Battling with bad cat: Part 2

Here's mine, I've been burning since October and I pulled it once to look at it but just gently tapped it on my deck on both sides which drops the ash out too. This time I vacuumed it, but these pics are prior to vacuuming.

No green stuff. I realize everyone's settings will be different based on their draft/install, wood, heat they are asking for. But my steady state setting is usually right at the 1 hash mark for the draft. ..and it will top out on heat at about 575'F at that setting, but settle in at 450ish.

 

Looks fine to me Steve.... My PH cat has stayed amazingly clean as well... One thing I always did with the Fireview and now my PH,,, when the stove was ready to close the by pass,, I always set my draft first , then closed the by pass as to not have a sudden high heat blast hit the cat.. Is this good practice, I don't really know, but I have never had any cat issues...

 

I got new applied ceramic cats this year and I changed over to this technique, mytheory is to stop flame impingement.

 

Clem I think it only makes sense not to have a rush of heat suddenly hitting the cat element, instead slowing the fire first , then closing the by pass..

 

Here is a pic of a probe over one of my cats and a surface temp gauge. No its not on Tue top but cause there is an air gap under the top its actually colder there.TThe front is single metal but its kind of over an air space as well . There is no good spot for a gauge on the front on this stove.

 

Interesting you say that, as it's been my practice too. I usually bring the draft down to 2 and then give it a few seconds to slowdown the airflow, then close the bypass.

 

I do the same.

 

I don't know about this cat bath or spray. I always heard or read this was only needed for a cat that was masked in creosote and it usually did more harm than good.

 

Thanks guys for all your help.
Seems to be working ok for now.
I've been closing the air down to calm the fire a little before I close the cat bypass also.
We should get a blast of warm temps here at some point, when it comes I will give the cat a vinegar bath.
Till then we have 3 standing dead White Oaks to css

 

Where is the chromium coming from?
My cats don't get much green but I cleaned my SIL's from her Fireview at the beginning of the season and that thing was covered with the green oxide. I think that was due to her stove leaking a lot of air, and flame in the stove most of the time. I hardly ever ran the Fv or the Ks with flame, and my cats had only a hint of green. Can't think of anything else off hand to account for the difference. I simmered SIL's out real good but a lot of the green never came off. Cat works though, so it doesn't seem to be a big issue in this case. All of these steel cats we have are the early ones.

The Buck is the same way. I was thinking I could gently blow the ash out without removing it but the wash will have to wait until summer. For the Woodstocks or even the Buck, I guess you could have a spare combustor and frame and just swap them out during the burning season if you wanted. Shouldn't really be necessary, though.

 

Chromium is part of the make up of stainless steel and I think that green stuff may cover up or mask some of the wash coat.
I'd like to hear if any of the new WS steel cats are turning green. They were looking into changes to prevent this reaction.

 

Yeah, it finally dawned on me that the chromium was a component of the stainless, after I thought about it...DOH!
Have you seen traces of green on any of your steel cats? Like I said, SIL's cat is still working even though it's virtually covered in green. Maybe it doesn't extend all the way through the cells? Performance could be diminished somewhat, I don't know. It's hard to determine if small changes have occurred with the cat; There are a lot of other variables like the wood type, moisture content, etc.

I can't say I've ever seen a big difference after simmering out a cat, but the concept make sense to me. There's got to be some degree of chemical masking the happens due to combustion by-products, not to mention ash that's stuck to the cells and can't be blown out. I didn't read the whole thing, but on page 7 they touch on this:
http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/pdfs/vol2/no4/2oana rusu.pdf

OTOH, there are cats that apparently continue to function for many years, never having been simmered out....

 

I have not seen any green on the WS steel cats, but only have a cord+ through the current stove's cat. I think they replaced the steel cat when they rebuilt the PH over the summer (we were having clogging issues). We had not tried either wash technique. So this is a limited observation (2yr, 2 stoves, several cats, 15 cord).

 

I did have one of the first steel cats in my previous Keystone and yes it turned green and wasn't working right half way through season 1. I called in the warranty on it and had a ceramic replacement sent. I'd like to try the new and improved steel cat but I have a pretty new ceramic in place now.