Woodstock Soapstone Progress Hybrid Stove

[rdust]

Yes, just add a T-stat and it would be awesome. Make it as big as an Equinox, and it would be my dream stove. 6in flue of course

I don't think the T-Stat is that important if you're basing it on the BK T-Stat for low burn times. When I'm dialed down on a low burn that T-Stat is doing nothing. I do think it contributes to the nice even output on the higher burn temps during the meat of the winter though. When I have it dialed in just right I can watch the coals darken and brighten up as the T-Stat does it's thing.

 

[Todd]

They engineered it with that secondary air being part of the deal.(obviously) It may take some tweaking but I'm sure you could get it to burn good with just the cat.

Yeah but all the air comes through one air control unlike a true non cat which usually has a steperate secondary air inlet that is uncontrollable. The PH must have the air branch off the primary to feed the baffle and cat. I bet there's a way to block that baffle air. I'd like to get a good look at the air control.

 

[Highbeam]

Perhaps a "whole" intake restrictor on the main OAK hookup. On my hearthstone, I could limit all air to the stove by covering up the 3" nipple air inlet on the rear. I'm sure that woodstock wanted the stove to run this way, they have skills. Their goals are just not the same as ours.

 

[charly]

Too bad you can't go see Woodstock's stoves in person. You won't believe you eye's, seeing the nice workmanship! That's why people love their stoves. They are simply works of art and just beautifully built. The even hand fit the stones on each stove, removing a little material here and there until the have the perfect fit that only they will accept. Look and you will buy. I was watching them check fit the stones for the new cook top on the Hybrid. My god an 1/8 th inch gap was out of the question, way too big, they were looking for maybe a .020 thousandth gap or so. Just amazing what standards they adhere to. Makes you feel good about owning one of their stoves. And with all that good stuff you have great service and parts availability along with a bunch of super nice people. The whole thing is good.

 

[fire_man]

Last winter was not such a good test for this stove - it was way too warm. But my comments:

-It heats MUCH better than the Fireview did, and burns longer.
-Heats up quickly from a cold start.
-I once burned a load of very old but rained on cottonwood. This clogged the screen quickly to the point I had
to put the fire out because smoke was backing into the house. Otherwise the screen stayed clean most of the winter when burning dry wood.
Draft was noticeably weaker than other stoves I owned, probably because the stove is so darn efficient and has low flue temps. This year I am insulating the liner, which should help.

I really liked the Fireview but I really really like the Progress.

 

[Waulie]

It is true that the Progress can't be run like a regular cat stove on a full load. I highly doubt this would be an issue for someone trying to heat 3,000 square feet!

I love my Progress. It works perfect for my needs. On a "warmer" night, I just load it 60 percent full or so, dial it down and let the cat go to work for 12 hours. On a cold night, I fill it full and let the secondaries crank out the heat for 14 hours or so. The stove really does sip wood, and efficiency does matter if you want to limit your wood use.

No, it will not burn for 30 hours. This is not a problem for me at all. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it with the disclaimer that 3,000 square feet is a lot if not very well insulated.

Also, I just received my new cook top for free! It just showed up at my door with an invoice balance of $0.00. Not bad!

 

[HollowHill]

It is true that the Progress can't be run like a regular cat stove on a full load. I highly doubt this would be an issue for someone trying to heat 3,000 square feet!

I love my Progress. It works perfect for my needs. On a "warmer" night, I just load it 60 percent full or so, dial it down and let the cat go to work for 12 hours. On a cold night, I fill it full and let the secondaries crank out the heat for 14 hours or so. The stove really does sip wood, and efficiency does matter if you want to limit your wood use.

No, it will not burn for 30 hours. This is not a problem for me at all. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it with the disclaimer that 3,000 square feet is a lot if not very well insulated.

Also, I just received my new cook top for free! It just showed up at my door with an invoice balance of $0.00. Not bad!

Waulie, That is exciting! I didn't know they were in yet. Haven't received mine yet. How do you like it? Have you installed it yet?

 

[Waulie]

Waulie, That is exciting! I didn't know they were in yet. Haven't received mine yet. How do you like it? Have you installed it yet?

Yeah it is exciting HH! I just received it today so I haven't installed it yet. It does look very nice. The cast on the cook top is heavy duty just like everything WS does. The stone pieces are a bit thinner than the old top but still very substantial.

