High Valley 1500 Catalytic stove insert installation and review

[redyute]

Eight set of hands later she is in, minus the liner

As you can see I have plenty of space to work the liner on, but I wish they had position the vent 2 inches closer to the back of the stove cause it seems it will be right up against the brick, but I will see and take pics when I drop her in, apart from that I like it lol.

 

[begreen]

Looks like there might be enough room. If not see if a 15 or 30º elbow would help.

 

[redyute]

Looks like there might be enough room. If not see if a 15 or 30º elbow would help.

Yeah I figured I will have to do that. Just came back from lowes but they only have adjustable 90° fittings so imma have to order one but not sure if I should get a 13°, 30° or 45° , dam lol

 

[redyute]

Break in fire, one tractor supply fuel brick. Royal pain in the ass to get started


got video with cat engaged but cant seem to upload it lol

 

[redyute]

Three hour marker, temps went from 1350 to 1200. Only one fuel brick few pieces of gum and some half seasoned small oak splits, stove was only 1/3 full.

 

[redyute]

So the so called break in fire turned into a 7 hour burn from just a few pieces of wood, the house was filled with paint smell and smoke but it felt so good to see her perform compared to my old wood eater insert. Cat temp stayed at around 1325°. I did have a small challenge getting her started but once she got off it was game on. I figured I would start another fire tonight to see if the paint was baked properly and to my amazement she started pretty good, was able to close the door with 15 minutes after lighting it, was at 550° in less than an hour with cat engaged, so far I'm happy and I think its just gonna get better the more fires I lite. I have no doubt that I can get the advertised 8 to 12 hour burn time from this unit.

 

[begreen]

Nice going. Once it gets cold you won't be relighting, just reloading on the hot coals. What was the final solution for the flue connection elbow?

 

[redyute]

Nice going. Once it gets cold you won't be relighting, just reloading on the hot coals. What was the final solution for the flue connection elbow?

Got a flexible 90 and stuck the straight adapter in and screwed it in lol, worked pretty good
.
Got the fire going playing with the air adjustments getting the feel of it, I see immediate response with every adjustment I make, its 80° in here so I closed the air all the way down with hopes of killing the fire but it just simmered down lol and cat temp went from 1350 to 1100°. So I'm sitting next to the sliding door with it wide open and lights off so the bugs don't come in lol. Stove top temp is between 400° - 450°. Is that good?

 

[Woody Stover]

Congrats on the new stove! Sounds like you're getting the hang of burning it already. The real fun will start soon, when it gets colder out. You know, those High Valleys bear a remarkable resemblance to the Buck 91. Looks like yours has two air controls like the Buck 91 at my MIL's. I use the dog house air a little bit on startup, then shut it all the way once the stove is up to temp, bypass closed and cat lit. I figure the more the air wash air, the cleaner the glass will stay. What is the depth of the box for N-S loading, or will you be loading E-W usually? In my avatar pic, you can see the 91 loaded N-S. You can also see how I start the burn in the center, letting the side splits get involved later in the burn.

I was also told by a sweep that if you don't get the chimney cleaned well, it's possible you'll have some odor issues with an install.

In the summer, when you have a stack effect in the house and hot air is leaving the attic, replacement air will be pulled down between the chimney and liner, and it can stink to varying degrees.

 

[redyute]

Congrats on the new stove! Sounds like you're getting the hang of burning it already. The real fun will start soon, when it gets colder out. You know, those High Valleys bear a remarkable resemblance to the Buck 91. Looks like yours has two air controls like the Buck 91 at my MIL's. I use the dog house air a little bit on startup, then shut it all the way once the stove is up to temp, bypass closed and cat lit. I figure the more the air wash air, the cleaner the glass will stay. What is the depth of the box for N-S loading, or will you be loading E-W usually? In my avatar pic, you can see the 91 loaded N-S. You can also see how I start the burn in the center, letting the side splits get involved later in the burn.

depth is only 14" and 23 wide so in order to load n to s I would have cut my wood shorter which for now all my wood is cut around 18". What do you mean by dog house air

 

[Woody Stover]

What do you mean by dog house air

I'm assuming the air feed is the same as the Buck 91, where the left slider feeds air into the bottom/center of the box, and the right slider feeds the air wash at the top of the glass. Is that how yours works too?
On the Buck 91, it's hard to see but if I look into the hole for the bypass rod and move my head around, I can see the cat glowing. When the cat is really blazing I can look through the air wash mesh and see the glow illuminating the top of the cat shield. It appears your cat shield is a box running E-W with open ends, not a flat shield mounted under the cat, like the Buck, in so you probably can't see through the air wash to below the cat. You may be able to see through the bypass rod hole, though.

