Considering Progress Hybrid in Brick Fireplace

[DeepSpringFarm]

Progress Hybrid owners I have a question for you.
I am trying to see if a PH would fit on my hearth and work with my fireplace.
Width of fireplace is 42" Lintel is 30" Heath is 20.5" deep and 14" high.
I am wondering how far back into the fireplace I can place this and reasonably load the stove.
Also, I was told that you need to lift up the top to get at the catalytic for maintenance.
I would like to have the stove as far back as I can, and still use it, if it will even work.
Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Grisu]

Have you checked the dimensions here: (broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/images/editorial_support/ProgressManual/dimspecs.pdf?)

It looks like it would work. You could use the measurements for the short leg kit stove, build a cardboard box that size and see if it fits.

 

[DeepSpringFarm]

Yes checked it out...I was looking more into the practicalities of day in and day out use. Loading of wood etc.

Was also considering hiring a mason and altering the fireplace...but I don't have any idea what type of Pandora's box that would be opening.

 

[DeepSpringFarm]

OK, Weatherman had about the exact same setup for his PH and it works well.
After talking with Woodstock I was a bit concerned that it is too big of a stove for our house. The room it is going in is 600 sq feet, A few feet from the fireplace, on the same wall, there is a door opening that has a small stairway to a great room above that. Then on the opposite wall from the fireplace there are two openings, one is about a 6 foot wide opening into a dining room and the other door is a standard door sized opening that has a big opening up to three bedrooms on the second floor. Here is my question. Will it be too big and make our main room too hot to operate? Or can you use less wood with this stove? Or can you use a full load, get it going and then crank it down? I know fans will help the situation as well.

 

[begreen]

To help even out the temps moving the heat may help. The best way to do this is to blow cooler air, say from the hallway, into the stove room. There are a few ways to do this. If you can post a sketch of the first floor plan showing the stove location then we may be able to make a more detailed assessment.

Did you also discuss putting a smaller Woodstock stove in like the Keystone?

 

[DeepSpringFarm]

I'd like to get the biggest possible and was also interested in the hybrid technology. Wondered if I could close it way down to get lower temperatures.
Chimney sweep came by and cleaned my chimney...said it looked good.

 

[begreen]

It looks like you can get a decent convection loop established. Do you have a 10-12" table fan or a small box fan? The idea is to blow the cooler air down at floor level, toward the stove room. For more even heat in the house put the table or box fan in a cooler room within sight of the stove room, say in the dining room opening, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove room. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the dining room and hallway temp after about 30 minutes running. And the stove room temp should drop by a corresponding 5+ degrees. A more sophisticated version would be to run a 6-8" insulated duct under the floor with an inline blower. The intake grille would be at the end of the bedroom hallway and the output grille in the stove room, near the fireplace. Panasonic makes good quite remote bath fans that work well for this application. About 150cfm will work fine.

 

[DeepSpringFarm]

Those of you with PH's, is it easy to lower the temperature and keep a lower temp going? Can you just put a bit of wood in it, or can you load it up and just turn the burn way down?

 

[3fordasho]

Those of you with PH's, is it easy to lower the temperature and keep a lower temp going? Can you just put a bit of wood in it, or can you load it up and just turn the burn way down?

Blazeking seems to be the leader in low and slow. I have had both Fireview and still have a Progress Hybrid. In my opinion the Hybrid is not a low and slow stove when fully loaded - that secondary action gets going even with the air inlet fully closed and then the heat really comes on. Partial loads are more successful at controlling output, but then the burn times are shorter. When I had the PH in a 1600 sqft house it was almost too much, now with 3400sq ft I can load it up and let it do it's thing. In the new location I was able to go from short legs to the standard legs plus add the ash pan. It's like a different stove now with the ash pan (improved) probably because the ash drops down and there's more room for wood.

The fireview was able to do a cat only burn (no flames in the box), this is difficult to accomplish with the PH.

 

[TheRambler]

I have no problem getting a low and slow burn in my PH. Its all about turning it down right away, if the secondaries get going it can be hard to get it to stay at a real low output.

 

[toddnic]

Those of you with PH's, is it easy to lower the temperature and keep a lower temp going? Can you just put a bit of wood in it, or can you load it up and just turn the burn way down?

I run my stove around 350 degrees. It is really easy to keep it at that temperature. I'm not sure how the PH would do if you lower it below that threshold.

 

[DeepSpringFarm]

How would 350 degrees do in a 600 sq ft room with a 3500 sq ft house?
To warm?
Not sure that I have anything to compare 350 degrees to since I don't have a stove.
(Edited due to autocorrect)

 

[toddnic]

How do in would 350 do in a 600 sq ft room with a 3500 sq ft house?
To warm?
Not sure that I have anything to compare 350 to since I don't have a stove.

Our house is 2,400 sq. ft. and keeping the PH around 350 degrees works very well for us except for really cold days. The room where the stove is located is smaller than 600 sq. ft. and it can get rather warm if I've got the stove in the 500 degree range but otherwise it is not bad.