Now that the cat in my DW stove is broken into pieces, I can’t keep a fire for more than a couple of hours. It’s been staying cold here especially at night, so I load it up as normal and in the morning there aren’t even any coals left to start another fire. I’ve always believed the honeycomb in the cat acted like a torturous path (or flue damper) that kept the supply air in check, providing a nice long fire when turned all the way down. I realize that my old stove probably isn’t as air tight as it was when I bought it. But my cat just recently showed signs of being broken so at the beginning and middle of the season I wasn’t experiencing this problem. Now that I’ve bought the PE T5 I’m wondering how the long burns discussed here are achieved. It seems to me that there is a direct path to the stove pipe. What is happening inside the PE to: #1. Prevent the chimney draft from sucking in clean air and burning up the wood? and #2. How does the stove achieve such long burn times?