Catalytic Combustor, food for thought.

Ive been having some serious issues with my BK Princess as of late, still running the original combustor from the spring of 2013. The symptoms were; terrible draft, low heat output, heavy wood consumption, and the worst part was the smell. We leave our bedroom window cracked at night, otherwise it would be to hot to sleep. The acrid smoke smell was waking me up at night, something had to be done.

I dont want to sling mud so ill leave the conversation with the BK VP for PMs. Long story short is i dont think im welcome at my local dealer anymore, but i have a replacement cat. (My wood is 15% avg. MC measured at about 70 degrees F) So i had time this weekend for a full sweep and clean and time to change out the cat(Which i was told couldnt be bad allready unless i abused my stove.....). While on the roof i had a real shock. More creosote than i have seen in my last 10 years of burning. It looked like hardened lava, bubbly and all. Felt good to get it all off of there. Shop vac-ed all the crud out and popped out the cat, not as easy to remove as i thought. It was REALLY in there.

Once it was out i found that the refractory had cracks all through it and that there were some places with missing refractory on the back side. Got the new one in and had a few small fires, first real fire was today. damm, this is awesome again. Half the wood and twice the heat. In BK's defense i might have not been completely aware of how not to operate the stove our first year, but the warranty (10Yr) says nothing about neglect. But in my defense i found this When to Replace Your Catalytic Combustor - Woodstove Combustors by Condar I suggest anyone with a newer cat stove be aware of the zone theyre in, it hit my cat dead on the head.

Pics of the cat - front


Rear- note the precious metals flaking off and creating obstructions, also the huge areas of missing refractory....

 

Is the new one also ceramic? The cat is 2" thick so I wouldn't say that the spalling was huge. My oem ceramic lasted about as long, three years of 24/7 burning for 9 months per year. Flakey on the back too.

I'm on metal now.

 

Yup the new one is identical. My dealer said that the steel cats were junk, how do you like it. I bet the steel ones come out easier for cleaning. I'm thinking they just wanted me to spend the money with them on BK parts..... I also forgot to mention that BK updated their website with Cat cleaning instructions since we bought our stove in 2013..... I studied up on stuff then, no need until now to brush up.

 

Following that Condar link we are most like zone 4 and the Condar folks really nailed it. My symptom was constant blue smoke. New cat, zero smoke.

 

Yup, i went from noxious black smoke to steam..... Awesomeness.

 

Steel cat is excellent. Not so much better than ceramic that it is a must-have upgrade but I am happy to have it. I do not plan to remove the cat until it's time to replace it. No reason to clean a bk cat, they don't accumulate ash in my experience. Every three years might be the way to go.

 

Curious, why do you like it better? I know from looking theyre about 20-25% more costly....

 

Awesome wood and strong draft. it was choked down 1/2" all a round....

 

Couple of questions:

1. was the replacement cat covered under the warranty?
2. why do you think you are not welcome at your local dealer? Did you speak to them like a sailor or something?

Glad you are back in stealth burn mode.

 

Answer #1 Yes, no cost.

Answer #2, no trash talk there. They actually talked down to me and proposed a series of wood tests and wanted me to buy their wood to test burn.... The wood was not the issue. When i told the BKVP guy of my dissatisfaction with the dealer, in a civil way, he immediately turned the topic off..... Still thinking about how to handle this situaton...

 

We've gone from cleaning the cat every two weeks with the PH/IS to having a spotless cat in the Absolute Steel after a full cord through it. Essentially same wood, same flue, but have installed a key damper with the Absolute Steel and are burning with it fully closed. I'm hoping that when the PH goes back onto this flue the regular cat cleaning will be a thing of the past, but that remains to be seen. {edit: not a BK vs Woodstock post - this is pre-draft control vs post!!}

 

I think it is great it was covered under warranty - that is something to be pleased about.

Regarding being talked down to: this is likely more about the typical quality of customers they have to deal with than it is about you. I'd try to look past it and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Regarding BKVP: he probably gets frustrated with the quality of some of the independent dealers. I called a BK dealer last summer and asked what BK wood stoves they had in the show room and they said they had sold the last BK floor model but they had some Broil Kings (BBQ grills) in the show room. Clearly, the knowledge of some of these dealers is all over the map.

 

Interested in Highbeam 's thoughts, too. I have little personal experience with ceramic (my Dad's Fireview). The steel cats are very tolerant of handling - removal and cleaning is trivial, with essentially no risk of damage.

 

Hey Bob, what was price You said stainless is more ... as I've mentioned before I got Woodstock Ideal steel but BK was second choice. my cat replacement in steel is 150.. Because of others post in I figure on getting a second this summer just to have a backup..

 

$265 vs $296 ok so its only 11% but still......

 

It better be covered, that was a HUGE selling point. Its in plain english on the warranty, 10 years 100%. I think the EPA was leaning hard on them to insure the performance for a set amount of time. The BK's are REALLY efficient, but at 2.6GPH(?) not the cleanest ive seen. And after the last two weeks i saw just how DIRTY these things can get....

 

Right..... I wonder if i know anyone who has a clue how to make these thingys?