Cat question?

[ohlongarm]

Is the cat temp any indicator of anything important? By that I mean why is the cat sometimes at 14 or 16 hundred *and other times just cruises a long time at 6 or 8 hundred*.Sometimes it's red hot other times usually when at 6,7,8,nothing glowing,is it getting tired,need cleaning or just part of normal operations.

 

[ddddddden]

I think it's a function of how much smoke the wood is giving off at any particular time.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Also makes a big difference how dry the wood is and if you have the blowers running.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yes, sometimes our cat will really glow bright red so we know it is kicking out lots of heat but that is also shown by the stove top temperature. Other times there is no red showing but with the temperature rise it has to be doing some work. I have noticed there can be a big difference depending upon the size of the coal bed. If we have a good hot coal bed the cat usually lights off really fast but with a very low coal bed, that is when we have some problems getting the heat up quickly and the cat doesn't like to show us much red either.