Sarad said:
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.
THE WOOD
That oak is not seasoned, unsplit oak will stay wet for a looooong time. I had the same problem a couple years back with oak. You need to split that stuff asap and stack it for 2 years to get it to dry well enough to be considered reasonably seasoned. Around here some say 3 years is better. It also depends on sun and especially wind exposure, both is better. The wind will dry it out more than direct sunlight and no wind. The thinner/smaller the stacks the better the wood will dry. Cross tack it 4x8 and the wood will get good wind distribution to the inside of the stack. Make sure the stack is placed in an exposed area that gets lots of wind and sun from all sides or against the side of the building that tunnels wind (in this case leave some space between the building and the wood to access the wood and let the wind tunnel between the stack and building. Cover the wood. If you put a tarp on it, make sure to space it out so the tarp is not directly on the wood and there's an air space between the wood and the cover. A sheet of plywood is perfect (as it is 4x8 already), on top of some blocks or big splits that are sticking up from the stack to give you space between the stack and plywood. If you want to get really technical, cover the sheet of plywood with a tyvec or any house wrap air/moisture barrier. You can stop by a new frame and ask the guys for a piece big enough to wrap a sheet of plywood or three!! Uncover the stack during the day, unless it is raining or snowing, of course.
THE STOVE
As far as the Progress, I'm sorry to hear there are issues with it. I'm a big fan of cat stoves and I hope they can work out the kinks. My old Dutchwest 2461 was a wonderful stove, but it also was known for its backpuffing and smoke spillage. Unrelated to the Progress issues of course, but it required a 16' tall stack and really good draft to keep it from puffing out, especially on warmer days.
The spillage during reloads, I found rather easy to solve:
1)I just opened the primary air all the way first, to get the secondary chamber clear of smoke
2)then the damper for a few seconds to get the flow going and smoke out of the firebox,
3) after a few seconds, I would shut the primary air and cat air all the way and slowly open the side loading door, by slowly I mean just not ripping the door open but gradually letting it suck up some air while opening the door in order to let it build a little flow of air into the stove rather than letting the smoke spill out. It builds up a draft pretty quickly this way and doesn't have to take a long time (like a second or two just unlatched and with a slight opening.)
Of course you cant compare the Progress with the DW, but the theory is the same, the DW used to let out smoke from the air inlets also. They were more noticeable because they were in the front of the stove. It sounds like folks are not noticing that the smoke comes from the air inlet on the Progress because it is in the back, so they automatically think it's coming from the top somewhere, but can't figure out where! Judging from the picture of t inside view of the stove (thanks for that,) it would be very easy for the smoke to find out that there's another path just a little further down in the way of the air inlet, rather than going through the cat. I would think it is really important to know that this cat is hot before engaging it and possibly sending smoke out of the air inlet. Is there a cat probe on this stove? Again, I must say this is the most important and most overlooked aspect of all cat stoves. The lack of a cat probe.
TO ALL THE PH OWNERS
Anyway, good luck with the Progress guys, I hope WS solves these issues and they don't plague the PH in the way that the backpuffing has plagued the DW's. I think the difference here is that Ws cares too much about their products to let these issues give the stove a bad name. I'm sure they will find a cure even if this means they have to do some modifications to the design of the PH. Thank you all for posting on this, it has been nice reading it!
