BeGreen said:
Flatbedford said:
Todd said:
Texas boy said:
Texas boy said:As I mentioned in another post somewhere, I read the manual several times before I ever got the stove and several times after, while waiting for things to get done that I could not do. From my viewpoint, the manual was way too un-tecchnical, un-detailed or whatever term you'd like to use. I'm a dedicated manual reader and was somewhat disappointed that the manual was so thin and had so little real detail.
SO, I did some calculations regarding the approximate thermal mass and made a guess at the differential heating coefficents of the iron and stone and decided that rather than cycle the stove through heat-up and a complete cool-down several times, I would very slowly heat and cool the stove twice over a 48 hour period, never allowing it to go completely to cold, but bringing it up and letting the temp reduce slowly to around 200 then heating it up again. My reasoning is/was that this would allow the components to shrink and swell and allow the stone to adjust within the iron without chancing that the stone would bind and shatter going to high heat or complete cool down. I was encouraged to only hear a lot of very quiet expansion and contraction ticking at a constant rate--no quiet periods and then loud ticking. So, since I had regular expansion happening, I brought the stove up to about 350 or so, engaged the cat and kept it there for about 6 hours. We then went to bed and let it burn. Next morning it was just at 200, so I laid on a few sticks and brought it back up to around 350 engaged the cat and told Lynda to do the same and leave the cat on before she left for work at 1000. When I got home at 1600, it was just above 200, so I slowly brought it back up to about 400, engaged the cat at around 300 and held it there for three hours. Then we put in a little less than half a load which took it to about 650 for two hours. After that we let it burn all night and have let it cool to room temp yesterday afternoon 'cause I had some chimney cap work to do. Contraction ticking was nice and even and quiet.
Right now it's completely cold. I'm not exactly sure what procedure I'll follow from this point. I'm planning to clean it out, inspect it carefully (as y'all suggest) and, if all is well, probably bring it up to cat temp (~300 to 400) for several hours and see how it does. I'll probably decide from there, unless you gurus have a good plan. Otherwise, I'll be playing it by "ear", "flying by the seat of my pants" or whatever other metaphor you prefer.
So, there's my actual reasoning and procedure, for whatever it's worth. That's all from here for now.
Texas boy said:
Flatbedford said:
fire_man said:Texas boy said:As I mentioned in another post somewhere, I read the manual several times before I ever got the stove and several times after, while waiting for things to get done that I could not do. From my viewpoint, the manual was way too un-tecchnical, un-detailed or whatever term you'd like to use. I'm a dedicated manual reader and was somewhat disappointed that the manual was so thin and had so little real detail.
SO, I did some calculations regarding the approximate thermal mass and made a guess at the differential heating coefficents of the iron and stone and decided that rather than cycle the stove through heat-up and a complete cool-down several times, I would very slowly heat and cool the stove twice over a 48 hour period, never allowing it to go completely to cold, but bringing it up and letting the temp reduce slowly to around 200 then heating it up again. My reasoning is/was that this would allow the components to shrink and swell and allow the stone to adjust within the iron without chancing that the stone would bind and shatter going to high heat or complete cool down. I was encouraged to only hear a lot of very quiet expansion and contraction ticking at a constant rate--no quiet periods and then loud ticking. So, since I had regular expansion happening, I brought the stove up to about 350 or so, engaged the cat and kept it there for about 6 hours. We then went to bed and let it burn. Next morning it was just at 200, so I laid on a few sticks and brought it back up to around 350 engaged the cat and told Lynda to do the same and leave the cat on before she left for work at 1000. When I got home at 1600, it was just above 200, so I slowly brought it back up to about 400, engaged the cat at around 300 and held it there for three hours. Then we put in a little less than half a load which took it to about 650 for two hours. After that we let it burn all night and have let it cool to room temp yesterday afternoon 'cause I had some chimney cap work to do. Contraction ticking was nice and even and quiet.
Right now it's completely cold. I'm not exactly sure what procedure I'll follow from this point. I'm planning to clean it out, inspect it carefully (as y'all suggest) and, if all is well, probably bring it up to cat temp (~300 to 400) for several hours and see how it does. I'll probably decide from there, unless you gurus have a good plan. Otherwise, I'll be playing it by "ear", "flying by the seat of my pants" or whatever other metaphor you prefer.
So, there's my actual reasoning and procedure, for whatever it's worth. That's all from here for now.
Are you waiting for 350 stovetop temp to engage the cat? We engage at 250 stovetop which is around 500 internal firebox temp. If I engaged at 350 stovetop my fuel would be all gone! Darn that must be some good wood you have!!
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