Neighbor’s Soapstone Problems.

Did you happen to look up at the chimney for smoke? If the stove top is just hanging around 300 with a good load of wood burning I bet the cat is toast.

 

It was dark. Pretty rare I make it home before night. I figured the cat was in rough shape. What are the signs of cat failure?

 

Signs of a failing or failed cat would be less heat. The smoke outside would be gray or brown instead of white. The smoke coming out of the top of my stove pipe looks like steam when the cat is engaged. Damaged cells and crumbling are not good either.

The top end of that stove looks like there’s a lot of fly ash. It almost looks like somebody spilled half a bag of flour.

The cat is ceramic, I’d have them call Woodstock and see if they can get a replacement. Cats are normally back ordered this time of year due to the high demand.

 

What he said^^^^^^
This is a first generation catalytic stove. Not as efficient as a new model perhaps but still,,,,,a different animal than non cat stoves. Dropping temps on the pipe are not only normal but desirable. If the pipe is hot it’s not efficient.
I run a modern PH and my pipe temps can drop to 180F when the stove is cruising along. No need to worry about creosote, that’s what the cat is doing, eating smoke.
Also soapstone in my experience always runs at a cooler temp than metal. My PH has a cast iron lip in the back where thermometers are placed. That cast iron will be anywhere between 500-600F while operating but I can’t recall ever breaking 400 on the stone itself. Usually right around 350.
Soapstone is a gentle radiant heat. Several people have remarked my stoves not working. But it’s the on,y heat source in the house when it’s running. It’s working, you just can’t feel a major hotspot in the house like a metal stove. It heats objects in the house instead of the air. And your neighbors has no glass front for convection heat.
It’s also slow to create an effect. Temps dropping tomorrow? Better light a fire today. But once it’s going it does a great job, even if no one notices.

it’s probably why they no longer offer a full stone without window. The learning curve must be ginormous coming off something like an all nighter

 

The guts are the same as my Fireview 201. To run it I open the bypass, door vent is wide open and I leave the door cracked until the fire catches nicely. After the fire catches nicely in the firebox after a few mins I close the door and leave the door vent and stove bypass open until the stove top reaches about 400* then I close the bypass so the cat engages and dial down the door vent to about the width of a quarter and let the stove cruise from there.
When you had the cat out did you notice if there was a screen on the entry to the cat? Those load up with ash pretty easily and can restrict airflow to the cat if it gets really bad. I make sure I clean the screen when I clean off the cat. When you have the stove running and the cat engaged (bypass fully closed) you can take a peak at the cat by lifting the top lid to see if the cat is glowing red. If the stove is hot and the cat isnt glowing red then the cat isnt working.

You can see where that screen located is in this baffle replacement picture.
Classic 200 Fireview 201 Basic Baffle Kit

Took a pic of my cat. Stove top temp is 475* at the time of the picture.