Does bypassing the cat for 10 minutes after each reload waste a lot of wood and/or cause creosote?

[sksmass]

The Woodstock Fireview's manual says to bypass the cat for 10-15 minutes after each reload. The purpose of this post-reload period is to boil away any water in the wood before it goes through the cat.

During this bypassed period I can see a fair amount of grayish white smoke coming out the top of the chimney. I usually have to reduce air to ~1 to keep the flue temp down. After ten minutes I engage the cat. Then I can observe that most of the smoke from the chimney goes away (presumably burnt up in the cat, burning cleaner).

I am using really dry wood. I measured 12% in a split yesterday. During these post-reload ten minute burns I can almost see my splits getting smaller and I feel like a lot of useful BTUs are just going out the chimney needlessly.

Do you think this post-reload time should ALWAYS be 10+ minutes or do you think that you can "let the wood be the guide"? If so, how do you know if there has been enough time and it is OK to engage the cat?

Secondly, seeing the smoke come out like that when the cat is bypassed makes me think that the post-reload burn period is probably the primary source of any creosote. So it would seem like the shorter you could make that period the less opportunity there would be for creosote buildup.

What do other Woodstock owners do? Follow the 10 minute rule religiously or use some other rule of thumb depending on the wood characteristics?

 

[leeave96]

What I do is burn my splits until they are charred and the firebox is full of flames and then engage the cat. My wood is covered and dry too. So I'm not sending a lot of moisture/steam up the chimney on reload. If there is any hint of surface moisture, I burn longer before engaging the cat. So far so good - no cat damage. So to answer your question, no I don't wait 10 minutes typically. I do, however, open the damper to 4 when I reload to get the splits going sooner than later.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Todd]

I almost always go 10-15 minutes to make sure the moisture is out, warm up the chimney and get the fire and cat back in the active 500 degree range. Sometimes engaging too soon can create a stall and the cat may not fire off.

I could see if you were loading a split or two onto an already established hot fire you could probably give it a couple minutes and engage since the cat is already active. I don't burn that way, I like to burn in cycles of 1/2 to full loads til they are down to coals.

 

[NorthlandMN]

Here is what I do...

I usually wait 2-3 minutes before engaging the Cat during re-load. As you stated the manual recommends 10 minutes. A lot of people who buy new stoves don't have seasoned wood.

In my opinion waiting 10 minutes sends BTU's up the chimney with seasoned wood.