Hitzer 503 restrictor results thus far

Hi Dave,
I also have a 503. I installed it during the last week in November. I have not been able to get my thermostat (which is in the same room as the 503) much above 70. I live in a 2500+ sq. ft. house and the living room is rather large - 15' x 25'. This is a long way of asking how your stove/heat output is with a little more time under your belt with the restrictor. How do you adjust it?

I was in the same situation as you last year. There is a good chance that you are losing heat up your chimney. I am heating about 3300sf with the 503 now that I have the restrictor. If you get the restrictor you can't adjust it. It is just a tube that fits into the beginning of the flue. If you get it and insert it you have to watch your fire to make sure that you still have adequate draft (in other words smoke is not backing up into the room and a carbon monoxide detector is reading 0). My family room is 13x20 next to a large open kitchem with 300 more sf. We can really feel the heat this year where as we could not. Another change is that my ash is much more powdery than it was last year. I hope this helps

Racquet, HG is correct. You just replace the flat steel plate with the restrictor, which is just a flat piece of metal with a 2 inch high circular piece of steel welded on top. This circular piece faces up into the nipple of the stove in back where the SS liner is attached. Thats it. If you are going to install one, make sure you have enough draft as HG indicated. If you are not getting 70 on your room thermostat, you have to be losing a lot of heat up your chimney. At my lowest setting with the restrictor, I am keeping the room at 78-82 degrees which my wife loves! Thats with windows in that room open due to the warm temps outside. I have let my coal fire die as its too warm. I really want it to get cold to see how the restrictor performs in that environment to deem it a success. You can order the restrictor from Hitzer for a whopping $10 so give it a try. Keep us posted if you do...Dave

The restricter has been installed and works great. I never thouhgt I would see my thermostat display anything above 70 degrees, this morning it was at 76 Thanks to everyone for your help.

Happy to hear that raquet!! Stay warm...its gonna get cold...Dave