2024/25 VC performance discussion thread

[Megunticook]

That's a good sign when your wife is comfortable starting and running the stove. Means you have a solid setup!

I get warm just looking at that photo. And now it's time to get my own stove fired up while I prep. dinner. Coldest night of the year last night.

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

The last time I made pea soup I crop dusted every room I went in for a week

Let the stove go cold to clean and decided to try the metal cat. Will report back later on the difference from the ceramic

2nd night with the metal cat in. It definitely lights off faster. Otherwise not much difference noticed. It cruises around 1150 where my ceramic one was sitting. Burn time was the same last night. It's going to get a nice 5 night run here it's looking like. Maybe even some snow.

 

[arnermd]

2nd night with the metal cat in. It definitely lights off faster. Otherwise not much difference noticed. It cruises around 1150 where my ceramic one was sitting. Burn time was the same last night. It's going to get a nice 5 night run here it's looking like. Maybe even some snow.

I had been running both a ceramic and a metal cat for the last 2 years, (I think this is year 3 for the metal and year 4 for the ceramic) I did not keep track but I think the metal cat has a lot more hours on it. The ceramic cat seems to be dead, even after a vinegar bath and is showing signs of crumbling. The metal cat is working great after a vinegar bath, it is showing some signs of distress to but the metal grid is all still there, some warping and distortion in places.

I think all my future cats will be metal, they just seem to hold up better. Of course mine have seen some extreme temps, so this may not be a good assessment for a "normal" running stove....

 

[dmccoole]

Pic doesn't do it justice, but had a 3/4 load of oak last night with cat at 1550. The dancing flames at the top was amazing.

 

[Megunticook]

View attachment 333044
Pic doesn't do it justice, but had a 3/4 load of oak last night with cat at 1550. The dancing flames at the top was amazing.

Nice. Just curious, what was your STT? And where was your primary air intake control set?

Shoot a little video next time so we can see the "dance"!

 

[dmccoole]

STT was 600ish and air intake was at 3/4. When the cat hit 1000 I turned it down to 3/4 but I left it a little too long. Yes, I should have done a video!

 

[Megunticook]

3/4 closed?

 

[dmccoole]

Open. Typically, I start at 100% open to get the cat up to temp. When the cat hits 1000 I turn the primary down to 3/4 open and then gradually close it more as the cat temp rises.

 

[Megunticook]

Got it. I'm pretty watchful when I've got the primary wide open when the damper's closed. During my rookie season with the encore here I cooked my cat with I believe was flame impingement on the ceramic honeycomb from flames getting sucked under the hood and into the secondary combustion area. Of course I have quite a tall chimney and a strong draft.

Where does your primary control end up after you finish gradually closing it?

 

[dmccoole]

Roughly 1/4 open and let it cruise for the night. I did not have the temp probe the first year. But after reading all the threads on here, I finally got one and I find it very helpful.

I haven't burned up a cat yet but I try to be cautious as well due to all the experience here!

 

[skb31]

Year two with my Encore 2040 Cat-C (manufactured sept 23) is off to a better start than year one. I’ve got a key damper that I’ve yet to have to use and when I got my chimney cleaned and stove serviced I didn’t have any major creosote build up.

This stove is finicky so everyone’s process may be a little different. For me that means two of the epa holes from the unregulated secondary air are plugged to give more control with the primary air. I’ve tried various combos and this is the sweet spot for my setup.

I learned that there are different versions of the owners manual/operating instructions for the same model stove so I stick to the paper ones given by the installer. This strikes me as odd but it’s easy to see the differences in the various versions I’ve found online.

I closely follow the operating directions regarding pushing the coals up against the back wall, leveling a bit, and loading up against the back wall according to the instructions I was given. You have to be careful not to bang the ceramic but once I got the hang of it, the process became easier. It’s not the way I had used my previous stove so it was a new habit to learn. This keeps the cat temp up and the stt temp down.

Lastly, what constitutes a full load for me is not what I had been used to. 2/3 of what I’d put in my previous stove is the max I’ll load. I started even smaller and experimented. Wood that is too small or too dry is a major problem. Using too much is also a problem.

 

[arnermd]

My burn from last night, this one got hot. But closing the air down a bit brought cat temps back down, thats good news.

