"Progress" report

[John Kuhn]

Coming up on five year anniversary for my Progress Hybrid. Still loving how it looks and heats the house. The only slight downside that I see is the need to frequently (once a month at least) clean the ash out of the catalyst. Good news is that it's easy to do. I'm still using the original catalyst.
How are other people liking your Progress Hybrid, and have you had issues?

 

[moresnow]

Coming up on five year anniversary for my Progress Hybrid. Still loving how it looks and heats the house. The only slight downside that I see is the need to frequently (once a month at least) clean the ash out of the catalyst. Good news is that it's easy to do. I'm still using the original catalyst.
How are other people liking your Progress Hybrid, and have you had issues?

Are you running at a medium to higher burn rate often to get the required heat? Are you burning lots of softwood by chance? I enjoy burning softwood greatly but have seen the lighter weight ash get sucked into combustors when burning at higher rates. Not a huge deal to clean as mentioned. Curious. Cool stove!

 

[Ashful]

Chimney height? A very tall chimney and high burn rates conspired to create a similar ash-clogging issue with the combustor in one of my BK Ashford 30's. A key damper, along with a magnehelic to monitor chimney pressure, were my solution. No more ash issues.

 

[John Kuhn]

Are you running at a medium to higher burn rate often to get the required heat? Are you burning lots of softwood by chance? I enjoy burning softwood greatly but have seen the lighter weight ash get sucked into combustors when burning at higher rates. Not a huge deal to clean as mentioned. Curious. Cool stove!

I feel like I don't run a high burn rate, more like low to medium, but I do prefer to see visible flame than have it sit there smoldering. It doesn't take much air to do that, though, as my wood is very dry. I burn mostly hardwood like oak, sugar maple and hickory, but some softer woods like elm, ash, and occasional pine. I think the ash comes from sparks that get sucked into the catalyst and get stuck there, as it doesn't seem like there is enough airflow to move actual ash.

 

[John Kuhn]

Chimney height? A very tall chimney and high burn rates conspired to create a similar ash-clogging issue with the combustor in one of my BK Ashford 30's. A key damper, along with a magnehelic to monitor chimney pressure, were my solution. No more ash issues.

I answered the burn rate question, interesting that your response is on the same line as Moresnow. My chimney goes straight up, less than 6 feet of 6" single wall which adapts into maybe 15' of 8" insulated pipe. Interesting thought, I'll have to give some consideration to your suggestions.

 

[Ashful]

I answered the burn rate question, interesting that your response is on the same line as Moresnow. My chimney goes straight up, less than 6 feet of 6" single wall which adapts into maybe 15' of 8" insulated pipe. Interesting thought, I'll have to give some consideration to your suggestions.

Moresnow now has a BK, so he's probably seen me mention the ash-clogging problem a few times in the annual BK stove threads. It has affected just a few of us with taller chimneys on BK 30 boxes, as they seem to have a pretty aggressive air wash system, by comparison to the older BK's.

Your chimney is shorter, and you're not burning on high, so you'd think that maybe your problem is different. But, depending on the stove design, maybe it's still the same issue, the air wash stirring up minute (invisible) amounts of fly ash. Over weeks and months, this becomes enough to plug the cat.

The only other thing I can imagine is too much time spent burning with cat below active temperature, such that it's plugging with unburned fuel. You're seeing it as ash, maybe because you later got the combustor hot enough to burn up whatever had been previously deposited during a cool phase, leaving only ash behind?

 

[John Kuhn]

Moresnow now has a BK, so he's probably seen me mention the ash-clogging problem a few times in the annual BK stove threads. It has affected just a few of us with taller chimneys on BK 30 boxes, as they seem to have a pretty aggressive air wash system, by comparison to the older BK's.

Your chimney is shorter, and you're not burning on high, so you'd think that maybe your problem is different. But, depending on the stove design, maybe it's still the same issue, the air wash stirring up minute (invisible) amounts of fly ash. Over weeks and months, this becomes enough to plug the cat.

The only other thing I can imagine is too much time spent burning with cat below active temperature, such that it's plugging with unburned fuel. You're seeing it as ash, maybe because you later got the combustor hot enough to burn up whatever had been previously deposited during a cool phase, leaving only ash behind?

I think your thought on minute ash is more likely than clogging with unburnt fuel. If it was clogging, i would expect it to be well into the catalyst, but what I'm see is build up on the inlet side only. It's pretty easy to brush/blow off. Right after it's cleaned, there's so much more airflow and more aggressive burn, it's like a new stove.

 

[moresnow]

Sounds like you may have a rather strong draft. You might consider a key damper to slow it down a touch. Easy experiment. And yes I have BK's. The first of which is almost eight years old. Time fly's

 

[Ashful]

Oh, hadn't even noticed / remembered the Sirocco! I just remembered you having the Boxer.