Woody Stover said:
The combustor is too far back and points a bit upward. Also, if you put yourself in the same position as you would to see th FV cat, you're gonna cook in very few seconds!
PROGRESS HYBRID--How do I know . . . ?
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The combustor is too far back and points a bit upward. Also, if you put yourself in the same position as you would to see th FV cat, you're gonna cook in very few seconds!
Just a note to advise that after all the abuse I heaped on my poor Hybrid, I checked to see if anything was destroyed. Pulled out the combuster and cleaned it out. Seemed to be intact. Checked the screen--still there and appeared to be undamaged. Whew, big relief!! The stove apparently is tough enough to "take a likin' (withstand a series of explosions) and keep on tickin' ". I told Ron that I would not charge them for doing the testing!
Last night I cleared some of the ash (really like that ashpan!) and started a new fire. Got it up to 300, engaged the cat (i.e. turned it CCW!!) cut the air to almost nothing and jumped back out of the way. NO EXPLOSIONS!! Got some 6" secondary jets which were very pretty and got the temp up to 425, but it would not go any higher. Matter of fact, have never gotten the top temp over 450. Anybody got an idea why?
This morning at 0530 (12 degrees out), still had great coals bed. Was 76 in the big room. Put some wood in and set up for slow burning. Checked the temps a couple times during the night--between 300 & 400 all night. Is that about right?
It's amazing how well the stove works when you're bright enough to operate it as designed! Who woulda thought! :red: Gotta be at least as smart as th' stove, y'know!
BTW, this date in 1933, the all-time record low for Lubbock was set at 17 below and that was not the lowest in the area. Tulia (between Lubbock and Amarillo) reported 23 below and several places in the Panhandle reported 30 below. Was kinda chilly that day.
Last night I cleared some of the ash (really like that ashpan!) and started a new fire. Got it up to 300, engaged the cat (i.e. turned it CCW!!) cut the air to almost nothing and jumped back out of the way. NO EXPLOSIONS!! Got some 6" secondary jets which were very pretty and got the temp up to 425, but it would not go any higher. Matter of fact, have never gotten the top temp over 450. Anybody got an idea why?
This morning at 0530 (12 degrees out), still had great coals bed. Was 76 in the big room. Put some wood in and set up for slow burning. Checked the temps a couple times during the night--between 300 & 400 all night. Is that about right?
It's amazing how well the stove works when you're bright enough to operate it as designed! Who woulda thought! :red: Gotta be at least as smart as th' stove, y'know!
BTW, this date in 1933, the all-time record low for Lubbock was set at 17 below and that was not the lowest in the area. Tulia (between Lubbock and Amarillo) reported 23 below and several places in the Panhandle reported 30 below. Was kinda chilly that day.
When the stove is really cooking with flames in the fire box, a large part of the heat comes out of the front window area.
My Progress heats our 2200 sq ft home with the top usually running between 300 and 400 deg.
My Progress heats our 2200 sq ft home with the top usually running between 300 and 400 deg.
binko said:
Thanks! That's good to know. With all the mistakes I've made recently, I wasn't sure it was being operated correctly even now, but your experience reflects what's goin' on here. The PH seems to be doing well in our 2500 sf house, which is why we went from the FV to the PH. So far, I'm way more pleased with it than it is with me, I'm sure! :red:
there is a learning curve with this stove. I went thru a fair amount of frustration with it for the first month or so.
Now I have it where i Load for the night at 10:00 PM and have enough coals left to re-light the next night at 10:00 PM.
The heat coming off during the day is not as much, but if the outside temp is above 30 it still keeps the house more than comfortable.
Obviously of it's colder and overcast, then I will add about 3 splits late afternoon to get more heat until nighttime reload.
Now I have it where i Load for the night at 10:00 PM and have enough coals left to re-light the next night at 10:00 PM.
The heat coming off during the day is not as much, but if the outside temp is above 30 it still keeps the house more than comfortable.
Obviously of it's colder and overcast, then I will add about 3 splits late afternoon to get more heat until nighttime reload.
binko said:
That's impressive! A 24-hour burn? Way too cool! Is that stuffing it full on top of active coals or starting from cold to get that long burn? That's what I want to get to.
