Opening Damper = Cooler Stove

[leeave96]

Kind of sort of...

Loaded up the Keystone last night, dampered down, cat lit-off bright orange, stove top started moving up past 650 degrees heading towards 700 - no flames in the firebox.

The natural reflex is to shut the damper down to cool the stove - but the right thing is to open the damper and deprive the cat of smoke, getting some flames to burn it.

So I opened the damper to about 1.5 from .75, flames got going quickly, cat started to dim somewhat, stove top temp maxed out at about 680 degrees and began to fall. Once the downward stove top temp started, I dampered down to 1 and the stove cruised at 550 for a long steady burn.

Love these Woodstock cat stoves - very controllable, no surpirses.

Bill

 

[Todd]

Yeah, I do the same thing when my stoves get too hot. So far I haven't come close to that 700 temp on either Keystone, but the old Fireview did it pretty often on a low cat burn.

 

[kayakkeith]

That seems to be my learning curve as well this year with a new chimney. I can easily red line it with temps at 750 - after some questions on here it seems I found out the same thing. Right now its cruising at 650 and I have it set at 1. It will stay there for awhile then slowly drop rest of day. Its warmer here today so probably wont reload until late afternoon. All that I know is this year the gas bills are extremely low as its mainly for hot water and we have a tankless unit

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That all sounds very familiar Bill. Glad you have things under control.