It seems that since I have replaced my old ceramic catalyst with a new stainless catalyst I am not getting as much heat out of it. The reason I replaced the cat at the beginning of the last heating season was because I began noticing a decreased heat output and the original cat was 8 years old so I figured the cat was due for a replacement. Last season it seemed like it heated okay with surface temps in the 450 degree range and every thing seemed normal. The chinmey is clean and my wood supply is excellent 10% moisture content lodge pole pine is what we burn and I have never had any problems getting the surface temps up to 600 degrees I now struggle to get them over 350. The only thing that is different is the cat. Even if I load the stove full engage the cat and leave the draft wide open I am not getting that much heat out of it. I think in the morning when the fire goes out I will be reinstalling the old cat and compare my results and see what happens. Any other suggestions I might try?
Have you cleaned your cat since last year? Do you have the new stainless scoop or the old cast iron scoop? The older scoop less more fly ash through and can clog up the newer stainless cat quicker than a ceramic cat. You may also want to look into gasket replacement.
I checked the cat first and it is clean I can see through it. I do have the old cast iron scoop. Can you give me more information about the gasket replacement? is that for the cat or for the stove in general? I have given the door the dollar bill test and it seems fine. I still have decent burn times for the lodge pole that we are burning. Over night temps in my location are 20 degrees
Have you checked your rain cap for any obstructions? If the stove is doing this with 2 different cats I'm inclined to look elsewhere. Oak kit? Do you have a key damper? Anything to restrict flow?
Check your bypass gasket as well as the gasket the cat rests on. A leaky bypass can send a lot of heat up your stack. After a few hard seasons of use these gaskets should need replacing. If you suspect a bad cat try the 50/50 vinegar/distilled water cleaning. This will loosen up any deposits that mask the catalyst.
That was the first thing I checked and the chimney is 100% clean and unobstructed. No damper in the stack I only use the stove draft to regulate. I'll check the bypass operation to make sure everything is sealing properly. The manufacture date is 6 / 01 so it is pretty old. I am waiting for a call back from Woodstock to see what they may be able to tell me as well. thanks for the input I'll update as I get this figured out for others if they have this problem.
I put the old cat back in and for now I am only getting surface temps up to 304 degrees max. I will give the stainless cat the vinegar boil and see if that brings it back. But as it stands now I think the stainless cat toast. I haven't talked with anyone from Woodstock yet hopefully I can get ahold of them next week.
The surface is currently 362 and the stack is 250 temps taken with an ir gun. It almost seems like it is not getting enough air into it
Is that about the temp the old cat had declined to when you decided to pull it, or is it even lower now than when you pulled it?
The old cat was only getting surface temps of 300 before I replaced it. I would also add that the ceramic cat that I replaced was the original that came with the stove it was 13 years old when I replaced it.
Apologize if this is already taken care of, as I saw gasket mentioned earlier. When I ordered a new cat for my BK, and had to order a felt/mastic gasket separately before I installed it. Does your stove need one too?
Sounds like a possible lack of air. Maybe try blowing/shopvacing out the air I let. How does the fire look? And with the bypass open? Even with a completely dead cat I would expect to be able to get the stovetop hotter than that especially with dry pine, unless there is an airflow restriction (in or out).
This does not sound like a cat problem to me. For sure the stack temp at 250 is way too low if you are just engaging the cat but sounds okay once the fire is established and the cat is engaged. It sounds more like you have a problem getting enough air to the firebox. Something get inside over the summer? Have you checked the slider (draft) in the rear of the stove? fwiw, we do not get as high of temperature with the steel cat as we did with the ceramic but this can be good. With the ceramic, several times the stove top temperature wanted to go over 700 degrees but I do not remember this happening since we've had a steel cat. I do know last evening we reached 650 tops but with the fire we had I'm betting with the old ceramic cat it would have wanted to overfire. I would also definitely call Woodstock about this.
I am going to second what Dennis said check the slider on the back of the stove it very well may have come off and you are not getting the proper airflow into the stove. That happened to me not to long ago and I took the cat out cleaned it cleaned the stove and everything then found that the slider had come off track and that solved my problem.
Sorry about the delay in getting back to this thread I had a very busy week but I have fixed this problem. I talked with Penny (I hope spelled her name right) from Woodstock and we discussed the operation of the stove and she gave some areas to look at that could cause the problem. As we talked through the operation of the stove a light came on in my head about the issue I had last winter when I forced a piece of wood in the firebox and broke the right scoop support. I ordered some new scoop supports and put everything back together. In the process of replacing the scoop supports the air chute slid forward a little bit restricting the incoming air supply. I let the stove cool down enough so that I could work on it. I removed the scoop supports and the scoop, realigned the the air chute with the proper clearance to the glass and viola I have a nice and hot stove again. I am really glad that I called and talked to her. She was very knowledgeable knew what the problem was by asking me the right questions. I can't say enough about what a great stove company Woodstock is.