At 10:00 PM I have enough coals remaining for a relight. I put smaller splits on the coals (so that they light easily) and larger splits on top of that. I do fill almost to the top. I allow the whole stove to really take off with the fire and make sure that the temp on the top is at least 250 deg. I make sure that I do not damper down too soon where the cat may stall out. Once I have a good fire established, I close the air down completely as well as closing a flue pipe damper way down. This will keep the secondary flames almost completely off and run almost solely on the cat. The next morning the stove top is still at 250-275 with about 1/3 of the wood remaining in the stove. I don't do anything except allow that remaining wood to just keep going with everything still fully closed down. At 4:00 PM the stove top is around 150-175 deg. My house is still nice and warm so not much heat is needed. At 10:00 PM most of the coals are buried by the ash so I give it a stir so that the ash falls thru the grate and exposes the remaining coals again. You have to understand that by this time there is very little heat coming off the stove however there are enough coals to re-start the fire without having to crumble paper and kindling wood to start a new fire.
On real cold days I do add wood at around 4 to keep the house warm thru the evening, however with the crazy warm weather we have had in the northeast, the once-a-day loading has worked just fine.
On real cold days I do add wood at around 4 to keep the house warm thru the evening, however with the crazy warm weather we have had in the northeast, the once-a-day loading has worked just fine.
binko said:
My Progress stove top temps have been in the 350-400 F range. I have not seen the stovetop go much above about 500F yet. Sometimes I wonder if it's just the high temperature of the stove itself that I am measuring, rather than a cat-induced temp reading. Once those secondaries kick in, I wonder how much food is left for the cat?
I have some nice dry Beech that I am saving for next week's cold. Dry Beech always was able to peg my Firevew top to near 700F, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this stove. So far the secondaries want to kick on before the stovetop gets much over 400F, I think because my wood is split into splinter sizes and gasses off quickly.
I usually run between 450 and 500, sometimes getting up as high as 580 (caution, this produces flop sweat like you wouldn't believe :ahhh: ). This is with the stove between 60% - 80% loaded. Able to keep this sieve of a house in the mid-60s which is an improvement over what the oil did. I'm a happy camper.
fire_man said:
That squares with my experience here, with 4" - 6" cedar rounds and/or pallet hardwood 2 x 4s and larger. If cornered, I might be able to load all cedar, leave intake and damper wide open and get over 500, but to what end? I don't want to try to heat all outdoors. Glad to hear that my lower temps are not unusual. My FV liked to cruise at 600 to 750 and if I let it go, it would. So, this is a different kettle of fish.
I wonder what effect the metal shield has on the topside thermo readings. WS says the inside is approximately twice the thermo reading on top. Just wondering if that's from FV days or if they tested it on the PH, 'cause top temp is tied to where you put your thermo. I have four now and have found a drastic difference from place to place. I try to position my control unit over the opening left for the by-pass damper when it's open, in an attempt to get "true" readings when the damper is closed. That opening is the only one close to the center of the top. The other two cut-outs are in the UL and UR corners and appear to be time lagged and 150-200 cooler than the control just below the centerline intersection over the rectangular cut-out.
So far, this stove is just what we needed to heat our place. Seems to be matched about right to the size, even for the coldest we get here.
Texas boy said:
Terry, if that big room was 76 this morning I don't think you'd want that beast kicking out any more heat. On the other hand, it might be interesting should you ever have one of those cold snaps down to -17 degrees. I'm betting with the wind you typically get the chill factor was super low. Best to do things indoors on those days and nights.
Terry:
Not that I want to rub salt into any open wounds, but why were you getting those huge stove explosions which we could hear all the way in Massachusetts? You think it's because the bypass was operated in reverse manner? This should be added to the official list of troubleshooting aids in the back of the manual!
hh:
Not that I want to rub salt into any open wounds, but why were you getting those huge stove explosions which we could hear all the way in Massachusetts? You think it's because the bypass was operated in reverse manner? This should be added to the official list of troubleshooting aids in the back of the manual!
hh:
Dennis:
Absolutely, but Terry should be given all the credit for discovering this unusual operating mode.
