Progress Hybrid 400 Degree Heat

[teutonicking]

I'm curious to find out from others who own a Woodstock Progress Hybrid stove:

How many hours of 400 degree + heat are you able to get out of your stove on a full load??

 

[Waulie]

I always aim for 12 hour reloads so I very rarely load my stove full. I guess I'm not much help. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say 8 to 10.

 

[Slow1]

I guess it depends on where you measure it - my stones don't get as hot as the cast near the flue (I am a top exit type). And I have only fully loaded the stove 2 times I think and really I have no idea how long it stays at any given temp as I don't look at it throughout the burn (I must confess I have other things on my mind...). I do have a piece of foil to track my peak temp and with the thermometer sitting on the cast about an inch or so from the flue the max I think I've yet to record is about 600.

 

[WarmInIowa]

Your question may get fairly different answers. A higher stove top temperature does not necessarily mean more heat output. An all CAT burn will result in the highest stove top temp since the CAT is below the stove top. When you are getting a CAT burn and the secondaries burning with more flames in the firebox, the stove is putting out more heat in the front and sides and I think more heat overall. Sometimes in this instance I don't even hit 400 on the stove top, but I get a lot of heat.

It will also depend on your wood. For me I'm currently running a mix of not-well-seasoned oak along with some mulberry and seasoned locust. I'm seeing 400-500 degree stove top for 2-3 hours, and above 300 for 8+ hours. If I close the air down more, it will go longer. Since I'm home, I'm putting in three loads a day, which I may have to open the air before reloading to burn the coals down a bit.

I'm heating 3,800+ sq feet almost entirely with the stove. We use a space heater in the bath because the tile floor is cold and its upstairs on the opposite side of the house from the stove.

 

[rideau]

I'm curious to find out from others who own a Woodstock Progress Hybrid stove:

How many hours of 400 degree + heat are you able to get out of your stove on a full load??

How many are you getting?

I have never had my stove fully loaded..have never used wood maximum length stove will accept, and have rarely loaded it near full with 16-18 inch length. Like Waulie, I aim for 12 hour burn times, and unless it is bitterly cold out, I close the air down completely when I engage the cat. My stovetop rarely hits 400, but I get plenty of heat, and have to work at burning the coals down toward the end of the burn if I want to reload in 12 hours...even them, I sometimes have to go 14 -16 hours if I don't want a huge coal bed. I believe that if I loaded this stove full with large ironwood on a small bed of coals I'd get significantly in excess of 12 hour burn with stovetop over 400....I'll wait until we are well below 0 F as the daytime high to try it, though. Don't want to waste my Ironwood.

Oh...and I'm heating a big home, with lots of glass.

 

[teutonicking]

How many are you getting?

I have never had my stove fully loaded..have never used wood maximum length stove will accept, and have rarely loaded it near full with 16-18 inch length. Like Waulie, I aim for 12 hour burn times, and unless it is bitterly cold out, I close the air down completely when I engage the cat. My stovetop rarely hits 400, but I get plenty of heat, and have to work at burning the coals down toward the end of the burn if I want to reload in 12 hours...even them, I sometimes have to go 14 -16 hours if I don't want a huge coal bed. I believe that if I loaded this stove full with large ironwood on a small bed of coals I'd get significantly in excess of 12 hour burn with stovetop over 400....I'll wait until we are well below 0 F as the daytime high to try it, though. Don't want to waste my Ironwood.

Oh...and I'm heating a big home, with lots of glass.

Thanks for the replies so far. I have made a lot of changes to my stove. For example, I recently added a new cooktop with a heat shield after my old one cracked. I used to put the thermometer in the center of the top soapstone block, but that no longer works due to the heat shield. I now put it on the cast iron on the back, just to the left of the center top flue plate (I have a rear flue exit setup). Measured there, I am getting somewhere between 2 hours and 4 hours of 400+ degree heat (four hours with red oak and less with mixed woods). Then it slowly drops to 300, stays at 300 for several (3-4) hours, then slowly drops to about 200 for a few more hours.

While I am able to get "12 hour burns" with the stove (meaning it has enough coals to relight a new load of wood without matches, firestarters or kindling) I can really only get about 8 to 9.5 hours of what I would call "useable" heat (meaning 300 degrees or more). I am heating a home of 3400 square feet (minus a few rooms that can be blocked off upstairs by closing doors), but it seems that when it is below 40 degrees I need three pretty full loads a day to keep the main floor warm (in the low 70s). Two loads per day just doesn't cut it (unless its shoulder season). At this rate I am going to be burning an enormous amount of wood this season.

I have a new SS cat from Woodstock that I have not had a chance to install yet, so I am going to try installing that the next time the weather warms up and I can shut down the stove, and I will see if that helps. It just seemed like the stove burned better, hotter, and longer last year (I realize that last year was unusually warm, but there were also a few cold weeks last year where the stove also seemed to burn hotter and longer).

 

[HollowHill]

I have also switched from a non-shielded cooktop to a shielded cooktop and have moved the thermometer barely to the right of front center on the cast iron back section (I'm also a rear vent). It threw me for a loop. The temps are different as far as what they represent heatwise from the stove. After flailing around for awhile, and talking to Jamie at Woodstock, I have settled into a pattern which works for me and my drafty old house. I find that I have to have the air open about 25% to get the heat I need. On a full load, this will yield temps around 520 - 530 on the thermometer at the peak and there will be quite a bit of heat pouring out the front window. I have been doing 2 full loads a day plus one partial one in the middle of the day. Of course, now that I've settled into that pattern, it has turned significantly colder and I'm going to have to make adjustments. I've burned about 2 cord so far this season, which I don't think is bad. But, I don't expect to get the 12 hour burns with the size and draftiness of my house. Not the stove's fault, its just the situation.

 

[siddfynch]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have made a lot of changes to my stove. For example, I recently added a new cooktop with a heat shield after my old one cracked. I used to put the thermometer in the center of the top soapstone block, but that no longer works due to the heat shield. I now put it on the cast iron on the back, just to the left of the center top flue plate (I have a rear flue exit setup). Measured there, I am getting somewhere between 2 hours and 4 hours of 400+ degree heat (four hours with red oak and less with mixed woods). Then it slowly drops to 300, stays at 300 for several (3-4) hours, then slowly drops to about 200 for a few more hours.

While I am able to get "12 hour burns" with the stove (meaning it has enough coals to relight a new load of wood without matches, firestarters or kindling) I can really only get about 8 to 9.5 hours of what I would call "useable" heat (meaning 300 degrees or more). I am heating a home of 3400 square feet (minus a few rooms that can be blocked off upstairs by closing doors), but it seems that when it is below 40 degrees I need three pretty full loads a day to keep the main floor warm (in the low 70s). Two loads per day just doesn't cut it (unless its shoulder season). At this rate I am going to be burning an enormous amount of wood this season.

I have a new SS cat from Woodstock that I have not had a chance to install yet, so I am going to try installing that the next time the weather warms up and I can shut down the stove, and I will see if that helps. It just seemed like the stove burned better, hotter, and longer last year (I realize that last year was unusually warm, but there were also a few cold weeks last year where the stove also seemed to burn hotter and longer).

Teuton, my new PH is also rear exit, with the new cooktop. My experience is similar to yours in terms of heat, but my burn times are shorter (about 2/3 of your times). I'm burning 1-yr spruce and birch,and not yet filling my firebox. Have burned about 10 fires so far, look forward to dialing it all in a little better as I play around with settings.