Battling with bad cat

Battling with bad cat the last couple days in the Fireview.
A couple little pieces broke out of it while vacuuming the ash off.
Called Woodstock to get another but they are back ordered. They say it will be a couple weeks?
I'm having a lot of trouble getting the temps high enough to keep the house warm.
Who would you suggest I get one from?
thanks
TimK

 

I believe Condor sells cats... I can't believe that Woodstock has no cats... Wondering if they found a bad batch of cats and got behind on cat sales... Heating season you'd think there would be a good cat inventory on hand...

 

Hi Charlie
I couldn't agree more.
They sell 2000 stoves a year and no cats in stock?
They are great people, but I am rethinking my decision on a cat stove.
I was also thinking about getting 2 cats so this doesn't happen again...

 

Is the cat still working?

 

Tim, I don't think you have to buy 2 cats... They usually last for a few years from what I saw posted,,,4-5.. I would always own a cat stove after owning a Fireview and now a Progress Hybrid... Less wood burned and a clean burn as well, plus more heat extracted from the wood gases. I think a failing cat is not something that happens that often. Normally you would see a decline in heat output and performance... How old was your cat? Does it not fire off at all? I can't see how a cat would just stop working unless contaminated some how..

 

The cat in the Ideal Steel is the same as the Fireview. If you're in a bind I can lend you mine until Woodstock gets one out to you. My natural gas furnace will keep us warm, no problem.

I bought a new cat for it when I bought that stove and installed it in early 2012. I'm really surprised its degraded that much already.

 

I know they are using the same cat on the Ideal Steel as the one on new Fireviews. I don't know what they use in the Progress or the Keystone/Palladin. If they've sold a lot of stoves 2013/2014 season its possible they're backed up.

 

Brian, the Progress cat is long and narrow.. not the same as the FireView-Steel.. Not sure what the Keystone cat looks like...

PH cat....

 

That for sure could be the reason they are back logged,,, Steel stove orders using the same cat...

 

I'm thinking it may be another problem, either wood, and/or location of the stove/draft etc. With weather this cold you need everything to be working for you to get whole house heating with weather like this. I had a ceramic cat in a previous CDW stove and it had a number of chips.... but it still brought that stove top up to a decent level. Can you post some pics of the cat?

I know for my house, about ~1900sq ft total, with this very cold weather I need both stoves. It's not air tight.. older windows, bad airflow to the back rooms.. one car under garage on that same side. I still am turning the furnace on in the AM for a few minutes while I stoke the stoves back up when it's cold like this.

Tim, take a look at your install and wood. What temps have you been getting on the stove top, and are you getting less now? I've pulled out my "good wood" and getting better results, but my wood isn't perfect either, so I don't get an easy 650 stove top. I can, but it's a much faster burn.. and I am a creature of habit so maybe I should adjust my draft a bit and not worry how many hours I'm getting.

Anyway, something to think about. What does your stove top temp get to at max temp?

Stay warm, and think Spring.

 

I think the only Ideal Steel stoves going out are Beta stoves. That can't account for a large number of cats.

The cats for the Fireview and Keystone/Palladin look similar but are one digit apart in model numbers, see http://store.woodstove.com/home.php?cat=265

Only the Fireview cats are listed as Temporarily Out of stock.

They do sell more Fireviews than any other model.

 

I didn't know if they had steel stoves partially built and cats allocated for those stoves.. Makes sense if the Fireview is their top seller...

 

This is a wild guess way out there, but if the cat honeycomb is only missing alittle area (wild guess again) maybe 5% or less, and you can't find a replacement -- would there be any harm in plugging up the open/broken area? It would keep the unburned gas from all flowing through the unrestricted busted part. Maybe shoot some furnace cement into the open space broken part. Emergency measure until a replacement arrives. I have no idea if this would work. Or stuff the missing area carefully with koawool?
Uhh. this place might have your cat:
http://www.woodstovecombustors.com/combustor_search.html
Type in woodstock

 

I think its mostly the wood. Tim got started late with gathering wood for this year, not anticipating installing the Fireview when he did, and he already burned through the driest stuff he had. He can still get the temps up high when he burns the kiln dried oak or if he mixes his splits with the kiln dried, but the latter takes longer, so its not likely the cat is completely shot.

We hauled a couple cords of firewood over to his place a couple weeks ago that included a good many large ash rounds that were CSS in April then top covered with rubber roofing. I told him to pull out that ash, split it to fit the Fireview, mix it with the kiln dried oak ends, and see if that gets him through till the new cat comes in.

 

As far as I can tell it's still working, but I'm going to need a new cat at some point.

 

I'm wondering if that cat saw thermal shock from wet wood which caused it to fracture?

 

Well that's good news...

 

Possible, but its stainless.

 

Just ask Dennis. Its always the wood. Replace the cat, but we gotta find you more seasoned wood.

 

I would say the bad spot in the cat could be covered with a quarter and is about a 1/2 deep. I don't think the cat is ruined, but I think I'd like to change it out at some point to make sure. Brian K was using this stove up until he got the Ideal to test. I'm going to take his advise for now and use some other wood. When Woodstock gets the cats in stock then I might change it out.
I have less than 2 months experience using a cat stove. Gotta go with the advise of the heavy hitters on the site here.