Had to clean the PH again

I've not tried cleaning there since last year. With the flue damper, I'm just not getting the volume of fly ash pulled into the burn channel. Previously, I cleaned it every time I cleaned the cat. I used one of the heavier tubes that foil/saran wrap etc are wrapped around, slipped it inside the end of the hose on my vacuum cleaner, after flattening the other end somewhat. Was careful not to bump the cat gasket, and was able to vacuum all the ash out of the chamber below the cat quite easily. Trick is to find a tube that fits nice and tightly in the end of the vacuum cleaner. Rambler's suggestion would likely work very nicely, if you stuffed something around it to seal the air space between it and the hose. With high air flow in that channel, I believe it is a good idea to clean that area each time you clean the cat.

I don't think my issue is temp. Like Flamestead, who burns at a very high heat output, I found only a very thin coating of almost white fly ash on the surface of the cat when I recently checked it. It could have gone weeks longer. This past time, I checked it simply because I was curious to see how it was accumulating ash with my new flue damper, AND I was about to start NEVER opening the air all the way to burn the coals down, without opening the bypass FIRST, so I wanted a baseline for my next check of the cat.

I am convinced that, with good burning practices, the cat clogs when the draft is excessively high, in the scenario of no ash pan present.

This burning season, my experiments are designed to see how much I can mitigate the problem , by various burning procedures, without the ashpan, but with the flue damper greatly restricting air flow. Still have a very strong draft, but no longer crazy draft. I only open the flue damper at all on reload, until flame is established in the firebox. There is far less accumulation since installing the flue damper, and is it lighter colored. To me this indicates that less fly ash is being pulled into the airstream, and that the air going through the cat slower is allowing more complete combustion.

 

How much ash are you guys talking about? It's hard for me to see right now since the stove is running continuously in this arctic blast .

I remember seeing a light coating at the lowest point under the heat exchanger.

 

Lowest point under the heat exchanger I would guess a few tablespoons of ash every 4 weeks. Before I put the flue damper in line. But that's a guess.

 

I can get to the area that I circled with green with my vacuum, but not to the area circled with purple. It is just a moderate heavy dusty coating in the purple area; as noted above, it does accumulate down at the bottom of the green area to the tune of teaspoons/tablespoons (not ash-shovel loads).

 

That area circled in purple is the open area that goes back to either side under the top, correct? I just use a china bristle round sash paint brush to brush the ash forward. I brush all the ash that is under the top to the depression either side of the bypass cover. Then I brush the ash onto a steel hamburger flipper that is about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide and mounted at about a 45 degree handle to the shaft. Dump that into a tin can. Have been using the same can all season, and have about an inch of fine ash in the bottom of the can. I have no problem cleaning that area, assuming we are talking about the same area. The area that is a challenge to me is between the fins directly below the housing for the cat. For that, I have to fabricate a narrow tube extension for my vacuum cleaner. I'm honestly not sure if I get the area you have circled in green. I'm going to have to take a look next time I have the top up. I gather that is between the two areas I am describing.

 

Hi Sherwood,

The side-view perspective is a bit deceiving, but I think we have the same problem area. What I circled in purple is not visible from any angle when the top is open (I think you would need to do some dis-assembly to view it in person. It is where the smoke travels when the bypass is closed, on its way to the cat. I can get my fingers in there a bit, but can't see in there.

The area in green is what you see when you pull the cat and look down in past the cat's gasket. I have a short 90-degree tip for my vacuum that allows me to get that area nicely.

 

This has to be the only real knock I've heard on this stove. While not a big deal it would get old real quick having to clean a screen and a cat every few weeks.

 

Literally takes 5 minutes.....not much different than the time it takes to put a load of wood in. Small price to pay for all the benefits of this stove, in my opinion. The fact that we almost all love it rather confirms that.

 

Didn't you throw your screen away? As I said not a big deal but it would annoy me and it appears to annoy others or we wouldn't see posts about it.

