Crumbling catalytic combustor

History
Installed Feb 8, 2011, replaced a steel one that got plugged burning spruce.

The center section of the combustor slipped forward.
No sure when or why it got loose & it slid out about 1".
Tried to push it back in, wouldnt' budge, didn't press hard thinking it would break easy.
Last night I did a good burn down, warm stove & decided to fix it.
As I pushed on it I could seethe center section was cracked, & I
had to push it in to have room to slide the whole cat cartridge out.
Well the center section broke.
I tried to remove one of the side sections, as I did it had fractures & came apart in pieces.

Also notice some were dirty, I had vacuumed it yearly but as the pics show , it
never got totally clean inside.

Luckily I had the SS cat, installed it, stove up & running fine.
(It was cleaner than in the above picture, was only in the stove
for 8 months 24/7 burning, so should have a few years life)
Noticed the steel one light off a lot quicker.
Almost 3 years, I'm guessing that's a reasonable life of a combustor ?



The old broken one have any value for the palladium ?

 

Might just start using the Stainless Steel ones.
Will get a new one,
& R&R them on an annual PM/cleaning.

Any reviews out there as to which one is better?
Ceramic or Stainless ? ?

SS ones are much more sturdy

 

6 year warranty on it.
http://www.blazeking.com/EN/warranty-wood.html

I'm on year #4 on mine. As far as I can tell it's still working just fine.

 

Something doesn't seem right there. I pulled mine out after about 20 cord to clean it when performance dropped off...looked like new and is waiting for its turn to go back in.

 

Strange that the center slipped out but it's not uncommon to see ceramic cats crack. They can be cracked and still work fine as long as they hold together. One of the advantages of s/s is resistance to thermal shock but they also seem to plug up sooner because of the smaller cells. BK has a 10 year warranty on their cats now so you may want to go through their dealer for a new one.

 

Thanks
Will go to the store & see if I get some pro-rated refund

 

+1

 

Also nice to have so that you can pull your working but maybe not ideally cat mid season and do a thorough cleaning if needed without worrying about not having a stove because the cat fell apart while removing it.

 

Thanks bookmarked
, steel one $352 with shipping to AK

will look local to compare

 

What do you mean by "replaced a steel one that got plugged burning spruce"?

I am seriously considering replacing my nc30 with either a BK or Woodstock's new steel hybrid and I've got about 3 years worth of spruce in the stacks. Is there a problem burning spruce in cat stoves?

 

5" x 10.5" x 2"

 

WS steel cats are made by Sud Chemie, I doubt they would have one for a King.

 

I wonder what caused the center to slip? The rest of the cat looked fine, what a bummer! Mine has cracks but lights of just fine and still seems to work fine, as Todd said above cracks are not big deal as long as it's not missing pieces. Honestly I would've just left it alone, all the pieces were there it was probably working fine. Good thing you had the back up!

We have to remember Dave has a longer burning season than most of us so his cat may not last as long as some of ours. It takes me two seasons to burn what he burns in one. I think I remember reading on the Condar site that a combustor is good for about 12000 after that it losses it's efficiency. Dave how many months do you burn 24/7?

I believe BK uses these guys. http://www.firecatcombustors.com