I keep seeing pictures of stoves jammed crammed full of wood and I have to ask: are they cat stoves? If so, how are you doing that without overheating the catalyst? I've done it a few times in the past but I have to keep a close eye on the combustor to prevent it from going off the charts. Both the Buck people and the maker of the catalyst say I'm wasting fuel by using more than 3 or 4 splits. I've had the 80 for 2.5 burning seasons and overheating the combustor is always a worry. Am I not letting the fire burn hot enough and creating too much smoke thus "over feeding" the combustor? I seldom have any of the air vents open after the combustor reaches 600 and stays there for a while. Also, if the combustor starts to go into the red zone what's the best way to reduce the temp? I generally open the by-pass but I've heard that I should be opening the air vents to get more air into the fire. Thanks for your words of wisdom.
More wood = more potential to go nuclear. That said.............More wood in your stove should = more user/stove loader awareness!!! Just saying. I could be wrong, but I really don't think so!!
Less air than your feeding the catalyst at the time of the red line will help. Not much else you can do. After your cat lights off at between 500-600 deg it needs very little to sustain itself with a load of wood in the firebox. Air control with all of the above dictates what it will do after that.
I get the cat in the active temp range, close the bypass. let it get glowing well, at midrange on the active scale I adjust the inlet air thermostat to desired setting for the stove temp I need. per stove ops manual
I think that's what I've done in the past but got talked out of it by the maker of the combustor. He said always let the splits get fully involved before closing the bypass damper. just seems like a disaster looking for a place to happen to me. By the way, this is the same guy that told me if I stored my wood outdoors for 9 years and 11 months then moved it in a shed for a month before burning, my wood only seasoned one month. Yeah, right......
Geeze Ralphie, that guy must be nuts for sure. Makes one question everything he says. We fill our stove but never jam it in. But we go to the top of the firebox. Then we wait anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. We want the flue temperature around 450-500 (single wall black) then cut the air and flip the cat on. For our control, it is 0-4. When we turn the draft down it is usually to 1 but sometimes a bit above 1, depending upon the fire. Than after maybe 10 minutes we usually set the draft to just a tad below 1, or at .75. Once we do this, the stove runs itself and we don't need to touch it. But for sure if we turn the draft too low, then the temperature will go berserk.
So what you're telling me is always let a small amount of air in and don't keep the draft fully closed??
The Keystone is small and doesn't hold much wood but I stuff it full. I've never had a problem with the cat overheating. I have a cat probe and with a max temp indicator and I don't think it's ever been above 1375F. I get higher cat temps when I set the draft to zero, the higher I set the draft, the more flames and secondaries I get, and less smoke for the cat to burn. If I needed to cool the cat I would open the bypass or increase the draft. How hot is your cat getting?
For sure, closing the draft will cause problems. For example, one day I had been gone and when I came home, my wife was standing beside the stove by the draft control. I thought it was odd but then found out she had been opening and closing the bypass to keep the temperature down. She could not seem to control it. When I looked, sure enough, the draft was closed. I told her to open the draft and she about went berserk. Seems she forgets from time to time how to do things. So, I simply set the draft control to 1. The stove top had been 700 degrees which is the recommended maximum for our stove (soapstone). She could get it down to maybe 670 then close the bypass only to watch the temperature climb again. When I set the control, the temperature went down and never came back up. So yes, simply giving it some air will help. EDIT: We do not have a probe for the temperature of the cat. However, we set a temperature gauge right over where the cat is so it is the hottest part of the stove. And as stated, we never go above 700 stove top.
You should be able to find a sweet spot like Dennis has, I got so used to running my BK I knew just what to do with the controls to get it to burn where I wanted.
Sounds unusual that Buck would say not to fill your stove up and only burn a few splits at a time. I'm sure their stoves have been tested to handle large loads and if it doesn't you may have a problem like excessive draft or an air leak somewhere. How tall is your chimney?
My Buck went nuclear on me a couple times last year but I can't remeber what the senario was for sure. Cat was up to 1800-1900. I disengaged the cat for about 1 minute then gave it a little more primary air, it settled in and hung at 1800 which didn't scare me too much as these things are built like a tank. I will sometimes fill pretty full and it depends on cold start with a relativly cool cat or a reload with a fairly warm cat at 600-800 on how I let the wood catch. If I'm loading on a cooler cat 200 or so I will let the wood catch well (both drafts open 1/2) until I climb to 500-600 then shut the drafts for few seconds and engage the cat, then open both drafts to 1/2 - 3/8 until the cat lights. After light off I close the draft that feeds under the fire and close the primary down to about 1/8 (I don't close mine all the way ever). Cat will then climb to about 1400 - 1500 and stove cruises. All those temps are cat probe temps.
I pack the cat stove full and let the thermostat regulate the stove temp. The temp of the cat is irrelevant. You will worry yourself to death trying to fuel and run your stove to get the output you want while also trying to regulate a cat temperature.
Your thermometer could be off as well. I don't think those Condar cat probes are as accurate as a thermocouple is. I know in my experiences they read high.
