Leaking Creosote

That's how I operate my cat stove.

One difference is I close the cat damper at ~400⁰. Closing the damper invokes the cat.

 

I treat it like a cruise control. If I'm really trying to pump out the heat, I let her rip, once I get close to comfortable temp in the house, I'll engage the cat and cruise. Typically with the intake air (for the fire, not the cat) closed about 75%. When going to bed for the night, I'll fill the stove back up to full, give it about 10-15 min, engage the cat and close the damper to about 90% closed. The secondary air inlet (just for the cat) stays constant. I don't typically mess with that.

Dry wood is key. It doesn't have to be kiln dry, but if the ends sizzle or snot, it won't work nearly as good (or hot). This I know from experience. We've all been there. Cat stoves are not as complicated as they seem. Once you get the feel for it, it's easier than operating a coffee maker. Keep in mind that even with the cat engaged and it's burning the wood gasses at 1500 ish degrees, there is not a huge volume of hot gas going up the flue pipe. A good, long hot fire without the cat is good from time to time. You know, like if you're gone all day and you come home to a 60 degree house. Let it rip with the flue pipe thermometer in the orange/red zone for an hour. (if the magnetic thermo falls off, it's too hot)

This all assumes you're running a double wall stainless chimney pipe after the stove pipe.

 

This is exactly correct. Engage the cat bypass all the way. The salesman did not know that much about the stove it sounds like it. I remember the salesman where I bought my model 91 tried to talk me out of the 91and said the 94 was the same stove but with burn tubes. He said the 91 was too finicky and you had to have good dry wood. DUH ! This stove does not use a damper unless you want to put one in the stove pipe which really isn't needed and not possible for me with an insert. I have had mine for over 10 years and it has been a joy to run with good dry wood. Try it like I said, open both drafts about half way and let the fire burn until the cat probe shows around 750 to 800, close both drafts, engage the cat all the way, open the primary draft 1/4 on the right side which feeds the fire from above the cat shield. Leave the left draft closed (that one feeds the fire from the front, right at the coals) The only other time I use that draft is if I am burning down coals. You should see the cat glowing down on the shield. The reason the stove is designed to have the cat bypass closed is so all the smoke and wood gas feeds through the cat. That is why they have the emissions rating as low as they do.

 

To answer Wildwest, I don't have a chimney liner. Had my chimney checked out before this season and was told by the Sweep it looked good. My old non-EPA stove sent a lot of heat up the chimney so I had very little creosote and plus, I was taught from a young age to let the fire burn out about once a month and run a brush up it. I used to also take a rainy day and open it up for a few hours to get a lot of heat in the chimney to help w/creosote. And Locust Post, you don't know how much I appreciate the advice. It's been a little warm here so I don't have a fire now, but plan on starting one, possibility tomorrow, and I'll have the next week off to learn the new Buck. From what your telling me, I use the bottom right side draft to control the burn and make sure I don't overheat the stove/cat. The left draft I usually close after the fire gets going well. I don't have an inline damper but don't guess I need one? I took a few minutes to spot check the moisture content of my wood yesterday after I got home from work. I split a few pieces that I took from random places in my pile and there was a few pieces from the last wood that I cut/split and added to the pile that was around 25% but I won't get to that wood to burn until almost spring and I'll check it again. Also, I'm going to use heat tape to wrap my pipe joints to make sure the fresh air is coming thru the stove, not the joints to aid in drafting because my chimney pull very well. I'll report back

 

Do you think those chains will damage the clay liner?

 

Betting you would benefit from lining the old masonry chimney. Also guessing your new efficient cat equipped stove is putting out much cooler exhaust than the masonry chimney can accommodate without condensing the exhaust and adding to your drip issue. Actually kind of hard to believe the installers are still putting that stove on an un-insulated masonry vent. What is the inside opening measurements on the existing masonry flu? Might be too large as well. Many are. More thoughts for ya! Good luck.

 

This.

 

I agree you will definitely benefit from a liner

 

X4

 

Morning!! I put the stove i myself, and man was it heavy!! I picked it up off my truck bed w/the forks of my tractor and you could feel the 620+!!! I had a Buck stove 81 but it wouldn't heat my house very well when it was windy or was very cold. My chimney is an 8.5x8.5 with and 8" thimble and never thought about the CAT stove being cooler on the exhaust end? And after looking at the gauge I put on the vertical pipe it only runs around 200-300 most of the time. I won't be able to put a liner in it right away but I've really thought about that it the future for safety.