My cat alarms at 1450 so I stumbled out of bed and tended to it for 30 min. I like to see cat temps at 1100 - 1300 but maybe I am just paranoid.

Conditions:

• Hot bed of coals, you can see cat was still at 600 when I reloaded
• Pretty full load of red oak
• Immeadiately engaged the damper with 100% air, cat took off to 1200 where I throttled the air down to 50% open and went to bed. Probably should have started closing air down earlier, but I fell asleep on the couch.

Observations:

• Notice the griddle temps dropped to 300 after the reload, maybe I should have left the damper open a bit to heat that load up before engaging the cat?
• I did empty a very full ash pan yesterday.... so it was empty last night. Correlation or just concidence? Time will tell.

 

[begreen]

There may be a correlation with the full ash pan. It provides better insulation under the firebed and it can help seal minor air leaks at the ash pan door if the gasket is not sealing tightly.

 

[dmccoole]

I've been burning for 2 weeks 24x7. Twice in the last week, my cat would not ignite. An example was Tuesday morning after an 11 hour burn Monday night with a warm reload, burned off the glass, loaded 2/3 with dry oak, cat started at 375 but the cat never re-ignited and maybe got to 500 with the oak burning nicely all day. Same dry oak that's been sitting in my garage since spring. Tuesday nights fire I got the cat to ignite. I thought maybe it was a fluke?

So today I let the stove burn down and I cleaned out all the ash and cleaned out the 8 holes in the refractory. I checked the cat, original from 2021. It looks fine but it is going on its 4th season with 2-3 cords per season. I had done a full cleanout in October before the season but wanted to check the cat again anyway.

I started a fire, half load of oak and the STT is up to 650. I closed the bypass. After 15 minutes, cat is sitting at 372, STT settled down to 500. 30 minutes later, cat is at 386 and STT is 480. Stove is throwing off some heat with primary at 3/4 open trying to get the cat to ignite. Another 30 minutes and cat is at 430, STT 450.

Cats not igniting seems to be common theme this year! Just ordered a steel and ceramic to have an extra on hand.

 

[skb31]

I’d consider the probe as well? Check your damper tension too but that seems less likely. If you have a stovepipe meter I’d be curious what your temp is there. 425 in the cat chamber must be cool 18 inches up the pipe? I have a bimetal meter and ir gun with both reading 350ish on the stove pipe.

*Edit. I agree about the ash pan above. I never empty mine or even open the ash door save for a once a year maintenance so far. My stove runs better when it’s full so I just empty the few ashes I need to empty by hand

 

[dmccoole]

Every other fire, Monday through Tuesday would not lite the cat. Fortunately, the new cats came in yesterday but it was almost 58 outside at 10pm! Low 30s this morning and I decided to try the steel cat first. I lit a small fire to build some coals. After 20 minutes I added 3-4 med splits. After another 15 minutes the STT was at ~500 and I closed the bypass. Within 5 minutes the cat was at 700 and climbing. Started to throttle the primary down at 1000 after another 5 minutes. It's hovering in the 1200 - 1400, STT 500-550, with primary at 1/3 open. What a difference! The steel cat seems to fluctuate temps quickly but it is so easy to control! 5 hours in and I'm a fan!

 

[arnermd]

Last night crap show....

• Full load of red oak, just a few coals I left towards the back
• Everything seemed fine, cat went to 800, reduced air a bit
• Cat wnt to 1150 reduced air to halfway
• Cat went to 1175, reduced air down to 30%
• Cat went nuclear, closed air all the way down, flue went to 888
• Waited for a while, at 22:20 cat went to 1572, Opened the damper and flue went to 1300! Coudl smell the paint burning off.... not good.
• Re-engaged the cat and it calmed down.

Why? I wish I knew.

• Very smokey primary burn, seemed all the primary combustion was in the back and it was getting funneled right up into the cat. I could hear that giant sucking sound (credit to Ross Perot) and STT was pretty low.
• Last night was the coldest all year, down to 15 last night outside.

Lord give me strength to make it through another winter with this beast.

I have noticed the cat takes a long time to light off, if it goes at all. (but not last night) New metal cat on order....

 

[begreen]

@arnermd What is the flue setup for this stove? How tall, interior or exterior? Is there a key damper on the stove pipe?

