Now if i can just learn how run this thing!

New ideal steal cat seems too hot for the small fire i have, how do you get the cat to cool down?

 

Yeah, new cats are hyperactive. So much so that they can be hard to throttle. About the only useful thing I can suggest is cutting back on the draft as much as possible, and if that is not successful, install a damper in the flue. Between those two 'throttles', you should be able to hold the stove in a reasonable operating temp. zone. The downside of really choking down on the draft is that once the gasses are burned off of the fuel, the stove may need an adjustment or two, mid- burn, or its heat output may really fall off in the latter part of the burn. No way around that problem that I know of.

How hot is the cat.? Do you have a cat. temp. monitor? I let mine run at up to 1,400 F, at which point an alarm triggers. That temp. is solid, bright orange. The stove handles it OK with the exception of the radiator which will sag after some time at those temps. Steel is soft enough at those temps. that it looses almost all of its strength and the radiator actually deforms from its own weight.

 

I have the one Woodstock sent with the stove, not sure how accurate it is, it was reading 1400 with a small fire.
Thanks for the reply, might call Woodstock today, house is cool, running furnace now.

 

Somehow i missed where it told me to remove the lid on ash pan also.

 

This stove is freaking me out, are u supposed to have viable flames.

 

You aren't going to do any damage if the new cat spikes over 1400F. It usually settles down relatively quick. I try to push my cat temps to 1400F every time and it will often go beyond for a bit. The beta testers ran these hard. I remember getting the surface temp (beta stove) well over 900F. I can't imagine what the cat saw. Don't do that.

 

Well thanks for the info, i have no idea what i am doing with this stove, no flames on wood but no smoke out of chimney.
Waiting for Woodstock to call back.

 

On the low output setting my cat stove cruises along with a cat at 1200-1500. It's just a little catalyst and the rest of the firebox is relatively cold and usually with zero flames. It's okay and good for the cat to be screaming hot eating up the smoke while the stove output is still on the low end. Even when you crank the stove up for high output, the cat stays at about the same temperature but the firebox itself gets hotter from the increased primary fire.

 

Sounds perfect. Are you warm enough? If not, bump up the intake a little.

 

This is my third small fire but afraid to put much wood in.

 

No LOL, i am not too comfortable with this stove yet.

 

I wondered about more wood and the cat being somewhat the same temp, thats helpful.

 

That's exactly what mine is doing right now

 

That is exactly how a catalytic stove is supposed to run.

Unlike non- cat. stoves, the hottest part is not in the firebox but just above the combustor.

What is happening is that the wood is smoldering, or pyrolyzing. Exactly the same way a cigarette burns, never any flame but more than hot enough to consume all the fuel (tobacco in cigarettes) leaving behind smoke and ash. And this is how a woodstove burns when there are no flames in the firebox but it is hot enough to pyrolyze until it consumes all the wood. The cat.'s job is to burn that smoke, which has a LOT of energy in it, to produce heat and clean up the exhaust. Hence your cool firebox, hot combustor and clean stove output. All exactly as designed.

One thing that is very counterintuitive to most everyone is that to cool down the combustor, you can open the draft until there are some visible flames in the firebox. Sounds wrong but what happens is that some of that smoke is then consumed inside the firebox and so there is less fuel for the combustor, which cools down. The stove may well put out more overall heat but the combustor will run at a lower temperature.

My suggestion would be to load the stove on a bed of coals. Open the draft fully and leave the bypass open. It is just a regular, simple wood stove when used like this. Once the fire has grown and the splits are well engaged, close the bypass and close the draft down to about 4 notches from closed. This will start, or 'light' the combustor and dampen the fire in the firebox at the same time, putting the stove into catalytic burn mode. As others have said, surprisingly high temps. above the combustor are safe although I would not let it go over 1,600 F for very long (a couple of minutes). To turn down the stove and combustor temps down, close the draft one or two notches. To turn the stove up, open the draft. There is a tipping point where opening the draft will cause some flame to appear and the combustor temp. will drop. If you are not getting the heat that you need, open the draft. 1/4 open (the first large notch) will produce a lot of heat but should still be perfectly safe. I regulate my own I.S.'s output by going by the stove top temperatures, usually just under 400F but occasionally as much as 600F. The stove can safely get hotter but it is too much heat for my house.

 

The left side og the glass is black and does not burn off like the right side, does that indicate a leak of some sort?
I haven't had the stove over 400 stt yet and still getting a little condensation, maybe that's part of it.

 

Anybody know how accurate the probe thermometer that woodstock sends with the stove is, this morning stove was stone cold and thermometer had a significant reading.
Got a hold of Woodstock and sounds like the cat probe isn't as reliable as the stove pipe/ top thermometer are, makes me a little less nervous as the temp was running close to 1700 at times.

 

The mechanical thermometers are really pretty poor regarding accuracy. The high- temp. ones can easily be off 300 degrees or more. Digital thermometers (thermocouples) are quite accurate as well as instantaneous but they are more expensive. Well, the thermocouples are not too bad but the thermocouple readers / displays can be. You can use something like this :

4-Channel K-Type Digital Thermometer Thermocouple Sensor -200~1372°C/2501°F 638414476175 | eBay

And thermocouples such as these:

K Type 0-500C 8mm Thread 10cm Probe Thermocouple Temperature Sensor 2M 700724524669 | eBay

The reader / display unit I gave a link to will work with between 1 and 4 individual probes. I use four, one in the firebox, one above the cat. (where your mechanical one is now on your stove), one on the stove top and one in the smoke pipe just before it goes into the thimble. It gives a great deal of insight as to what the stove is doing and how to adjust it to get it where you want it to be. But as I said, somewhat expensive and more complicated than mechanical dial- type thermometers.

 

I really like this idea... I run 3 mechanical ones, Top thermometer, and probes behind the cat, and 12" up the stove pipe. The stove pipe one really helped me get better at knowing when to engage the Cat after a hot reload in my FireView.

I do like the idea of digital; more information, and more accurate readings. But, don't you have wires running everywhere around your stove? And how did you run the wire out of your stove? Would love to see a pic of your stove setup and wire management for some inspiration.

 

Ha.... plenty of photos, in the thread about the Ideal Steel, somewhere amongst the gazillion posts in that thread. Let me see if I can find them and I will shoot you the post numbers where they appear.

But overall, the setup works great. I am using a display w/recorder so I can watch the time / temp. changes for days on end, most importantly overnight and it has taught me a lot about running this stove.

And yep, there are wires but they are stainless steel braided and so fairly discreet, tucked against the stove until they leave it from the back.

 

For the thermocouple in the firebox, how/ where do you run the wire? And for the one near the cat, do you order a t.c. that is the same length of the probe type thermometer you would buy for that model