Catalytic Combustor Health?

Well since my last post I've learned a few more things worth mentioning here but only have had a handful of full day burns in the stove as weather hasn't been consistently cold here....55 today and raining. This past weekend we had 60 degrees and 55mph wind. We are looking at low 40's this weekend so I'll fire it up again.

1. My ceramic catalyst has not gotten any worse after a handful of burns. I don't have a recent picture to share but in comparison to the last picture, it's exactly the same as it was and I was happy to see that. Just missing cells in that 1 row.

Check out this catalyst - go to 00:40 in the video.


2. I did purchase a steel catalyst replacement from Midwest Hearth. Still in transit, but will likely move to this as soon as possible as this might throw me another variable into the learning equation.

3. The manual. Oh, the Manual. I've read it about 30 times since getting this stove. But After reading it again in the last 2 weeks, I've picked up on a very important detail that I just wasn't ensuring in my initial running of this stove. I think now after having some hours on the stove and then again experimenting in my most recent burns, I realize that the bed of coals is THE most important factor here. Manual states 2-3" of coals. What may have thrown me off is the manual also states "having a good ember bed before closing bypass"....which in my mind was more like "ehhh some coals". Nope, 2-3 inches of coals, which is mentioned in another place in the manual. That's not just "ehh some coals". By building a gradual fire and slowly adding splits of increasing size I've been able to build this coal bed, watch that catalyst temperature probe start to rise, and then close that bypass and cruise. Much better operation.

4. STT Magnetic Thermometers - After buying an IR gun at the local hardware store it's clear that my "Amazon special 4 pack of STT magnetic thermometers" was a complete and total CRAP buy! 2 of the STT magnetic thermometers were 50 degrees off placed side by side (and I swapped their placement twice - one always ran higher). That by itself is not a major issue....but when you compare them to the IR Gun I was seeing a 150 degree temperature difference. For instance, magnetic STT thermometer running like 625 (and getting me all worried), while the IR gun was saying 475. So I trashed those and ordered in new magnetic thermometers from Condar. The IR gun for now is still going to be my "source of truth", but I'm definitely curious to see how these magnetic thermometers operate versus the IR gun which I'll hopefully know the next few days.

5. Confirmed my wood is dry and seasoned. Moisture meter (not purchased on Amazon) has been showing 12-16% moisture content on fresh splits brought into the house. All red and white oak. That should remain consistent for me as the wood pile closest to the basement door (about 2 cords) has older stuff on the bottom of the pile. But I'll also be careful with introducing too much dry wood at one time.

6. While it's been mild, I opened up my Class A from the bottom of the tee and took a look. I'm not an expert but it looks fairly clean, just a little ash/soot. No large accumulations or flakes. I am planning on scheduling a mid season sweep for January as a piece of mind in my first season. This would also let me see how the professional sweep does it before trying to tackle this job myself.

Anyway - 60% of the time it works, every time.

 

Take one of those splits and split it again, then go to the center of the slit and take readings there on that freshly split surface. . That will be the more accurate measurement of the wood.

I wonder what the hell was going on with that guy's combuster?! Yikes!

 

challenge accepted. hold please.

 

Just took 3 splits, width about 5". Split each of those once, then those splits were re-split. So each piece is about 1-1.5" width. Highest observed MC was 15.4%. Most of the readings on the splits were in the 12-14% window.

 

That's real good wood. It's always a better test, rather than just putting the prongs into the outside layer.

I'm still wondering how a combuster gets totally destroyed like the one in that video. That was just crazy.

 

Thermal Shock is usually defined quite literally - a BIG and/or sudden temp change.
For a wood stove - Often from opening a door without engaging a bypass of some sort. Or from roasting it . You could have just been unlucky and gotten a dud. From a bad batch ? . Some say they are a bit delicate, too.

