Real world cat life, Woodstock

Hi Earl,

The deed says 1850, which fits with the history as I understand it. I have the Boston and Albany railroad running very close by, and the homes around this stretch of town they call "the valley" were built by and for the men who dealt with the railroad either in construction or supply.

I have yet to find anything original other than the foundation and the beams resting on it, which, while punky in a seldom few spots, seem quite stout despite holding up this place over a wet dirt floor basement for almost 170 years. The house has been "updated" at least twice as far as I can tell, once in the 50s and once by the woman who sold it to us in the 2000s.

Mrs Papi recently got me a metal detector, so I'm eager to see what turns up around the place. There have been people here for quite a while, hopefully dropping some interesting stuff. ☺

 

I have experienced the same results with my Woodstock Fire view

 

With my BK princess my original cat made it through 5 seasons. The 5th season it was lazy, I should’ve replaced it after the 4th. The replacement has 2 seasons on it but I’ll be happy if it makes it 3 seasons. I was getting some smokey burns with it near the end of last season.

 

It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy another cat to have on the shelf. That way you would have a buffer if shipping times were long or there was an issue with the supply

 

That is fine but the warranty period starts from the time you buy the combustor, not the time you install it. So if you buy a new one, and it sits on a shelf for three years, when you first install it in the stove the free replacement warranty is already used up (in the case of Woodstock combustors: 3 years outright replacement, three more years pro- rated warranty). Something to think about if buying a combustor for some future use.

Brian

 

That is a great point. I never even knew the cats had a warranty on them

 

Yeah, and it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer but usually, there is an outright replacement time followed by a pro- rated replacement time. Woodstock Soapstone warranties theirs for three years outright replacement and my first replacement (at under 2 years) was free to me. So it does make a significant difference in cat. cost over, say, ten years for example. The pro- rated part is not great but can still be useful although it works on full manufacture cat. cost and often an aftermarket cat. can be had for significantly less than from the mfg. so the end of the pro- rated period is often useless IMO.

But waiting for the cat. to really get sluggish can bite a stove user too- last time I tried to buy a new cat., Woodstock was having supplier trouble and they were out of stock for a couple of months. So one sitting on the shelf would have been a nice touch and at that point, I was near the end of the whole warranty anyway so it would not have made much difference in cost to me.

Brian

 

I've run my Progress Cat for 4 years and it still fires off. I've heard that boiling the cat in distilled water/vinegar does a nice deep clean. I sourced a perfect size stainless pan to accommodate. I'm going to give that a whirl.

Yup, I was at a Woodstock picnic and a used Progress was all apart. The owner ran it without the cat and warped it.

 

What is used to determine the need to replace the cat?

A - Elapsed time?
B - Number of burn hours?
C - Temps? Measured how?
D - all the above
E - none of the above

 

MikeInMa basically the cat will start to be sluggish. Not fire off at correct temps and not throw correct heat.. Its a slow process so its hard to notice at first, then you clean it works again. Then you need to clean it more and more frequently.. Til you buy a new one and wonder why you waited Soo long..

 

How does one know if/when it has fired off?

Mine is located under the top of the stove, with 4 corner screws holding the top in place.


Excellent thread, BTW.

 

With thermostats..Stack temp drops and stove top temp increases ..

 

Also look at what is coming out of the chimney when it is engaged. You shouldn't be seeing much smoke.

 

I think I know when it's time to replace my cat. Now



The thing is crumbling

 

I'm replacing it with a stainless steel cat from Condar. The original is ceramic.

Chimney sweep shows up next Thursday. I'll have the top removed for a good vacuuming.

I should be good to go for the heating season, after this tune-up.

**edit** Sorry to have run this thread a bit off its wheels.

 

I never thought of the warranty aspect. I was thinking I'd pick one up before this winter to have on the shelf, but being only one season old, I'll wait until next summer.

 

That'll buff right out.

 

One advantage to owning two cats is to be able to do a swap in the dead of the winter and clean without stopping. This can make the long tail end of cat life a bit more bearable.