Ashford 30.2 install thread

[xshmoox]

I’m probably wrapping burning up for this year I wanted to really pull the cat to inspect further and inspect my chimney, needless to say cat was worse than I thought almost fell apart pulling it out. And when I got to the chimney I was even less thrilled to see the build up it has caused. I’m unsure if that’s gonna come clean. Picture is looking up from clean out tee. I forgot to reach out to dealer as work was crazy busy with cold weather but plan to reach out tomorrow.

 

[begreen]

Ugh, that's not a pretty sight. Is it from the bottom looking up, or top down?
How many hours or years on the cat?

 

[xshmoox]

Ugh, that's not a pretty sight. Is it from the bottom looking up, or top down?
How many hours or years on the cat?

Bottom of tee looking up. That’s 1.5-2 cords lol

 

[xshmoox]

So probably roughly 2250 hours give or take

 

[begreen]

Something is not right if the cat was new. It should last around 10-12,000 hrs.

 

[xshmoox]

Yeah I know. I’m under the assumption it was just a bad cat. I never even experienced the overactive new cat syndrome everyone has when the cat thermometer pegs. Plus I was pretty underwhelmed with heat output. So hopefully that was just the case. I’ll contact the dealer and get a warranty cat and probably get it installed and maybe I’ll do a couple day test run to see the difference before the season is over.

 

[Highbeam]

Why are they falling apart and getting all deformed? Remember the diesel foil cats? Those things got picked on for deforming like this.

That cat should have not been worn out in such a short time period but it sounds like you never got the cat meter very high and that flue looks pretty gooey as though the fire was never very hot either. Even without a cat, your flue should have looked better than that if you were burning at reasonably high temperatures with good fuel.

 

[Duds13]

Why are they falling apart and getting all deformed? Remember the diesel foil cats? Those things got picked on for deforming like this.

That cat should have not been worn out in such a short time period but it sounds like you never got the cat meter very high and that flue looks pretty gooey as though the fire was never very hot either. Even without a cat, your flue should have looked better than that if you were burning at reasonably high temperatures with good fuel.

Wish we could get an answer. It seems to be a trend and those who had the issue are having to use their one warranty replacement on defective cats.

 

[xshmoox]

Why are they falling apart and getting all deformed? Remember the diesel foil cats? Those things got picked on for deforming like this.

That cat should have not been worn out in such a short time period but it sounds like you never got the cat meter very high and that flue looks pretty gooey as though the fire was never very hot either. Even without a cat, your flue should have looked better than that if you were burning at reasonably high temperatures with good fuel.

Was always burned per manual burned on high after reloads and never engaged cat unless was into active zone. The point of the bk is to be able to stretch the burns to match heating needs If I wanted to burn on high all the time I would have gotten a regular secondary stove. Unless it was pretty mild the thermostat would usually be set around 4-5 o’clock after turning down from high on reloads. Max moisture I ever read randomly checking splits was 20.5. Which was one piece everything else was 17-20

 

[Highbeam]

Was always burned per manual burned on high after reloads and never engaged cat unless was into active zone. The point of the bk is to be able to stretch the burns to match heating needs If I wanted to burn on high all the time I would have gotten a regular secondary stove. Unless it was pretty mild the thermostat would usually be set around 4-5 o’clock after turning down from high on reloads. Max moisture I ever read randomly checking splits was 20.5. Which was one piece everything else was 17-20

That all sounds good but your flue shows some pretty cold looking deposits. A good working cat in the active range shouldn't do that.

I get burning low, that's how I use mine too. It spends 95% of the time on a very low burn rate but the cat is very hot.

 

[kborndale]

Cold air leaking into the flue from somewhere?

 

[stoveliker]

Given how uniform the coating is, that would have to be the cleanout that's leaking in.
I've had a leak (where my stove pipe connects to the piece that goes through the concrete wall) and it's very clear where the leak is when you take a look inside.

 

[xshmoox]

That all sounds good but your flue shows some pretty cold looking deposits. A good working cat in the active range shouldn't do that.

I get burning low, that's how I use mine too. It spends 95% of the time on a very low burn rate but the cat is very hot.

lol that’s my whole point . It shouldn’t do that running in the active zone but it managed to do it. Which is why I think it was just a bad cat. But I only caught the cat problem the first day of February so it’s possible it was like that a bit longer letting a lot of unburned gasses through for a while, perhaps a couple weeks or maybe even a month idk I can’t say. They are processing my warranty so maybe I’ll have the cat by next week we will see

 

[Highbeam]

lol that’s my whole point . It shouldn’t do that running in the active zone but it managed to do it. Which is why I think it was just a bad cat. But I only caught the cat problem the first day of February so it’s possible it was like that a bit longer letting a lot of unburned gasses through for a while, perhaps a couple weeks or maybe even a month idk I can’t say. They are processing my warranty so maybe I’ll have the cat by next week we will see

Lets hope that the new cat makes a big difference. Also, running with the cat meter "barely" in the active range is too low in my experience. You are too close to a stall. This leads to creosote accumulation because the cat is sorta active and you're just not sending enough heat up the stack. Be sure the cat meter stays quite high in the range.

I'm also concerned about the physical destruction of that cat. Hoping that the new one holds up a whole lot better.

We just don't hear about bad cats but operator error is very common. Maybe you just got a bad cat.