Fire goes out when I close the door

[polkadottie55]

New Hearthstone Heritage, new moisture meter, wood at 20 percent moisture, blazing fire, 5' double wall stovepipe to 18 ' flue (8x12 I think). Flue cleaned immediately before stove installed. I have not had this problem before during the week and a half I have had the stove. Lit a fire an hour and a half ago. Cat temp 3/4 of "catalyst active" range. If I close the bypass, the fire slowly dies. Do I have to vacuum out the air intake each time I light a fire? It burns fine with the door closed, the air intake fully open (or even closed), the door closed and the bypass open. My salesperson says it takes about a month for the Heritage to begin to behave.
I took a long time composing this thread. Sooo: Now that I have a full coal bed everything is working fine, catalyst engaged
Os this catalyst stoves? Soapstone stoves? Or do I just need to give it more time to start liking me? My dog likes it!

 

[Turbo89]

When I first started burning with my VC catalyst stove, i experienced a similar thing a few times.

I believe this was caused by wet wood (make sure you’re testing the wood immediately after splitting it, and pressing the meter firmly into the split) and engaging the cat too soon.

I no longer have these issues… even with wet wood, but I don’t close in the CAT until the CAT is temp. For initial fires this sometimes means I’m waiting 30-45min to engage the CAT.

These CAT stoves run different than conventional wood stoves, and it took me a while to get used to operating them vs. my conventional Jotul.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Your chimney and the outside temperature may also be an issue. Chimneys don’t draft as hard as it warms up. An unlined 8x12 flue is also a very large area with a lot of thermal mass to try to heat up with a stove that is designed to not let a lot of heat up the flue.

 

[kborndale]

In your other thread you said your wood was not fully dry in February, how is it dry now in March? Wet wood, plus venting into an oversized, unlined/uninsulated flue is a recipe for your current problems. Line your chimney with an 6" insulated liner (should be easy on an 8x12 flue) and let your wood dry over the summer. I would expect much better results next winter.