My Woodstock Progress Hybrid is being delivered today! :)

[pen]

Melissa, congrats on getting this far! For the ultimate burning experience you need to get your wood on hand NOW!! as the vast majority of sellers (who claim to have seasoned wood) do not.

With questions on getting firewood, seasoning, stacking, drying times, prices, etc, I suggest you start a new thread in the wood shed for the best response. But before that, I can say what is paramount is that you get your wood for this year on hand now, and possibly plan for next year's wood now as well!

A moisture meter can help if you are buying full priced "seasoned" wood as you can split a piece and check the moisture on a fresh face. The gear room is a great place for questions on buying moisture meters and the wood shed room is great for discussions on moisture content. If you buy unseasoned wood and season it yourself, you can save some money and skip the moisture meter IMO.

Welcome to the site again!

pen

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Congratulations on that new Progress!

Please read and re-read that post just made by Pen. For sure, get the wood now....or sooner.

 

[mfglickman]

Melissa, welcome! We started burning wood unexpectedly last season and it was hard, we had to buy the wood and only one cord out of 3 was actually seasoned though it was all advertised and charged as seasoned. We ended up burning some eco bricks/bio bricks to get us through the winter. We've yet to clean the chimney to see how yucky it may be from burning some not-so-seasoned wood out of desperation at times. I am amazed at how much more heat dry, seasoned wood puts out than less than seasoned wood.

See you on the woodshed forum - depending on where you are folks will be able to direct you to some woods available in your area that will season up faster for you for this first year...won't be perfect but will be much better than waiting till September and trying to find "seasoned" wood at premium prices. Get it now, stack it, and then you'll know exactly how long it's been drying before you use it...oh and start on the next season's wood too, so you'll have GREAT wood for your second season.

 

[melissa71]

Here's a picture of our set up. I still need to get some tools, ash rake, shovel, ect. I stuck the magnet thermometer on the stove pipe, so it wouldn't get lost. If I understand correctly, it goes on the top of the stove, directly above the cat. We're working on getting an area worked out for storing and seasoning wood. I feel so far behind I should've started getting wood last year, but I wasn't sure we were really going to get the stove. I'll definitely be going to the woodshed forum for advice. I had no idea that some wood seasons more quickly than others, I'm a total newbie at this. I'm so glad this forum is here, so much useful information and friendly, helpful people. I'm actually looking forward to winter this year!

 

[raybonz]

View attachment 67631

Here's a picture of our set up. I still need to get some tools, ash rake, shovel, ect. I stuck the magnet thermometer on the stove pipe, so it wouldn't get lost. If I understand correctly, it goes on the top of the stove, directly above the cat. We're working on getting an area worked out for storing and seasoning wood. I feel so far behind I should've started getting wood last year, but I wasn't sure we were really going to get the stove. I'll definitely be going to the woodshed forum for advice. I had no idea that some wood seasons more quickly than others, I'm a total newbie at this. I'm so glad this forum is here, so much useful information and friendly, helpful people. I'm actually looking forward to winter this year!

The hearth compliments your stove perfectly Melissa!

Ray

 

[melissa71]

Thank you, Ray. I'm really happy with it.

 

[doug60]

Looks very nice Melissa. That stove caught my eye as soon as it came out. I was thinking outside boiler, but the Progress won out.
I have one on order.
doug

 

[melissa71]

Thank you, Doug. The stove looks even better in person. The installer kept telling me what a great stove it is. It was the first PH he'd installed. My husband and I catch each other just going into the room to look at it, lol. I can't wait to see how it performs. I had to put trim down, because the installer made a slight error and had to move the pad over an inch. It was the first time I've ever had to do miter cuts. I'm so happy with how it turned out. :D

 

[BrotherBart]

Get ya some dry wood for that puppy and you are gonna love that wood stove.

 

[PapaDave]

Wow melissa71, very nice setup.
As has been mentioned, get some wood ASAP c/s/s so it can dry at least this summer. Get next years now too, if you have the means to do so.
You'll see the difference.....been there, done that.

 

[JeffT]

Nice clean install.It should serve you well.

 

[BuckyBeaver]

One of the best stoves and companies on the market today. Best of luck.

 

[melissa71]

Thank you, BrotherBart, PapaDave, JeffT, and BuckyBeaver. I'm so glad I went with Woodstock. Their customer service is fantastic, and the stove is absolutely beautiful. Going to buy some wood this week, from the company my MIL uses.She said the wood she got from them last year was some of the best she's ever had. She's had a wood stove all her life, so I trust her recommendation. I'm hoping we can find some "free" wood that we can cut up and season for next year. A friend of my husbands said that some forest preserves issue permits for collecting dead fall, not sure if that's the case in our area, though.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

We just bought a Progress Hybrid as well, having 3 cords delivered this week. Anyone know where I can go to find estimates on how much wood I can plan on going through if I want to heat my home exclusively with this stove?

I have a drafty 150 year old home that is poorly insulated, it's two story and about 1500 sf with 9 1/2' ceilings on the first floor.
I just built my hearth pad and it turned out pretty nice, I'm sure everyone I know is sick of hearing me talk about the thing so maybe I can brag about it on here
(broken image removed)
The PH needs a pretty large pad and when I saw what they wanted for one I decided to build one myself. It cost about $250 total which includes a whole set of tools for tiling which I didn't own and took me about 12 hours to make since I'm pretty much a novice. Just went to Woodstock's website to get the basic idea of the pad, using slate tiles on top of 1/2" cement board on top of 3/4" plywood. The whole thing is framed 8" OC and I have floor joist supports under those for a little extra peace of mind since the stove weighs well over 800 lbs. Tomorrow I'm putting two floor jacks under it in the basement since I bet the whole thing will weighs between 1100-1200 lbs. installed.

