New Wood Stove (Woodstock Progress Hybrid) Project

[maxsmc]

Let me start by saying that I have found hearth.com to be the single most valuable resource as I started this wood stove project. Everything from stove selection, install, first fire (yet to do, but great instructions when the time comes) and so much more.

This post is meant to highlight my project to date. I have included pictures below, but will focus on questions I had and things I learned / wish I could do over.

An overview of the project. We moved into our new home over a year ago. The main living area has 15foot vaulted ceilings and is placed at the southern end of the house and sits above an unconditioned garage. It is roughly 900SQ feet with a lofted section. When we first moved in, the only source of heat for this room was a large propane gas fireplace insert, with a mantle that direct vented out the wall(see photos). It was large and dated. One of our first upgrades to the home was replacing the 30 year old oil boiler with a new high efficiency propane combi boiler. With that project we added a new zone into the great room so we were not solely reliant on the propane fire place. The goal of mine was to always replace the propane fireplace with a wood stove. We can all agree that there is nothing that compares to a wood stove on a cold winters night, and living in Vermont, there are plenty of those. So we made up our minds that we were going to tackle this project this fall. Installing it all ourselves to save some money. Here were our steps and feedback along the way:

1) Stove location. Originally I had it in my head that I wanted to stove pushed over into the right corner of the living space. It would be out of the way, easy to gate off to the 3 little kids, and open up the space even more. However, this would require far too much class A chimney poking up from our 10/12 roof line, thus resulting in a very poor draft. We also didn't want to run the internal pipe up the roof line like some posts indicated as the supports for that amount of run are not recommended by any manufacturer. So we settled back to the center of the room.

2) Stove selection. This was the single biggest question my wife and I went back and forth on. For obvious reasons. After months of deliberation, we settled on the fact that we wanted a soapstone stove. We spend 75% of our time in the great room and we didn't want to be sweat out of it with a cast iron or steel stove. We also loved the look so it was a win, win. It was down between Hearthstones Heritage and Woodstock's Progress Hybrid. Now I understand these are two very different stoves in terms of heat output, but we were originally concerned with how far the PH would protrude into the room. You can see in the photos of the original mantel that there are some tape outlines of both heritage (blue) and PH (white) to show where each stove and their hearth pad would reside. Ultimately we settled on the PH for a few different reasons. We like the idea that if we need more heat (2400Sq ft) we have it, and the customer service made it easy to pull the trigger. We jumped on one of their fall specials and drove down and picked up the stove in person that following Saturday.

3) Hearth layout and accent wall. We always wanted the hearth pad to be flush, so after much research on this forum we found a solution to keep our R-value to the recommenced .40 that the PH requires (with optional ash lip). We went with .5'' cement board with .25'' ceramic tile on the subfloor. We prefer this look and think it allows for more space in the room. Laying tile for the first time had me anxious, but once I was able to get the proper ratio of water to mix I was relieved on how easy it was. My first couple floor tiles were entirely too soupy but after a while I got the hang of it. If I were to do it again, I would make sure to add smaller amounts of water to the mix at a time . My other major area of oversight was the accent wall up the back. I did not verify that the walls were plum. One of the 2X6 wall studs was .5 inch inset from the rest. This became evident when laying tile. It is directly behind the stove, but if I were to do it again, I will make sure my wall was perfect before laying down cement board.

4) Pipe selection. I hope this is not an area I grow to regret. We settled on Duravent's DVL stove pipe with their matching class A chimney. Simply because of cost. The project (like all tend to do) was quickly going over budget. We saved some money ordering online and choosing this pipe. If I had more funds I would have sprung for the Selkirk. Only time will tell.

Overall we are extremely happy with the project. I will finish up grouting and install internal pipe in the next couple days.... I was 9inches short as I miss ordered one of the pipe lengths. It was a sad end to the install day to say the least.

First fire should be Thursday. I will be sure to post final photos and my feedback on the stove as we move through our first full burn year.

 

[spudman99]

Nice write up and looks good. I do like the vertical wood trim to match the windows above and offer a visual break. I think you will find out pretty quickly that the gate around the stove may not be necessary as the kiddo's learn fast not to touch or go near the heat emitting device.

I assume you already have at least 1 year old wood cut, split and stacked and covered on your yard, ready to burn?

 

[weatherguy]

This is my 4th year with the PH and I can guarantee you wont be sorry with the heat output or the looks.

 

[maxsmc]

Nice write up and looks good. I do like the vertical wood trim to match the windows above and offer a visual break. I think you will find out pretty quickly that the gate around the stove may not be necessary as the kiddo's learn fast not to touch or go near the heat emitting device.

I assume you already have at least 1 year old wood cut, split and stacked and covered on your yard, ready to burn?

We are going to run the gate for the first year. We entertain a lot with a number of kids under 3 always running around, none of which live with a wood stove. However, I am always a fan of learn from experience

As for wood, we have 3 cords from last February. Right when we moved in, I had a plan for a wood stove, so wood purchase was the first step. I have about a cord 9-15% dry in the basement. The rest if covered under the back deck. My plan is to get another 3 cords delivered in the next couple weeks and stack on pallets next to our yard shed. Next spring I plan on putting up a larger woodshed and will get that filled up as soon as possible.

