This is my fourth season burning with a WS Absolute Steel. I have a fifteen foot chimney with a ss liner(insulation at top and bottom, but not entire length, as per space restriction with a sealed cap) as well as a digital exhaust temp probe sensor with a built in high temp alarm(which is AWESOME!). Alarm is set at 750 degrees F. Lately while loading and getting the stove set for a burn cycle, the temp will climb with no turning back, but with no flame inside, and no catalytic converter(CC) glow. Usually it will climb until there is a 'woof' and flame action, but not lately. It won't let me set it and walk away......go to bed. The solution is to bypass the CC and open the air in order to regain a flame, then back slowly until I'm back down(the whole way) for the night. Temps still sit in the 600's. I am burning cherry with some pine mixed in, as well as a little bit of rock elm. I'd blame the pine, but only a few nights ago I had an amazing cat burn with mostly pine, which resured me that the CC wasn't shot, although it still could be on it's way out. Would this not be a definitive sign that the CC needs to be replaced? Woodstock Soapstone claims that the exhaust temps will get lower than 500 with the CC engaged, but I have not seen that as a reality. When I'm really making heat and not a passive CC burn the exhaust temps are around the 500-560 mark. Unfortunately I did not have the digital alarm until my second burn year, so I cannot compare true exhaust temps. Hopefully you guys get a good idea of the problem I'm experiencing and can offer some guidance. Thank you all, Tim
Yeah, that sounds like a tired catalytic combustor. Unlike a light bulb, cats. do not fail all at once and do not fail completely; rather than grow less and less effective. Even once tired, you can force them to light if driven hard enough but at the lower temps. where a fresh cat. would light and stay lit, a tired cat. either will not light off in the first place or will light but then fade until they are not working. Four years is more life than I can get out of my cats. in an Ideal Steel stove (and the other cat. stoves I have owned). You can try the vinegar / water (50/50) soak and see if that helps to restore the cat.- it is cheap and easy enough to try. But again, IMO after four years, a new cat. is probably in order to get your stove to function the way it used to again. And BTW, brand new cats. are hyperactive- just show them a match and they light off. OK, maybe not that good but a brand new cat. will light while the kindling is still getting fully involved (seriously). They remain hyperactive for a short time though, about 100 hours, then act normally but begin the slow decline in performance over a much longer time cycle (thousands of hours). Brian