 

[arnermd]

Yes I have a key damper installed, I added a metal stop inside the pipe so I can get it to seal better and really kill the draft. It will kill the fire but without any airflow the heat has no where to go, so it really takes a long time to cool down.

Stack Description starting from the stove top, everything is 8" single wall.

• Vertical oval collar to 8" round,
• Vertical 3' to a 15 deg jog, multi segment bend
• Vertical 1' to a multi segment 90 elbow
• Horizontal through a masonry collar into the branch of a tee, ~10"
• The tee turns it 90 deg back to vertical into a corrugated uninsulated liner. Liner is inside a tiled masonry chimney.
• Vertical 18' to the cap. The masonry cap is sealed with a metal plate and the liner penetrate through it by a few inches.
• On top of the masonry is a metal screen box. ~12" tall.

Just measured draft, 0.11 iwc, Outside air temp = 35F, Stack temp = 500F

,

 

[begreen]

1.1" wc is strong draft, especially if that was measured with the key damper closed.

The stove will need to be in top condition with the door and ash pan gaskets sealing tightly. Check to confirm the primary air flapper is closing completely and not sticking.

 

[Eman85]

I don't want to jinx myself by talking about my stove. It's been performing well and burning continuously for over a week or so, I've lost track. I'm sitting here now near the stove with the load from 10pm last night still burning, cat is at 700 air about 1/2. Loads are mixed like most of my loads are. Got into a section of the wood pile that is small oak rounds of limbs mixed with walnut, locust and oak splits mostly small splits. I don't pack the box, usually 3/4 full for the overnights. Yesterday evening I loaded around 1/2 and closed the damper earlier than usual and cut the air back and we went out to eat. Came home and opened the air to get the cat temp and stove temp up as it had cooled down a lot while we were gone. It responded nicely and I reloaded at 10pm so it would be where I wanted it before going to bed.
I don't move the ashes or embers when I reload unless I want to empty the ashes. We keep the ash pan empty and will let it burn down and stir it up to clean out the ashes from the firebox. So far this year I have recorded 1500 on the Auber but it rose to that after air was shut down and I was probably sleeping. Only time my flue got hot was when I loaded and forgot about it with the air open, all my fault. Flipped the damper and flue temps dropped, cat rose and all was good.
I think these cats are really like dogs, they're very active when they are new and calm down after a year or so.

 

[skb31]

Cruising right now at ~425STT and ~1200 cat. Restarted from weak coals at about 5:45 am. Once the stove is hot it’s a lot easier to manage. Got down to single digits last night but it’s about 25 out now.

Last evening you could tell the draft was a bit stronger when it dropped below 10 outside. Got to air 100% primary air closed but no scary temp spikes. Cat peaked at 1400 or so.

This performance is completely smokeless. Had my wife come outside twice to point at the nothing coming out of the chimney. She’s not as impressed as me. 😂

 

[Woodsplitter67]

My burn from last night, this one got hot. But closing the air down a bit brought cat temps back down, thats good news.

My cat alarms at 1450 so I stumbled out of bed and tended to it for 30 min. I like to see cat temps at 1100 - 1300 but maybe I am just paranoid.

Conditions:

• Hot bed of coals, you can see cat was still at 600 when I reloaded
• Pretty full load of red oak
• Immeadiately engaged the damper with 100% air, cat took off to 1200 where I throttled the air down to 50% open and went to bed. Probably should have started closing air down earlier, but I fell asleep on the couch.

Observations:

• Notice the griddle temps dropped to 300 after the reload, maybe I should have left the damper open a bit to heat that load up before engaging the cat?
• I did empty a very full ash pan yesterday.... so it was empty last night. Correlation or just concidence? Time will tell.

View attachment 333185

Well I Fu#k up my reload and this is what I got on my overnight burn last week.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Iv been burning since Wednesday after non stop. Is been nice and cold in the mornings. This was this morning. burned off the glass loaded with 2 splits of cherry and let it burn low. STT at 425 and cat just above 1k. I hust put a couple of splits in it and im going to let it burn out. Its not going to be that cold tonight. Its already 70 in the house and im in shorts

 

[arnermd]

Well I Fu#k up my reload and this is what I got on my overnight burn last week.

That looks familiar.....