 

My first cat stove was 1985 when I bought a Consolidated Dutch West, imported from Korea. Excellent price, right size, etc. it had one of the circular ceramics, and a built in temp probe above it. It was perfect for my home office needs. Never had any problems with the cat. Maybe bought 1 or 2 new cats over the next 25 years.

Really surprised when I heard about replacing cats ever 5 years. But the damage to that cat is over the top. How anyone could let a cat get so damaged can only be explained as burning without a clue. Thermal shock perhaps over and over and over again. Not worth chasing but user error is obviously a factor.

 

I have never seen anything close to a cat being like that guys. Wow!

 

Steel catalyst is in and very noticeable burn difference when compared to the ceramic - specifically I was never really able to have a consistently complete clean exhaust plume which makes me think smoke was getting past that catalyst due to it's mechanical failure. I would regularly see the white and whispy, but never a true absence of smoke which I was always trying to find an improvement in my operation to get to. Now with the steel catalyst, I'm only seeing the heat/steam trail up there which I'm really happy about. And my glass has been a heck of a lot cleaner.

Looking forward to the Christmas weekend as we'll be home and the temperature is supposed to drop into the 20's. Not burning today or tomorrow though - will be mid 50's and two days of heavy rain. News reporters are throwing out that "bomb cyclone" term again. Maybe I'll have a fallen tree to add to one of my stacks.

And we're still waiting for Baby #3 to make his or her arrival to this world. My wife is doing great, prayers are appreciated! Any day now.

 

"Bomb cyclone" and "baby any day" would gave me sweating a bit, but we're a good 45 min-1 hr from the hospital. Hopefully you're closer. Plus you're up there where snow can be dealt with better.

Prayers for a safe and uneventful (on the storm side), wonderful Christmas weekend and healthy baby /wife/family event when God says "it's go time"!

 

\

Sweating a little bit for sure but yeah, we're only 15-20 minutes from the hospital.

12 years of living up here (formerly from Central PA), I've learned "Bomb Cyclone" is just a little brother of the "Nor'Easter". 55 mph winds with rain, not 80mph and 2 feet of snow. I did get 20 gallons of gas just in case for the generator. We're not in the back woods by any means but it's quite common to lose power for 4-5 days if the trees fall in town.

Thanks for your nice words!

 

I also say put a key damper in that pipe and slow the draft down.Give the CAT time to adjust to the heat build up then engage at the right temp.I'm thinking your draft will get that stove bubbling in no time and your engaging the CAT at a too high of a temp.

 

Baby Girl born 1/2/23. Mom and baby doing well. 3 kids under 4 - here we go! Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

 

Congratulations!

Wow! You do know what causes that, right???

 

Taking one year off?

 

I have read on this site that wood heat keeps the wives winter clothes in the drawer.

But we actually adopted our first 2. #3 was a huge surprise.

 

Ah, well there I go assuming things again!!

The Good Lord has a way of doing that sometimes, doesn't He!?

 

[QUOTE="Eckie, post: 1428730, member: 7193
The Good Lord has a way of doing that sometimes, doesn't He!?[/QUOTE]

Amen!!

 

Well it's 80 degrees here today and I think heating season may be over. But I do live in New England and you just never know.

Wanted to officially thank Oldhippie and MikeInMa for really giving me some great advice and a lot of reassurance in my first year with a wood stove both here in this forum post and through direct messages. You guys are awesome. I feel like I was able to dial my stove in over the life of the heating season and definitely saw some savings on oil heat. I also heated our basement all season where I work from home, which has never had a source of heat. And sometimes heated it uncomfortably haha!

I just cleaned out the stove and swept my flue for the season. We had a pro sweep us in January and he let me tag along. Things looked fairly good (about 2 cups of powdery creosote). I had about 1 cup yesterday and the majority of it was at the two 90 degree turns where my exhaust leaves the house.

You know what they say right? "if you ain't dirty, you ain't doing it right".

That's what they say, right? you guys heard that, right?