Char time before closing bypass

Yep, seen that in my cat stoves. The Dutchwest has a dedicated manual cat air. I'm experimenting with it to see if it helps giving the cat more air at higher burn rates. That's what the manual seems to suggest. This is one reason I'm looking at the AS...cleaner burns over a wider range. But with my cat stoves now, I'm seldom burning with the air open very far.

Hmm, I've not read that. Got a link, or where did you hear that?

Yep, I find that the more dense the wood is, the more I have to burn it in at the beginning, otherwise I risk a cat crash if I cut the air too far. I find this with White Oak, Hickory and BL. How readily the cat lights is a result of several interdependent factors; Wood density and moisture, how well you burn in the load, and how strong the draft is that day. It took me a while to figure this out.

Not 75%, but I usually keep a little flame in the box until the probe temp gets up around 1000. With dense woods, my final air setting will be a little more open than with say Cherry, Ash or Red Oak.

That looks like it's carrying a ways, like smoke would, but steam will also do that if it is humid out. It's not easy to distinguish between the two sometimes but color is usually a good indicator. Of course if you get downwind and can smell it strongly there's no question.

Yep, the smaller and higher branches of those dead-standers can be pretty dry but lower in the trunk it can still be pretty soggy as you noted.

You will have better luck with drier wood. In the meantime, I would simmer out the cat in 50/50 distilled water and distilled vinegar. http://www.condar.com/combustorcleaningmanual.pdf

Yep, you can run a stove with just a flue meter, with a little trial and error. I run the surface flue meter (at 18" up vertical on my SIL's Fireview) up to about 475 or so, hold it there for 10 min. or so, and a light-off is pretty much guaranteed. The load is usually burned in sufficiently by the time you are ready, so you're good to go with enough smoke to feed the cat. I have lit off the cat well at much lower temps than Woodstock recommends. I think 250 is just a fail-safe number that they know will work for those not as nerdy as we are. The Dutchwest manual says to run the cat probe up to 500 but with the new steel Woodstock round cat in there for the last month, I can light off at 275 stove top, zero on the cat probe. You just have to play with it and figure out what works.

 

I "thought" I seen it on the condar site but just looked and didn't see it. They recommend the bath every other year or every year for high use situations. I must've read it posted one of these site guru's. I figure if it's removing deposits sooner or later it could potentially hurt the wash coat but maybe it's completely safe. I think I seen/read BKVP refer to it as a last ditch effort.

Edit: I think this is what raised the question for me about using the vinegar bath on a regular basis. It was brought up in an IS thread forever ago. lol

 

I found these quotes from BKVP:

"There is a major cleaning process that involves removal and using distiller water and vinegar. If you ar determined to do so, and we suggest this only as a last resort, you can clean it and the acidic vinegars will help to remove any deposits over plating the precious metals. The risk here is you could drop it or accidental rough handling could damage the combustor."

"As you burn wood, deposits are formed OVER the precious metals (catalyst). First the substrate is made (either stainless or ceramic) and then it is coated with a wash coat. The wash coat helps with increasing surface area and also gives the precious metals adherence."

"After years of burniing (varies with amount of fuel burned) there is an overplating and that overplating will take place."

"Washing the combustor with vinegar and distilled water creates an acidic wash that will remove the build up on top of the precious metals."

"Often, users will try this process and sometimes they drop or otherwise damage their combustors. That is why we do not encourage too frequent handling or cleaning. In house, we have found 6-8 (again varies with amount of fuel burned) is ideal for a "wash cleaning"."

"....otherwise pull the combustor and clean it using the distilled water and vinegar instructions."

"The major cleaning is a risky move as noted by those that have gone so far as to remove the combustor and dropped them or chipped them."

"When you do the major cleaning, which involves the distilled water and vinegar, the acids remove the deposited materials and once again expose the precious metals to the smoke. In essence, you can definitely rejuvenate a combustor by this process. Not likely to 100% new, but quite a bit and get some extended life from the combustor."

 

Sounds like the only risk is breaking it! I still don't think it should have to be done very often. I bet most of the time when people do it a vacuum would gain back similar performance.

Also you have too much time on your hands searching all the posts from another site!

 

That sounds about right to me, and that's been about how often I've been doing it.

 

I'm happy to announce my wood is not wet! My good wood which I've been seeing and smelling smoke with is showing 11-15% on fresh splits. I have noticed as the temp has warmed up I'm using smaller loads and I've not seen the smoke as bad and not at all if I run the stove hot with lots of air.

Some of my questionable wood that I've used simply because I did not like where it was stacked and wanted it moved but did not want to restack it again is measuring 20-28% on larger splits. Small splits are in the <20% range.

Woodstock has been great they sent me a new cat and asked me to clean the old one with a vinegar bath and alternate between combusters to see if there is a difference. I'll report back in a week or two.

After reading how others play stove jenga and Tetris I'm sure I'm not overloading the stove. I saw a picture Flamestead?? posted of what his Progress Hybrid holds I'm not putting that much in.

Any additional suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Update, spoke with Woodstock late in the spring (there great to work with) sent me a new combuster and asked me to compare them, season warmed up quickly and could not get a comparison. So far I've noticed the smoke is abscent with the new combuster and prescent with the old, but the old combuster is working just not as good as a new combuster kind of supprising as it only been used one season.

I've purchased a infrared themometer to monitor STT current plan is use new in the shoulder season and old in winter as it takes higher temp to work. Also I can do a warm cat change and keep burning in cold weather.

 

I've been checking the moisture on 6-8 large oak splits prior to bringing in the wood supply it's all < 17% most of this has been CSSC for 3 years I may have to get into some 2 yer old wood in the spring (walnut) but so far does not look like it as we have had a very warm year.

I've been CSS wood for 18/19 mostly oak with a good amount of walnut and cherry logs that were leftover from a logging operation around 2013 some of the oak logs are 30" and still in the 30's% on the moisture meter.

 

First time I had seen this thread. To me it looks like by the distortion of the cat cells you have flame impingement. Give us a picture if you can of the 2 cats side by side. My first cat had similar areas (learning curve) that's what I decided.