The manual for the AS has the same recommendations as my IS using flue temps as the guide for engaging the cat. Flue probe would be helpful IMHO.
At work, manual is at the house. But if I remember correctly, the AS book only syalltates a single wall pipe temp, nothing about a stt. I will try to email WS some time today.
250 to 300 for the temp on single wall which is gonna be 500 t0 600 internal temp. The manual talks about the internal temperatures.
I have a probe in my flue pipe where it enters the wall about 4 feet from my ideal steel. If I wait till it reads 350 before closing the bypass, the temp drop and recovery take 2-5 min. If I close it even 15 degrees cooler it may take 10 min or more to recover to the same temperature. I believe you'd probably need a probe and not a surface reading to get a quick enough response time for my process to work. With an EGT probe, try different temperatures to close the bypass and time how long it takes the temperature to recover. If it's more than 5 min, try a bit hotter. That's what I've done and I'm comfortable enough with the results to let someone else run the stove if needed. I can reload on a bed of coals and be at set and forget in under 30 min, less if the coals are extra hot.
The exhaust gas temps/flue temps.... Do they have to be taken in a certain spot, or area? Ie, must be within 24 inches from exiting the stove, etc.... Most of the vertical is two pieces...a 12 inch and an adjustable. Could I go up to the vertical piece of that 45 elbow, and put a probe there? Just thinking about taking pipe apart, and lining back up for the probe hole .....
Really shouldn't matter. Will just get more differential the further you are from the stove. Mine is about 2" from the wall, about 4 feet from the stove. The closer you are to the stove, the higher the readings. You can see the wire hanging against the wall in my attached pic.
Being in the basement I don't have much care for what it looks like. The probes I've been using and like are these: 3M K-Type Thermocouple 100mm Sensor Probe Temperature From -100°C to 1250°C https://a.co/d/c1oViKS The display is one of these. I have its probe installed in the same pipe and it reads almost 100 degrees cooler than the long one in the middle of the stream. PEMENOL 12V Red Fahrenheit Digital Temperature Meter -76F~999F LED Display with Industrial Grade 0.5m K-Type Thermocouple Temperature Sensor M6 https://a.co/d/54gDqFV I actually have the 3m probes connected to a data logger I can access across the network. Back when I was running a non-epa stove I'd check it to make sure my flue temps were over 400 going into the wall. Now I commonly see flue temps about 100 degrees under STT when the Ideal Steel is cruising. I've been debating on replacing my cat probe with one but I don't want to deal with a wire over the door.
Manual states temp sensor is supposed to be 8 to 10 inches above flue collar on top vented stove,if rear vented place surface thermometer on plate in back of stove. Internal temp sensor for flue woud be placed in same location.
From a cold stove, how long does it usually take yall to get a typical fire going? To where you can throw the cat and decrease the air? I wanted to start one last night, try for an overnight burn and work from coals this am. But we had to go to Richmond and got back late, so I didn't mess with the stove last night. Have built a fire this am, but it seems like it's taking an awfully long time to get it up and going. Cleaned glass before lighting this am, it was nasty... A couple things I am noticing, that maybe yall can confirm, deny or elaborate on/explain. 1) seems i have to have the door partially opened/cracked (about an inch or so of opening) for quite a while, and anytime I add more wood. Perhaps this ties into the #2 point... 2) a good sized bed of hot coals seems to be a key in anything working. That takes me a while. I need to split some of my wood smaller, to that "bigger than kindling, but smaller than splits" size. 3) people say "get the wood charred". That seems to take a while, especially if it's supposed to be charred all around the piece. I looked at chimney while ago, a bit of smoke, threw cat, looked 10 min later and just heat signature. So confident that cat is going. This is first time I've been able to try the cat in daylight...have been using a spotlight to look at the smoke at night which is a bit hard to see no matter what.
I find that from a cold stove it's significantly faster to start a top down fire. I fill the stove just like I normally would and put kindling on top as far back as I can. The more the flames cover the secondary air radiator, the faster it comes to life. I did this yesterday. From cold stove to being able to close the bypass was 25-30 min vs the 10 or so with a hot box. 700lbs of stove sucks up s ton of energy. I haven't had to have the door cracked for any starts but I also have 30 feet of chimney so it starts drawing fairly quick. As far as adding wood before a burn is completed I'm interested in hearing input as well. I know the general rule is full loads but sometimes timing just doesn't fit the schedule. Last night I loaded on top of a larger hotter pile of coals than I should have and it seemed to over fuel the cat. I know if it's not mostly down to coals opening the door creates a crazy inferno, way to much fire to safely throw anything in.
Cat going, coals glowing on the underside, air at 2. Had a little bit of flame, that had now gone away, but about every 10-15 seconds, I'm getting a slow roll of ghost flame that then spreads throughut the box in ghost. That is COOL! Finally got a good vid to send to a buddy, but had to trim it down to text so not as impressive...
Eckie I don’t know about others, I have the ideal steel, my stove is just 10 times easier to run if I keep a bed of coals in it. I know it can be run low and slow, do it all time in shoulder season from a cold start IIRC it seemed to take about 20-25% of BTUs to get stove up to temp
Thanks Canadian border VT. When you're running low and slow, does your glass go to crap? Cleaned mine this am, ran like.i stated earlier. Stt started to.drop just a tad, so put a few more pieces in. Noticed then my glass was very dark again.... That's annoying. Have read that ppl say a hot fire will clean the glass. Wondering what kind.of fire that is...like all air and no cat, rolling flames??
No usually get little bit in lower corners. Only time I got a lot of black my wood was wetter than I thought.
It must have something to do with my somewhat short chimney. This wood is dry dry, 5-8 yrs old, under shed. There is some, not quite punk, but that less than optimal consistency outside wood. But most of my glass is darkened again.
I've posted pics like that of my Fireview. The AS is a hybrid design, where the secondary burn plates of below the cat which is above them. The only way to observe the cat is to open the top front plate and you'll be looking right at the output (top) of the cat. If the room is dark you'll see it glowing, what I've found is the airflow isn't really upset too much so you don't get a room full of smoke or anything. Just wear gloves if you do this.
