I have a poor draft condition in my chimney that has no practical solution other than a draft inducing fan on top of the chimney.
It lays on top of your chimney and runs a continuous fan to either start or increase your draft. It is made by a company called Exhausto. For me it has been a cure-all. The fan output is controlled with a knob just like a light dimmer switch. You do not hear it at all in the house and I typically run it at the lowest setting. When I want to start a fire, I just turn the control up a bit and I have instant draft. When I reload, again I turn it up and there is no smoke spillage from the door. It's also great during the warmer months when you can occasionally get the creosote smell in the house from a reverse draft created by certain atmospheric conditions. The manufacturer says to run it continuously and I do (99% of time on lowest setting). Power usage is minimal.
Is there a downside-yep, it's about a $1000. Again for me it was worth it because it corrects a poor drafting chimney.
 
I had that one before getting the Exhausto. I found somewhat noisy for continuous operation and when installed in the flue pipe, it would always cause a slight buzzing sound in either the flue pipe or the trim ring or something (like a rattle in your car dashboard that can be irritating). Also you can't have it not run continuously because only a small portion of the fan blade is exposed to the flue gas and smoke and with time some creosote deposits on it and throws off the balance.
I thought long and hard about upgrading to the Exhaust because of the extra money, but i'm glad I did. Of course the ideal is not needing one at all, but if you do like I did, than the added cost is well worth it.
 
Hey Sarad, you may well have other/better/cheaper options than a fan for your chimney. If you create a new post describing your problems, chimney, stove, etc., I'm sure you'll get lots of help.
 
binko said:
I don't know where the Electro-Binko name started. My user name is Binko and I had started the thread about the fan some time ago. I have a poor draft condition in my chimney that has no practical solution other than a draft inducing fan on top of the chimney.
It lays on top of your chimney and runs a continuous fan to either start or increase your draft. It is made by a company called Exhausto. For me it has been a cure-all. The fan output is controlled with a knob just like a light dimmer switch. You do not hear it at all in the house and I typically run it at the lowest setting. When I want to start a fire, I just turn the control up a bit and I have instant draft. When I reload, again I turn it up and there is no smoke spillage from the door. It's also great during the warmer months when you can occasionally get the creosote smell in the house from a reverse draft created by certain atmospheric conditions. The manufacturer says to run it continuously and I do (99% of time on lowest setting). Power usage is minimal.
Is there a downside-yep, it's about a $1000. Again for me it was worth it because it corrects a poor drafting chimney.

Thank you, Binko. I think I may need that. I have an external chimney with a 95 degree angle. My installer mentioned that I might need a fan. He charged me a fortune but he was literally the only installer I could find to service my citified area. So now more $$$$....
 
BrowningBAR said:
Sarad said:
fire_man said:
I guess there is the proof, a tall 7x7 interior liner (Waulie) beats a shorter uninsulated, exterior SS 6" liner (Tony). I hope to report back next year with an insulated liner and better results. The only option after that is the Electro-Binko draft control!

I'm a total newbie and I'm having a lot of trouble getting my fires started. I have had tons of smoke. I think my draft is poor. What is an Electro-Binko draft control?

Or your wood is questionable.

My wood is 2.5 year old oak from a tree that fell on my property. But it was not split till now.
 
Waulie said:
Hey Sarad, you may well have other/better/cheaper options than a fan for your chimney. If you create a new post describing your problems, chimney, stove, etc., I'm sure you'll get lots of help.

Thanks. I will.
 
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