Dirty Cat.

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bmwbj

bmwbj

Member
Oct 11, 2007
165
Ringoes NJ
Does anyone know what may cause the cat. in my Intrepid II to become partially
clogged with fly-ash so often? I only burn nights and weekends, and the wood is
mainly maple (3 years seasoned). My stove becomes sluggish about every 2 to 3 weeks, and
all I need to do is vacuum the cat and all is well again.
Is this normal for this stove? What a pain in the neck.
 
It is common to have to clean the cat. 2-3 weeks is overkill. How is the stove vented?
 
This is my fourth season with my Intrepid II, and first year of burning 24/7 with it. At the end of the burning season, I take the cat out to clean and there is very minimal ash. I burn mostly seasoned oak and clean the stove pipe monthly. When I take the stove pipe off, I also clean (vacuum) the refractory package thru the flue collar. You have to be careful as you know the refractory is delicate. I think by doing that I vacuum alot of fly ash out of there.
 
bmwbj said:
Does anyone know what may cause the cat. in my Intrepid II to become partially
clogged with fly-ash so often? I only burn nights and weekends, and the wood is
mainly maple (3 years seasoned). My stove becomes sluggish about every 2 to 3 weeks, and
all I need to do is vacuum the cat and all is well again.
Is this normal for this stove? What a pain in the neck.
Click to expand...

Id say your problem is. You only burn nights and weekends. Thats alot of cold starts to get the cat up to temp. Thats my thoughts any how. Why no 24/7. Do you burn through the night and not reload in the AM before work? WHY?
 
I have a similar problem with my stove, but I know exactly what is causing it, Black Locust! I've been burning 1 cord of the stuff straight and it produces more ash than any other wood I know of. The wood is very dry and burns great, but I'm thinking that the very thick bark has something to do with it. Luckily it is very easy to clean my cat, lift the lid, remove, and brush, takes about 5 minutes. I did this 2 weeks ago and after inspecting it today, it's about due again. The ash also likes to stick to my glass which kind a jerks my chain.
 
north of 60 said:
bmwbj said:
Does anyone know what may cause the cat. in my Intrepid II to become partially
clogged with fly-ash so often? I only burn nights and weekends, and the wood is
mainly maple (3 years seasoned). My stove becomes sluggish about every 2 to 3 weeks, and
all I need to do is vacuum the cat and all is well again.
Is this normal for this stove? What a pain in the neck.
Click to expand...

Id say your problem is. You only burn nights and weekends. Thats alot of cold starts to get the cat up to temp. Thats my thoughts any how. Why no 24/7. Do you burn through the night and not reload in the AM before work? WHY?
Click to expand...

North of 60, The only reason I burn nights and weekends is because my significant other (aka wife) is scared
to death of fire, and will not relaod when I'm gone. So as you can see I can only run the stove when I'm home.
My job starts at 5:00am, and ends at 6:00pm 6 days a week. I do however have to restart every morning and every night. This may as you stated have alot to do with it. I love this stove, but for me there is a lot of maintainance on my part. My chimney set up is 3, 3' sections of single wall pipe straight up in the living room,
and 5 sections of stainless double wall straight through the attic to the roof. The draft is superior, (maybe too much), and the pipes get cleaned out 2 time a year. Mainly only flyash in the pipes ( no hard stuff). I can tell when the cat. needs cleaning, because my draft in the "down draft" mode become very sluggish and the cat light-off times becomes harder to reach. As soon as I clean the cat. everything works fantastic again.
 
I've cleaned my cat a few times this winter and found barely any ash on it. I have the Woodstock Keystone. I'm not even sure if there was any ash when I vacuumed it out. I burn mostly cherry.
 
Hey BMW the Jet here, im glad im not the only one up early. I start work at 5 also but get off at 2:00 pm... Now onto the stove I removed my cat a month ago to replace secondary air probe and while it was out cleaned it, ther was a very small amout of ash mostly in the corners. I also burn afternoons into the evening and on weekends and have cleaned my chimney 1 time this season. All i got was powdered creosote and not very much of it, I try to keep temp on the griddle at least 400 to 500 during operation except when it cools to go out. both doors stay clean except for around the outside edges no matter how hot the stove runs.. Ive only had it above 700 once and it scared the crap out of me. My chimney is 14 ft straight up through a ranch house attic to the roof. My guess is it would have to be the wood causing the ash... do you have access to different wood ???
 
Try running a pipe cleaner through each honey comb. There may be some blockage or clinging ash that's attracting the fly ash you can't normaly get out with brushing or vacuuming.
 
jetmech said:
Hey BMW the Jet here, im glad im not the only one up early. I start work at 5 also but get off at 2:00 pm... Now onto the stove I removed my cat a month ago to replace secondary air probe and while it was out cleaned it, ther was a very small amout of ash mostly in the corners. I also burn afternoons into the evening and on weekends and have cleaned my chimney 1 time this season. All i got was powdered creosote and not very much of it, I try to keep temp on the griddle at least 400 to 500 during operation except when it cools to go out. both doors stay clean except for around the outside edges no matter how hot the stove runs.. Ive only had it above 700 once and it scared the crap out of me. My chimney is 14 ft straight up through a ranch house attic to the roof. My guess is it would have to be the wood causing the ash... do you have access to different wood ???
Click to expand...

What up Jet, I run my stove between 500 and 700 all the time, and my electronic cat probe reads up to 2000
deg. sometimes. Maybe its my type of wood ---- mainly silver maple I'm using. I know that the wood is seasoned ok, it checks out to be 22% and under with a moisture meter in the middle after I split it open.
The Cat cruise rght around 1400 steady during most of the burn cycle, it can rise up to 2000 with a brand new load of wood then lowers when the wood is completely chared. It's pretty cool having an electronic cat probe, you can really monitor the burn cycles and cat light-off procedures...neat stuff... I was just thinking that maybe my draft was too good and causing alot of flyash to get sucked up into the "hood" and onto the cat. The fires I burn always have a nice dancing yellow flame un till the end of the cycle, when all that is left is blue flames. I do however have an inline flue damper that I can close back if I wish but I have never tried this, and don't really know if I every really needed to. Maybe I'll try some of the Oak I have for a while and see if the issue is resolved. I will not know this for at least 2 to 3 weeks and I'll will check the cat again at that time.
 

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Just a heads up for cat. user's, I switched over to burning only oak, and after
almost 4 weeks the cat. is still clean...I also noticed that my ash pan does not fill up so quickly.
I guess the maple burns, hotter, faster, and produces more ash remains. I do now think after
about 4 weeks, that the oak burns just as hot it just take much longer to get it going. It does
burn slower, and maybe more efficient than the maple.
Cleaner cat makes me happier... :cheese:
 
bmwbj said:
Cleaner cat makes me happier... :cheese:
Click to expand...

Must.... resist...... can't go there..... just can't......
 
I had a similar problem and found that the hood leading to the cat was slightly warped. Once I replaced it I was back to cleaning the cat 2 or 3 times a season. I have also found I need to clean more often as the cat gets older. One more point, someone mentioned earlier to use a pipe cleaner on the hoeny comb, but think that is pretty risky and you may end up breaking the cat.
 
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