WS IS clean and sweep report

Cleaned my stove yesterday....

I have some warping underneath the sled, but it is on the metal on the inside of the metal bracket and the gasket. It looks like it is still sealed. I have the new radiator on the way as mine was getting so warped that it was difficult to remove and replace. My 12 pound sledge got it back into better shape. I cleaned it myself for the first time. There was A LOT of creosote chips in the stove directly under the stove pipe. The stove pipe had a lot of creosote where it mates to the chimney. The chimney was not bad. My gasket for the cat is busted and I have a new one on the way for that as well.

The company who cleaned my stove before the burn season last year did a poor job of reconnecting my stove pipe to the stove and chimney. That might have let in too much air which cooled down the smoke to create the creosote.

 

The stainless steel shield underneath the top cover? The bolts that hold that on?

 

I replaced my ash pan gasket towards the end of last season. The build-up was so bad I suspect the gasket may have been compromised. Installed the new gasket and cleaned/chipped away at all the build-up. Was good to go. I still have yet to get the pre-season cleaning in. I’m running out of time!

 

Morning.. stove cleaned chimnew cleaned ... my IS looks good a slight rust on inside probably cause of humidity all summer
need to play with door latch, and new cat gasket it will still work but the RSV isn't sticking.. and a spare cat sounds like a Woodstock trip to mr

 

Stop in on your way back if you’re not in a hurry.

 

I might do that!

 

Just tripped over these photos of my own ash pan door when it was covered with black, sticky creosote. It looked like this:



As you can see, there was so much of it it bridged the bottom of the door and left strings like chewing gum when I pried the door open. And then it pulled the gasket out of the slot. Pretty nasty mess but easy enough to scrape the big chunks off and keep going. I never did bother to actually clean the door because it just did not need to be done IMO.

Brian

 

Really interesting if I can say so. Never seen this side of a stove. But when I think of a stove that runs as hot as yours do, you think “how can creosote come from this?” If any stove gets this warm, surely even the depths of it does too. Oh well as long as you have no fire in that area...

 

just an FYI Woodstock is back ordered on IS Cats 3 weeks a couple of days ago..

 

Several people have had this happen on an I.S., the most recent I believe was Darin (My IS heats my Home).

The ash pan area is very cool, and when the firebox is also running on the low side, it makes a lot of smoke. When the smoke goes up, the combustor burns it.... all fine and well. But if it can drop down into the ash pan well, it condenses the creosote out of the smoke and leaves that wet, shiny, sticky, stinky mess in that photo. The way to avoid it is to either run the stove harder or to keep a layer of ashes over the grate so the smoke cannot go into the ash pan area in the first place.

The good news is that it does not have to be cleaned up as long as the gasket area is clean (and mine was not but I only cleaned that area). I honestly do not care HOW much creosote lays in the ash pan well unless it is so much I can not remove the ash pan, and that would truly be a lot of creosote. But that is the stuff that also builds up in a chimney and causes chimney fires so it serves as an example of how fast and easy it is to build up that stuff; what is shown in that photo happened with less than three loads of wood through the stove.

Brian

 

Interesting. I believe the design on the current production IS is the same as the initial release stoves?

I've had issues in past stoves where the ash pan area gets gunked and or gasket pops off when you open the stove. Frustrating. I learned the hard way to not load and do ash at the same time in case of a gasket problem!

 

As long as its in your stove and not up your pipe ....consider that quality control as you’re using it almost as a sacrificial creosote dump. I think I want one of these later on but for right now Im just learning to use the stove. While I doubt there’s not much more to using a cat stove, it just might be a bit more attention to it later on as it would be great for a larger space but not as a beginner. Just good info to know if I decide on one.

 

That is the beauty of a cat. based stove (pure cat. or hybrid), they can run cool and produce a great deal of creosote and yet not send much if any up the pipe. The firebox is black but the stack is clean.

