Catalyst Failure again?!

[Tron]

(this was delivered as "pine" rounds by the tree company....)

Yeah, "pine" can mean almost anything that has needles around here...most of ours are ok to burn, though.

 

[stoveliker]

Burns all fine. Just found that I can see ashes flying around, especially when burning e.g. 2 splits on high (burning down some coals or extending the time to a full reload, so a lot of space in the firebox) and I noticed some draft reduction now. Hard to look at the cat when it's hot, but I've seen a bit on the surface - suggesting there could be more inside.

 

[Highbeam]

So, since the above post I've been burning a lot of spruce.
The ashes from this are flaky, light, and evidently fly around.
I had quite some ashes on the surface of the metal cat, and I think the flow decreases more than I am used to upon closing the bypass.
I've been running hot (it's been cold) and the spruce is drier than a newspaper... Chimney cap is clear.

It seems that I've found the limit of my system (draft, metal cat, and ashy fuel)... I won't be taking spruce anymore if I can help it (this was delivered as "pine" rounds by the tree company....)

Maybe Sunday (43 f) I'll let it go cold and vacuum the cat.

My steelcat experience was that they did not last as many hours as a ceramic cat. Also, when cats start to die they accumulate more surface stuff on them. It's one of the clues.

Your cat is most of the way to it's rated lifetime so something to keep an eye out for. No reason to swap it until it fails though. Next thing you might notice is that you need to turn the stat up higher to get the same amount of heat. Then more smoke at lower settings.

 

[stoveliker]

Good to know.
Surface stuff also grey fluffy (just blow at them from in front of the firebox) ashes?

I think this really is ashes because the one time I got the stove cold and cleaned the surface, then burned two loads of oak, I had nothing. Next load of spruce there were ashes again.