They include instructions and the process looks very easy. They sent a new gasket to go under the cook top and just say to take a look at your current gasket to see if you need to replace it or not. I can't wait to try it out! I do still love my solid top stone but heck now I have both!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hey Waulie, please give us a review when you get it installed. What do you plan on cooking first?

 

[Waulie]

Hey Waulie, please give us a review when you get it installed. What do you plan on cooking first?

Will definately give a review Dennis! I'm not sure what I'll cook first... something easy would probably be in order. Maybe chicken and white bean chile? I going to need to learn to use a dutch oven too since I've never really messed with one.

I have a propane stove, so even power outages aren't a problem. But, I've now been dropped by my propane company so I'm not sure who'll even bring me the stuff anymore. My goal is to make the propane I have last this winter and do some soul searching from there.

 

[rideau]

I've used my PH once this summer, during a power outage, to cook and for evening light. It was quite warm out, so windows were open and fire was small. Fire started pretty easily and we were quite comfortable.
I love this beautiful stove which does exactly what it was designed to do: heat a LARGE home in a COLD climate VERY efficiently, VERY comfortably, VERY safely, with reasonable reload times. I have had fires last up to 16 hours. 12 hour burn is easy. Last winter I seldom filled the stove. I'm in zone 5, over 3000 sq ft, tons of very large windows, many facing due North. Burned the stove under 450 degrees stovetop temp except on a few very cold days. Three story house, 1450 feet per floor, First floor high 70's, second floor (bedrooms) high 60's, 3rd floor low 60's with no attempt to distribute heat. A small fan on a really cold day pointed into the living room pumps more heat upstairs. I could easily get the house warmer by burning a bigger fire, but I don't want it warmer. I used about 1 1/2 cords last year, my only heat source, burning Ironwood (primarily), Beech and Sugar Maple. Floor plan is very traditional, except that the whole North side of the first floor is one room, open to central hall and kitchen.
This stove heats comfortably in the shoulder season with one small fire in the evening. Starts right up from embers. Burns very completely.
A few minor issues that Woodstock has or is addressing. My biggest issue is the screen, which they are in the process of redesigning, with great care and attention to the problems owners have had with it. Any improvements, Woodstock retrofits each stove at no charge.
Woodstock did not try to design a stove with a 30 hour burn time. They designed a stove to extend their line to provide a stove that would heat a large home efficiently with once a day reload. It does this, except in the very coldest weather with the firebox far from full. Coldest weather requires a full firebox or 8 hour burn time.
This stove is very efficient and will put out maximum BTU's from the wood you provide it.
There is a learning curve burning this stove, but one quickly learns how to get a slow cat fire if that is what one wants. Wood dimension, wood quantity and air controls all play their part. Last winter, which was mild, I burned primarily large logs slowly. This stove puts out almost twice the heat of a fireview from much less than twice the wood, in my opinion. The loading door is nicely bigger than the Fireview's. but not big and restricts the number of large logs one can load. Split to smaller size, a lot of wood can be put in the firebox for production of a great deal of heat.

 

[Todd]

Rideau,
What length splits are you burning? Max is 22" but If you were burning 16-18" splits does it still take more wood than a Fireview does?

 

[Todd]

I wonder how this stove would do if you burned it like a masonry heater? 700 lb mass of soapstone should radiate for a long time? Maybe just one good hot firing could keep a medium sized home warm for the whole day?

 

[rideau]

Rideau,
What length splits are you burning? Max is 22" but If you were burning 16-18" splits does it still take more wood than a Fireview does?

