Battling with bad cat

I see how the secondary air works in this Ideal Steel hybrid stove. I know how the cat only stove works from running the Fireview, and I know how the cat works on this hybrid when there's not enough secondary air to support combustion in the firebox otherwise.

I am 100% sold on cat technology. No way will I ever go with a non-cat stove.

Be patient (Don't make me send Dennis over there), we'll get you running straight.

 

Get the stove top temp to minimum 250 degrees, close the bypass and set the draft control to 1.. After 20 minutes you should see the cat glowing...stove top temp rising... Then adjust the draft to .75 or what ever runs the fireview without going out... I use to run mine just under 1.. A very simple stove to burn... Bet your issues like others have said is your wood not being dry enough... Dry wood and cat stoves are great! Wet wood you'll have issues....

 

If that combustor is functional, I wouldn't replace it until you are in the clear with your wood pipeline. It's too easy to trash a new one with less than perfect wood especially if you aren't the only one operating the stove.

I keep a backup combustor on hand. But, my backup is electric resistance heat and electricity here isn't cheap.

 

Sounds like you are not in as much of a rush for a cat now and I just read this thread but just in case here is the company that supplies the cats for Buckstove and looks like they have them for your stove.
http://www.firecatcombustors.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=woodstock+fireview&Submit=Search

 

Thanks for all your input guys. It's much appreciated. I'm a little worried about this cold snap that's coming. I have had trouble burning the coals down today when it was pretty warm. I left the draft wide open for a couple of hours this afternoon then cleaned out the ashes so I would have good start for the frigid temps coming tomorrow nite. There was a lot of coals in with ashes today. For now I'm going to be mixing a good amount of kiln dried in with the splits to get it running as hot as is recommended. It's hard to get the maximum amount of heat AND keep the coals burned down.
We will see what happens

 

I think that's a problem many folks struggle with when going through a cold snap. The tendency is to push the stove, adding wood sooner to keep heat output up and that causes coals to build up. In a smaller stove it limits the amount of splits you can add right when you need maximum BTU output. I'm not sure what the answer to that is but I've seen it discussed quite a few times on various wood burning forums.

 

dry wood...you can run wide open burn cycles continuously without buildup, little ash too. This is the biggest difference I see between my pretty dry 18 month wood and my 3 year plus bone dry stock. I'll never fall off the wagon again after this year's experience. Unfortunately, I have one more year of penance to pay before I get back to the good place.

 

Hmm, I am burning 4 year old red oak and still fight coal buildup on really cold days. Seems like by the time it's down to big chunks of wood in the back there isn't enough heat being generated to keep the place warm. On days where it is in the teens at night and twenties during the day it's not a big deal as I am still generating enough heat to maintain temps it's really only on the days where it never gets out of the mid teens and goes into singles or below at night.

 

One of the big advantages of cat stoves is more even heat output through the burn cycles. I am getting ready to reload now on what is a pretty typical pile of coals but am still in the "Active" zone. I have no problem maintaining these continuous burn cycles for 7 months with dry wood regardless of species. Less than perfect wood and/or any stove I've previously owned and I fought the build up too.

I do rake everything front center (most air on my stove) at the end of every burn cycle and get it good and hot before reloading.

 

Well I guess I will chalk your success up to the wonders of a Blaze King. I have burned in three different stoves two of which were cats and during really cold times I have always fought coal build up when trying to maintain sustained maximum heat.

When the temps were cold enough that I needed active fire in the stove and not just the heat off the cat the wood off gassed quicker but would then burn down to a thicker bed of coals. once that happened it was a battle to get them burnt down quick enough to to sustain the heat loss from my house. Anyhow not trying to hijack this thread Hopefully it was just the stove I was using.

 

My previous two stoves were cats and I had the exact experience you described as well. I bet mine were made by the same company as yours was given your experience BK and Woodstock have something special going on.

 

I think having too much coaling when doing earlier reloads to keep up heat output during colder weather is a common problem, based on threads on various forums. I experienced it when I was pushing my Woodstock Fireview hard to keep up. With the bigger firebox stoves there is more room for a deeper coal bed, so it might not be as much of an issue. Also the type of wood and moisture content definitely makes a difference.

 

Absolutely. Combine that big firebox with the burn control to meter out the heat from full loads any way you want whether its September or January and you have the makings of a solid 24/7 heater

 

Also, there was no burning my preferred fuel, 8x8x18 splits, in a 2 cu ft stove

 

I could get one (1) of those in my Keystone and on a decent coal bed I think it would burn fine.
Hmm...I think I'll split some 8x8 and try them. I'll let you know in 4 years how they work

 

Like a fuel injected big block V8. No substitute for cu in in engines when you need big HP/ torque, no substitute for cu ft and good control in stoves when you need big BTUs.

 

I agree that wood that's not too dry will leave lots of coals... The PH seems to be a good coal burner... I rake any build up coals forward and right in front is a constant air feed that is never closed off...Load new wood in the back and all is good... If I have a very small bed of coals I just spread them out and load new wood.. I'm really never caught short for new wood room, because of too many coals.. I'd say if you are loaded up with coals just add a piece or two of wood and burn the stove at a higher setting which will get you heat and burn the coals down... Now I'm realizing how good it is to have an ash pan this year.. When I rake my coal bed 90% of the ashes fall into the pan uncovering any coals which allows them to burn down to powder on the next wood load... On the other hand my Esse has no ash pan with the wood box, so I just shovel out the ashes along with coals... That does get a coal build up and I have to keep pulling them forward to burn them down... So I can say Woodstock did a very smart thing with the slotted grate and ash pan...no coal build issues no matter how often the reload.. Coals that sit in the ash don't get the air around them to burn down... It's great on my Esse as with a good coal bed I can go 12 hrs with no fire, rake the ashes around and there's still enough live coals to just add wood.. The PH ash pan is my friend..

 

This^
I think it makes a huge difference. When the coals get buried in ash, they linger and build up.

 

I can see where that would help. At first with the big firebox on the Ideal Steel I didn't think an ash pan was necessary. Now I'm wishing I had one to make it easier to sort the coals from the ash.

 

When I was installing the ash pan on my PH I was thinking air leaks, but ,,, once I saw how everything was laid out I knew that wouldn't be an issue.. Even if it was,,,, after having the ash pan I would fix the leaks so as to keep the ash pan... I feel now just sliding the ash pan out and seeing solid fine powder,, not one bit of wood is wasted... I get heat right down to the powder... I think that's another reason the PH pumps out an amazing amount of heat with just coals in the stove,,, there's no ash covering the coals... After running the PH with the ash pan,,, buying a PH without an ash pan would be one big mistake! Nice thing is you can rake as little or as much ash away from the coals that you want, even just having all coals... The ash pan allows you to burn 100% of your wood.. I amazed that the ash looks like baby powder in the pan..