Like tires? For stoves with a symmetrical cat (can be installed equally with either side A or side B up), does anyone think there could be an advantage to installing it upside-down maybe every cleaning cycle? I don't recall this being discussed in stove / combustor documentation or posts. Do ya think that the slow platinum degradation occurs more at the intake side than the exhaust side or vice versa?
When I had a cat I never paid any attention to which side was down when I pulled it out to clean it and I never noticed any difference in the performance when I put it back in.
I don't think you can, at least the ceramic cat. The way it's canned, it has a flange on the front that pushes up against the frame of the cat housing. It is an interesting thought. Visually, the back of mine looks a lot like the front. I can't tell anything about the substrate, but it has the same tiny cracks and a small chip or two. I doubt you would see any difference in performance, but maybe longer life? Like rotating tires.
That was a good question. I would like to see where this goes for the IS folks here. I suppose when the Catalyst came in the box and we were doing the installs it could have gone either way.
I wouldn't be able to rotate mine since its incased in an iron frame. I'd have to carefully take it apart, flip it around, regasket and place it back in the frame. The frame only goes in the stove one way. Maybe the new steel design is different?
Yes, Todd. I should have been more clear in my response. The cats in the IS and the Progress Hybrid are steel and just slip into the stove.....no housing like in yours and the Fireview. So, it is a regular task to slip the cat out and blow or brush it clean, then replace. Woodstock recommends replacing them rotated 180 degrees. On my Fireview, I never had to clean the cat. Replaced it after 5 years. These new stoves are a different ballgame. Very easy to service the cat though, even with a fire still burning if necessary. Not that I strongly recommend that, but I did do it once.......
