Yup, we have all had that moment of memory lapse. Mine was a major brain fart.
Last night I loaded 4 splits in the fireview, got distracted and closed down the bypass into cat mode. Kicker is I forgot to close down the air, it was wide open.
I was upstairs working on an office project and the room seemed warmer than usual, first clue. Wife comes home an hour later and says "the stove sure smells funny and the chimney was a bit smokey"
I said "oh crap" ran down stairs to see my stack temp was in the 500's, all the wood was almost to coals. Stove top 650 and the sides were in the 500's. Side door was at 950!
I got it cooled down in a hurry, but those are hot temps ! Needless to say, everything in the stove was squeaky clean. Fortunately there was no evidence of any chimney fire that I can tell. I am guessing the temps were even higher pre-burning down to coals.
Ceramic Cat survived just fine, only ill effect is that my loading door gasket lost a touch of tension, easy fix.
That is one tough rock I must say.
Last night I loaded 4 splits in the fireview, got distracted and closed down the bypass into cat mode. Kicker is I forgot to close down the air, it was wide open.
I was upstairs working on an office project and the room seemed warmer than usual, first clue. Wife comes home an hour later and says "the stove sure smells funny and the chimney was a bit smokey"
I said "oh crap" ran down stairs to see my stack temp was in the 500's, all the wood was almost to coals. Stove top 650 and the sides were in the 500's. Side door was at 950!
I got it cooled down in a hurry, but those are hot temps ! Needless to say, everything in the stove was squeaky clean. Fortunately there was no evidence of any chimney fire that I can tell. I am guessing the temps were even higher pre-burning down to coals.
Ceramic Cat survived just fine, only ill effect is that my loading door gasket lost a touch of tension, easy fix.
That is one tough rock I must say.