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

Try this, clean cat with vinegar, start fire with alot of kindling and DRY splits, key damper wide open, bypass open, air control wide open, run stt temp to 350, ignore pipe temp,close bypass, run until stt at 400,start closing air control in increments, half then quarter and so on. Only use key damper in overfire situation.

 

Read two posts up. I just called Woodstock about that.

 

Sorry. 3 posts up.

 

So I have not ordered a Condar probe yet but, I called Woodstock this morning about one. Woodstock says you need an 8 inch probe. There’s a port on the non loading side. Remove a bolt and run it thru a hole in the heat shield that sits over the cat. My question was Condar offers two 8 inch probes. One is a 2 inch dial. One is a 1 1/2 inch dial. Is that just referring to the size of the part that gives you the read out that sits on the outside of the stove?

 

I’ll try what you said Chipsoflyin

 

Moresnow. I ordered a CAT thermometer.

 

So results from this morning’s burn. Reloaded the stove at about 8:00. Waited for the STT to get to 300. Engaged the CAT and set air to 3 ticks below the 3 setting. Temps dropped to 150 on pipe and 225 on top. Stayed there for an hour or so. I opened the air up to 3. Eventually opened the air a little more til the fire came back. Temps rose. Set to 1.5. Got a little bit of backpuffing and a little smoke coming out the top of stove when it came out of catalytic mode. Not real strong puffing but a little strong. When the SST reached 400, the rate of secondaries started to pick up. I had air set at 1.5 and engaged the key damper to slow it down. 300 pipe and 500 STT at peak. It’s 12:20. No visible flame. Have key damper slightly open. Pipe is 300 and SST is 450.

 

Interesting, I just was thinking between the chimney lining you have, and the height of the chimney, the OAK was the only element of the system that might be adding to such a strong draft that might be easily eliminated to get to a lesser draft that might be easier to manage.

 

Are you immediately reducing primary air after engaging the cat? If so... why? Let that sucka run with the freshly engaged cat with full air until you get a desired STT. Sounds like you are snuffing the whole program at Cat engagement. Only reduce air when your cat is good and hot/active and you have a usable STT. 300 on top sounds like a slow idle at best, not a good hot stove ready for reduction in air supply. Chripes I run my cat stove up to 650-700 on top each and every load prior to reducing air for the long haul. ChipsFlyin has about the closest routine to what I would recommend coming from a different brand. His last post sounds reasonable for a try! Keep it up. Sure wish I had a AS to play with

 

1-800-866-4344

 

Just the size of the dial. Bigger is better.

 

This may be something I missed. I agree with moresnow, engage cat and let it run wide open (or you're version of wide open if it includes key damper) with cat engaged until you see that STT climb and you should see it pretty quickly, if not immediately, and at the same time, you'll see the pipe temp drop. When you see all that, then bring the draft down to a 3 or a 2 or a 1 whatever seems to work for your installation.

 

So. Here’s the slow learner again. I cleaned the CAT today. Vinegar & Water bath. I started the stove back up. I went by Chipsoflyin’s instructions. First lots of kindling, then dry wood, added more wood until firebox full. Waited until the STT got to 350. Engaged the CAT. Key damper open. Air control wide open still. When. The SST reached 400, I set the air control to 2. I think I closed the air too quick. The SST reached 450 and then for some reason (probably because I closed the air down too soon) the SST dropped to 300 and the pipe to 200. I opened the air to 3. The flames came back eventually. I set air to 3 ticks below 3. The temps eventually rose. I set to 1.5 then 1. I kept lowering the air eventually to almost fully closed (2 ticks shy). 2 and a half hours in. Pipe is 280 and SST is 520. Flames came back. Starting to burn a little fast now I think.

 

In the end, I engaged the key damper with it slightly open and air set to 2 ticks above completely closed. Burning nice and slow. Slow rolling secondaries and 300 pipe, 500 STT.

 

Sounds like you're figuring out the sequence and getting close to the right settings. That's great especially if you can refine the process and get consistent results.

 

Nice work ,sounds like you got her

 

Question. I’m guessing draft and how much air goes into the stove (the air control) are interrelated and cannot be separated really, but is it incorrect to think about it this way? The air control controls how much air you are allowing into the stove. The draft is how fast the air moves through your stove and up through your chimney?

 

I guess what I’m asking about is, isn’t it a reasonable idea that I need to let the same amount of air into the stove as I did before, but that I need to slow the rate that it goes thru the stove and chimney using the key damper?

 

The damper on the stove limits the air going through the stove and up the chimney, but the pipe damper limits the chimneys effect on the stove...so at any given intake damper setting, it will flow less air with less draw from the chimney pulling on it...make sense?

 

I think discussing pipe damper use only serves to further confuse the user for the time being. Learn to run (reach a temperature) the stove...

1. Make sure stove doesn’t still have an issue leaking air. I’ve seen no attempt to to know if this has been solved.

2. With the amount of wood to “reach” a temperature rather than trying to hold the stove back.

3. Next learn what the stove controls do. The by-pass and air controls. Use them in correct order.

4. Forget about that pipe damper for a while and leave it open. So far it’s function and use seems to have only confused you further.