1st break-in fire in the new IS

Thanks everyone!

Update..slowly bringing her up. No cat engagement. Headed to church in a couple hours, so will probably let this one die out.

 

Time to turn the air down just a bit!

 

Exhaust gasses (huh-huh) got to 500, so I engaged the cat. Dropped to 425 and a black box. How do I know the cat lit off?

 

Good question maybe Fanatical1 can help ya
Or Gark

 

Here's the deal. The cat needs some time to react. Leave the air open. You can't just engage it and shut it down. I run the stove hot with the cat engaged for at least 10 minutes before I begin shutting it down in stages.

Also, keep in mind that draft is not optimal this time of year. So the cat will need extra input air until it settles and cruises. Then slowly bring it down.

 

That front thermometer you have there should start climbing fast when the cat is active. If that stays still or drops, toy know the cat stalled. You can also go outside and look for smoke.

 

You can usually hear some clicking right above the cat when it takes off. I routinely shut the air down too quick and stall the cat this time of year.

 

There is a learning curve with this stove, but once you got it, it's an easy process.
I use a cat probe, stove top, and stove pipe thermometer. The 3 combined take the guess work away.

 

JA600 said just what I would have said. The front temp will climb dramatically and be much hotter than the top of the stove when the cat is lit. He's right that you will see some smoke initially from the chimney and once the cat lites, no more smoke. The cat engages at lower air settings also, too much air and the secondary burn tube consume a lot of the off gassing. If the stoves hot enough and you have enough dry fuel gassin off and you have the air cut back enough, the cat should engage pretty quickly.

The more wood dry wood you have stuffed in that stove the easier that cat will ignite. Small fires when seasoning the stove would be more challenging for the cat to really get hot. The temps on the front of the stove versus the temps on the top of the stove will tell you what's going on with the cat.

 

Thanks for the help, friends! Guess I was just being impatient. Back from church, after running it low for several fires, and no more paint smell, I decided to load about half full with splits of oak and poplar. Using given advice and referring back to the manual, we have lift off! It's about 85 in the stove room, and 74 in the other. (55 outside though) I'm starting to sweat. Lol


Love the light show!




Glowing cat in top of dark firebox:

 

It's all we had! #familylife

 

Notch #3-4 usually yields good steady burn times. I ran mine on notch #3 all day. Not a flame the whole time. It ran about 450 stovetop and 1200 on the cat probe. My glass is so black I can barely see through it.

It's not really needed, but I recommend getting a cat probe along with moving your front thermo to the stove top right above the cat. Once the probe hits 500 I engage the cat. Once the stove top hits 250 I start shutting the air down a little at a time. I have not had a stall since!

 

Great job, Brad, yeah that's the same ? I had. about stalling the cat, freaks you out a bit to go from a rolling fire to black out. Did me... when I put cat on now I wait 5 to 10 minutes of full air and the secondaries tell me cats working then air down..but 4 splits and takes forever to cool it off.. have fun!

 

One more noticeable thing about how well the IS cat processes smoke into heat - is what kind (species) of wood is loaded. Some of us have noticed that it can get hotter cat activity (seen on front magnetic thermo) burning ash compared to more dense wood like black locust or white oak. This is with all fuel measured correctly at <20% MC. As said, it takes at least a half load of medium/large splits to properly feed the cat. I have a mag thermo stuck on the front just to the right of the cat probe port (and one on the pipe and one on top). The thermo on front won't react real fast to cat takeoff, it has to "see" through 1/4" steel. But when the cat is burning smoke, the front thermo can get to scary readings (750° typical - again, depending on wood species) which peaks about 2 hrs into the burn.
I find that we can do short small load cat-only burns (less than 1/2 load) by using smaller pieces of wood which works because there's a larger percentage of wood surface smoking than fat splits.
The IS doesn't breathe heavy with cat engaged so thats why it can take 5-10 minutes before smoke disappears from the flue even with good cat lightoff: the smoke from before cat launch has to meander its way out of the entire flue IMHO.
Sorry 'bout the long winded post, heheh.

 

Awesome!

 

It was answered below.... But, great pics!