Finally pulled the trigger...

For sure, no substitute for sticking your feet in the fire.

 

Yep, what others have already said- open the draft until the splits are showing active flames. Also, for you renegades out there, close off any air coming from under the grate entirely (you know who you are!). Finally, try closing off the bottom draft by covering the small hole at the bottom of the stove face, just under the loading opening in the firebox.

If you happen to have very dry wood, mixing in a couple of less dry splits will also help the off- gassing that makes the combustor run so hot.

On most stoves very slightly opening the bypass for a little while, maybe 1/2 hour or so, will drive catalyst temps. down also. That does not really work on the I.S. though because there is not a bypass in the normal sense and it would be very difficult to 'slightly open' the sled (what substitutes for a bypass) on an Ideal Steel. Not complaining here, I believe it is the better design, just hard to 'tweak' regarding opening or closing the sled.

For the folks out there seeing 'scary' temps. above the cat., say in the range of 1,500 F and higher, I would suspect a thermometer error. I monitor mine electronically and it is quite accurate and I have only ever seen temps. touch 1,500F a few times and then not for long even without any adjustments to the stove. Those temps. turn steel orange and are normally just not sustainable given wood fuel and a rare metal catalyst. Cats. typically run around 1,300 F and while that is still quite hot, it is not dangerous. Long term it will cause the radiator to actually sag under its own weight due to the steel softening at such high temps. but that is basically a sacrificial part and not expensive. As everyone has reported, the stove top temps. never get hot enough to glow or turn red (about 900F ) and that is just an inch or so above the radiator which certainly does glow with normal use. The basic points are: 1) it probably is not as hot as spring thermometers sometimes indicate and 2) even 1,400 F is an acceptable temperature range. Sometimes it strikes me that some folks are really fearful of these high temps. from a catalytic combustor but they are perfectly normal, safe and actually good and beneficial. If the front stove top is very slightly lifted, you can actually peek at the radiator and also see the basic temp. of the catalyst below- go by color which is really quite accurate- 900F is a very dull, dark red- probably not visible with any ambient room light, while a nice bright, 'cherry' red is around 1,400F. Getting into the orange is a bit too hot IMO and will be around 1,500- 1,600F. There are many color charts on the 'Net and a search for "steel temp color" will bring up lots of them. Of course all of these temps. are far, far above any temp. reached anywhere in a normal wood stove but cat. stoves really are different in this regard. The old rule that no metal should ever glow on a woodstove, and that is absolutely a good rule IMO just does not apply to a catalytic combustor or the steel / iron immediately above the combustor. So that does take some getting used to and can be initially scary to see in a room inside your dwelling but is not only OK but desirable to burn all the particulates in the fuel that make smoke and creosote. Burn a cat. stove correctly for a season and you will be surprised at how clean the chimney will be as compared to an older, airtight wood stove.

 

Yep, I know I will only understand all this but so much, till I actually start doing it. But trying to get a decent understanding going before I light the match, so I'm not totally standing there with a ripping fire and my you-know-what flapping in the breeze... Oh, don't worry, I'm sure yall will be hearing from me on here more than you want to....and I will make a thread and link.

I have a good bit (probably a cord +) of really dry wood, cut and mostly split over 5 years ago. Did have some 12-18 inch rounds, have split them recently and even they test right at or under 20%. So the wood I can feed the AS to begin with is very dry. And working on the red maple, ash, beech and dead pine for next year.

 

Yup, exactly the routine I use in these extreme temps. Gets to the coaling stage sooner at which point I dial the B damper to 6 which keeps the blower going thru the coaling stage and allows for a quicker reload.

 

Holey moly

 

Roger that.

 

At the end of day its just another woodstove, mine gave me a new twist today but i was right there to deal with it. You will be fine.

 

Do tell. Sharing helps everyone.

 

He aint heavy he's my brother.

 

Well, I have somewhat gotten to where I can read between the lines on some of what yall are getting at. But I'll be honest here....yall done lost me....

 

Plenty of help and expertise here, my feeble attempt at humor inspired by a couple glasses of wine.

 

Ah, fair enough. I thought it was code or something!

 

Supposed to go down to around 10 tonight. Should be a good test eh Backwoods Savage … Here’s tonight’s load. All ash except for that big split on the bottom in front is hard maple.

 

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Yep, Eckie, it is code. Apparently things happen in Ohio that stay in Ohio.
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