PH has a bigger firebox, therefore will hold more wood. It is more efficient, in my opinion, and gives more heat from the same amount of wood. Certainly gives more heat faster than the FIreview because of the bigger window. My wood last season had already been split for the Fireview, so was all 18 inches or shorter.Since I never used 20-22 inch wood, and generally filled the firebox about 60% because I used large logs (6-8 inch diameter unsplit Ironwood, very dry), I seldom came close to fully loading the firebox. I found that when I used the same amount of wood that I had used in the Fireview, I got more heat from the PH, with amazingly complete combustion, little ash residue. Also ran no risk of the stove getting very hot very fast which happens quickly in the Fireview if you don't watch it carefully after loading.and before engaging cat. This is a really safe stove. I burned at a lower temp than the Fireview, lots more heat radiated through the bigger window. Last winter was a warm winter so it is hard to compare, but I used 2 cords the winter before, 1 1/2 cords last winter. House was much warmer last winter, and warmth was on all three floors, to a far greater extent than with Fireview. I love the Fireview, used it for years as my only heat source except at night in distant bedrooms, but to be honest the upstairs was chilly and we only used it for sleeping., always used soapstone warmers in the beds. With the PH I was immediately struck by the fact that I was not aware of cooler air as I clmibed the stais. To summarize, you certainly can burn the stove with the same amount of wood as a Fireview, and judging from my experience will get more heat, and get that heat more quicly, than in a FIreview. On milder days, smaller, cooler fires are adequate to heat my home. The great thing is that on really cold days you have the firebox size to burn significantly more wood. and can get a great deal more heat than you ever could from the fireview. Since you can control heat output by both wood input and air controls, this stove gives you great versatility burning an extemely reasonable amount of wood. I am so glas I bought this stove. It has made a bif difference in the comfort of my home in the winter.

 

[Todd]

Thanks, good info Rideau. I'm still curious what this stove can do with a fully packed firebox of 22" splits. Seems like most everyone is burning 16-18" which is what I have for the next 3 years. Even with smaller wood it looks like it has little problem achieving 12+ hour burns and delivering great heat output.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks, good info Rideau. I'm still curious what this stove can do with a fully packed firebox of 22" splits. Seems like most everyone is burning 16-18" which is what I have for the next 3 years.

You split with a maul, and you're able to consistently cut the same lengths? I find myself cutting to where knots or elbows are, for easiest hand splitting. Gnarly pieces might get cut as short as 14", while nice straight clean stuff is cut 20 - 22". I'd guess the nice straight clean stuff accounts for less than half my total supply.

This is the curse of taking free wood, when you're a hand splitter. Most folks don't consider the guy who has to split the stuff when they're bucking a tree or branch wood.

edit: forgot to say... "thread hijack!"

 

[Todd]

I try to cut everything 16" and if I run into hard to split by hand I use my little 8 ton power splitter. Stacking is more sturdy if they are all about the same length and I stack 7' high in my shed.

 

[fox9988]

Those with a PH and short wood could burn a row E/W across the back, then fill N/S in the front. Take advantage of a few more cu in.

 

[Todd]

What is the fire box dimentions on the PH? Can some post a picture of the fire box through the door?

 

[certified106]

I've used my PH once this summer, during a power outage, to cook and for evening light. It was quite warm out, so windows were open and fire was small. Fire started pretty easily and we were quite comfortable.
I love this beautiful stove which does exactly what it was designed to do: heat a LARGE home in a COLD climate VERY efficiently, VERY comfortably, VERY safely, with reasonable reload times. I have had fires last up to 16 hours. 12 hour burn is easy. Last winter I seldom filled the stove. I'm in zone 5, over 3000 sq ft, tons of very large windows, many facing due North. Burned the stove under 450 degrees stovetop temp except on a few very cold days. Three story house, 1450 feet per floor, First floor high 70's, second floor (bedrooms) high 60's, 3rd floor low 60's with no attempt to distribute heat. I used about 1 1/2 cords last year, my only heat source, burning Ironwood (primarily), Beech and Sugar Maple. Floor plan is very traditional, except that the whole North side of the first floor is one room, open to central hall and kitchen.
This stove heats comfortably in the shoulder season with one small fire in the evening. Starts right up from embers. Burns very completely.
A few minor issues that Woodstock has or is addressing.

I burned primarily large logs slowly. This stove puts out almost twice the heat of a fireview from much less than twice the wood, in my opinion. The loading door is nicely bigger than the Fireview's. but not big and restricts the number of large logs one can load. Split to smaller size, a lot of wood can be put in the firebox for production of a great deal of heat.

