Achieving lift-off in the downdraft cat

[Ashful]

Like I said, I ran thru the procedure so fast this morning, I actually surprised myself. I was blown away I was hitting 1300F on the cat inside of just a few minutes. I guess this is just one more of those examples, "if it looks too good to be true..."

I am going to stick with this procedure a while, though. I just need to play with the timing a bit.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I was under the impression the light off would sustain itself. On my harman, once my downdraft lites off it is pretty much self sustaining and adds a lot of heat output to the stove. Seems like twice as much heat.

 

[Todd]

I've heard some of these down draft stoves can be pretty finicky and need a good coal bed to get going. Sounds like they are more made for 24/7 burning where you can maintain a good coal bed. I still think lots of kindling to establish quick hot coals may be the ticket during the shoulder season cold starts.

 

[Ashful]

I was under the impression the light off would sustain itself. On my harman, once my downdraft lites off it is pretty much self sustaining and adds a lot of heat output to the stove. Seems like twice as much heat.

Same here. This is my first experience with a cat above 700F pre-maturely falling out of ignition. I left the cat probe thermocouple meter on record mode, though... so I'll be able to see what it did all day, when I get home tonight.

I've heard some of these down draft stoves can be pretty finicky and need a good coal bed to get going. Sounds like they are more made for 24/7 burning where you can maintain a good coal bed. I still think lots of kindling to establish quick hot coals may be the ticket during the shoulder season cold starts.

Yep... the big fuel must be loaded on top of a 2 - 3" bed of coals, which does make for more work with non-continuous shoulder-season firing. However, this morning's particular failure was when reloading on a big coal bed... I think I just rushed it way too fast. I'm guessing I won't be able to repeat what I did if I try.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I can get into afterburn territory in under an hour from a cold stove. Not a problem in shoulder season. As long as the stovetop dont go much under 400 the afterburn stays lit,at least until wood is into the charcoal stage anyway. I usually burn 1 load a day unless its really cold out,from 10PM till about noon the next day.