Absolute Steel Owners, Please Help Me Learn How To Run This damm Thing!

True, but, if the damper is say 1/4" open at its minimum setting, its still going to flow a lot more air at a chimney draft of -0.08" WC (for example) pulling on it than it will -0.04" WC...and that's what the pipe damper does, it limits the "vacuum" that the firebox and intake air control sees...

 

Ahh...I misunderstood what you were getting at then

 

For what it's worth, with my Ideal Steel, I can't regularly engage the cat on a reload until cat probe temp is above about 650 or 700...I almost always get a stall, even with the air wide open (stove has an outdoor air kit). I too kept trying to engage at lower temps (about 3-400 on the probe is "supposed to be" hot enough), but it rarely works...some of it depends on the size of the coal bed.

Opening the ash door a crack (which is technically a no-no) to get the new wood charred is always helpful if I'm in a hurry to engage the cat. If you do this, always stay within eyeshot of the stove and never leave the ash door open even a little without watching.

 

BINGO...but I wasn’t going to say anything. LOL! Good post.

 

He all, I have been trading emails with Troutbum about his learning curve with the AS that he has. He hasn't been able to figure out how we put up video's so I am helping out with that. He asked my opinion with this video as to weather I thought this was an overfiring of the stove, as he has already had some problems with the first AS he installed, this one is a new one.

When initially got this video, just prior to Thanksgiving, he didn't include the detail as to what he had the draft set to. But now, in an email he has included that. So I'm including it here.

His initial mail to me. >>> I'm trying to figure out if I have an overdraft and/or whether the rate at which my stove is burning is too fast. I'm trying to be careful and am cautious because my stove has broken in the past (twice actually) and I remember when I went to pick up my stove from repair, one of the guys at Woodstock said it could happen if there's an overdraft. <<<

His input on the stove settings for this video. >>> That was a reload on hot coals. I waited for the pipe temp to reach, 300, maybe just shy of 300, engaged the cat, and closed the air from full open to 3 ticks below the 3 setting. I left it there for 20-30 minutes, then closed the air intake to two ticks above the 1 setting. In the past, before it broke this second time, I would sometimes close the air down to half way between fully closed and the 1 setting, and I feel like it would still burn fast like that. I seem to always get fast rolling secondaries in the front at the top. If I use the key damper, I have to fully close it or just barely open and I can slow it down. <<<

My first thought as an owner of an AS is this looks to be an almost out of control burn situation and I would be immediately putting the draft at a 1 or below 1 setting, to get to a standard run time burn rate. My draft at my house is quite a bit less than what were looking at here. My opinion is "that's a strong draft, it doesn't need to get that hot, bring down the draft much earlier and it would probably be in the 1 or less setting." But that's just my opinion and each install is different and as we know there are a lot of variables.

So anyway, please guys, lets us know what your experience is, particularly AS and IS owners.

 

That oughta squeeze any residual moisture out in a hurry Thats an awful vigorous/violent blaze. I'd be following Oldhippie in his recommendation I do believe.

 

Heck, that's a pretty roaring fire even with a tube stove, let alone a cat stove!

 

Just to clarify. This is not my second AS. This is the original stove I bought.

 

I’m going to try what Oldhippie says tonight. So, I’m going to wait for the pipe temp to reach just shy of 300, then engage the cat and close the air control to half way between fully closed and the 1 setting and see what happens.

 

Yeah, my x girlfriend is on the AS learning curve right now. She though she was smart by figuring out how to start a fire by opening the ash pan door. I explained to her that in this day and age we all have ADD. If you get distracted, you might turn around and see a red hot stove. That stopped her. She also had a surface thermometer on the double wall pipe. (Woodstock sold her the pipe and thermometer and said where to put it). Her problem was a black glass. I said you are engaging the cat too fast what's the magnetic thermometer say? It read basically 0. I said put it on your stove top even though it's a stack thermometer, I'll give you the engage and overtire temps. She did that, engaged the cat at 350, and the glass was clear the next morning. Now I have to teach her how to clean the cat via email. The pain, the pain, what a world.

 

I'm not familiar with the Absolute but that door handle looks high. Is that door completely shut? Nothing impeding the gasket? Mis alignment of the lock mechanism? My progress does that occasionally and there is a coal or something stopping the door from shutting completely. pizzes me off. But then again, everything pizzes me off lately.
This is ironic. I type in pizzes. But the 2 s's come out as zz's. Now that pizzes me off.

 

So tonight, I’m going to try waiting for the single wall pipe temp to almost get 300, engage the CAT, and close the air control to half way between 0 and 1. Then see if I get a more controlled burn. The other thing I can try is putting the stove top thermometer right up against the right side of the flue collar and when the stove top thermometer reaches 300, engage the CAT. I feel like I’ve tried that second way in the past but stalled out the cat, but it’s worth trying again.

 

Troutbum And this situation, and with your experience and learning the stove, I would really recommend probe to tell you what the cat temperature is. The IS has a port for the probe I think the AS does also.

Woodstock would be able to tell you for sure and tell you what condor probe you need for that particular stove.

 

When there is a problem you need to be taking notes as well...every time you load the stove. Even if those notes are recorded right here in real time. Ask me how I discovered that. (Smile)

 

I’ll look into a condar probe. So i waited for the single wall pipe to reach 300, engaged the cat, closed the air control to between 0 and 1. It’s about 45 minutes in. The stove top temp dropped to below 250 and the pipe temp dropped to 150. Does this mean I stalled the cat?

 

I read your mind.

 

Troutbum, sorry I misunderstood the stove thing, I thought they replaced it or something like that. In either event, I usually watch the temp on the stovetop, and not so much on the pipe temp. But sounds like you have a good plan. I am assuming you're leaving the key damper open, if it looks like the flames are dying open up a bit, or if it looks like it's taking off drop it down a bit. Given the flames we're all seeing in the video, I would expect you'll start to see the stovetop temp increase and at the same time the pipe temp decrease or steady out between 200 and 300'F someplace.

We'll figure it out, I know it can be frustrating but hang in there. You got this.

 

Sounds like it. Were you able to open it up a bit to see if that got the flames engaged? Kind of surprising since it seems like you have such a strong draft.

 

In this instance, tonight, when I engaged the cat, the stove top temp and the pipe temp were both about 300. Like I said, I immediately closed the air control down to between 0 and 1. It’s an hour in after engaging the cat. If I use a flashlight to look inside, there’s just rolling smoke as far as I can tell. The pipe temp is still 150 and the stove top is just above 200.