 

Not really annoying most of us just wondering why we have to and others don't. This is literally the easiest cat to take in and out and clean. If there was a way to avoid it I'd be foolish not to try it but if it's something I'm always going to have to do I can live with it.

 

Wow!! I've never had my cat look anything close to those pics!! I clean mine about once a month at most, I get about 1/10th of that. I can always see thru it.

I don't know about the other folks, but I never need to clean my screen. I've brushed it with a brush a few times when cleaning the cat, but there is never anything on it. Clean cat once a month, takes 5 minutes. Once a year (off season) I give it a quick vinegar bath. Mix 50/50 water and vinegar into a spray bottle, spray into cat from both side until drenched throughout. Lit sit 10 minutes, the rinse with fresh water. Shake out water, then let dry 24 hours. Takes 15 minutes.

 

For those that havn't heard about the change. My new PH that i just installed this past Wednesday came with a note saying that they have discontinued the iconel screen as their research has shown it was not effective at its intended purpose and was causing more issues than not. Stove did not ship with a screen.

 

Thanks for the info on the screen. I've developed a big hole in mine so I was going to order one next week along with some new gaskets for my cat. Maybe I'll order the ashpan instead....

 

KSC,
Yes, take the screen out and order the ashpan. Both good ideas.

I knew at the beginning of the burn season that Woodstock had discontinued the screen, from my conversation with them, but didn't feel comfortable posting it until they announced it. But, I did post that I had removed mine and it was fine with Woodstock to do so. Glad to see it is official. Strongly encourage everyone to remove the screen. Simplifies life.

Yes, it would be nice if the surface of the cat did not clog, but, again, small price to pay for having the stove, and just a nuisance not a problem. And the cat does not get entirely clogged, there are still visible openings. But performance does markedly deteriorate when the cat needs to be brushed. The openings become so small that they significantly restrict air flow.

As others have posted repeatedly, the cat surface accumulation is a problem that a very small percentage of owners experience, and seems to be primarily associated with extremely tall chimney/extremely strong draft pulling flyash up into the cat. I am sure it can in some instances be caused/exacerbated by burning practice, when smouldering and having smoke consistently going through the cat when the cat is not lit off.

 

I agree, I can't see how much air could get through that one at all. Hopefully it's not still looking like that. I just realized I have brushed my screen on my Fireview since last October or so, so I guess I'll do that sometime soon. That screen on my my stove looks fairly covered in ash, but I can still see through it to the CAT.

One of the down sides to the new Stainless Steel CATS I think is the density of the "waffle". In my old CDW that had a ceramic CAT the waffle was about a 1/4 squares, and I think the fly ash just floated through it. I hardly ever cleaned it and it worked well. By the way, I replaced it once in 20 years of use. These new CATS seem more finicky...I mean these are wood stoves, you are going to get fly ash, it's very hard to avoid.

When I'm doing a low slow burn with the Fireview I don't see any fly ash floating up in the small air current that might be there, but I'm not sure I would. Most of the time the only fly ash I see going airborn is when I'm in there stirring coals, or shoveling out ash, and then I've got the bypass open.

 

I've never had any problems with the cat clogging. About once a month I attach a brush to my shop vac and vacuum the front of the cat. I once reversed the vac to blow it out, big mistake as the cloud of dust it created was pretty bad. Not as bad as when I turned it back on to "vacuum" the soot after cleaning the chimney pipe (still on blow mode). Lucky no one was home to see that... I don't take it out anymore cause that back gasket is a pia, just vacuum the front. My screen has a big hole in it anyway so tossing that is good news. Now on to the new damper...

 

That would work, but you must let the stove get cool before vacuuming the cat? I remove mine when the stove is still at around 225 or so, wearing welders gloves, clean the cat and put it back. So I don't have to let the stove get cool during the winter.

 

No, I just do it first thing in the morning before a reload. I just keep the brush moving, it only takes 5-10 seconds so not enough time to melt the bristles.

 

I guess I'll give that a try next time. Thanks.