BTW, to do top-down starts you need truly dry wood, like 18% moisture content, measured on a big split at room temp, re-split and tested on the fresh face. If your wood isn't optimally dry, load N-S for a hotter fire earlier to burn off the excess moisture.
I discovered this myself. My firewood had a bit of surface moisture from ice and rain. My first top down light in the cookstove went great since the wood had been inside for several days and I warmed the flue with a torch. The second time the wood had just come in from outside, but I thought it would light easily since it had been top covered. I was wrong and filled the kitchen with smoke. I had to remove the smoldering wood and take it outside, but the fire lit right up once the offending piece was removed!
I load both of mine "north-south", as others have already indicated as desirable. My Ashfords do a nice "cigar burn" this way, consuming wood from front to back, and I can load the stove to the gills without any concerns of a split rolling out or up against the glass. But yes, you must mind your length, lest you break the glass when latching the door.
Warsaw IndianaLoading N-S onto sparse coals, the load will burn in faster since the air comes in above the glass and can flow down the length of the splits. You'll get more flame heat and smoke to the cat more quickly. If the cat is still pretty hot and you are loading on a bigger coal bed, you could load E-W (crossways.) Not a whole lot of difference overall, I don't think. If you load E-W, you can do the BrotherBart "tunnel of love," where you make a trench in the coals, front to back, to allow more air through to all the wood.
On a cold start you could also employ a "top-down" start where you put a couple kindling or smaller splits on top of the bigger stuff. It takes slightly longer to get the load going but it's a cleaner start since the smoke from the wood catching below rises into the flames above and is consumed. Flames on top of the load also heat up the cat area more quickly, and you can more easily feed a little flame heat to the cat after you close the bypass to kick it off quicker.
If you live in a populated area, the cleaner you burn, the more the neighbors will like it.
BTW, where in IN are you? Always good to see another Hoser on the forums.
This should make no difference to the cat. Perhaps your wood is a little on the under seasoned side?
Right, the cat doesn't have to be glowing to be burning smoke..
It wouldn't work like a modern non-cat stove unless it was a hybrid stove which also, besides the cat, has secondary burn. A straight cat stove with the cat burnt out would operate like an old smoke dragon pre-EPA stove.
You have a cat probe with actual temps on it? You could possibly have fried the cat, but I thought it was OK to hit 1800 occasionally for short periods. But if your probe was pinned, who knows how high it went??
Did you look at the cat when you saw the pinned meter? Was it glowing almost yellow?
Nothing but well-seasoned wood goes through my stove. Wasn’t really hung up on it being pine - pine is 80% of what has been put through my stove the last 3 winters. I let the stove cool down, and removed all the ash. The cat had walked out a tad, so i pushed the tabs to get it seated back flush against the housing. Also noticed that i’ve got a fair bit of fly ash accumulation on the cat (which has been typical for my set up the last 3 years), so i’ve vacuumed the face of it off, and we’ll see how it goes once i fire it back up. Perhaps i did overwhelm the cat that time. Smoke was grey, so it was smoke not water.Yes, Pine generates black smoke but I think the cat should handle it. I don't know for sure, I just use it for kindling. Maybe burners of Pine exclusively, will chime in.
Have you tried 50/50 distilled vinegar/distilled water? Use a spray bottle (you have to spray the heck out of it to thoroughly soak the insides of all the cells) or just make a batch and soak it in there for like a half hour. Or keep spraying every 15 minutes for an hour or so. The thoroughly rinse several times with distilled water. Depending on how old your cat is, that might bring it back. If it's three or more years old, and you burn 24/7 for many months per year, it might be plumb tuckered out. You don't burn any crap through it, like colored newspaper or anything that might poison it, do ya?
When I clean the cat, I first brush the faces with a 'chip brush' or old toothbrush, then manually blow hard through the cat repeatedly, from both sides. A lot more dust comes out than when you just vacuum.
I don't think she got a new cat, but yeah, how old is the cat you have in there now, MissMac?
it was a new cat this fall, and yes it did come with the gasket. It fit in there real good. where do you or other folks get their's from
I got confused who Highbeam was responding to. I get confused a lot..
. Since the word flue is mentioned, perhaps I can ask a question. I have an internal brick 2 story chimney, lined with 8” stainless steel. My Lamppa Kuuma VF200 add-on furnace, is designed for a 6” flue. I have had no problems because a barometric damper is used, 2’ from the furnace. I lined the chimney with 8” SS because my previous stove, was the Juca B-3B; which required an 8” flue. Today I visited a local dealer that only sells Lopi and Regency. He wanted to sell me one of his 7 remaining non-2020 certified stoves at 40% off. When I told him that my chimney was 8” diameter SS and I had enough 8” DuraVent double wall pipe, to reach the stove; he said I should only use a stove designed for an 8” flue. He then suggested the Regency Pro-Series F5200. Does anyone agree that I should only use a stove designed for a 8” flue? Other than the BK King Ultra, does anyone have a stove with an 8” flue?
ceramic, I dd also order a steelcat, but I wont get it for a week yet. I like the steel job in my ashford, so ILL probably change it when it comes inI got confused who Highbeam was responding to. I get confused a lot.
Rat-man, if you look into the cells of the old cat, can you see a lot of peeling, flaky catalyst coming off the walls? Was that a ceramic or steel? New one is ceramic?
