Fireview Thoughts

It looks like it was painted to me. If so, maybe the paint is burning off the hottest area and allowing surface rust.?
Whatever it is, it's probably not a concern unless caused by water. Maybe WS will be able to tell you from the pics.

 

First time I've ever seen anything like that on the Fireview.

I wonder if it's possible that those stains occured from moisture collecting when you are burning when the cat isn't engaged. Seems like the draft would pull the moisture up and not leave moisture in and around the exhaust area of the cat. Is there a decent draft in the install?

 

Sorry I missed the smoke issue info. Can you say a little about that? Where was the air leak?

I'd clean it up and then keep an eye on it, see if it happened again.

 

28 feet SS. I have a key damper in the 1 foot pipe for really windy and cold days. Been using it in the open position.

 

I've been working through a smoke smell issue since the paint curing completed. It is one of those devilish slight smell problems that only seems to occur at peak off-gassing and warmer weather days. Thought it was resolved when we found my first door was a poor cast and had a bend at the bottom. Still working through it. Will post details when it is resolved to my satisfaction. Funny thing is if I returned the stove, I would want them to send me back another one - wonder if anyone has ever done that?

 

Not sure why they would paint a surface that is not normally seen, but I really did not inspect clearly. I have sent an e-mail to WS with a picture, will post when I get a reply.

 

Good stuff. That should support a good draft. Good draft should exhaust the stove, any moisture included, right up the pipe. Just get that cat engaged and firing once the STT = 250, and give it a chance to fire and get that STT up to 400+ and that should be burning off any moisture regardless of where it comes from.

 

The folks at Woodstock won't be happy until your happy.. so hopefully it all gets worked out. I do remember a post about your door now that you reminded me.

 

Oh no, not this again....my new Ideal Steel has not produced a drop of creosote into

Erh, um, uh, that is not a safe way to use a generator. A transfer switch installed by a qualified electrician will provide a safer and more effective way to power your house during an outage. Two days after Hurricane Sandy, JCP&L came by to repair lines damaged by the storm. I showed the foreman my transfer switch and he shook my hand and thanked me for doing it right. He said that out-of-state power crews on emergency duty in NJ were deliberately delaying restoring power to people who were back-feeding their panels.

 

Thanks, appreciate your insights. We get a lot of outages where we are located. In the mean time I will throw the panel breaker off.

 

I remember Sandy, we sent a lot of crews down from here and also to Florida a few times.

 

You have all heard the saying: "for every rule, there is an exception". I know this will sound a bit arrogant, but I believe someone wrote this about me. My whole life seems to be an exception to the rule! OK, no more of my nonsense ramblings.

Here is the response from Woodstock regarding the weird staining/rusting I have with my Fireview.

The reddish stain is a mystery. I have never seen that on the plate that we call the airduct cover. Normally, if anything is on that plate, it would be a light black soot. Any thing red like this is only caused by one of three things. Either excess moisture leaked through the front of the top plate from something like a spill over, too much moisture in the wood(which you ruled out) or excessive heat which sometimes just appears in the firebox. It is hard to overheat that particular plate as it is above and separated from the firebox. The only thing I can think of is possibly a misalignment of the catalytic combusor just behind it. If the combustor was not positioned right and bolted down to the gasketed area, you get could hot bypass gasses around the combustor causing a hot spot. Just not sure.
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The combustor is not bolted down as I removed the shipping bolts to clean everything after my break in fires in May. Here is the picture of the combustor gasket that shows there was no smoke/gas leakage around the combustor. This weird red color (assume it is simply rust from oxidation) is even on the top of the scoop cover and on the gasket material - almost like it was in the combustion fumes. Here are a couple other theories:

• I am burning some really old oak perhaps down for 10-20 years (not much because I have mostly been burning cherry). Any possibility this is caused by tannic acid from the oak?
  
• This is typical wood moisture condensing by burning low and slow during shoulder season and draft was not sufficient to pull it up and out.

Of all the Fireview owners out there, how can I be the only one to have this issue?

 

I've seen the red color as you showed and described in my stove on and off. It's nothing I've been concerned with at all. I'd rather see my air duct cover red or full of soot or creosote. (Which I have seen too, bad gasket and cat on the way out) My best guess is oxidization and or strange chemical reactions. Salts, acids, oxidizers, moisture could all be to blame. Wood burning is a strange thing, you'll find a clinker in you stove ash from one tree, to the next you will not see any clinker.

On a side note, you have the latest cat which requires having the bolts in. Only the older cats with the heavy cast frame could you get away with not having it bolted down with the "shipping bolts" because of the weight compressing the gasket.

 

Oh! Well, that is a mistake on my part then. I wonder if the documentation I read was for the old style, or I read it incorrectly. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Can you tell me how you know this?

Online: http://www.woodstove.com/images/editorial_support/PDFs/fvcatalyticman.pdf (page 3)

2) The catalytic combustor is located in a cast iron box. If you haven’t already, use the 1/2” wrench to remove the two bolts that hold the combustor box in place. These two bolts are located at either end of the combustor box, and have flat washers under the bolt heads. Save the bolts only if you intend to move the stove in the future.​

The paper one I got with the stove says they are not needed. However, it speaks of the combustor being ceramic.

 

There was a memo when they sent out replacement combustors along with new bolts that fit the updated cat that you have. Maybe the user manual was not updated to reflect the updated combustor.

In my opinion, I do not think any major harm could be had by not having the bolts in the new combustor other than the possibility of a very minute amount of smoke bypassing around the cat/gasket. (Think of it as the path of least resistance)

 

The old cat with the cast iron frame weighed a ton compared to the new one. Self seating. As stated, my new one came with new "shipping bolts" and instructions to use them. I'm using them but I could see it sealing fine without the bolts, if the gasket and surfaces were nice and flat.

 

On the other hand, I have no idea how light that cat is without the cast iron frame, but I wonder of the draft from above and a good blaze going below could actually have enough strength to pull, or lift if you will, the cat up in front just a bit.. and suck air out, and possibly moisture or at least dirty smoke from around the edges of the cat. ...maybe that's far fetched, I dunno, but I'm lost to figure what's causing that.. except something like that. I'd be putting the bolts in and securing it. ..but I've also got OCD about stuff like that.