 

Flue pipe temp at 200-300 with cat engaged is about where mine is as well. With the cat not engaged however, I can max out the thermo pretty fast. For example, morning reload, I've got minimal coals left, lets say about 10% of the ash bed is glowing. I'll throw about 10 pencil sized pine splits in and then fill the box. I'll leave the door open about 2" and go do my morning routine (get dressed, brush teeth...) about 10 min later, stove is burning, I shot door, air intake wide open. Pack lunch, fill thermos's, check FHC website... about 10 min later, fir is ripping, I can hear fire and hear stove pipe ticking. Stove pipe temp about 500 degrees. Engage cat. Now, if cat thermo is reading a little low, I'll leave intake air at wide open (100%) for a couple minutes (maybe 5 min), otherwise, if it is up to temp, I close intake air down to about 10% open, and off to work I go.

I have single wall black stove pipe straight off my stove to the ceiling (8' ceilings) then double wall SS chimney pipe through attic and out of roof near the peak. I don't remember how many feet of chimney pipe, but I'm guessing about 10-12' total. So my chimney setup is completely different from yours. With double wall SS chimney pipe, it retains the heat in the pipe whitch among other benefits, helps with draft, but also helps with creasote build up.

It will take a fair amount of heat to get your masonry chimney and clay flue pipe up to temp, so I would imagine during shoulder season, you may experience some dripping. I line would help, and if you go that route, highly consider insulation around it.

I'm certianly no expert, but my SWAG (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess) would be to run your stove a little longer off the cat before engaging to build up some heat in the chimney, and occasionaly (like maybe once a week) burn a whole load sans cat.

 

I have a 2' section coming off my stove to the elbow, then a 2' section going into my thimble. I live in a split level so guessing, my chimney is around 25' to clear the roofline by 2'-3'. My chimney draws pretty well I'll say! It's been a little warm here so I let the fire burn out Tuesday but looking a the forecast I believe I'll build one when I get home from work around 5 tonight. I did let'er ripe last Sunday morning with both drafts wide open and that pipe thermomotor read 700 so I closed one draft completely and cut the other one down about half to cool things down and did it in a hurry! I'll do that at least a few times a week then.

 

Good morning and Merry Christmas fellow Woodhounds! Just a quick report, apparently I was choking the stove down too far for my night burns. Before speaking with y’all, I would set my bottom draft all the way in and then pull it out a tab. Noticing of the morning after nine hours or so I had plenty of a unburnt wood and also the glass was very smokey.After speaking with each of you I decided to leave it on low for my night time burns which seems to work much better. I still have a good coal bed and even some small chunks after 8 to 9 hours and my glass is usually very clean which to me, means it is burning properly. And after speaking with Locust Post, I finally figured out how to run that thing. I have to run the cat temps pretty much maxed out in the safe range in order to heat my home and have actually tried running it without the convection fan to see how much difference it makes. My stove is placed on the side of my basement steps and because of the orientation of the chimney I have to point the stove away from the stairs in order to operate it. Unfortunately, with the fan on, it blows the heated air away from the steps. After tomorrow, I will probably strip away some of the insulation under some of the wood flooring( only have wood in the hallway, the bedrooms are carpeted) and add a vent to let the heat up into the upper story. Thank you for comments and suggestions. I will probably get the flu wind next spring just for safety sake. Merry Christmas to you all and thank you again.

 

Be aware that making a hole in a wood floor may violate fire code; wood floors are fire barriers (they burn, but it takes time for a fire to get through). Yes, there are stairs already, but making a hole elsewhere can help spread fire more quickly and leave less time for occupants to get to safety.

That said, it's often done.

What I have done instead (also a basement stove) is make a 6x10" register in my living room floor, put a metal duct boot there, a metal 6" duct between the joists to the side of the home, then a metal elbow, then a fire damper (it closes automatically when getting hot, due to it being spring loaded and a tab melting away). So from the new hole in the floor to the fire damper all is metal.
Below that fire damper I have a flexible duct down to an inline fan (that I bolted to a construction bolted to the concrete slab - not the 2x4s of the chase I made, to decrease vibrations/noise to the living room floor) and a register into the basement *at floor level*.

This way it's fire safe (code compliant) and the fan pulls the coldest air out of my living room, and deposits it at the basement floor. As a result, the hottest air at the basement ceiling gets pushed up the stairs into the living floor.

The fan runs on 25 W - so I joke around that I heat my home with 25 W.