Progress air control/ burn time

[doug60]

Im new to the progress this year but from what I read & have been experiencing. The amount of air at the lowest setting has to be enough to meet a wide range of installations. Every chimney has its own draft performance. So if your draft is stronger than most you will not be happy with burn times. If weaker than most you may get smoke spillage ,/ poor cat performance.
For me (strong draft) there is not enough air control at the lower end . And its not even cold out. (the colder it gets the stronger the draft.)
I limited the air at the lowest setting by half & still was not satisfied so I installed a pipe damper to limit the draft.
I was hoping I wouldn't need the pipe damper for KISS reasons but I do. I can run a half load of wood at my new lowest setting with the pipe damper closed . And still have clean glass.
IMO if the glass isn't getting blackened , I still have enough air flow to keep running clean & have gained burn time & efficiency.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Doug, did you try to run the draft setting closed? For sure the draft setting on this stove is really low as it is on the Fireview. I would attempt to control the stove first only with the draft control and not set the pipe damper. You might guess that I am not a lover of the dampers. They had their time in the sun and sometimes still do but it is rare. How tall is your chimney? And yes, if the glass is clean that certainly tells you something.

 

[doug60]

Doug, did you try to run the draft setting closed? For sure the draft setting on this stove is really low as it is on the Fireview. I would attempt to control the stove first only with the draft control and not set the pipe damper. You might guess that I am not a lover of the dampers. They had their time in the sun and sometimes still do but it is rare. How tall is your chimney? And yes, if the glass is clean that certainly tells you something.

Yes I did try running with the draft setting closed. And then I closed the air gap the flapper leaves open by 50 % after fully closed . Still not to my liking so I added the damper in the flue. That seem to do the trick, it took about 10 minutes to snuff out the secondary flames & I could here the cat taking over. At that point the stove top started climbing to 450 from 375 This was done with a half load of wood. 13 Hours later stove top 150 glass not blackened. Still a fist size chunk glowing for restart. The exterior masonry chimney is double lined down to 6 inch stainless 24 feet tall.
I couldn't run the last stove without a damper either. ( equinox). The equinox ate to much wood without it sending to much heat up the chimney.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sounds like you have it under control Doug.

 

[Slow1]

Hmm... that really makes me wonder if perhaps I could benefit from something along the same lines. I have yet to experience those burn times even with a full load. I'd hate to have to add a damper though...

 

[fire_man]

Count me as one that had poor draft with an uninsulated 15 foot exterior 6" SS single wall flue. Lots of smoke spillage and poor cat performance. After insulating, no spillage and much better cat performance, and I don't think I hurt my burn time any. I am getting 225F stovetop temps after 10 hours when loaded with just chunks and uglies. I have not loaded with full splits of hardwood yet (too warm so far this year). I guess the real test is when it gets Alaska-like cold and the draft is even better - will it burn too fast??

But not everybody has the same experience with the same flue setup.

HollowHill reports poor draft symptoms with what I would expect to be an excellent flue setup. She posted the following:

"Flue 24 feet of single wall interior insulated, 1.5 ft double wall Horizontal to "T"
Stove Backpuffing, cat stalls, smoke out stack, slight smoke spillage on reload"

I agree, this stove is particular with it's draft.

 

[Slow1]

I agree, this stove is particular with it's draft.

I wonder - but I suspect there is more to the varied experiences than just the draft. I'm sure draft must play a part in some issues, but others may have to do with style of operation too... As I experiment with the stove I'm finding changes in the way it burns. As an example, it seems that a load on top of coals does much better (in terms of being able to burn longer) than a cold start. Some would suggest this isn't a surprise, but the difference here is much more pronounced than the FV was for me.

I still need to pull the heat shield off mine and see how that butterfly valve looks. Of course I'm not entirely sure how it is supposed to be in an ideal case, but...

 

[chipsoflyin]

Im new to the progress this year but from what I read & have been experiencing. The amount of air at the lowest setting has to be enough to meet a wide range of installations. Every chimney has its own draft performance. So if your draft is stronger than most you will not be happy with burn times. If weaker than most you may get smoke spillage ,/ poor cat performance.
For me (strong draft) there is not enough air control at the lower end . And its not even cold out. (the colder it gets the stronger the draft.)
I limited the air at the lowest setting by half & still was not satisfied so I installed a pipe damper to limit the draft.
I was hoping I wouldn't need the pipe damper for KISS reasons but I do. I can run a half load of wood at my new lowest setting with the pipe damper closed . And still have clean glass.
IMO if the glass isn't getting blackened , I still have enough air flow to keep running clean & have gained burn time & efficiency.

doug, with everything wide open, do you get whistling through the hole in the lower front of the stove

 

[doug60]

doug, with everything wide open, do you get whistling through the hole in the lower front of the stove

I don't think so, I never noticed.