You should burn whatever you want, any way you want and hopefully enjoy it, as you seem to be doing. No need for any more attention or to change anything at all; your set- up seems sound and safe, and you like the results so all is perfect I think. A lot of what we chat about on forums such as this one, dedicated to such a small aspect of life (wood burning and supporting equipment- hell, we have threads on how we STACK wood!) tends to get some people who make a bit of a hobby out of it (heating with firewood) but that is certainly not necessary and there is no right or wrong, just what works better for each of us.

Brian

 

glad I picked up my primary cat last year at the open house.

rumor had it that Tom was thinking of exploring the CAT world and making his own.

 

That sure is interesting, I can imagine that would be a huge investment and undertaking.

 

Not sure where to put this but: Ideal Steel cat. has been getting sluggish, and I am noticing some build-up in the smokepipe going into the thimble. That, plus the combustor temps. are just not reaching the highs they used to tells me my combustor is getting sluggish. By this time, I would just replace it but because it is so easy to get to and remove, and because it was warm a couple of days ago, I let the stove go mostly out and pulled the combustor. Disappointingly, the cat. itself looked very clean. But I threw it in the sink and hosed it down with hot water from the tap, then sprayed it with pure vinegar and let it sit for maybe 1/2 hour. Then rinsed it really well, shook as much water as possible out of it, reinstalled it and lit the stove.

Once the inside flue temps. hit 500F (would read 250F on an outside, magnetic thermometer on single- walled, thin gauge smokepipe), closed the bypass and watched the cat. Temps. fell as usual, then leveled off, then started up to just over 1,400F. Very nice- apparently the cat. has some life left in it yet. Been running the stove 'slower' the last couple of days after the cat. cleaning and sho' 'nuff, the cat. temps. are higher, the flue temps. are lower, and there is nothing building up in the stove pipe. Not sure this cat. will make the entire season but right at the moment it is more than healthy enough to keep going. I will give Woodstock a call on Monday and see when I got this combustor (cannot remember).

I really thought the cat. was 'toast' when I saw it was very clean (no ash, no build- up in the cells) but a mild acid bath rejuvenated it enough to again be functional. I chalk the whole thing up to the fact that it is so easy to get to and actually R&R the cat. on an Ideal Steel.

Brian

 

Brian they are back ordered right now as of last Wednesday

 

Brian, I am still not entirely warm and fuzzy about the steel cats, but that is the only option I believe on the ideal steel? I had to run our fireview a little bit hotter before engaging and running it higher before turning it down on our steel cats before cutting the air back as it aged. Got us through last fall, spring, winter and part of this fall doing that. 3.5 years of 24/7 burning.

 

Yeah, I remember someone saying they were three weeks out. No problem, this one really does seem to have recovered pretty well. Not like a new combustor but it works well enough that I can light it and keep it lit pretty easily. So weeks should be no problem.

Brian

 

Yes, as far as I know, the only combustor available for an I.S. is from Woodstock, and they are SS foil types. It is a rectangular combustor and that size may be available in ceramic but the I.S. cat. has a flange welded on all found sides, it sits on this flange and that is also what seals it in the stove. So even if there is a ceramic combustor available from another source, it will not be a drop- in fit to an I.S. Certainly a S.S. hanging mount could be made, and then ceramic combustors dropped into that but it would require a bit of fabrication, cutting and welding S.S. plate stock at the least.

I really prefer the S.S. cats. to ceramic versions. I find the S.S. to be far more robust, they do not crack or spall (when the face crumbles and the cat. actually 'craters' due to the front heating up faster than the rest of the cat), they flow more air because there is so much less material (the actual thickness of the ceramic is much greater than stainless steel foil), they are immune from thermal shock (can even be put into a running stove with a little water on them from cleaning) and they run cleaner, at least in my experience. Cheaper to manufacture, too. But some people do seem to prefer ceramic cats. and they may have advantages too. ??

Brian