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

I would think it would NOT be stalled.
Remember if you drop the air control that low, the temps will drop. Leave it higher, then the temps will be higher. You seen this when you increased the air flow.

Seems like a nice slow burn to me. I think you’re a little too worried about the cat stalling. That cat should remain functioning down to at least 500 maybe lower, or to at least the bottom of the range on the CAT probe.

 

Thank you. So this seems to open up more possibilities for me. A different way to achieve a different kind of burn. Something to consider and experiment with.

 

Now let me ask you this: are you still using the pipe damper or are you leaving it open?

 

No. No pipe damper. Haven’t been using it for quite a while.

 

Having your Cat temp gauge fluctuate happens. Betting if you had 10 Cat stoves monitored throughout a burn cycle you would see that a good share do it.

 

I hardly ever go below 1. especially if I'm in the early phase of a burn where I'm trying to increase the STT up into that 500+ zone. If I'm in the 400 range looking for more heat, I'm opening up to 1.5 or more to get where I want to go heat-wise. Then I would either bring it down or leave it there depending on how warm the house is at that point. On the 20' to 30' days we're having now, I would think having that stove inside the 1-to-2 range on the draft would be a steady-state burn. But I know my draft isn't the same as yours, so that's where you need to get to know your system.

 

As long as the cat probe is not going below 500*, it’s still working! You can go outside to check what’s coming out of the chimney too..with your temp at 700* or so, that would be considered a long slow and low burn. Just keep an eye on it throughout the day to make sure it’s not stalling and if it does, you know you can’t set your air damper that low. Beautiful stove, I had the keystone model for 8 or 9 yrs and loved it. Good company to deal with also.

 

Thanks. So even if i have to get up to 700 on the cat probe to ignite the cat (I’m judging that from when I seem to get a “catalytic reaction” meaning the temp on the probe starts to increase when I close the bypass), if I’ve ignited it and I set my air and the cat probe temp falls below 700, as long as it’s above 500, theoretically the cat is working. Do I have that correct?

 

I often have something coming out of the chimney, I guess it’s more steam rather than smoke, like similar to a drier vent? But I guess I’m not always sure. And sometimes I have nothing but heat vapors coming out, nothin really visible.

 

I would guess you are correct on the steam...it can be hard to tell the difference between steam and smoke sometimes...steam often times doesn't come right out of the chimney, but forms a few inches to a foot from the chimney, and then dissipates rather quickly...smoke comes directly out of the chimney and tends to trail off/remain visible longer than steam.

 

Gang, shouldn’t that CAT light off at any point of the temperature range on the cat probe? Even the minimum “active range”, or the lowest point on the white paint of that probe, whatever that temp is? I would think so.

 

I hope you brought extra. Love me some popcorn. LOL! Had some cinnamon and sugar for the first time the other night. Wasn’t too bad either. I expected worse. Cousin Willies brand. Great stuff. Dang near all of it pops too. Best I ever seen as far as all of it popping.

I ask because I just assume it should...especially on a re-load.

 

I'm just cause I'm getting my learn on.... I need to bookmark or save or whatever this thread....

 

IDK. Maybe you are correct Hoytman. But the cat doesn’t seem to ignite until I hit 700 or so on that probe, which is equivalent to pipe 250, STT 300. When I do that on a reload when the cat probe was initially below 500, everything seems to be good. I can get a low, slow burn.
However, I thinking my problems with getting an aggressive burn might be when I put a small load on, then a few hours later put on a full load, the cat probe temp might fall to between 500-600 but it’s still working and I don’t realize it and I wait on the reload for the cat probe to get back up to 700 before engaging it again. Then the results are an aggressive burn. In this situation maybe I should be able to reengage the cat after a few minutes.

 

Of course you will get a more aggressive burn with a larger load depending on air control settings, but my personal opinion is that if that CAT doesn’t ignite below 700F, then there is still a problem that you need need to try and work out with WoodStock. Something isn’t right. That is what you need to find out.

One way to test that thought is to light it off at 700F or higher, then try and incrementally turn down air controls until you are below 700F and continue to turn it down until you reach the lowest point on the probe in the “active range”. If the catalyst will remain engaged to the lowest point then it should ignite somewhere above the lowest range and between that lowest range and 700. If not, that doesn’t seem right and should be explained to WS.

How do you know it isn’t lighting off below 700F? What evidence do you have of that? Do you think that because you do not see any increase in temp of the cat probe? Do you think that because the catalyst is black?

Try to recreate one of those times when you think the catalyst isn’t working at the lower end of the “active range” on the catalyst probe. As soon as you think you have this scenario recreated give it some time. After 1/2-1hr you still don’t think the catalyst is lit them simply walk over and turn the stove air control higher and see what happens.

Aside from that and as I have said, it is either still operator error (I think we’re likely past that by now and I find myself back to my original thought...a stove issue) or there is still a stove problem of some sort. I think from here on out you really need to be discussing this with WS.

 

So when I DID discuss it with Woodstock they didn’t seem to think it was a radical notion that the cat might not be lighting off until about 700 with an older cat.
When I start with a cat probe temp below 500 and I try to engage the cat at say 550 or 600, the cat seems to stall. The temps drop to pipe 150 and STT below 250 and don’t seem to climb and eventually I end up with a cat that is clogged with fly ash and backpuffing. That’s why I don’t want to stall out to cat. Because it’s a pita and I have to give the cat a vinegar and water bath.

 

AND, I’m going by the directions that and with the Condar cat probe that say if you try and engage the cat and you don’t see the temps on the probe climb up to above 700 within 2-5 minutes, open the bypass and try again.

 

I don't remember if you said this before or not...but do you have a new CAT on hand? If so, put it in and see how it does? If you don't have one, might be worth getting one and trying, eventually you're gonna need it anyway.

 

I do not have a spare cat and they are on back order I am pretty sure. I am not concerned with the cat. I realize that I will probably need one after this year. The cat is working fine, as long as I get it ignited. And I think I’ve pretty much figured things out. Just got to fine tune some things. I am able to get a slow burn 450 peak STT. I’m just trying to figure out if I can sneak in a third smaller load during a day where the temps are colder without getting too aggressive of a burn.