jetsam
Minister of Fire
Temp was 61 in the House about an hour into my first fire, just a few questions:
1. After the stove was in the active zone I closed the bypass per instructions and ran the stove wide open. The stove is just past the maximum mark on the active Zone. Is this normal?
If I run a blaze king wide open does it operate just like a non-cat stove?
1) Unless your wood is really wet, it should be well past the maximum mark with a brand new cat. Pull the thermometer (it just lifts out), let it cool to room temp, undo the nuts on the back, set it to the little line below INACTIVE, and tighten the nuts back down. At least a few of us here had thermometers that were way out of whack on day one.
2) Yes and no. The cat is still reburning combustion byproducts and making heat, but you're not going to be a ton more efficient than a properly operating tube stove. Very low burns is where you can do stuff that nobody else can.