Maybe convienced on AS

Sounds like your wood should be just a bit drier if youre still fighting to get a good fire going, Roger.

 

Interesting! I've been struggling to get my new AS cat to really engage and was wondering if the key might be to go with even less air, to create more smoky fuel for the cat. I'd been reluctant to go below 1.5 - 2, thinking that would snuff it out more, but I'll have to give your "less is more" approach a try.

 

Good wood, good draft (a cold day) AND make sure the Cat is actually ignited (temp went up some and flue temp went down)... after that it's all about experimentation. I love getting the box looking like it's just smouldering... (no flames) and the STT is up there over 500'F.

 

Something seemed to click for me last night, and I'm not sure if it's a little colder and dryer outside air or maybe that I've just crossed some threshold of "break-in" time, after which the stove runs better. But I had a much easier time getting the STT and pipe temps quickly up above 450, and after that, I closed the door and bypass, dropped the air to 3 for a few minutes, and then down to .75. The cat definitely ignited, and the stove put out a ton of heat until it burned down to just a few small, warm coals.

Last night's load was just a bunch of Canawick bricks (I was trying to eliminate moisture in my firewood as a variable), so this morning I threw a few more bricks on the coals and then loaded up a bunch of thick splits on top of them. With the door cracked, the fire quickly engulfed all the fuel, and the STT and pipe temps quickly shot up past 500, even as I could hear the moisture hissing out of the "sub-prime" splits. After letting it sit like that for a few minutes to drive out some of the moisture, I closed the door, let it run for a few more minutes, then dropped the air to 3, engaged the cat, and confirmed after a couple minutes that there was heat but no visible smoke coming out of the chimney. I dropped the air to .75, and the stove is still humming along 15 minutes later.

 

The three year plan will fix this variable.
Four if you live in tropical Pa and burn oak