Woodstock Progress Hybrid Smoke Smell

[Tenn Dave]

I know the smoke smell problem has been solved in the newer Progress Hybrid stoves, but what was the final fix for the original older stoves? I have a stove purchased in Spring of 2012 and I get a smoke smell especially when the cat bypass is closed. There is no visible smoke, and the smoke alarm does not go off. I have already replaced the cook top gasket with little change. I love this stove and it does a wonderful job of heating my house. 8 to 10 hour burns with only a half load are the norm for me.

 

[rdust]

I thought I remember reading it was on the door frame(frame to stove?) or something along those lines. I'm sure one of your fellow cult members will respond shortly with the correct answer. A call to WS will surely get you the answer you're looking for, they may not be in the office today though.

 

[Tenn Dave]

I thought I remember reading it was on the door frame(frame to stove?) or something along those lines. I'm sure one of your fellow cult members will respond shortly with the correct answer. A call to WS will surely get you the answer you're looking for, they may not be in the office today though.

Yeah, I sent an email to Lorin at Woodstock today. I'm sure they will have a fix for this problem. I was just hoping one of my fellow cult members could give me a head start.

 

[chipsoflyin]

yabaaa-dabaaaa-doooooooo. They got a good fix, stove works alot better. I came down this morning and it was standing on its head

 

[alforit]

someone's starting early

 

[toddnic]

. I'm sure one of your fellow cult members will respond shortly with the correct answer. .

My mama once told me that it was bad to be part of a cult

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dave you did the right thing by contacting Lorin.

 

[Tenn Dave]

Dave you did the right thing by contacting Lorin.

Hi Dennis,
I sent an email to Lorin this morning. Once she gets back from the holiday, I'm sure I will hear from her. I have every confidence that Woodstock will have a fix for this smoke smell. Outside of this issue, I really love this stove. It's a heating beast and good looking to boot. Everyone who comes into my home and sees it comments on how beautiful it looks. And the heating performance has been outstanding. On just a few splits of hickory (approx. a half load), I get 8 to 10 hours of solid heat. If I load it 3/4 full, I get 12 to 13 hour burns. I have never tried a full load.

Best wishes for a Happy Healthy New Year....

 

[3fordasho]

If your close enough to the factory they will come and install upgraded parts on your exising stove. In my case they sent a replacement stove and I sent the original back. No smoke smell issues with the new stove.

 

[Tenn Dave]

If your close enough to the factory they will come and install upgraded parts on your exising stove. In my case they sent a replacement stove and I sent the original back. No smoke smell issues with the new stove.

Thanks Tim. I hope to hear from Lorin at Woodstock tomorrow to discuss the available options.

 

[DougA]

If your close enough to the factory they will come and install upgraded parts on your exising stove. In my case they sent a replacement stove and I sent the original back. No smoke smell issues with the new stove.

Wow, that is Customer Service. I am impressed.

 

[Brick (ware)House]

Dave - Please post what you find out. I am dealing with this same issue with my new stove. At first I thought it was the cooktop gasket but everything seems solid there. The smoke smell is on the right (loading door) side at the top rear corner and along the top side. I did see wisps of smoke once on a reload at the rear corner but at the time just assumed they were from the reload even though I was quite sure they didn't come out the door. Haven't had the visible smoke again and don't have smoke spillage on reloads. The smell is quite apparent when close to the stove and noticeable when entering my living space.

Needless to say, I am not happy. I want the stove to run the way it is supposed to without having to troubleshoot and don't want my young daughter breathing whatever it is belching out into my house!

 

[Brick (ware)House]

If your close enough to the factory they will come and install upgraded parts on your exising stove. In my case they sent a replacement stove and I sent the original back. No smoke smell issues with the new stove.

Did they move the stove into your house and complete the swap out too? I have done the the transportation and install once and would not be interested in repeating the process!

 

[Tenn Dave]

Dave - Please post what you find out. I am dealing with this same issue with my new stove. At first I thought it was the cooktop gasket but everything seems solid there. The smoke smell is on the right (loading door) side at the top rear corner and along the top side. I did see wisps of smoke once on a reload at the rear corner but at the time just assumed they were from the reload even though I was quite sure they didn't come out the door. Haven't had the visible smoke again and don't have smoke spillage on reloads. The smell is quite apparent when close to the stove and noticeable when entering my living space.