Absolutely, but Terry should be given all the credit for discovering this unusual operating mode.
Flamestead
Feeling the Heat
I've got a pretty good draft and have been concerned about not being able to shut the air completely off. So far, to my relief, I feel I have to push it along to get it to 500 (meaning I don't feel like I'm fighting for control - half open, gradually closing as approaching target temp). Once there, I can close down the draft to just a bit open and cruise for hours at 500.
Once she gets up to a temp she doesn't seem to come back down (stove-top). Flue temps (Condor probe) are 600ish when pushing it from a reload up to the cruising temp. Closing the damper drops the flue temp back to 400.
I have not been filling much above the top of the andirons. Always plenty of coals in the morning and afternoon for an easy restart. In the afternoon/evening we tend to burn smaller loads and add wood more frequently. Biggest issue with that so far is misjudging and having to wait up longer in the evening while the wood burns down before filling for the night.
Once she gets up to a temp she doesn't seem to come back down (stove-top). Flue temps (Condor probe) are 600ish when pushing it from a reload up to the cruising temp. Closing the damper drops the flue temp back to 400.
I have not been filling much above the top of the andirons. Always plenty of coals in the morning and afternoon for an easy restart. In the afternoon/evening we tend to burn smaller loads and add wood more frequently. Biggest issue with that so far is misjudging and having to wait up longer in the evening while the wood burns down before filling for the night.
WarmInIowa
Member
I don't have much experience yet, but I'm having the same outcomes as you guys. Stove tops between 400-480 normal and above 550 with an all cat burn - no flames. By the way, don't let the stove temp of 450 fool anybody, this stove is throwing a MASSIVE amount of heat at this temperature.
fire_man said:Terry:
Not that I want to rub salt into any open wounds, but why were you getting those huge stove explosions which we could hear all the way in Massachusetts? You think it's because the bypass was operated in reverse manner? This should be added to the official list of troubleshooting aids in the back of the manual!
I think it was really the wood
Darned wood!! :red:
fire_man said:
Hey, HEY, you bunch of smart alecks!! In addition to all the good heat I'm getting from a PROPERLY OPERATED STOVE, I'm also plenty heated up from embarassment. If I wanted this kind of treatment, I could get it at home! :roll:
I'll also have you know that a certain veteran WS person forgot to open the bypass on the PH last Saturday before a reload and filled the showroom with smoke! So, looks like Dennis is right--it happens to everyone. At least our big room is very clean from all the sweeping I've had to do. 'Splosions sure do spread around the debris!! Tony, you'd better check your place. You may need to clean up some of it, too! Just send me the bill when you're finished!!
I didn't anticipate THIS level of harassment . . . well, actually I DID, and looks like it was earned. Now I won't be able to show my face at Woodstock for many years . . . until this generation dies off! :long: Oh, well, this isn't my most embarassing moment, just the most widely publicised. The last big one was before Al Gore invented the Internet.
Y'all can stop laughing at me any time now, y'hear?? :red:
Flatbedford said:
I'll probably make it into the Hearth "Hall of Shame" on the first ballot! They'll probably even waive the waiting period!! :lol:
Nah. You aren't the first, just the most recent guy to get confused. At least you didn't burn your house down or anything.
What was that explosion I just heard coming from the South West? Oh yea, it must have been time for Terry to reload the Progress!
Actually, I have to admit, the bypass control lever is kind of confusing. I always shine a flashlight onto the knob after I engage it to make sure it shows "closed" face up.
It was much easier on the FV to be sure the cat was engaged, you just checked to make sure the lever was "up".
Actually, I have to admit, the bypass control lever is kind of confusing. I always shine a flashlight onto the knob after I engage it to make sure it shows "closed" face up.
It was much easier on the FV to be sure the cat was engaged, you just checked to make sure the lever was "up".
You need Batteries for that flashlight, seriously, lever sitting horizontal cat engaged, lever sitting at 45 degrees cat not engaged
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