Ideal Steel Season #2 Tips, Tricks, and Improvements.

Yes,
the cat fits and works either way. But I had to look really close at the manual to figure out which way it went in. It is not very clear in the manual. If I remember correctly the cat should point to the front of the stove not toward the back.

 

Upside down? No. Backwards? Yes.

 

Ah yes, the plane of rotation....

There is no Top / Bottom to the combustor but there is a Front / Back. As a poster said earlier, the combustor should be installed so that the top of it slants toward the front of the stove, not the back of the stove. This is difficult to describe but the combustor can be flipped over but not rotated around. The idea is that the smoke flowing through the combustor is pointed toward the front of the stove to get as much heat out of the top of the stove as possible; if the combustor faces rearward, the smoke path will be much shorter and more heat will go up the smoke pipe.

I have to swap the combustor in my stove sometime shortly and I will snap a few photos of the two ways it can be installed and hopefully it will be more clear than what I just wrote.

Brian

 

So like this?

 

Yes.

Brian

 

I may be thinking of the limitations of ceramic cats from discussions on different cat stoves. I was under the assumption 1400-1500 was max safe temp but your right, it doesn't appear the manual states a maximum temperature, only to avoid overfiring the stove to prolong the cat life span. Stainless steel isn't the only material in the cat either, but I have no idea if the precious metals are any more temperature sensitive.

 

You might let it get just a bit hotter. Cat will light off around 500ºF gas temperatures while secondary burn happens around gas temperatures of 1,000ºF. So if your bringing the stove up slowly, the cat will light off far sooner. If you keep it barely into a cat burn, it will never be hot enough for secondary burn (though 600º on the front seems hot enough to me if it's accurate). Maybe try not shutting down to 1/4 air right away, go to 1/2 air for 5 minutes or so and then to 1/4. In any case, it just needs a bit more throttle by the sounds of it. Usually I can make the secondaries fire off in seconds just by opening up the air a few notches (regardless where it is cruising at) so long as the box is up to good operating temps and the wood isn't all the way to coaling stage yet.

 

Well the ceramic will actually take higher temperatures than any steel but the problem is the rate of temp. change; when the cat. is cooled rapidly, the ceramic types tend to fracture and dish due to a more rapid size change in the center than the edges. Steel does the same thing regarding movement but the change merely stretches the material where the ceramic will just crumble.

As to the melting points of the catalysts themselves, I do not know all the materials that may be used (outside my knowledge zone). There is Palladium and Platinum as the main catalysts but I do not know if there are any other materials and / or what, if any, materials are used to bind the catalysts themselves to the substrate (the foil of the catalyst or the stainless steel itself). If I had to guess, I would say they just get the S.S. hot and force the catalyst into the surface but as I said, that is a guess. Both of the catalysts I mentioned have melting points far above any steel so as long as the steel cat. itself is not deforming from heat, the catalysts should be fine.

BTW there is often talk of 'poisoning' catalytic converters (or combustors as they are called when used in wood stoves). As far as I know, that is not correct- the base materials cannot actually be damaged but rather coated with another material. This is why using leaded fuel in vehicles with catalytic converters ruins the cats.: the lead actually coats the catalyst materials so the hydrocarbons passing by cannot make contact with the catalyst. I believe that is exactly what the vinegar soak does is to remove the coatings that may be outside the actual catalyst materials and again allow the smoke to come into contact with them.

What we really need here is one 'o dem' chemical engineers with some background in catalysts but 1) there may not be any participating in this forum and 2) they are probably not going to pass along proprietary information about how the product works anyway (non disclosure agreements and all).

Brian

 

I have a question for the guys that have cat probes. I have the condor that everyone here talks about 3-12-1. I have been noticing when I watch mine I can be cruising at like 1100 all the sudden it will drop down to like 800 then climb right back up sometimes it will drop for a few minutes then other times it will change fast. Now I also have one of the Woodstock magnetic ones right next to it and that stays at a steady 600 or so has anyone else ever noticed this happen my stove is really new and wondering if something can be wrong with my cat. My wood is all 18 or less on the mm I am not new to wood burning just new to this stove. Thanks guys

 

Another technique is to leave the intake air lever open (somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 open) for 5-6 minutes (experiment) after engaging the cat, then slowly closing it to 1/4 open. This gives the fuel load time to heat more thus throwing off more smoke for the secondaries to light.
Also, we've noticed ash wood making better secondaries and hotter cats than more dense woods like oak or BL. Maybe mix in some lighter wood with your oak.

 

I have a cat probe on order so that should help with correct temp too. I suspected the type of wood being a culprit too. I was able to get plenty of secondaries by just waiting longer and getting the firebox up to temp.

 

Has any one warped the sled metal protector over cat? here's a pic

put cat on top to show unevenness after running it hard the last few days doing a quick clean inspection

 

What peak temperatures were you running it and where are your thermometers? Hard to imagine the radiator, as thick as it is, sagging like that. Wow.
No, our radiator hasn't done that.

 

Yes, I don't believe there is any harm.

 

My peak was 675, top pipe, flue thermometers is 10 inches up SW pipe STT left side centered between collar and left side of stove. was burning Sugar 80% and iron wood 20 % on sleep times...

 

A call to woodstock wouldn't hurt. Is that 675 on the stove pipe?

 

good idea.. no 675 STT..

 

Talk about customer service! Quick call, is it safe to run like this.. Yes, I am first owner to call and say I have done it so I get a gold star


Shipping me a new one.. under warranty.. not sure how I did it.. was a lot of ash build up today at least 6 gallons of ash cleaned out. But hey it was close to 20 below with 40 MPH winds. I was pushing stove... meaning 4 splits as soon as coaling stage started never let stove top drop below 450 all weekend.. my cat did act funny as wind picked up.. which I think was excessive draft .

They called it workmanship defect... I disagree.. more like a weakness in the steel production

 

No one can ever say they don't stand behind their product. Good stuff!

 

I hear you on the WS customer service. When I had the issue with my damper, I almost felt like they shut the plant down just to deal with my personal issue. Lorin got back to me 2x in one day within hours and had discussed and walked out on the floor to get to the bottom of things, sent me emails, solicited feedback to troubleshoot so it doesn't happen again, etc. Really stellar for a company to do this! Hope they continue to do well.