I've been burning my stove for 1 week now and just tonight learned something on the draft control. Before tonight, I had closed my draft until I felt moderate resistance to rotation and assumed that was "closed". Every time I was frustrated with continued primary and secondary flames and felt the draft control was less than optimal and that I wasn't achieving a high efficiency "cat" burn. Tonight, after getting the stove to min cat engage temp from a cold start, I quickly added 1 6" dia round and a med split of pecan at full draft but without disengaging the cat. I immediately closed the draft and I put a little more force in the closing direction and the draft audibly protested a bit (a metallic "grunch") but rotated a bit further. All flame in the firebox extinguished almost immediately. A couple hours later now and the stove is cruising on the cat at 450 top temp and there has been NO flame in the firebox. Shining a flashlight into the firebox, I can see the round and split I added last and see just some charring on the round (beneath the split) and the split looks unaffected. I believe I've finally got my stove into the highest efficiency mode to date. If your firebox doesn't go black almost immediately, try rotating your draft control a little more towards closed (listen for the metallic "grunch") and see what happens.
As a side note, how long is it taking PH owners to get the stovetop temps to "cat burn range" from a cold start? My experience has been a couple of hours and probably 20-25 lbs of wood (pecan seasoned 2 years) with a wide open draft. Once up to temp, the stove maintains it well,, but it seems it takes a lot of wood at a high burn rate to get there. Way longer than the 10 to 15 minutes WS states in the manual. Any tips on reducing this heat up time are much appreciated.
As a side note, how long is it taking PH owners to get the stovetop temps to "cat burn range" from a cold start? My experience has been a couple of hours and probably 20-25 lbs of wood (pecan seasoned 2 years) with a wide open draft. Once up to temp, the stove maintains it well,, but it seems it takes a lot of wood at a high burn rate to get there. Way longer than the 10 to 15 minutes WS states in the manual. Any tips on reducing this heat up time are much appreciated.