Stainless Cat cleaning w/pics

[maxed_out]

Hi Everyone, just thought I'd share the pics. Earlier last week did the mid season cleaning of our stainless cat which I added for the 09-10 burning season. This is why its a good idea to clean them in mid season. If your stove has a cat you'll see the draft/efficiency/burn really drop off if it gets partially covered with ash.

So far we've been happy with the cats performance over the ceramic cat-I can't see much difference other than I hope it lasts longer than ceramic. I was expecting to see some warping but there isnt any distortion. I didnt get a chance to actually measure the size of the holes in the stainless cat but to my eye they look smaller than the original VC ceramic cat which I think is why we'll see a little more ash buildup.

The ash was just a light coat on top and not all the way thru. All back together now and pipe temp running about 600. Much nicer burn with a clean cat.

 

[Todd]

That is a lot of ash build up. How much wood did you put through it? I usually brush mine off about every cord of wood burned and never seen anything close to that.

 

[North of 60]

This was my CAT at 3yrs with no dusting with the paint brush yet. Looks the same in the 4th but I did give it a vacuum in case any thing was laying down stream. Pine Spruce and Poplar is what I feed it.

How dry is your wood?

 

[maxed_out]

Hi, on the wood we burn mostly seasoned oak,ash,maple...PA Hardwoods. I'd guess we burned about 2 cords+- from the time I put in the new stainless cat. Right now I'm thinking that there are 2 things affecting the ash buildup. One is the draft from the chimney. Its a masonary with 8x12 tiles and it goes 25 feet plus. I built a block off plate for the stainless liner and its very tight. Theres no cap so with high winds the draft is just amazing. The other thing that could have an effect is the size of the holes in the stainless cat. They are smaller than the ceramic cat.

I've aways had fly ash but with the old cat it sat in the bottom of the stove past the refractory assy. This time there was no ash in the refractory all of it was on top of the cat.

Thoughts?

 

[Todd]

Seems strange that the ash buildup is on top of the cat. Any ash I get is on the bottom but my stove is designed different. Do you have a good tight seal around the cat so nothng can bypass?

 

[maxed_out]

"Do you have a good tight seal around the cat so nothng can bypass?"

Thats a good question...as far as I can tell we have a pretty good seal. Just replaced the refractory package earlier this year. When I cleaned the cat last week there didnt seem to be any ash in the refractory at all. It was on top of the cat as in the pic.

This is a 1990+-Vermont Castings Defiant Encore and I believe the passageway for combustion gas is out of firebox, up into the cat, down thru the cat, then back thru the exit in the refractory package to side channels then the chimney. I know this is a very controversial stove...we have learned to live with it. As an engineer, I personally think the thing is way "over engineered". It seems as though they went to a lot of trouble to pre-heat incoming air and then make the exit passageways longer to give more time for heat transfer.