Just engaged the CAT...

I've told the story before of my wife babysitting the stove one day when I came home. It was pretty warm in the house and she said she'd been sitting there for quite some time opening the bypass to let the stove cool then closing but the temperature would climb right back to 700. When I looked, she had the draft completely closed. So I simply told her to open the draft and she about flipped! lol Well, we opened the draft, I think to the setting of 1. Stovetop cooled down quite rapidly toward the 650 mark or maybe 680 (don't remember for sure).

Point is, she had forgotten that when the stove top temperature goes up around that 700 degree mark, it is time to open the draft a little bit. In effect, what happens is that the stove will give off more heat from the sides and front and less from the top. So many times you can actually get more heat from the stove at, say, 550-600 than running the stove top to 650 or higher. It all depends upon how much heat you need at the moment.

firefighterjake said:

Oh to be young and so in love.

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I hope I'm still young after the kids leave... only about 14 years to go... hmm...

Supposed to be low 30s here tonight

Yeah it can be kind of confusing thinking you need to give it more air to drop the stove top temp but when the cat is is right underneath that top middle stone it makes sense. A cat gorging itself on a smoke only fire box will get hotter than a fire box with some flame.

I think the hottest I got my Keystone up to is 680 and my old Fireview 750. The Keystone doesn't seem to run away like the Fireview could on occasion.

Todd said:

Yeah it can be kind of confusing thinking you need to give it more air to drop the stove top temp but when the cat is is right underneath that top middle stone it makes sense. A cat gorging itself on a smoke only fire box will get hotter than a fire box with some flame.

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The only way to run a cat stove (IMO, of course), is with two thermometers... one on cat (probe), the other on the stovetop. I will often find the cat headed into thermonuclear territory early in the burn cycle, if I do something stupid like stuff a full load of walnut into the firebox. That's when it's time to open the primary up a bit, to take some of the load off the cat. No way to see if such is happening, without that cat probe, and no way to avoid overfiring the stove without the stovetop thermometer.

Engaged the CAT for the first time tonight...earliest in my 9 years of burning. Looking at the forecast, this might be the first time since I've had the BK that I'll light more than one fire in a season.

metalsped said:

Supposed to be low 30s here tonight

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I'm going to burn one tomorrow night, too lazy tonight, you're a little colder in the sticks than I am here.

Cool in the house this morning... We're getting close!

Joful said:

Cool in the house this morning... We're getting close!

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37 here right now but nice and toasty inside. Gotta love a big cat stove in the middle of the living space you can burn during the summer.

Only thing better would be... two big cat stoves.

I could definitely light them this morning, if the wood wasn't stacked 300 feet from the house. I don't usually move any up to the house 'till October.