new to site, have a couple of questins

[fastale]

Hi, so glad that there are forums out there...

first year burning a new stove and I have a couple of questions that I couldn't find the answers to via google. I have a VC defiant and love it. I would like some help from those with experience.

My temperature drops when I engage the catalytic converter, this seems wrong from what I have seen researching. Is it clogged and needs replaced? I get it up to about 600 degrees after start up and it will drop 100 degrees after I ingage the unit in about an hour. I also have a small amount of "whoofing" after the initial engaement.

I guess this is probably the best question to start with considering it is probably my biggest concern. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

Welcome Fastale. Is the stove new, or new to you? Is the chimney clean (including the cap/mesh)? Is your wood any different than last time/year (i.e. is it seasoned)?

 

[jharkin]

The design of the VC stoves is such that the exhaust path through the cat is significantly more restrictive then the open damper. So what happens when you close the damper is the the airflow through the stoves slows down a lot, slowing the burn. This can cool off the griddle temp a bit before the cat takes off and starts contributing a lot of heat bringing the temp back up.

So I think its ok if the temp drops at first and then comes back up after closing the damper... however I have not experienced such a drop an hour later.

Are you seeing any smoke from the chimney?
Has everything been cleaned out this year?