I have an Absolute Steel, and recently have learned that I need a new catalytic combuster(CC). While I'm waiting on a new one to come.....on back order..... it is giving me the chance to learn how to better operate my stove using the secondary combustion system and not rely so heavily on the CC. I'm setting it for the night with confidence with the draft open halfway. The flames dance around as they should, as close to textbook as I can imagine. I know with the CC flu temps should drop below 500(per manufacturer), but with the CC not functioning 100% im getting flu temps of about 600-640, about 18 inches out of the stove. I have a digital probe sensor/alarm to tell me this(Auber Instruments). It makes me curious....what are YOUR flu temps? I hope this information can be helpful to all of us who try to get all we can out of our stoves!
I have an Ideal Steel, not an Absolute Steel so right off, my info. is not directly comparable. Also, I do not run the stove with the bypass open for long and have not used it w/out a cat. in place. All of that said, I keep my stack temps. in the mid- 300F range under normal circumstances (steady, established burn, not including startup). That puts out enough heat to heat my house down into the high 20F outside temps. The draft is set two notches from closed, a very small draft opening with very little air passing through the stove. The stove runs black and the combustor is burning a lot of smoke- the splits are literally smoldering. As the outside temps. go down, of course the stove must be pushed harder. Because these are hybrid stoves, nothing is really linear so as the draft is opened, the secondaries start to burn, the combustor temps. actually drop, and the stack temps. rise. But they do not rise by a lot- I can heat the house without ever raising the stack temps. to 500F, and that will produce a stove top temp. of 600F or more and the stove puts out a lot of heat, as well as consumes a lot of fuel. Keeping the amount of air passing through the stove low, as well as the stack temps. low are the keys to efficient burning. This assumes the cat. is able to clean up ALL the particulate in the exhaust (smoke) and the exhaust from the chimney is clear or pure white (steam only). Dry wood and combustor temps. over 900F keep my stove running extremely clean and extremely efficiently. Brian
With my 30-NC (tube stove), mine are anywhere from 350 when burning low, to 900 when nuclear meltdown is going on. I don't allow it to go over 900, but it would on a hot reload with the air open. It produces good heat around 600, rigt now it is at 500. Readings are from a Condar probe on doublewall pipe, 18" off the top.
Use to be my favorite subject (flue temps) over on the other forum when my PE stove was giving me fits but no more. Make sure you state internal or surface as that will mess up a conversation in a hurry. I like to keep mine at or a little below 300 (surface temp) after the stove (Drolet) has settled down.
On my cat stove at low output I have probe temps of 400 and cat temps 1200-1400. On medium output the flue temps might rise to 600 but the cat temp stays the same. This is with a functional cat. When the cat gets old it takes more air to heat the house so flue temps are always higher near 600 and cat temp is barely 1000. I don't think these hybrids are ever supposed to be operating on secondary combustion only. The cat is always in the game and cleaning up emissions, adding to efficiency. I do think that they can run in cat only mode when no flames are visible.
Yeah, the internal temps. are really pretty close to double the single wall stove pipe temps. The big difference is that the internal temps. change very quickly (seconds) while it the stove pipe wall temps. are pretty slow to change. Stack temp., or the 'heat being dumped overboard' is really the key to efficiency of any fuel burning device. Look at modern furnaces and boilers and it is immediate apparent that the only actual way to raise efficiency is to lower stack temp. This really makes perfect sense because the heat lost to a chimney or vent is really the definition of efficiency, assuming a clean burn in all cases. The very best of modern gas burning heating devices (furnaces, boilers and water heaters) will have both efficiencies over 90%, which is really outstanding, as well as exhaust temps. low enough to be exhausted through PVC piping (below 210F, or what is called a condensing burner). Wood can be burned in a condensing manner but it is tough and only occurs during part of the burn, usually after the initial volatile materials are burned off and the fuel is burning quite slowly while a combustor burns all the particulates (smoke). Brian
I have double wall stovepipe with no probe so no flue temperatures. I generally run the stove top up to 450* ST before engaging the cat. Throttle back to about .75 on the inlet air gauge. CAT glowing cat temperature runs round 1000*and a lot of heat. Stove top temperature will start dropping and after 3 hours or so stove top will be about 250* cat 500* It will sit there and run like that for the next 4 to 5 hours. Drops to *200 some time during the night or before I reload. Seasoned wood I believe is the big thing. Last year wood was running 19.5 to 20.1 mm reading. I would have sent it back had it not been such an pain to take it out and tote to the thing to the terminal. That thing couldn't heat an outhouse to 60* if the outside temp was *65. This year burning 2 year old Ash and Maple. Running much better and no comparison with last year. Did you sit on it while inserted?
I just installed an older USStove/Vogelzang/InsertBrandHere/TR009 Performer yesterday and cranked it pretty good with a combination of seasoned and half seasoned oak just as a test run on a couple different levels. I'm not a thermometer guy and run my stoves according to what I see in the firebox and out of my chimney and mainly wanted to see if it was the piece of junk everyone says they are, or if maybe it actually had some redeeming quality for 200 bux in a 900sq. ft. shop when hooked up to a good stack and run the way a tube stove should generally be run. Was pleasantly surprised at the overall performance on low secondary air and good secondary burn with about a half load cruising between 350 and 400 on the single wall snap-lock and sitting fairly steady around 650 on the stove top. Pretty decent ratio for an initial baseline. Used the same thermometer for both measurements. A bit more hungry for wood than I would have expected for one o' these, but I'd pay $200 all day long for another one if it wasn't too far away..., at least for my particular purpose in this case. Wouldn't rely on one to heat my house, but it'll keep the shop quite toasty with a lot less wood (and attention) than the old boxwood it replaced.
I heat our 2,700 sq ft house with a Vogelzang Ponderosa (just a little bigger than the performer with over 4 cuft firebox). It was the largest firebox I could find at the time for under a grand. It does crank out the heat. I have a damper in the flue and use it to lower the temps and lengthen the burn times. With our 33' stack it gets too much draft for it's low setting once it gets up to temperature. I have had to replace some tubes due to getting bent while loading and some brick. It may not be super quality, but has been heating our home for 5 seasons so far and seems no worse for wear. I don't really care what it looks like since it's in the basement anyway. I've never had to change the gaskets yet nor the baffle board. I run 650-750 STT most of the time when it's really cold out. Where are you in NC Ohio, anywhere close to Galion?
I'm up toward the lake just south of Vermilion between Oberlin and Wakeman. Lexington H.S. class of '72.
