What my stove is up to at the moment.

[HotCoals]

2/3 load about 4 hours into it.
T-stat is all the way down.
39F outside..74 in the next room..house is pretty even.
Just thought I would share.
3 seasons on cat and stove.
Ash 2 years seasoned.

 

[Highbeam]

2/3 load about 4 hours into it.
T-stat is all the way down.
39F outside..74 in the next room..house is pretty even.
Just thought I would share.
3 seasons on cat and stove.
Ash 2 years seasoned.

Looks familiar, I can't do it with stat all the way down but that is the same low burn behavior. Even flue temps are the same.

Non-cat people might freak out thinking that the stove top is 540. Well, it is, but the rest of the stove is much colder than a non-cat would be at the same top temps. The cat is the heat source, not the fire.

 

[bag of hammers]

The cat is the heat source, not the fire.

You know, as dumb as this probably sounds, I probably read a thousand posts on cat stoves before I clued into that (as someone who's never run a cat stove). .

 

[Todd]

Yeah, when my little Keystone is in a low cat burn the top center stone can top off at 700 while the sides are only around 300. A good box burn with flame gives a much more overall even stove temp with much more heat.

 

[eclecticcottage]

Non-cat people might freak out thinking that the stove top is 540.

Why would we freak out? My stove (top) will hit 700 easy and cruises around 600/650.

 

[jeff_t]

Why would we freak out? My stove (top) will hit 700 easy and cruises around 600/650.

My stove will be 500° over the top of the cat, but a few inches away it is 200° cooler. A box full of smoldering fuel isn't generating a lot of heat, most of it comes from the cat. That is what makes it such a good, low output, shoulder season heater. Add some air so there is a lively flame, and the whole stove gets hot, and a bunch of radiant heat pours out of the glass.

'Freak out' probably isn't the best term.

 

[Highbeam]

Why would we freak out? My stove (top) will hit 700 easy and cruises around 600/650.

Since this is "low burn" if that stove put out as much heat as a non-cat at 550 for 40 hours, it would have to be some sort of perpetual motion machine. That low 550 stove top temp represents a low output for the BK.

In my non-cat days I used soapstone and the only way to get to 550 was with intense full throttle and small wood. Really running hard.

Perhaps freak out was a bit too strong of a term. I believe that there is this misconception that the BKs must run at like 200 degrees and not make any heat in order to have such long burn times.

 

[BrotherBart]

In your new non-cat days the 30-NC will have no problem getting to 550.

 

[Highbeam]

In your new non-cat days the 30-NC will have no problem getting to 550.

I need one of those fancy IR guns. Too easy to burn my fat fingers plucking the surface meter off of one thing to go measure another.

 

[BrotherBart]

I need one of those fancy IR guns. Too easy to burn my fat fingers plucking the surface meter off of one thing to go measure another.

Yeah and it scratches up the paint on the stove.

 

[velvetfoot]

Here is what my stove has been up to lately:

 

[HotCoals]

24 hours later I still had 3 or 4 decent size pieces of wood left,a lot of coals left.
Cat was inactive but stove top was still around 250..house at 72.
Another 2/3 load and do it all over again.
Reloading at night works great for me..need more heat at night.

And get this..all without a cat gasket!
I got home later tonight but the new gaskets from FireCat were here...btw fast free shipping and it was boxed up nice...but maybe I'll put the new gasket in tomorrow night if it's cooled down enough before I go to bed.
I know I probably should not have ran it without it but there still was nothing for smoke really.

 

[aansorge]

Here is what my stove has been up to lately:

View attachment 115530

When did you load...around 7:30 both days?

 

[velvetfoot]

When did you load...around 7:30 both days?

You can see where I started the fire in the am, around 5:30 both days, during the day, and in the evening on the first day. Today it doesn't look like morning load resulted in that much of a spike, but a long decay. Typically, you can see it spike when loaded, and then a long decay.

 

[HotCoals]

Well I put the new gasket in and she's back up and running with about the same 2/3 load.
It will be interesting to me to see if it acts diff.
Only thing is I filled it at noon instead of 8 in the evening...so this time I don't want to put wood in it again till maybe 8 tomorrow night. That would be 32 hours.
Maybe I should put a few more pieces in..lol.

 

[Highbeam]

In your new non-cat days the 30-NC will have no problem getting to 550.

Uh yeah, within the first 15 minutes the stove top was at 650. You were right that steel non-cats get hot.

 

[HotCoals]

Well now it's 3 hours into this load and she is hotter.
No smoke at all out of chimney.
So I conclude the gasket does make a diff..of course all you guys new that already..and so did I..lol.

http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p696/DaveCarnell/HP8100E/Pictures/2013-10-24/007_zps5273b870.jpg