Needless to say, I am not happy. I want the stove to run the way it is supposed to without having to troubleshoot and don't want my young daughter breathing whatever it is belching out into my house!

Brick, I will post what happens. I hope to hear from Woodstock tomorrow. They are a good company and stand behind their products.

 

[rdust]

I'm still surprised no has has posted what the problem is/was. I'm sure whatever the fix is users will have the option to attempt the repairs on their own(if they're outside of the WS travel range) before having to deal with moving stoves around.

Must be like fight club, "the first rule of fight club, you do not talk about fight club."

 

[fire_man]

Dave - Please post what you find out. I am dealing with this same issue with my new stove.

Brick: What sort of chimney setup do you have ? Is it a SS lined chimney or just a clay liner and how tall? I seem to remember from one of your older posts that you have a very tall chimney.

The reason I ask is the smoke smell can be exasperated by a poor draft (oversize liner, short chimney, etc).

 

[Brick (ware)House]

I'm still surprised no has has posted what the problem is/was. I'm sure whatever the fix is users will have the option to attempt the repairs on their own(if they're outside of the WS travel range) before having to deal with moving stoves around.

Must be like fight club, "the first rule of fight club, you do not talk about fight club."

I hope to god that I can fix it myself. I have no interest in moving stoves around! My stove is brand new so I was sure that I just needed to re-position the cast top plate to get a better seal over the gasket. I have tried that once and will probably take another close look next time the stove is cold. I still get the smell with my nose up close to the corner of the stove but the air turns over in my place so fast with all the drafts that it is difficult to determine the extent of the problem.

 

[Brick (ware)House]

Brick: What sort of chimney setup do you have ? Is it a SS lined chimney or just a clay liner and how tall? I seem to remember from one of your older posts that you have a very tall chimney.

The reason I ask is the smoke smell can be exasperated by a poor draft (oversize liner, short chimney, etc).

7' of single wall inside and 23' of insulated 6" forever flex SS liner (inside of an original masonry chimney) up to the cap which is 50' off the ground with NW exposure. It is snowing and the wind is whipping right now (14 degrees heading to a low of 5) and I can hear the flue whistling tonight and pulling hard on the stove. I am actually thinking about installing a pipe damper to give me some more control on the hotter burns.

 

[rideau]

You should not be having a smoke smell issue with a new stove. I'd call Lorin.

I have some concern that you may have overfired your stove. You got your andirons red! Do you have an ashpan? If so, have you had it cracked open at all (on purpose or by mistake) when starting a fire/burning? If you had red andirons, and are now getting a smoke smell, I'd check everything very carefully to make sure you have not overfired and damaged the stove. What else was going on with your stove when he andirons were red?

 

[Brick (ware)House]

You should not be having a smoke smell issue with a new stove. I'd call Lorin.

I have some concern that you may have overfired your stove. You got your andirons red! Do you have an ashpan? If so, have you had it cracked open at all (on purpose or by mistake) when starting a fire/burning? If you had red andirons, and are now getting a smoke smell, I'd check everything very carefully to make sure you have not overfired and damaged the stove. What else was going on with your stove when he andirons were red?

I do have an ashpan but it has only been opened once to dump after two days of a cold stove. I read posts about air flow through the bottom of the stove creating a blast furnace effect so I have been aware to watch for that. The smoke smell didn't start after the one particularly hot fire (620-630) and is difficult to explain. Basically, I noticed it while leaning right up over the stove to check the top thermo during the first fires after burn in. If I put my nose almost right on the top back corner I detect a bit of smoky smell on the right side instead of just the hot smell when doing the same thing on the top rear left.

