Cutting back on the air

I don't have a CAT stove so my answer may not help you at all.

I cut back in stages - about 3. I make sure I maintain a flame that feeds my secondaries and I watch my chimney- making sure no smoke is coming out of it - just the heat shimmering waves.

RD, what stove do you have? Also, if you could put that into your signature line it will help all of us to answer questions. You can do that by clicking on Your Control Panel at the top of the page.

We have a cat. stove and sometimes we have flames and sometimes not. Flue temperatures are usually in the 250-350 range except for immediately after a reload.

BB, that is on the flue, which is horizontal. Stove top we usually have from 300-500. Once the cold weather hits we'll jump that up to the 500+ range. We've had 500+_ only a couple times so far this season.

BB, I just reloaded the stove with 3 splits. Stove top is 270 degrees and flue is 260. So in 10-15 minutes it will be cooking fine.

RDCrazy said:

I have a Dovre 500ss cat stove and its a 1987 epa stove that has been completely redone. My pipe temps are between 250 and 350. Stove top hangs around 400 ish. It is a cast iron stove. It has air controls on the front glass door and a air control on the side loading door. Once I engage the cat it really doesnt start working until 1300 and really gets to working at 1500 degrees. I didnt get a manual with the stove. What should I run stove top temps to and how long a burn time should i be getting. The firebox is about 2.0 cubic foot. I can fit 24 inch long splits. 10 wide and 12 tall.

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RD, 1300-1500 degrees? I hope that is in the firebox and not stove top!

We engage the cat. when the stove top reaches 250 degrees, which should be approximately 500 degrees in the firebox.

What you may be thinking is that the cat. is working only when it is glowing red. For sure you know it is working then, but it is still working even if not glowing. For example, towards the end of the burn, the cat. won't be glowing but you can tell by the heat that it is giving that it is doing the work. There just is not that much smoke then. Also, when we don't run our stove hot we can tell that the cat. is working although it never gets red. We can tell by the way the temperature soars once the cat. is engaged.

Again, we run usually from 300 - 500 degrees stove top. We'll take it to 600 if it get really cold but we usually don't need it that hot in the house. I would think those temperatures would work for you also. Good luck.

I had a related "aha!" moment yesterday. I usually load my Napoleon up and let her go until she gets to 600* or so, then shut her down in stages, ultimately closing the primary as far as it will go. Yesterday, I has having trouble maintaining a flame and there was a fair amount of smoke coming out of the chimney. I finally concluded that because it's been a bit warmer here, the chimney was not drawing like it does when it's super cold, so I left the air open just a bit. Voila! Plenty of flame and no smoke.

I'm sure I've read this here 20 times before now, but I just didn't get it until I had the experience myself.

Another lesson learned... Probably 999 left to go! :coolsmile: