Advice on running my Ashford 30

I have been able to peg the cat probe with a small fire by putting really sappy spruce splits on a decent bed of coals, but it's a useless parlor trick.

I have also been able to keep the cat barely active by loading a small split every couple hours when I was home on a long weekend. Again, useless parlor trick.

My cat only glows when it is way up in the active range anymore, I put 9-10 cords through mine last winter. When it was brand new I could get it to glow with a stern glance. If the probe is in the active zone and the cat is engaged, go out in the yard and look at your stack. If you can't see any smoke, your fine.

All I do anymore is cram the thing as full as I can fill it, run it on high for 30-60 minutes once the cat is engaged, turn it down to about half for maybe another 15 minutes and then take 'er on down as low as I want to go for the rest of the burn.

The hardest thing for me last year as an experienced burner with my first ever cat stove was to forget about the fool thing for 12 hours at a time and let it do what it is designed to do. Really. With hindsight, the hardest part was keeping my hands off it.

Poindexter nailed it, if the cat is in the active range and the house is at the temp you want keep your hands off and let the bk work it"s black magic.

The cat does not need to glow to be doing its job. Also the cat will be way more active when the stove is new, once you've burned it for a few weeks the cat will settle down and won't peg easily anymore. You are doing things just fine, relax and enjoy your new stove.