 

[trguitar]

Looks great! You will not regret your purchase. We are going into our 4th year with it. Awesome stove!

We have little kids, too, and have a gate. When we first got the stove in 2016 our kids were 3, 2, and 1. We took the gate off to start this year, but my wife runs an in-home pre-school one day a week, and the parents were more comfortable with the gate on. It's not a big deal.

 

[spudman99]

Perfect. Having that wood supply ahead of time is key to performance, as you probably know from reading this website. I too thought about an insert for 2 years, and grabbed several cords of wood last year. Now burning 17% cherry and it lights up almost instantly on coals and burns down to little ash. Haven't emptied the wood ash yet in 3 weeks and 1/4 cord into burning.

 

[weatherguy]

Not that you would want to but the PH isnt fussy about dry wood, you could throw a load of 25% wood in and it would burn nice, like I say you dont want to do that but it's not fussy at all. Sounds like you're in good shape with wood anyway.

 

[maxsmc]

Section of missing pipe arrived today. However, it is completely damaged and unusable. My guess is someone dropped it and then returned it. Northline Express didn't verify the item before sending it to me. And now we wait another week.... agony.

 

[kennyp2339]

Section of missing pipe arrived today. However, it is completely damaged and unusable. My guess is someone dropped it and then returned it. Northline Express didn't verify the item before sending it to me. And now we wait another week.... agony.

I know the feeling - what are you using double wall telescoping? I had the same issue a few years back with an adapter collar, first one came in all dented and warped, had to send it back then wait for another to ship out, total pia, ended up make a temp adapter with some single wall pipe and my hand crimper, worked great for the 2 weeks I needed it.

 

[maxsmc]

Upon further review in the AM after I cooled down. I was able to determine that a bit of manual manipulate (pliers and strength) and touch up paint the new section will do just fine way up high. So I pressed on this AM and finished up the install! First mini fire is ripping now. I found the perfect PH first firing routine here:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/break-in-fires-for-woodstock-progress-and-fireview.78352/

Dennis is the main salesman for Woodstock and knows his stuff evidently.

Now today did not go without a huge set back. After all the internal pipe was connected and plumbed I was set to clean the pipe up and apply touch up paint to some sections that were dinged during install.

!!LEARNING LESSON FOR INSTALLERS AHEAD!!

I thought to myself, I better not bring that whole can of touch up, up the ladder incase I drop it, so I poured a bit into a solo cup to get the up high places. As I take my first brush stroke I realize that the PAINT IS EATING THROUGH the cup. It poured down the ladder and onto the perfectly new soapstone! I hated myself. I even managed to drip paint all the way to the kitchen and ruin the facet finish. Not my finest moment.

After a frantic clean up, it is evident that the top stones will need to be replaced. Something I will reach out to Woodstock soon.

A learning lesson indeed. I will never do that again, and hope no one out there reading this makes that same mistake.

All and all we are thrilled with what we have done to transform the room and home. A recap to come as days and nights get colder.

 

[SpaceBus]

Section of missing pipe arrived today. However, it is completely damaged and unusable. My guess is someone dropped it and then returned it. Northline Express didn't verify the item before sending it to me. And now we wait another week.... agony.

I had to wait three months for all of my chimney and other install related items to arrive at my house for my wood cook stove. It was an agonizing wait while staring at the cooker.

 

[SpaceBus]

Upon further review in the AM after I cooled down. I was able to determine that a bit of manual manipulate (pliers and strength) and touch up paint the new section will do just fine way up high. So I pressed on this AM and finished up the install! First mini fire is ripping now. I found the perfect PH first firing routine here:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/break-in-fires-for-woodstock-progress-and-fireview.78352/

Dennis is the main salesman for Woodstock and knows his stuff evidently.

Now today did not go without a huge set back. After all the internal pipe was connected and plumbed I was set to clean the pipe up and apply touch up paint to some sections that were dinged during install.

!!LEARNING LESSON FOR INSTALLERS AHEAD!!

I thought to myself, I better not bring that whole can of touch up, up the ladder incase I drop it, so I poured a bit into a solo cup to get the up high places. As I take my first brush stroke I realize that the PAINT IS EATING THROUGH the cup. It poured down the ladder and onto the perfectly new soapstone! I hated myself. I even managed to drip paint all the way to the kitchen and ruin the facet finish. Not my finest moment.

After a frantic clean up, it is evident that the top stones will need to be replaced. Something I will reach out to Woodstock soon.

A learning lesson indeed. I will never do that again, and hope no one out there reading this makes that same mistake.

All and all we are thrilled with what we have done to transform the room and home. A recap to come as days and nights get colder.

I never would have known since the paint comes in a plastic container, so nice tip!

