ControledBurn said:
Hi Terry,
The cat is engaged when the bypass controller (which is the brass lever on the very front of your Progress) is turned all the way counter-clockwise. It will say "Bypass Closed". When you are re-loading or starting from cold, you turn that lever all the way clockwise to disengage the catalytic combuster. It will read "Bypass Open" Follow the directions in your owner's guide. If your original guide is missing pages 14-16 as mine was, contact Woodstock and they will shoot you the corrected manual.
I have suggested to Woodstock that a better choice of labeling for newbies like me would be " Cat On " or Cat Off" ;-)
Turn the lever counter-clockwise for Cat On, clockwise for Cat Off
Stay Warm
Yes, I know the mechanical aspect of how to open the bypass door. In fact, I quickly pointed out to Woodstock that their manual instructions were incorrect concerning the CW/CCW issue. The cat is engaged when the handle is turned all the way CW, not CCW--at least on MY hybrid it's that way!
My objective was to learn if there is some other way to determine if the cat is operating JUST AFTER the bypass is opened. Just because the bypass is OPEN doesn't mean the cat is a-goin'! Here again, I'm assuming that the cat is being opened too soon and the explosion occurs when it lights off and the gases are ignited--but I don't KNOW that for sure.
Of course, I suppose one way to know for SURE would be to engage the cat when the thermo needle hits the silver area and wait . . . When it goes WHUMMMPH, you can say, "Yup, it's engaged!" The only problem with this method is that the top pops up and sooty debris is deposited all over everything, which I then get to clean up! FUN!!