Blaze King 40 catalyst issues

[Tron]

The cat gauge did not go up after lowering the thermostat halfway and turning flames into flickers

That is to be expected. After all, the "food" for the cat is carbon monoxide. Only then it can combust that with residual oxygen to carbon dioxide.
When you run the thermostat wide open, an excess of air is introduced into the firebox, which causes most of the CO to be combusted before it can reach the cat. And cat temperature is a function of CO-to-CO2-conversion in the cat, as that reaction is exotherm.

 

[Slate Dale]

Updates on old issues: The first season I had some trouble with creosote liquid in the stove and pipe that was due to cordwood not really dry enough, and trying to achieve the advertised "very long burn time." I use very dry wood and a few "bricks" now and re-load every six hours on top of red hot coals, so even the glass stays clean. The Princess insert upstairs is hardly ever used, because the King 40 in the basement heats the whole house. The King works fine on the concrete floor and very near the poured cement foundation wall. The thermostat seems to work well in this position, too, responding the way it should, so apparently there is enough air movement between the stove and the hot comcrete wall for the thermostat not to be thrown off. The negative draft continues to happen if I try to start to stove in mild weather and the chimney is cool. I need to open the basement doors and get it off to a hot start with some paper and very small kindling for a few minutes, before closing the doors, and then I find the draft goes up constantly. There has been no problem with negative draft in very cold weather. The Princess insert, located upstairs, also has negative draft with a cold start in mild weather, which means cool air is probably coming down the chimney into the house through it when the stove isn't being used. I have thought about stuffing something in the vents of one or both of these stoves to stop negative draft from happening when not being used, especially for the insert because it is hardly ever used, and might cause a net energy loss to our home. I made a steel block-off plate for the pipe (flexible) and sealed around it well with stove cement and rockwool when I installed the insert, so the only way outdoor air can come down the chimney into the house is through the pipe and the stove.

Update from my third winter season using the Blaze King 40 and the BK Princess insert:

Everything I reported here last year continues to be true except that I finally did find the combustors glowing, a little bit, on a few rare occasions, but I can't correlate the glowing with any different loading practice, wood, or temperature setting. Like last year, my firewood is well aged, and as dry as it can get outdoors in this climate, testing under 20% on fresh splits.

These stoves and chimney pipes were cleaned for the first time, about two months ago. The insert system wasn't very dirty but the big stove system had some flakey creosote, after about seven cords and two years.

There is some visible smoke coming from the chimneys at all times. Sometimes the smoke doesn't rise but goes sideways and even down over the roof surface, and continues to fall to the ground, and then drifts downhill until it settles in the hollow. Would there be any harm done if I remove the chimney caps to allow the smoke to rise straight up, instead of being stopped by the caps? I suppose rain could go down the pipes without caps shielding the openings.

 

[begreen]

Don't remove the cap. The smoke might still roll downhill due to cold air sinking around it.