Production Woodstock IS

I used 2 of these, one for the cat and one for flue. The flue I think was 4 in and cat was 6 in. I had to find a different type of shielded thermocouple wire for the fire box temp and make my own. I got the idea from another the member BDK.

New 3 Meter High Temperature -100~1250 C Thermocouple K type 100mm Probe Sensor | eBay

 

I think it may have been mentioned several pages back in this thread.

 

I think it was back in the early stages of the thread I'm thinking pg 20-30 i may be wrong but, we are at over 100 now. No one could remember all that info.

 

I had noticed near the end of the last season my catalyst was getting a little slow to ignite after initial engagement compared to when it was new. I had kept up with monthly dusting and vacuuming of the cat and it did not look bad at all. It just showed because of my monitoring system. So tonight I performed the through clean process . A hot distilled water/viniger bath and rinse brought it back to life. The hard part was finding a pan that the cat fit well into allowing for at least 1/2 in of solution to be above the cat. So if you have run you IS 2 seasons I reccomend doing this through cleaning.

 

Can you provide a link to or a part number for the digital Condair cat probe? I've only seen their mechanical one.

 

Has anyone given their cat a bath more frequently than normal? I think mine got a vendor bath 2x last season and I'm wondering if thats enough??

Now that I have a second cat I may start to rotate them both out more frequently to see if this helps to keep them more efficient.

Anyone else notice a loss of IS cat efficiency already?

 

If you search Condar Catalyst thermometers, the digital one I saw should come up last, it's like $134

 

I have never given mine a bath.. about 1 year.. 5 cord... vaccuum twice a month....it definitely needs one. engaged cat at 800.. cut air to 1/4 cat stalled...give it a quick bath in morning.. I was supposed to grab an extra at Woodstock but I got busy talking...

 

Yes but it has nothing to do with Woodstock or their product- catalytic combustors deteriorate slowly rather than all at once. So when a combustor is not performing is a great question. Also, it is much, much easier to notice the abrupt and immediate change when going to a new combustor than it is noticing that a combustor is sliding. Put another way, if your combustor has a year or more of use behind it, and you swap it for a new one, you will be amazed at how fast / easily the new one ignites.

The problem here is one of definition: certainly a combustor may function up to 12,000 hrs. but not at anything anywhere near its orginal efficiency. What I notice is that it becomes tougher and tougher to 'light off' the combustor as time on it accumulates. Still, that does not me it no longer works, it is just that it takes a much longer and hotter fire to ignite the combustor and it makes it about impossible to reload a stove and re- engage the cat. and keep the same settings; with a fresh combustor, I can just reload the stove and the cat. lights well w/in 2 or 3 minutes even with the draft set for the 'long burn'. A cat. that has a year or year- and- a- half behind it just will not ignite under those same conditions.

Originally, Woodstock was charging $125 for an I.S. combustor and giving a 6 year warranty; my plan was to change it out once under warranty, then just buy another one outright which would end up costing me about $60 - $70 per year for a good performing cat.. But Woodstock raised the price to $175 and that kinda' knocks my original plan to the side. That was a key consideration when buying a new woodstove- Blaze King King models as well as Regency 5100 series use far more expensive cats. and I knew I would never get the claimed 6 years out of any cat., at least I have not so far in two different stoves.

As to the vinegar (mild acid) bath, that absolutely does work to 'freshen' up a used combustor but it does not restore it to a 'new' condition. It is certainly worth doing, and I do it a couple of times before swapping the combustor but each time works [less well] and lasts for a shorter amount of time.

Finally, the first 100 hours of cat. life is considered 'hyperactive' (literally), and I have to say that I have found that to be the case- a new combustor will ignite with the kindling / paper / fire starter, even before the actual splits get involved. But it is not reasonable to expect that behavior for something such as an entire year of use. If my cat. will re- light after loading the stove while it has some wood and a good bed of hot coals left, I consider that good performance.

Brian

 

I got my second cat last year at the open house and just decided to run it yesterday. I think it's a good idea to have two now that this subject has come up and IS folks are talking about cats that are not as effective as they should be for a 6 yr warranty like BDF is talking about. I guess we will have to wait and see what this season brings us with cat performance.

I haven't compared the WS SS cat to anything else, ceramic or other SS models. Is $175 too much?

 

ones I've seen online are 200

 

I'm not sure WS is a big enough company that aftermarket parts are available for steel stoves yet. Anyone seen anything out there?

 

You had the shield the wire that lead to the thermocouple in the firebox? Was the temps too much for the wire? And how did you protect it?

 

It was a special high temp wrap. The normal wires coating can't withstand the heat from the heat of the fire box. I'll do some digging to see what the stuff was called.

 

This is the stuff I purchased

type: K 24 AWG Thermocouple wire High Tempiture REFRASIL 1600 F

The two individual strands are wrapped then both are wrapped in two layers of the stuff. Before I got the probe for the cat I just used this stuff snaked in threw the factory port and positioned just off the surface in the middle of the cat. There is not much room between the radiator and the cat, so my readings were high. Now the probe is just over the frt edge of the cat and seem more realistic.

I should have a graph put together sometime tomorrow with tonight's fire data.

 

Did you find a vendor that would sell you a small lineal piece for what you needed?

 

↑
"I started to notice a slight decrease in my stoves performance and a little bit of smoke. I was getting worried so I decided to cool it off and check the basics starting with the cat. Sure enough metal chips from the radiator had started to pile on top of the cat.

I would say 25% of the cat was blocked. I vacuumed it out good and scraped any loose flakes off of the radiator before putting it back together. Big improvement! If you haven't done so yet, you might want to check yours."
BrucePAC-Wood says, "I gotta 2' x 3' piece of stainless steel that's just a beggin to to be cut to size and end up on the underside of that radiator!"

BrucePA-CWood, Jan 20, 2015Report
#1280ReplyTopBookmark

Well, I don't get the chance to gloat very often - so I gotta take it when it comes...
Like my grandma used to say, '...if you don't toot your own horn - someone will use it as a spitoon!...'
Back in Jan 2015 - I (BrucePAC-Wood) said, '"I gotta 2' x 3' piece of stainless steel that's just a beggin to to be cut to size and end up on the underside of that radiator!"

Brian shut me down on this one, sayin' a thin little stainless shield would reduce the heat transfer out of the stove significantly enough for him to say so...
Well, that's a double gloat I'd say.
Clearly the people of WoodStock have spoken!
However, Brian's mod on the radiator for forcing the flu gas path toward the front of the stove is spot-on!
I see you put one in place Hollywood...Tracking any numbers that support benefit of using the mod?

 

Yes, the numbers do support the modification. There is a noticeable increase in surface temp and an almost equal difference in reduction of flue temps = more heat staying inside rather than going up and out the pipe. If I recall the increase in surface temp is near 40-50* the more the stove is shut down the greater the difference between the two temps. BDF has more data than I do, I only ran it without the mod a few times early on, I liked it and never looked back. I just may take it out for tomorrows nights fire and post both graphs at once. Weather conditions are supposed to be similar both nights.