First Vinegar Spray Cleaning

Very quick and easy. I get what looks like greenish brownish corrosion on my cat. The spaying took in right off. Cat is much more responsive now.

 

You just spray it and then rinse with distilled water? How long do you wait to rinse it?

 

Spay with a 50% 50% mix of vinegar and distilled water. Rinse with distilled water. I'll try to get a link of the process.

 

From Woodstock:
If you have a newer stainless foil combustor, you can do a thorough cleaning with a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and distilled water. Put the solution in a spray bottle and give both sides a good spritzing and let drain over paper towels, and/or foil pan. The vinegar solution is also great for removing any hard deposits on the inconel screens. Rinse with distilled water (ordinary tap water may contain minerals and chemicals that may have adverse effects on your combustor). After rinsing, let dry and put back in your stove.

Woodstock Soapstone Co. Blog: Mid-Winter Woodstove Maintenance

 

Cat had become very inactive again.
I did a soak in 50/50 vinegar-distilled water for about an hour. Rinsed. Working great again for now. Cat is just over 5 years old now.

 

Curious, this article from Woodstock states a stainless cat. Is this process okay with a ceramic car as well ?

 

https://www.blazeking.com/EN/PDF/instructions/Combustor Cleaning Instructions.pdf

 

After 19 years with 2 VC Encore cats, the new Jotul is non cat. The "new and improved" VC Flexburn ( tried two of them ) , didn't make it. The air was not controllable, there was too much secondary air inlet for the fire to be damped anywhere below +500 F. The Encore also has a dead serious overfire . Had to pull out burning splits to throw in the snow. End.
No more cat.

 

No offense but you had unfortunate cat stove experience's that in no way reflects upon the Woodstock or Blaze King cat stoves. The VC stoves have a long track record of issue's you note, amongst many other well documented component failures. A complete shame as they were at one time a highly respected stove.
Don't completely give up on cat stoves due to your poor VC experience! Pulling burning splits out of a stove sounds spooky. Ouch.

 

DBH agree with above. Vermont Castings has had trouble for years!! I have a Woodstock cat stove that is completely controllable.

 

Agreed. I considered the Blaze King Ashford ( excellent rep and customer service direct ) but it would not fit in the VC space and was big extra $$$$. Woodstock Progress she feels is ugly, did not care for soapstone, and only side load.
Our non cat Jotul Oslo has been simple and only gasket and cleaning maintenance over 24/7 heating for 14 years. I guess we were tired of the extra time waiting for the cat in the original VC Encore 2550 to light off. So non cat Jotul this time.
BTW--with proper upkeep and parts replacement, the Original Encore installed by moi in 2001, was a fine, hard used heater. Flexburn changed all. The uncontrolled overfire was the first in decades of using all kinds of wood stoves. What a firedrill !

We were fortunate to have a dealer out of Falmouth, Maine who honorably and with no pushback, took the stove back and refunded the full price paid for the stove back in May, 2018. We need more of that honor.

 

Sounds like you had a excellent VC dealer experience. 14 years of 24/7 on your Jotul is very impressive indeed. Sounds like it has been a great investment. Nice.

 

I had experience with the Oslo. How many cords a season and how large a space are you heating?

 

Oslo for 24/7, 100% heating in a cathedral ceiling ~ 900 ft² space. We built it in 1999 as a temporary 'camp' to be a barn or workshop with only 2x4 R11 insulation on a slab.
The Oslo burns about 3-4 cords mixed hardwood and softwood (shoulders ) each year. It is used hard since it is the living room where we spend more time. So if the outdoor morning temp is in the singles, the room gets in the high 50's that quickly gets back up to the 70's for our bunn warmth.
For "how many cords burnt" use the delta: the range of temperature to bring a space up to room temp. Most have central heat set at ~ 62 F. The delta then is maybe 10-15 degrees...easy concept.
The front door to the Oslo is unusable --ashes spill out; the side door is used always.

 

I did a soak about 2 months ago on my 4 year old cat and it brought it back to life for the most part but lately ive had a few stalls and I have to watch it a little more closely and give it a good hot light off if I want a long low burn.

I was on the Woodstock back order list for a new combustor and they just called yesterday saying they finally had one available.

 

This is the very reason why I went with steel tubes secondary combustion.

After my divorce, I was very cautious around anything that openly admitted needing a freshen up with vinegar and water every so often.....

 

Yooper divorced !!!!

 

I did the spray method today. I spray, let it sit, spray more, shake out any excess, spray a little more (likely hard to do too much spray if the other option is an immersed boil!). I used a tall, narrow container to dip one end and then the other for a rinse in distilled water. Burning beautifully tonight.