Woodstock Absolute Steel: chimney suddenly smoking in cat mode?

Good to know! I never burn smoldering fires, so I thought that was a horrible looking chimney.

 

Aftermarket cats are available for the Absolute Steel? Who knew!

 

Where did you find a aftermarket cat for your Absolute Steel? I have a 5 year old Ideal Steel and am thinking its definitely time for a new cat... If you found an aftermarket one for the Absolute, maybe they have one for the Ideal too, but I've never heard or seen one for my model before.

Your chimney looks good, nice flat brown soot and ash, no creosote which will look black, shiny, glassy, crystally crumble and tar.... It would be bad and dangerous crap to see....

Here's my chimney after a year of seasoned Lodgepole pine...!

 

I guess I don't know that there is a AM cat for the AS specifically...but there are for many cat stoves...maybe Highbeam knows?

 

I’ve never bought a Woodstock cat. The online vendor for applied ceramics is Midwest Hearth on amazon. Applied Ceramics makes most of the oem cats and has great prices too. I would check there.

I thought Woodstock was trying to make cats in house. Maybe to keep them cheap. I think they should stick to stoves but if they tried to create a monopoly on replacement cats and then can’t keep up with demand that’s not so good.

 

Even without a a

Yepper. If the cap has a screen it can be removed to free up your system/prevent future plugging.

 

I just got a spare cat for my Fireview and I ordered it from Tom. He told me they’re building the cat frames and substrates now but they’re not equipped to spray the precious metal coating on so they still farm that out.

 

All the above fuss with cats is why after a couple of decades with cat stoves ( not BK or Woodstock ) we now have only non cats.
The cat plating ( paladium or platinum ) is a specialized tech process. Those vinegar "baths" are a PITA for the benefits.
When your vehicle cat goes ( CEL), no bath for it. Just $$$$.
YMMV

 

That makes sense because I believe the SS catalytic material is bulk made and fitted to each frame to create a combustor. Unlike ceramic cats. which are all customs and each one is made to the finished size from the start. The foil cats. have the foil made and coated in bulk, then that ribbon folded and layered until it is the size that fits into whatever frame is required for a stove. The advantage is that it hugely reduces the costs of the finished cat. because the etching and wash (coating) of the cat. becomes a mass production proposition rather than doing all differing size and shape cats. individually or in small batches.

A long time ago I made part of the tooling that made the zig- zag shaped ribbon that went in-between the tubes in auto. radiators. The zig- zag foil was generic and not sized or fitted to any particular radiator and was made by the mile at very high speed to keep the cost down. Then the finished foil was just cut to length and soldered to each radiator's tubes as needed, in whatever length required. I believe catalysts are made the same way- the foil is made, shaped and coated and then just loaded onto reels until finally being fitted to a specific frame of a needed size. The consistent size and shape of the foil keeps the shaping and coating costs down because it only uses one very specific process for any and all eventual combustors.

Just to finish the thought, I believe we are using 'diesel', two-way foil in our wood stove combustors. It is what diesel engines use and so relatively inexpensive to piggy back on that industry and skim some off for woodstoves. Gasoline engines use three- way combustors to clean up additional pollutants not found in diesel engines or wood stoves, or at least not in amounts anywhere near those found in gasoline engines.

 

We'll want to know how the "new and improved" Jotul V3 cat performs over time and use.
The ave. life of any cat -steel or ceramic- has always been ~ 12K hours, or about 2-3 years of burning with proper maintenance.
The V3 cat, larger and more open grid has a 20 year warranty ( not "guarantee" BTW ).

 

My Ideal Steel's original cat is 5 years old now and I did a vinegar bath the other day and had the first fire today. Was pleased it still got up to 1200 on the cat probe and the house is currently at 80 degrees.... Guess its still working okay.

 

My ideal is also in year 5 and with a vinegar bath, it’s still working fine. I do wait for the stove top temp to be around 350 to 375 now and it needs at least a 1/2 load of dry fuel to engage the cat.... I have the back up ready when this one is done. I only burn around 2 - 3 cord a year now...

 

My Absolute Steel is entering its 4th year. Last winter I struggled with the cat at times burning plenty dry oak, lots of cat stalls. I had to give it multiple vinegar baths to get through the winter. I ordered a new cat and gaskets from Woodstock 3 weeks ago, and they just arrived on Wednesday. I will put the new cat in once I get through burning the uglies to just take the chill off, and into daily burning.

 

There you go--- 4 to 5 y.o. bathed cats still working. But how are those cats used ?
The 12K hours life of a cat is based on about 12,000 hours of hard use, not just some intermittent burns.
My experience with cats for 24/7, 99% heating with VC cats was a life of 2-3 years with the smelly, PITA vinegar bathing.
Not much has changed with more efficient and better heaters like BK and Woodstock.

 

A very large percentage of wood stove users don’t use them for primary or 100% of their heat. Lots of them actually use their central furnace or some other heat source for a significant portion of the heating season or “until it gets real cold”. Those people will get more years out of their cats than a 24/7 100% user with a long burn season. Or way less than the guy who lights one fire per year when the power goes out.

It really comes down to hours of use and it’s active hours, not hard hours. After 12k you can still get a cat to glow and still heat your house but only at high burn rates, like noncat burn rates. Wasting wood, polluting, but still a fire if needed.

So everybody is right. Folks getting 2 years, 20 years, or 200 years of cat life. It just depends on how long it takes to hit 12k hours.

The marketing BS warranties of 10 to 20 years are only to trick people into buying the scary cat stoves. Those people are being misled and should rightfully be ticked off when they only get 12k hours over 2 years. I think this trick will backfire on the industry.

 

Not really a trick or marketing Highbeam. The life of a cat is well publicized as ~12K hours, maybe 2 years also.
It's a caveat emptor kind of thing. Like the mileage warranty on my tires.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

We agree, the marketing trick is giving customers the false impression that cat life is anything but 12k hours as many companies have done by offering a 10 or 20 year warranty on cats.

Good companies too.

 

Hey, saying that a cat has a life of 20 years is like.......like....." honey, I will love you in the morning."