Your install looks fantastic and I'm sure you will have many great years of service. I myself made a somewhat expensive oopsie with my cookstove a few nights ago. I used a stoneware casserole dish on the cook top thinking it would work well as an impromptu Dutch oven. Joke's on me, it's full of cracks after throwing a handful of raw onion into it. At least I'll have some new cookware! You could keep your old stones and have backups in case something weird happens.

 

[kennyp2339]

So what time do you want all of us up for some celebration beers?

 

[barnaclebob]

Ouch to the paint spilling, that really sucks. Woodstock is great about replacment parts, I wouldnt expect these peices to be too exensive, maybe a couple hundred? You might want to provide a pic of your soapstone so they can try to match the consistency. Some pieces have more veins than others.

 

[weatherguy]

Upon further review in the AM after I cooled down. I was able to determine that a bit of manual manipulate (pliers and strength) and touch up paint the new section will do just fine way up high. So I pressed on this AM and finished up the install! First mini fire is ripping now. I found the perfect PH first firing routine here:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/break-in-fires-for-woodstock-progress-and-fireview.78352/

Dennis is the main salesman for Woodstock and knows his stuff evidently.

Now today did not go without a huge set back. After all the internal pipe was connected and plumbed I was set to clean the pipe up and apply touch up paint to some sections that were dinged during install.

!!LEARNING LESSON FOR INSTALLERS AHEAD!!

I thought to myself, I better not bring that whole can of touch up, up the ladder incase I drop it, so I poured a bit into a solo cup to get the up high places. As I take my first brush stroke I realize that the PAINT IS EATING THROUGH the cup. It poured down the ladder and onto the perfectly new soapstone! I hated myself. I even managed to drip paint all the way to the kitchen and ruin the facet finish. Not my finest moment.

After a frantic clean up, it is evident that the top stones will need to be replaced. Something I will reach out to Woodstock soon.

A learning lesson indeed. I will never do that again, and hope no one out there reading this makes that same mistake.

All and all we are thrilled with what we have done to transform the room and home. A recap to come as days and nights get colder.

That looks great, that's the color I wanted but they only had 8 brown ones and I wasnt going to wait for them to build another one.

 

[maxsmc]

3 month update:

So we are well into the burning season here in VT. Have had a few night below zero and was able to keep the first floor a comfortable 65 during the day and seldom woke up to propane heat kicking in for too long in the early mornings. With the stove update we also installed Nest smart thermostats in all the zones. I am able to see how often each zone turns on and for how long they are active. Something I now find myself monitoring just for fun. Pleased to say our entire downstairs has averaged 30min of active propane usage a day. Upstairs is around 5 hours a day. Now because of the location of the stove, the upstairs back rooms are reliant on morning heating from propane because doors are closed at night.

Since November we have burnt thought roughly 3 cords of word with 24/7 burning. I had to get another shipment of semi-seasoned wood to get us through these next couple months. This wood is considerably wetter than what I was burning and had on had from a year ago. Moisture content is around 25% and the PH burns right through it! Granted, fires are tougher to get going when it is fully out, but for the most part the stove has not skipped a beat. Love this thing.

Considerably dirtier glass and I have started cleaning out the catalytic converter more often, but that is a given for the wetter wood. I will note now that about 2 months in I noticed some considerable bowing in my original catalytic converter after a cleaning. I contacted Woodstock and they warranted it on the spot. New cat is showing none of the similar signs as the first and going strong.

Speak of Woodstock, the paint spill was easily resolved. Because soapstone is not very porous, i was able to lightly sand and polish the paint right out! Huge relief.

So far the financial benefits are really paying off. Each of these cords were purchased green last winter so I am $600 in for the wood burned. My propane / oil during the same time period last year was $600/month. Granted it was a 30 year old oil furnace and propane fireplace. We did end up upgrading that furnace to a high efficiently combi water heater boiler last spring we are paying roughly $90/month in supplemental heat and water heating. A huge difference in what a year makes.

I already have 4 cords of green wood on pallets for next year and plan on getting another 4 cords this spring for 2022 winter. My plan is in the spring to build 2 wood bays under the deck and a 3rd shed that will hold roughly 4 cords itself. Now, just to figure out where to put it....

That is all for now.

 

[weatherguy]

That stove will pay for itself in no time, Im already way in the black with mine. get as much wood as you can store, three years ahead is a good goal and makes life easier but as you found out the PH will burn wood that is 25% or so no problem, I just don't like to make a habit of it.

 

[toddnic]

I recouped all of my costs related to the purchase and install of the PH in 2 1/2 years. It has been great to be "in the black" since 2016. The PH is saving me $1,000's of dollars each year and the house is much warmer and comfortable.

 

[trguitar]

65! That's chilly. Crank that thing up! When we get down around zero or below, I leave the air open around half. The stove top is around 600-650, but it's OK. I need to reload every 6 hours or so, but I can keep 2400 sf at 70.

If you are having trouble keeping 70, look at your air-sealing and insulating, especially basement and attic. Our stove is at one end of the house, and we use fans to blow the heat around. In very cold weather like that our upstairs is about 4 degrees cooler than downstairs.