New ceramic Cat in place

New Firecat ceramic combustor is quietly glowing. It's only been a few hours, but it does seem more responsive. And the whole honeycomb is glowing, not just a portion of it.
The old one came out intact, no cracks or degradation visible. Doubt I'll keep it around though, quick numbers has it north of 25K heating hours on it.
Can't wait to try that Oak and Locust. Wait.....
I misspelled aspen and pine, again.

 

oak and locust.....aspen and pine.....at least you didn't say willow and ailanthus

 

Hope you see the same efficiency improvement I did
Less wood & more heat

I scrambled the letters of birch & spruce to come up with hickory & white oak

 

A new combuster is like a new car. Just runs better than the old one. Won't leak motor oil all over your driveway either.
When we replaced the cat in the VC Encore after 5 years, the improvement was very noticeable.

 

Cats been active since last night, even with the air closed down. Guess the new one is working like it should.

 

You seeing a big improvement over the old one ?

 

New stove parts....Happy stove, happy owner!

 

At this point, I'll say "yeah, noticeable improvement."
Last night was a stove full of Pine slab. I shut the air down this morning because it was pushing 80 in here- too warm. I turned the air back up about an hour and a half ago, she went to 450 stove top and top end of active on the Cat probe in no time. had to turn it back down. I'll add some wood around 10:00 tonight if I need to, but there's still about 1/3 of the box full. I will say it's warm outside so I don't need max. heat right now, but it looks like the firepower is back.

 

Your temps are creeping up to above freezing.
Hard to cool down a heat soaked house with the stove burning on low when above freezing.

I have more wood in the firebox in the AM too.
Just adjust the stat up a bit & turn on the fan to bring the house up a couple degrees.
Good ashes with a few coals for the night load.
Turkey days was cold, but all the baking & cooking , didn't need a reload until evening.

In the 20° now, eating left overs,
6 split now at 2:30 to get to the 10PM load.

 

I'm on my 4th season with my cat, it's still lighting off and the temps are climbing once engaged but I know it's not as good as it once was. I think I'm tearing through a little more wood than I used to. It seems the t-stat is working more than it used to in order to maintain the stove temp. To me it seems the cat isn't creating as much heat. When I sweep aroun Christmas I'll see if I'm accumulating more crude in the chimney than I normally do. If it makes it through this season I may replace it just because come next season. I may even put one on the shelf just in case.

 

While looking in good shape, I'm not keeping my old one. If it has degraded in performance 25% over 10-12K hours of use, and it's over double that, why keep it if it's only going to be 1/2 as good as new? The new one is really active compared to the old one, especially with small loads. Going to go with a 3 season usage, then replace.

edit- the old one would heat and glow no problem, but I noticed a considerable increase in deposits in the flue pipe. Granted, what I've been burning is less than prime, but the buildup was a concern. I'm working on that now.

 

In a very different stove, I noticed a big difference in combustor performance in less than two years (seasons).

Brian

 

New cat got the good burn times back for the BK.
After 3 years, new one gotta amount to well over a cord of wood saved/year.
Old one was such a long slow deterioration that it's wasn't noticeable until I put a new on in
Still liking the Cat stove

 

Good news. I am leaning towards replacing mine much sooner due to your experiences. I was under the impression that it would just die. Until then it would just work. This gradual depletion of function means that there will be a point where it is wise to replace it before failure.

 

You have 2 burn seasons on it. Might get one more depending on your winters.
I'm planning on 3 burn seasons on the new one right now, we'll see.

I'm burning less wood for sure, even with the mild temps, I notice the difference.
I'd burned Oct & part of Nov with the old one, new one was night & day difference
for heat output, longer burns, lighting off & the cat stayed in active temp zone much, much longer

 

Sounds good. We don't get bitter cold but our burn season is very long like 9 months long. So I rack up the hours.

 

Wonder how the operating temps effect the longevity ?
I guess if it's glowing hot, the combustor material is about the same temp,
it's the cat chamber, where the probe is that is hotter with a bit more air flow on higher settings.

 

I don't think the temp. gauge is lying, but it's also centered in relationship to the Cat. My new Cat is glowing throughout all of the honeycomb again, where as the old one would start in the center and work out. Sometimes it'd start on one side or the other but would have to get cranking to really glow.
The new one goes very active quickly, even with the bypass open.
I did a few shots of that "Creo-Soot" stuff tonight so can't close the bypass for an hour after application.
With the bypass open, Cat is reading middle on the gauge, between max. and min., but above active. Flue is at 450.
New Cat is working as it should.