Fed up with Combustors

I don't have a dog in this fight but I have lurked on quite a few wood burning sites. Blaze king I'm sure would pro rate your combustor if you contacted a certain member on a not so sister forum. Also there had been some discussion about how ceramic cats (specifically in BK stoves) were very sensitive to gasket failures at the front glass as well as the door gasket. I would be looking for a leak if only one side of my cat crumbled like your picture shows. Just my 2 cents.

 

A fellow BK princess owner might be more of a help

How would one tag/link/summon highbeam?

 

put a @ in front of his name

 

Highbeam

 

Will you look at that!!

Thank you kindly Mr TurboDiesel

 

The Complete Catalytic Combustor - The Chimney Sweep News

 

you are welcome, sir.

 

Yea, that other page can rot in a very warm place..... and my first cat went through the warranty process...... they told me my wet wood was the problem, made me feel small and beg for a replacement. Doesn't help that my local BK dealer swallows whale penises.. My wood is 18-22% BTW

Yea, im going to be looking at this when the season is over.

 

10 years from a combustor huh?
Well I've never achieved that, I replaced my steel cat after 3 or 4 years. Just to have a spare to swap out mid season and clean the other

 

Ouch. I haven't been over to "the dark side" in quite some time. Sorry to hear BK made you jump through hoops to take care if what should have been a simple swap and move on with business. Try lighting a candle or incense and run it around the glass and door while the stove is running. Watch for the flame or the smoke to bend as the stove creates a vacuum

 

Whoa! Stop there. New ceramic cats are 186$ for your princess from the oem manufacturer shipped to your house with a gasket installed. Applied ceramics has an online store, I can get you the link if you need it. I think it’s called Midwest hearth.

 

I've been doing the wood heat thing for almost 10years and ive never heard of this trick, makes perfect sense, or incense...... Thanks

 

Have you tried a steel cat. I wouldn't mind a ceramic going for 2 years if it was sub $200.

 

from the article, what subject group are they using to take this data, overall purchases or actual stove users...... smdh

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"The Environmental Protection Agency requires that each stove manufacturer provide a 6-year prorated warranty on original combustors. Depending upon stove design, combustors can last or remain effective as little as 2 years (burning seasons) or up to 10 years or more. Each combustor returned to the stove manufacturer is in turn shipped back to the original supplier for testing. Without question, although small in number, the vast majority of the combustors failed due to thermal shock. Thermal shock is generally the result of rapid temperature changes (such as loading hot stove full of snow or ice laden wood) or excessive draft.

Less than .4% of all OEM combustors are replaced in the first three years of the warranty coverage. Less than 10% of all OEM combustors are replaced during the EPA mandated 6 year warranty. These figures are based upon data provided by OEM providers and resellers of combustors."

 

Hello! I’m not an expert but I have run a ceramic and steel cat well past 10,000 hours to failure in my princess. I will not spend any extra money for a steel cat, no advantage was found in life expectancy or performance.

Your cat suffered from thermal shock. So bad that it not only reduced the life but caused that ugly physical damage. A crack or chip is normal but that is bad. Your thermal shock was caused by wet wood or an air leak. Cold air from the leak sprays into the ceramic and shatters it like a hot plate in cold water. Door gasket or glass gasket, check both.

I own a noncat, have owned a few, and never replaced the tubes. I did break one baffle once and had to replace it for 60$. Buying cats is very much worth it for the performance increase to me, especially the very long burns.

 

Yep, steel straight from bk. It worked just as good as a ceramic. Even their vp that posts on that other site uses ceramic. If price was the same I might choose steel just for the increased surface area of catalyst and durability when thermally shocked. The ceramic has bigger holes and is actually less restrictive to help those of us with weaker drafts. Also, the steel is more likely to clog.

You can’t go wrong once you fix your air leak.

I burn 9 months year so I hit 12000 hours in less than 3 years and that’s the expected life. Matches with my experience.

The ten year thing is crap. It’s all about hours. The cat will last 100 years if you never run it!

Ceramic cats for the princess are under 200$ all day long. Shipped from amazon with gasket. Manufactured by applied which is the oem manufacturer for bk. I don’t even waste time or money on vinegar though I did try it once and it will buy you a few months.

 

I certainly hope you get it figured out. If there had been a dealer reasonably close there just may have been a BK on our hearth. As it is the Woodstock IS has done all we have ever asked of it and more. I'd still be interested in running the alien tech stove for a season just to compare for myself.....maybe some day

 

The first cat in my Princess lasted 5 seasons, second one I replaced a month into the 3rd season. My stove had a leaky glass gasket which caused the second one to fail. If my current one makes it 3 seasons I'll be happy. I've said it before, with as well as the stove performs I'd replace the cat yearly and not complain about it *IF* I had to.

I've only used ceramic cats up to this point and will probably stay with that. I'd be lying if I said I haven't considered trying a steel cat a time or two just for conversation sake.

 

OK can we talk science and reality ? Your stove cat is manufactured exactly the same way as your vehicle cat except for size and mechanical constructs to protect the cat from what a wood stove does and what your Rolls R. does in operation.
It's the precious metals on the base that clean the gases or exhaust...big $$$$.
Think ( THIMK ) why do vehicle cats last so long ? They work differently in a unique environment.
In fact, when your truck/car cat dies, the check engine light lights ( ), the car will still operate fine. An inconvenient truth ( thankyou AlGore ), is that many older vehicles have dead cats.
So, either get a non cat stove, or clean/wash/replace your stove cat when needed. That's an order

JMNSHO

 

Thermal shock, interesting. My Progress (steel cat) is hooked up with an outside air intake and when the temp is in the single digits or lower, the flex pipe is quite cold - freezing. I know nothing about BK's design except for they are a preferred stove so I can't help here. But, could extremely cold air entering a stove through an OAK with a ceramic cat be problematic?