Real world cat life, Woodstock

My experience closely resembles that of others. I have three years on my Progress now. Most of those three years it was the sole heat in the house. Just had my furnace replaced at the end of last winter.
Now some of my wood is/was not always the dryest. The first season was probably pretty hard on the cat. I was drying wood in stacks around the stove LOL.
In my expieience the boiling vinegar bath method works better than the spray. Hard to find a vessel big enough to hold a progress cat at the local store. They’re pretty darn long.
Must take into account I did the vinegar bath after the first season. Did the spray method during the third. That will have an effect on outcomes as the life of the cat is fading anyway.
The cat is still firing off but I’ve noticed the stove top temp doesn’t spike as high as it used too. Time for a new one.
Could probably coax it through another year or two. Why bother? It’s much more gratifying when they’re working at top form.

Gaskets? I recommend buying from Woodstock. Not sure what I’ve been doing wrong but all the gaskets I’ve bought from Amazon, hardware stores and stove shops turn to dust within a month or two in several different stoves. My last set from Woodstock held up well.

 

In my experience, Woodstock gaskets are higher quality and lower price. I bought replacement but most are just coming unglued.

 

So.. Real world gasket life? Three years or so? Maybe I'll order a spare set and have them on hand. They could ship with my free ash bucket that was out of stock Saturday when I went to pick up the stove.

 

I'm on 4 years BigPapi, as when gaskets came middle of winter, they sent glue and I re seated them..

A nc-13 type in same amount of time were replaced 2x and cost 3x as much for less linear feet a thinner lower quality gasket.

 

I do almost the same thing except I use 100% straight 'white vinegar' from a gallon jug. Then a tap water rinse (very soft water here, very clean water) and back in the stove. It is effective for me but of course I cannot quantify if it is better, worse and how much of each compared with the boil 'n soak method. ??

Brian

 

If I am following you correctly, you are basically asking what actually 'wears out' on a cat.? If that is correct, I will start right off by saying I do not know. But I <suspect and believe> it is the extreme temperatures that soften the surface of the catalyst, coupled with the airflow through them that basically whisks away the very fine coating of metals that act as the catalyst. So basically, it is sorta', kinda' like wearing the paint off the front of a car due to abrasives and wind over time. But again, that is what I suspect and not a fact, at least now when I say it. Of course the catalyst mfgs. could easily figure out what is lacking in worn- out or even deficient combustors with not much more than a microscope I suspect. Certainly scraping the surface and doing some testing to see how much catalyst coating (called a 'wash' in the industry apparently) is left on an older cat. vs. a new one. And this seems to make sense to me given that cleaning a cat. will only work for so long and to a limited degree, again leading me to believe that the combustor itself is lacking actual catalyst material rather than just being dirty or having the catalytic metals being 'masked' under a layer of combuston deposits; after all, that is the only thing that cleaning them can really do, just remove any covering over the catalytic metals, not actually rejuvenate a combustor.

So for a direct answer using only my opinion, it is both temp. and exhaust gas flow dependent regarding the deterioration of the cat..

Brian

 

And that is one of the big benefits of a Stainless Steel cat. in my experience- they do not crack and crumble. Another benefit is that the actual cell walls are very thin, far more so than a ceramic cat., giving more area for the same size cat. to flow flue gasses.

Brian

 

The door gasket on the AS is starting to get crud on it. My wood is dry as can be, but when I shut it down a little early, the box gets really creosote(y). I have been charing off the load first these last few cold starts. That has put a stop to mess, plus only shutting down 90%.

I will say for a smaller cat than the BKs, I'm very impressed. The cat doesn't even have ash underneath. Smaller cat, but so far just as effective. I'm a happy camper when it comes to woodstock. I was going to rebuild my 89 englander. I've abused it pretty much since it was new. Instead of buying a new cat, heat shield, gaskets, ect, I'm thinking about buying another AS for the shop. It sure would be nice to load the shop stove twice a day

My camera is foggy. I'm not headed to a city to pick one up for a few more weeks.

 

I learned the hard way, that leaky door gasket will kill the ceramic cats pretty quick. Don't know about the steel, but I'm a little paranoid of questionable gaskets now. I check the stove door gasket while hot now.

 

Chemical reactions are the final determinant in cat life imho, which are only partially controllable by us. If you compare it to an automotive cat, which is basically the same, they last for 100’s of thousands of miles in many cases. Why the difference? The cat in a car is specifically designed for the chemical composition of gasoline formulations used today. Pretty tough to get that precise with a wood stove cat when you consider all the different species of wood and their various chemical makeups. And then you throw in environmental contaminants that the tree has been taking in for the last several decades, and it becomes unpredictable.
I’m guessing someone has cat life figures with different wood species. That would be a first step in figuring out how to extend it I would think. It would be interesting to see if they’re available just for curiousity sake. It probably doesn’t vary a lot between most commonly available hardwood species. But I believe the best thing we can do is just burn clean dry wood and be careful of chemicals in things like fire starter candles that may have scents and dyes, etc. Even inks on paper will have an effect in time.
I remember seeing guys knock the guts out of a cat from cars when they first appeared. It was pretty common until they got the cats and the gas formula matched, then the problem went away. Plugged automotive cats today usually happen when people ignore the check engine light for too long in my experience. Another common change in automotive was away from ceramic toward steel. The ceramic would crumble and plug the exhaust flow and that doesn’t seem surprising considering how brittle the stuff is to begin with. Hanging under a car isn’t the friendliest environment I can think of. Kinda trumps a wood stove. That fact alone gives me hope for the future of cats in stoves.
I believe when the chemical composition of the smoke being burned by the cat gets contaminated by certain chemicals it causes the precious metals that do the work in the cat to be released from the substrate and get flushed out the exhaust, causing the cat to lose efficiency over time.

 

I appreciate the insight. I was pleased to find that where I would have normally overshot the shutdown on the bk, it hasn't been so with the woodstock. I have been building cold start fires for about two weeks with the new stove. Playing with only lodgepole, we wait about a half hour to shutdown. If the STT is 350 or above, we can shutdown low right away.

 

Well, it's prettier than the cat I took out

Chimney sweep came and cleaned it all out.

Time to screw the top back on, and wait on Mother Nature.

Unsure if why the cast iron looks red. It looks redder than it is . Phone cam adds redness.

 

I just ordered a replacement cat for my stove and some gaskets. It was pro-rated so I didn’t have to pay full price. I really enjoy dealing Woodstock stoves, everyone knows what they are talking about.

 

I have had the same experience - everyone I've spoken to so far has known everything I've tried to get out of them. From a business and personnel management viewpoint, the cross training is fantastic. When sales knows as much as production, and vice versa, the customer wins. Really a great company to deal with. Can't wait to put their product to good use!

 

Question, my IS is 3 years old this past June, and the cat seemed slow last year even after the vinegar bath. I wrote Woodstock but their answer was that it should last 5 years and maybe I was installing it backwards. Replacement cost is $175 and no mention of pro-rating it. I have not called or replied to the email so debating on another good bath (maybe soak it overnight). What do others think?
Thanks.

Stephie

I should add that this is my first cat stove and maybe I'm doing something wrong.

 

Mine didn't last 5.. 2015 stove done in 3 years..