I just recently found the stove I’ve been wanting to purchase for a number of years now.
I just bought a 2016 Woodstock Progress woodstove, to replace my very old and not so great Jotul firelight model 12.
First impression so far is shock!! I’m so used to having to fight the stove to get a fire started. With the jotul, I would have to open the ash pan just to get a fire established, and it always seemed like a constant battle. I thought it must be the chimney, maybe It needs a liner, and even bought an insulated bottom half to link the stove to the chimney.
To o avail, the chimney just didn’t seem to have enough of a draw.
With the Progess, I started a fire from the top down…! The TOP DOWN! I read about this is thought it wasn’t possible, of these people just have better chimneys. My chimney is at the upper limits for the progress, which is 8X10”. Still am considering installing a 6” liner, which would be so much easier than installing an 8,” like what the jotul required.
Meanwhile, I have a few things. One, I don’t think the cat have ever been replaced. I bought the stove from a guy that had it in his kitchen when he bought his house. He never used it, instead he removed the new stove pipe that was installed for it, and the bottom hearth that it sat on, placed it in his garage, and remodeled his kitchen. He got tired of it taking up space and thank the lord, posted it hours prior to me finding it. So, I can assume the catalyst is probably original. There was a few sticks of very dry red oak. Also found a nail in the ash… as an arborist that has cut down many trees, that could’ve still come from a tree, and it was only one, so I’m hoping it wasn’t remedial wood that was burned. The guy selling it didn’t know it had wood in it, he never seen it run before.
Tried to buy the catalyst, they are out of stock, and then tried to find aftermarket.. they don’t seem to exist? So if anyone know when they will be available, or if there are aftermarket ones on the market, that would be very helpful!!
Second: I tend to be a bit of a lazy burner. After a long day, last thing I want to do is have to shovel out ash from a hot firebox. Really work life to have an ash pan.
No where in Woodstocks website do they mention the ash pan being for sale. Can you buy and install one???? It looks possible. Few bolt and gasket, and I bought the gasket kit, so I even have the gasket.
I will maybe be able to call them tomorrow, it’s a holiday so I’m not sure if they are open.
Other than that, I am amazed and so happy with this stove, you turn it up and it really puts out the heat, you turn it all the way down, and the catalyst seems to work, but I have no context. With the jotul, that thing used to glow red if not careful!! Needed insanely large splits of super dry wood to load it up, otherwise it would over fire the catalyst. I used to run it around 1,200 to 1,500 degrees, and every now and then it would hit 1,700 degrees. When it hit 1,900, the back two corners where the exhaust exited the refractory wood glow red.
I even had a plan to redesign the refractory to be able to install a larger catalyst. So glad I was able to find a progress!!
Now, I found that it’s easier to have smaller splits because the one downfall to the progress is the door isn’t very big, so it’s hard to really load the stove to capacity. So I got stove gloves, so I can put the sticks in there without bruning my hands. I used to just drop them in the Jotul and that was a nice feature u less I overloaded it which also happened, and the door didn’t like to shut. Only really could consistently get 8 hr burns during the coldest days of the winter. Hoping the get more like 12 hours burns with the progress, but I would be happy with 10.
I did have it smoldering earlier and if there was a little flame in the window, there was no smoke or steam out the chimney, it appeared that I wasn’t burning anything, when it was just smoldering, there was a little smoke coming out, but that also could be the old catalyst gasket which wasn’t in good shape and missing an inch, of the catalyst need replacing. Wasn’t planing on using the stove consistently, esp now since it’s not a little cold out, normally, I would have to start a new fire every night to warm the home, this progress can be turned down low enough and not go out like the old jotul used too.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Plan to replace the gasket in the next few days, once I shut the stove down and clean the chimney, which got caked from an old burnt out catalyst that I kept using in the jotul to avoid it overheating.
I just bought a 2016 Woodstock Progress woodstove, to replace my very old and not so great Jotul firelight model 12.
First impression so far is shock!! I’m so used to having to fight the stove to get a fire started. With the jotul, I would have to open the ash pan just to get a fire established, and it always seemed like a constant battle. I thought it must be the chimney, maybe It needs a liner, and even bought an insulated bottom half to link the stove to the chimney.
To o avail, the chimney just didn’t seem to have enough of a draw.
With the Progess, I started a fire from the top down…! The TOP DOWN! I read about this is thought it wasn’t possible, of these people just have better chimneys. My chimney is at the upper limits for the progress, which is 8X10”. Still am considering installing a 6” liner, which would be so much easier than installing an 8,” like what the jotul required.
Meanwhile, I have a few things. One, I don’t think the cat have ever been replaced. I bought the stove from a guy that had it in his kitchen when he bought his house. He never used it, instead he removed the new stove pipe that was installed for it, and the bottom hearth that it sat on, placed it in his garage, and remodeled his kitchen. He got tired of it taking up space and thank the lord, posted it hours prior to me finding it. So, I can assume the catalyst is probably original. There was a few sticks of very dry red oak. Also found a nail in the ash… as an arborist that has cut down many trees, that could’ve still come from a tree, and it was only one, so I’m hoping it wasn’t remedial wood that was burned. The guy selling it didn’t know it had wood in it, he never seen it run before.
Tried to buy the catalyst, they are out of stock, and then tried to find aftermarket.. they don’t seem to exist? So if anyone know when they will be available, or if there are aftermarket ones on the market, that would be very helpful!!
Second: I tend to be a bit of a lazy burner. After a long day, last thing I want to do is have to shovel out ash from a hot firebox. Really work life to have an ash pan.
No where in Woodstocks website do they mention the ash pan being for sale. Can you buy and install one???? It looks possible. Few bolt and gasket, and I bought the gasket kit, so I even have the gasket.
I will maybe be able to call them tomorrow, it’s a holiday so I’m not sure if they are open.
Other than that, I am amazed and so happy with this stove, you turn it up and it really puts out the heat, you turn it all the way down, and the catalyst seems to work, but I have no context. With the jotul, that thing used to glow red if not careful!! Needed insanely large splits of super dry wood to load it up, otherwise it would over fire the catalyst. I used to run it around 1,200 to 1,500 degrees, and every now and then it would hit 1,700 degrees. When it hit 1,900, the back two corners where the exhaust exited the refractory wood glow red.
I even had a plan to redesign the refractory to be able to install a larger catalyst. So glad I was able to find a progress!!
Now, I found that it’s easier to have smaller splits because the one downfall to the progress is the door isn’t very big, so it’s hard to really load the stove to capacity. So I got stove gloves, so I can put the sticks in there without bruning my hands. I used to just drop them in the Jotul and that was a nice feature u less I overloaded it which also happened, and the door didn’t like to shut. Only really could consistently get 8 hr burns during the coldest days of the winter. Hoping the get more like 12 hours burns with the progress, but I would be happy with 10.
I did have it smoldering earlier and if there was a little flame in the window, there was no smoke or steam out the chimney, it appeared that I wasn’t burning anything, when it was just smoldering, there was a little smoke coming out, but that also could be the old catalyst gasket which wasn’t in good shape and missing an inch, of the catalyst need replacing. Wasn’t planing on using the stove consistently, esp now since it’s not a little cold out, normally, I would have to start a new fire every night to warm the home, this progress can be turned down low enough and not go out like the old jotul used too.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Plan to replace the gasket in the next few days, once I shut the stove down and clean the chimney, which got caked from an old burnt out catalyst that I kept using in the jotul to avoid it overheating.
