Please define what "running hot" means when burning subpar wood

Since you have a catalytic stove, running hot means maintaining sufficient temp to keep the catalyst active and burn off the smoke. If the catalyst temperature probe reading is over 500 and you dont see grey smoke coming from the chimney outside (white steam that dissipates is OK) then you know its active.

From a burn habits perspective, with wet wood and a catalyst the major change in behavior is you will need to burn with the bypass open and the air control on high for longer at the start of the load to boil off the surface moisture and get the flue temps hot enough to trigger the cat.

Generally you need internal flue temps over 500 degrees for the cat to lightoff. Your Sequoia is unique relative to other VCs in that its not a downdraft design so you might be able to watch that cat probe temp to decide when to close the bypass - although the cat probe temp might still be a little lower than the actual flue temp when its in bypass. It will be a matter of trial and error, when it does light off you should see the probe temp rapidly rise from 500 to 1000 or more, and then you can start turning the air down in stages till you reach the cruising temperature that delivers enough heat to the room. Most cat stoves cruise with probe temps between 1000 and 1500, and can even go up to 1600 or more with big loads of dry wood. Avoid 1700+ as this will damage the catalyst. Also avoid trying to close the damper too soon as lots of steam can thermal shock a catalyst that was hot from a previous cycle.

What I would do is start with a load and close bypass when that probe hits 500. If that works good, you might even try 450 next time (and if that works a bit lower the time after that till you find the lowest temp that works) Alternatively if 500 doesn't work, try 550 next, etc.

For sure, it is not good anytime to be burning sub-par wood but especially so in a cat stove. Water and cats don't like each other. Hopefully this is a good lesson and you will be better prepared next year.

Charlene Kravec said:

Please forgive me if this has been addressed before. I ran a search on it and didn't find what I was hoping to.
Does this "running hot" term mean keeping the air controller wide open or controlled burning at a high temperature. . .

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Where did you hear the term?
It might mean doing "hot" reloads. . .reload on a nice hot coal bed before the stove cools below, say, 325° stovetop. This will make it easier to get things going with suboptimal wood.

Mixing in lumber scraps(untreated wood only) or dry branches will help too.

Yeah ah, I don't think running hot and sub par wood should be in the sme sentence...IMHO.....sorry

But, the good news is there is always next year, start ASAP to work on that and the next 2 years after that and these days will be history......

jharkin said:

Since you have a catalytic stove, running hot means maintaining sufficient temp to keep the catalyst active and burn off the smoke. If the catalyst temperature probe reading is over 500 and you dont see grey smoke coming from the chimney outside (white steam that dissipates is OK) then you know its active.

From a burn habits perspective, with wet wood and a catalyst the major change in behavior is you will need to burn with the bypass open and the air control on high for longer at the start of the load to boil off the surface moisture and get the flue temps hot enough to trigger the cat.

Generally you need internal flue temps over 500 degrees for the cat to lightoff. Your Sequoia is unique relative to other VCs in that its not a downdraft design so you might be able to watch that cat probe temp to decide when to close the bypass - although the cat probe temp might still be a little lower than the actual flue temp when its in bypass. It will be a matter of trial and error, when it does light off you should see the probe temp rapidly rise from 500 to 1000 or more, and then you can start turning the air down in stages till you reach the cruising temperature that delivers enough heat to the room. Most cat stoves cruise with probe temps between 1000 and 1500, and can even go up to 1600 or more with big loads of dry wood. Avoid 1700+ as this will damage the catalyst. Also avoid trying to close the damper too soon as lots of steam can thermal shock a catalyst that was hot from a previous cycle.

What I would do is start with a load and close bypass when that probe hits 500. If that works good, you might even try 450 next time (and if that works a bit lower the time after that till you find the lowest temp that works) Alternatively if 500 doesn't work, try 550 next, etc.

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Nailed it

I don't know anything about cat stoves, but with my secondary burn stove 'running hot' with sub par wood would include giving the fire more air than I'd use with well seasoned firewood. It would also include reloading while the coals are still extra hot so that the sub-par wood would ignite and get up to speed quickly. With seasoned wood I can let the stove get down to just a few coals and it will still restart easily and cleanly.

Charlene Kravec said:

In a perfect world... We are trying to get more to put by but the weather isn't cooperating. We started too late in the season (a lesson learned). Also my husband had an injury to his back resulting from a fall. We will get there eventually. Just have to resume when we're able.

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Charlene, I can easily relate to your husband's problem as I've fought with this for almost 30 years now. Still, there was only one year that I could not put up our own wood. One year we had a lot of white ash which splits really easy. This was before we got our hydraulic splitter too. I simply sat on one of the rounds and using a sledge hammer and wedges, I simply tapped on the wedges. I could not swing the sledge. But that tapping would soon split the wood. It took me many, many hours but I do admit that it was not all that bad. Yes, it hurt but at least I could be out there doing something.

Bad backs call for some special tools for sure and at the top of the list is a good log splitter. However, you want one that will stand up so you can split vertically rather than having to pick up each log and raise it up to put onto a horizontal splitter. That is a back killer and a lot of unneeded extra work. I simply sit while splitting and therefore I do not lift any of those logs while splitting.

Some other tools that should be a must is a lightweight saw, a cant hook and some log tongs. The log tongs pictured proved to be much more than I expected and not only are they a back saver, you also keep your hands warmer in winter and if you are handling wood that is wet or with snow, you don't get that on your hands using the tongs. The middle picture is a pickeroon or hookeroon and can really be handy but the other two are a must have.

In addition, be sure to not cut this year what you need for this year. Get 2-3 years ahead on the wood supply. Especially so with someone who has back problems. Just this year, I could cut very little so not much to add to the wood pile. In addition, I gave a fellow a year's supply of wood because he injured his back and could not put up wood. Still, doing this, we will still be 3 or 4 years ahead with the wood. It is all split and stacked and will be really good and dry and ready to burn when we need it. Once you try burning wood that has been split and stacked 3 years, you'll never want to go back to the old ways. Good luck.