 

[begreen]

You're off to a good start. In your area I wouldn't be surprised if you went through all 3 cords. Maybe order another couple cords to have in reserve and drying for the following year?

 

[melissa71]

BathMaineBurner, nice hearth! I love your wood floors, are they the original flooring? What color PH did you order?

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

I think the floors are the original as they are pretty much black in a few spots where the sander couldn't get to.
We ordered the black PH about 2 months ago actually, it had a left loading door which would make sense based on where the stove will be but after doing a little digging around realized the chimney we would be lining sat too far to the left of the wall and wouldn't have the proper clearances for the loading door so we swapped it out for a right side loader. At that point it was already getting into spring and that's when I decided to just build the pad myself and install the stove when that was done. I wanted the pipe to go straight up and into the wall, I didn't want the stove pipe to go up and to the left...

 

[begreen]

What will the stove pipe be connecting into BMB?

And Welcome to the forums! You'll find lots of helpful info here and a gentle nudge toward tightening up the old farmhouse and getting it insulated. It's made a nice difference in many of our older homes. The savings are year round with a house that is warmer and easier to heat in the winter and cooler in the summer.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

What will the stove pipe be connecting into BMB?

And Welcome to the forums! You'll find lots of helpful info here and a gentle nudge toward tightening up the old farmhouse and getting it insulated. It's made a nice difference in many of our older homes. The savings are year round with a house that is warmer and easier to heat in the winter and cooler in the summer.

The stove is being installed by a local chimney and stove company, we have a chimney passing through the wall on the left side of the pad. They lined the chimney and put in the thimble on Friday, on Wednesday they'll put in the stove and connect it with double insulated pipe.

 

[begreen]

Great, that stove is going to make a world of difference. Keep taking and posting pictures. Maybe start another thread for the details.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We just bought a Progress Hybrid as well, having 3 cords delivered this week. Anyone know where I can go to find estimates on how much wood I can plan on going through if I want to heat my home exclusively with this stove?

I have a drafty 150 year old home that is poorly insulated, it's two story and about 1500 sf with 9 1/2' ceilings on the first floor.
I just built my hearth pad and it turned out pretty nice, I'm sure everyone I know is sick of hearing me talk about the thing so maybe I can brag about it on here

The PH needs a pretty large pad and when I saw what they wanted for one I decided to build one myself. It cost about $250 total which includes a whole set of tools for tiling which I didn't own and took me about 12 hours to make since I'm pretty much a novice. Just went to Woodstock's website to get the basic idea of the pad, using slate tiles on top of 1/2" cement board on top of 3/4" plywood. The whole thing is framed 8" OC and I have floor joist supports under those for a little extra peace of mind since the stove weighs well over 800 lbs. Tomorrow I'm putting two floor jacks under it in the basement since I bet the whole thing will weighs between 1100-1200 lbs. installed.

Welcome to the forum Bath Maine Burner. Living where you do with your home, I would go with 4 cord minimum. If you want the ideal, get 8 cord so that the extra wood has lots of time to dry. The curse of new burners is that most just can't find and don't know what good wood is. For sure, do not depend on a wood seller's idea of dry wood! That could get you into lots of trouble. Also, in your first years of burning wood, do not try to burn oak. It is one of the very best firewoods there are but it just does not like to give up its moisture. Around here we cut, split and stack it and then wait 3 years before we attempt to burn it. Once that 3 years has past, the wood is fantastic but try to burn it before and you are asking for big problems. Good luck.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Here's a picture of our set up. I still need to get some tools, ash rake, shovel, ect. I stuck the magnet thermometer on the stove pipe, so it wouldn't get lost. If I understand correctly, it goes on the top of the stove, directly above the cat. We're working on getting an area worked out for storing and seasoning wood. I feel so far behind I should've started getting wood last year, but I wasn't sure we were really going to get the stove. I'll definitely be going to the woodshed forum for advice. I had no idea that some wood seasons more quickly than others, I'm a total newbie at this. I'm so glad this forum is here, so much useful information and friendly, helpful people. I'm actually looking forward to winter this year!

Melissa, that is beautiful.

 

[melissa71]

Thank you, BackwoodsSavage.

 

[firefighterjake]

We just bought a Progress Hybrid as well, having 3 cords delivered this week. Anyone know where I can go to find estimates on how much wood I can plan on going through if I want to heat my home exclusively with this stove?

I have a drafty 150 year old home that is poorly insulated, it's two story and about 1500 sf with 9 1/2' ceilings on the first floor.
I just built my hearth pad and it turned out pretty nice, I'm sure everyone I know is sick of hearing me talk about the thing so maybe I can brag about it on here
(broken image removed)
The PH needs a pretty large pad and when I saw what they wanted for one I decided to build one myself. It cost about $250 total which includes a whole set of tools for tiling which I didn't own and took me about 12 hours to make since I'm pretty much a novice. Just went to Woodstock's website to get the basic idea of the pad, using slate tiles on top of 1/2" cement board on top of 3/4" plywood. The whole thing is framed 8" OC and I have floor joist supports under those for a little extra peace of mind since the stove weighs well over 800 lbs. Tomorrow I'm putting two floor jacks under it in the basement since I bet the whole thing will weighs between 1100-1200 lbs. installed.

Very nice looking hearth

 

[firefighterjake]

Saw a PH myself this past weekend . . . at one of the Amish families' store -- a combination bakery/wood working showroom. I was more excited to see and talk about the PH than I was about the cookies . . . although the molasses cookies were pretty darn tasty.