Cat cant burn all smoke?

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drozenski

New Member
Aug 14, 2010
104
Rochester NY
Is it possiable for my Sierra 8000 Tec cat cant burn all the smoke.

The cant is engaged i think.

Can some one help me that owns a cat stove

How can i know when my cat is working. I know for a fact it's working when my stove top temps are 650 or so.

Right now i have 2 logs in the fire but i have no flame. Lots and lots of hot coals from the other 3 logs that have burned down and my stove top temps are in the 500-550 range max.

Shouldn't this be enough to engage the cat. Is it engaged now? I have smoke coming out of my chimeny.
 
How old is the cat? What condition is it in, do you clean it? The cat should lite off when you reach internal temps over 500. If your seeing smoke or your stove top temps don't rise like they use to the cat may need a cleaning or replacement.

Here is some good info on cats.

http://www.woodstove.com/pages/pdffiles/Catalytic Combustor Tips.pdf
 
Bit of smoke is normal, at least with my stove. The Blaze King is meant to me loaded to full and burned down, I don't know about your stove, but 2 logs doesn't sound like you have enough fire in there. On the warmer days I only throw in a couple logs, but there is a good bed of coals going as well.
 
NATE379 said:
Bit of smoke is normal, at least with my stove. The Blaze King is meant to me loaded to full and burned down, I don't know about your stove, but 2 logs doesn't sound like you have enough fire in there. On the warmer days I only throw in a couple logs, but there is a good bed of coals going as well.
Click to expand...

A bit of smoke is only normal after a reload for 15 to 20 min or on a cold start with the BK.
 
No it's smoke and not anytime near putting fresh wood in the stove. Without the bypass it would smoke out 1/2 my yard though, so the cat is working, that's for sure!
 
The only time I see any smoke after 10-15 mins is when I load it with junk that I knew wasn't dry enough and don't burn it off good before closing the bypass or my wife reverts to her throw a log on the fire ways instead of doing full burn cycles. By not dry enough, I mean stuff that is probably in the low 20s MC as opposed to under 20. Both my current cat stove and my last cat stove burned like complete garbage with anything not at least that dry. Do you get any sizzlers?
 
cat may not be holding a complete incineration. somthing that gets overlooked often but can cause this is a restricton in the secondary air inlet most all cat stoves have.

somewhere in the stove there should be a fixed air opening to supply a small amount of fresh air directly under the catalyst. locate this opening and make sure it has not become blocked or restricted. if the cat is not able to get a good supply of air the cat can "stall" and you could lose combustiopn in it until the air supply is restored.

hope this helps ya
 
Well i got it working last night.

About 15-20 minutes later the ting took off. My stove top temps shot up to about 675-690

I looked at my chimney and not 1 lick of smoke.



Oh and boy did my house get toasty!

:D
 
May just take a little trial and error to learn a new stove.
 
Yes, there is a bit of difference with this type of stove but the learning curve is pretty short. Sounds like you have things going your way already. Congratulations.

On our stove, starting from a cold stove the temperature goes up steadily but once the cat is engaged, the temperature really shoots up fast. Very nice.
 
Another possibility for those that sweep top to bottom into the stove: Creosote left in the stove "downstream" from the cat can smolder (or even ignite). Some stove designs are more difficult than others to get at the sweeping residue. The smoking shouldn't last too long on a properly functioning stove, but it could explain why the first fire or two after a sweeping would still smoke when the cat is engaged.
 
drozenski said:
Well i got it working last night.

About 15-20 minutes later the ting took off. My stove top temps shot up to about 675-690

I looked at my chimney and not 1 lick of smoke.



Oh and boy did my house get toasty!

:D
Click to expand...

So what did you do to get it working?
 
daleeper said:
drozenski said:
Well i got it working last night.

About 15-20 minutes later the ting took off. My stove top temps shot up to about 675-690

I looked at my chimney and not 1 lick of smoke.



Oh and boy did my house get toasty!

:D
Click to expand...

So what did you do to get it working?
Click to expand...

+1. What did you do?

I miss using a catalytic stove. My Oslo without cat puts out way more smoke than my Jotul Firelight cat ever did. I have to clean the flue for the Oslo way more often than I did the Firelight.
 
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