That Dat-Blame Cat!!!!!!!!!

[leeave96]

Easily lit off at 200 deg stove top temp, is burning with a bright orange, giving me some bursts of secondary flames, over a tiny touch of flame off the logs setting on a small a bed of red coals. The Keystone is giving a very nice low clean shoulder season burn tonight. I'll knock off the night's chill and into the morning with no reloading. I should get about 8-10 hrs of this low burn and be good on heat going into tomorrow before clear skies and the sun takes over.

Life is good!

Bill

 

[Todd]

Yep, the steelies lite off faster, no need to wait for a 250 stove top. Hope they last longer. I checked my steel cat after about 4 weeks of burning and it was clean as a whistle, no fly ash or plugging on either side. I was a little worried about the smaller holes plugging like some Blaze King owners have reported.

I've been burning 24/7 the last few days, even had some snow the last couple mornings. Burning low and slow with 2 or 3 loads per day. The sun is out today so the stove will go cold and I'm going Crappie fishing.

 

[leeave96]

The stove was about 200ish stove top this morning, but still a goodly bit of heat radiating from the soapstone. I opened the damper to see if I had any coals and had a goodly amount of red coals once the air hit them. We gleaned some heat off of those, but will let the stove go cold for the day. It would have been very easy to toss some splits on and re-kindle the fire.

I'm burning some kind of soft wood, not pine, but it is dry and maybe a bit punky at the center, all of it about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I loaded the stove between 1/2 and 3/4 full, dampered down to 1/2 and had a 500 degree stove top and glowing cat for the night. Pretty much no flames, not much radiant heat around the sides, but the top was doing a nice job of keeping the house temps from dropping as the outside temps went down into the upper 40's. It was a great low clean shoulder season burn.

Nice thing about the Keystone is how well you can see the cat. With that in mind, I'm watching for fly ash build-up. I'll probably vacuum this cat a bit more as I read the Blaze King thing on the SS cats too.

Another question - do any of your Keystones have the new SS scoop? I know the Fireview has that now, didn't know if the Keystone was going to get one. Reason I ask is a lot of times I remove the scoop to vacuum the cat and my guess is the SS scoop would be lighter in weight and a little easier to handle when taking it out and putting it back.

Bill

 

[Jags]

...and I'm going Crappie fishing.

Just rub it in, why don't ya?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sounds like that new cat is doing just fine!

 

[Todd]

Another question - do any of your Keystones have the new SS scoop? I know the Fireview has that now, didn't know if the Keystone was going to get one. Reason I ask is a lot of times I remove the scoop to vacuum the cat and my guess is the SS scoop would be lighter in weight and a little easier to handle when taking it out and putting it back.

Bill

No, I don't think they made one for the Keystone yet? I think they are working on that and some other mods after they finish the new stove. I had it on the Fireview and I'm thinking it should be the same type of scoop for the Keystone. They have a picture and install instructions in their maintenance section on the web site. The stainless scoop is much lighter and has 2 cotter pins to release it. The new scoop also has a much finer mesh which should keep the cat much cleaner.

 

[Jags]

No, I don't think they made one for the Keystone yet?

Shouldn't you be fishing? :zip:

 

[Todd]

...and I'm going Crappie fishing.

Just rub it in, why don't ya?

If it makes you feel better, the fish weren't biting. Next weekend is the Walleye opener, can't wait to eat some fresh Walleye, yum!

 

[Jags]

...and I'm going Crappie fishing.

Just rub it in, why don't ya?

If it makes you feel better, the fish weren't biting.

Not really - I would have rather seen a pic of some dandy fillets in a frying pan. It is going post spawn for walleye right now on the might miss and the water is dropping. Hopefully some action soon.

Back to the regularly scheduled program.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

The cat's work fine but I still like my secondary air tubes in my Lopi Liberty. They have to be replaced eventually, too, but last much longer.