Both times the andirons were glowing the stove was getting lots of primary air (at least at the start of the burn). Once with a few small splits in the bottom of the stove burning hot to push up the stove top temp to almost 600 at the last stage of paint cure. I was standing in front of the stove with the IR gun constantly checking surface temps all over the stove. The cast around the window peaked just under 600 and the stone above and below the window at about 580. As soon as the stove top thermo touched 600 everything was dialed down so it was only there for a moment. Nothing on the stove went much over 600 for any length of time. The second time they were glowing was when I allowed an almost full load to become well charred before closing down. Even with the air closed completely there were wild secondaries for over an hour as the top thermo climbed slowly up past 550. Again I was standing right in front of the stove with the IR as I wanted to learn the characteristics of a full load burn. Seeing the temp up to 550 with plenty of fuel and strong secondaries, I put a fan blowing toward the stove and began checking temps all around. The top cast peaked at about 630 with the top stone around 550. Pipe temps ran up to about 400 on the single wall which is the hottest I have ever had. Nothing on the outside of the stove has ever measured over 640 and I have never left the stove alone with enough fuel or air to get hotter than that without my knowing. I use a bit of foil on the thermo and the overnight burns typically peak around 500 and that is almost always while I am watching it before going to bed. Obviously, I have no intention of damaging the stove and haven't seen orange andirons since. I don't know how I did it but they were glowing without anything on the outside of the stove being much over 600 degrees.

If either of those burns constitute an overfire I have significantly misunderstood something.

A 350-400 degree stove top isn't going to cut it for my heat needs and I see no reason to run the stove at half the stated top end. Everything from Woodstock has been dead on accurate so I take the 700 not to exceed temp at face value. They even include a thermo that indicates an optimal burn range up to 680! And let me be clear I am not proposing to run at 679 all the time. I just want to fine tune my burns so that the plateau of the burn is as hot as possible (500-550 would be nice) with peaks up around 625 or so. If this is a 400 degree stove then it's a 400 degree stove but my expectation (justified IMHO) was the ability to burn hotter than that.

 

[Brick (ware)House]

Let's give Dave his post back and continue the "Hot Progres" conversation on my thread about keeping the glass clean.

 

[chipsoflyin]

In our application, the stove top(measured at the cast next to the collar) peaks when the stove is black and the cat is chewing away. When the fire jump down to the firebox(secondaries firing like a rocket) the stove top temps drop but the heat output goes to pluto. The only time we have seen 600 at the collar is when the cat peaked at 1200+.

 

[HollowHill]

In our application, the stove top(measured at the cast next to the collar) peaks when the stove is black and the cat is chewing away. When the fire jump down to the firebox(secondaries firing like a rocket) the stove top temps drop but the heat output goes to pluto. The only time we have seen 600 at the collar is when the cat peaked at 1200+.

Chips, I'm so glad you posted this. This is exactly what I have been finding since I got the stove upgrade. I'm only getting stove top temps in the 400 - 550 range, but the heat output thru the front glass has seemed high. It's been most perplexing and different from last year. I do not get the rapid climb in temp that I used to get when the cat was engaged, more a slow and steady rise, but there is little to no smoke out the chimney and the heat output is fine. I've gotten a new cat and the results are the same. So, I have been wondering if I need to adjust my thinking about how the stove should operate. Whereas last year I used to get into the 550 - 650 range, maybe I'm getting the same heat output this year from the 450 - 550 range???

 

[rideau]

I haven't had the upgrades yet, but my stove has never burned in the 550 to 650 range. If I really load it full, and really push the stove, I may get to 550. My stove has always comfortably run somewhat over 400 from ignition until the coals start to burn down. Then it slowly drops. I reload not later than 300. Puts a lot of heat out the window.

I'm curious to see what Woodstock finds when they update my stove.

And I am really looking forward to the new, improved screen. Anyone care to share details of its design and care?

 

[HollowHill]

I haven't had the upgrades yet, but my stove has never burned in the 550 to 650 range. If I really load it full, and really push the stove, I may get to 550. My stove has always comfortably run somewhat over 400 from ignition until the coals start to burn down. Then it slowly drops. I reload not later than 300. Puts a lot of heat out the window.

I'm curious to see what Woodstock finds when they update my stove.

And I am really looking forward to the new, improved screen. Anyone care to share details of its design and care?

That's how my stove behaves now, just exactly like that. Very, very consistent, doesn't matter how much wood I put in, it's going to behave the same way, burn times may vary, but stove top temps, not much. I'm loving it!

The new screen is a dream. Easy to install, easy to clean, never sags - WS nailed it.