 

[redyute]

This is what the manual has

 

[Woody Stover]

Yeah, I saw that....they don't go into much detail. so it may be that the 1500 doesn't have doghouse air. Look back at the inside bottom front of the box with a mirror, or stick your head in there when it's cold. If you see an air inlet, that would be the "doghouse." Or when you have some wood burning, open the right slider all the way, with the left slider closed, then do the opposite and see what differences you notice.

 

[redyute]

Yeah, I saw that....they don't go into much detail. so it may be that the 1500 doesn't have doghouse air. Look back at the inside bottom front of the box with a mirror, or stick your head in there when it's cold. If you see an air inlet, that would be the "doghouse." Or when you have some wood burning, open the right slider all the way, with the left slider closed, then do the opposite and see what differences you notice.

I see the fire increase or die down when I move either slider, it's like instant you can tell the difference right away. I'll check it out and see what I find

 

[Woody Stover]

Can you look under the front of the stove and see where the slider rods are connected to plates covering air inlets?

 

[redyute]

Can you look under the front of the stove and see where the slider rods are connected to plates covering air inlets?

Yeah I see an air hole on on each side that the sliders open and close

 

[Woody Stover]

Can you look up the inlets with a mirror and light, and in the box for air channels, to see where the air from each inlet might go? Did you see an outlet in the bottom/front of the box, right below the door opening (doghouse air?) I'm assuming at least one, if not both, of the air inlets are feeding the air wash at the front/top of the box behind that metal arch with the holes in it.

 

[redyute]

So I woke up to 62° in the house so I decided to light a fire. This time I didn't use the one fuel brick to mix with the half seasoned oak. Fire started good fan came on at 600° like normal but I notice the cat temp at 1000° where with the one fire brick it would be at around 1350° then I would turn the air down some. So I can say that one tractor supply fuel brick makes a hell of a lot of difference, I guess cat temp 1000° isn't bad house got up to 75 in about an hour plus. My old wood eater insert takes 3 hours to bring the house to 75° from 60°

 

[redyute]

I have to figure out how to get the warm air to circulate throughout the house, stove is in rec room on the opposite part of the house and its warm in here but way cool in the other end of the house where all the bedrooms are

 

[Slocketman]

If you have central forced air heat, try turning the blower fan from 'auto' to 'on' for awhile to get air circulating around the house.

I also do that when vacuuming to help filter out any dust that's getting kicked up.

There are some fancy programmable thermostats that can be set to kick the blower fan on every so often.

Otherwise, anything you can do to get air flowing back to the bedrooms will help.

 

[redyute]

If you have central forced air heat, try turning the blower fan from 'auto' to 'on' for awhile to get air circulating around the house.

I also do that when vacuuming to help filter out any dust that's getting kicked up.

No central air in this house lol, that's on my next year's to do list

 

[redyute]

Experiencing to true benefits of properly seasoned wood. (in this case gum) I threw in one piece of dried gum and within 15 minutes cat temp went from 1000° to 1350° room temp went from 75° to 85° causing me to turn of the fan and cut the air down half way. Its not ridiculously cold outside only 50° but this is me experimenting with the new insert so I'm gaining some much needed info of how she performs.

 

[kennyp2339]

Got a flexible 90 and stuck the straight adapter in and screwed it in lol, worked pretty good

No good with that black pipe, everything needs to be stainless if using a liner system, black pipe can and will burn out, especially those 90's, sorry to burst your bubble man

 

[redyute]

No good with that black pipe, everything needs to be stainless if using a liner system, black pipe can and will burn out, especially those 90's, sorry to burst your bubble man

No big deal easy to change

 

[Woody Stover]

No good with that black pipe, everything needs to be stainless if using a liner system, black pipe can and will burn out, especially those 90's, sorry to burst your bubble man

Yeah, you need to get the welded-seam elbow from the liner maker. That way, you don't have the worry of the cheap elbow possibly coming apart. This is a 15* but it's kinda hard to see how much it turns, from the angle of this pic. It doesn't turn a whole lot...