I want to preface this by saying I think Woodstock is a stand up company and produces a great product. I have even reccomended Keystones to quite a few people who have smaller homes and were looking for all night burns with a wood stove. But...............I have to say I have a very hard time figuring out how you heat 4350 sq ft of house in Southern Ontario on 1.5 cord of wood a year? The numbers just don't add up and there is only so many BTU's in a cord of wood no matter how you burn it. Then to say the PH puts out twice as much heat on the same amount of wood just doesn't jive with me. Just for the sake of my argument even if you said the Fireview was only 50% efficient (yes I know it is more efficient than that) that would mean the PH is now 100% efficient.......I'm just not following this at all

 

[Highbeam]

I want to preface this by saying I think Woodstock is a stand up company and produces a great product. I have even reccomended Keystones to quite a few people who have smaller homes and were looking for all night burns with a wood stove. But...............I have to say I have a very hard time figuring out how you heat 4350 sq ft of house in Southern Ontario on 1.5 cord of wood a year? The numbers just don't add up and there is only so many BTU's in a cord of wood no matter how you burn it. Then to say the PH puts out twice as much heat on the same amount of wood just doesn't jive with me. Just for the sake of my argument even if you said the Fireview was only 50% efficient (yes I know it is more efficient than that) that would mean the PH is now 100% efficient.......I'm just not following this at all

+1, I like catstoves and the WS people really like their stoves but that's just a bit hard to believe. I can carry a cord of wood in my pickup. 1.5 cords is hardly anything, fill your stove twice a day for only 35 days at minimum stove output. Isn't the heating season longer than 35 days? To heat a huge house like that in Canada you would need more btus.

 

[3fordasho]

Also, I just received my new cook top for free! It just showed up at my door with an invoice balance of $0.00. Not bad!

I received shipment notification yesterday, should receive the new cooktop on Monday

 

[Ashful]

+1, I like catstoves and the WS people really like their stoves but that's just a bit hard to believe. I can carry a cord of wood in my pickup. 1.5 cords is hardly anything, fill your stove twice a day for only 35 days at minimum stove output. Isn't the heating season longer than 35 days? To heat a huge house like that in Canada you would need more btus.

Easy folks... he's on the metric system, so he's burning metric cords. I think the rule is, double it and add 32. So, he's burning 35 of our imperial cords.

 

[rideau]

Those with a PH and short wood could burn a row E/W across the back, then fill N/S in the front. Take advantage of a few more cu in.

Can't burn much more than 12 inch n/s.

 

[rideau]

I want to preface this by saying I think Woodstock is a stand up company and produces a great product. I have even reccomended Keystones to quite a few people who have smaller homes and were looking for all night burns with a wood stove. But...............I have to say I have a very hard time figuring out how you heat 4350 sq ft of house in Southern Ontario on 1.5 cord of wood a year? The numbers just don't add up and there is only so many BTU's in a cord of wood no matter how you burn it. Then to say the PH puts out twice as much heat on the same amount of wood just doesn't jive with me. Just for the sake of my argument even if you said the Fireview was only 50% efficient (yes I know it is more efficient than that) that would mean the PH is now 100% efficient.......I'm just not following this at all

Just going by what I have experienced. I'm burning Ironwood logs, they burn slowly and produce a lot of heat. I can get this stove to burn more slowly than the Fireview. I was really surprised in the difference in actual heating of the house, and can only surmise that a lot less heat is lost up the chimney. A great deal more heat is radiated out the window than with the Fireview, and it may be that the Soapstone can only absorb so much heat, then in the Fireview more is lost up the chimney?> Don't know, and have wondered, but what I'm telling is what happened. Previous winter I burned 2 cords in the Fireview. I have insulated curtains, which I keep closed nights, really cold days (except to the south when the day is sunny), and I am not comfortable when the house gets too hot, spend lots of time outdoors during the day, so keep the house in the 70's on the first floor....My house is really well built and insulated---2x6 Doug Fir, cedar shingles, Pella windows. Lots of mass to heat up and retain heat...floors are two layers of 3/4 inch plywood topped with wideboard hardwood floors in oak/maple/cherry or teak and then topped with carpets.Good insulation in the walls and ceiling, large mostly below grade full basement. It's a tight home. A face cord usually lasts me three weeks in the dead of winter. I may stack more wood in a face cord than many people, since a lot of my wood is 16 inch to 18 inch long unsplit 6-8 inch diameter Ironwood logs, well dried. May be a lot less air space than most people have in a cord....And Ironwood burns slowly and produces a lot of heat. I am also on very rocky soil, densely wooded and my wood (all of it..beech,maple, ironwood,hickory and ash) is very dense with tight growth rings. Have always assumed this dense heavy wood produces more heat than your average wood grown on deep soil/properly thinned.
Anyway, I'm not complaining. The less splitting I do the better. I hand split bigger diameter wood,and both sugar maple and Ironwood can be a pain when the grain isn't straight.