What the heck is going on here?

[EatenByLimestone]

I lit the stove, and brought it up to temperature. It took a long time, I'm not sure what the rest of you do to get the stove up to temp fast. After it hit 600, I flipped the bypass door and routed the gasses through the baffles and a cat that didn't seem to work. Well, I think the cat lit off tonight because the upper surface probe is 1000 degrees. It's a shame in a way that it lit off. I ordered a new cat from stovecombustors last night. How quick are they at shipping them out? I guess I have an extra...

So here is the odd thing. When I saw the 1K being hit, I opened up the cat air intake and appearantly cooled the thing down since it's about 800 now. The stove pipe is reading a scorching 150 degrees and the sidewall is reading 200.

The stove really isn't throwing any heat either. What gives? What am I doing wrong? or right for that matter. Why isn't my stove pipe or stove sides showing or radiating any heat?

Matt

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I had mostly coals in the stove, so when the cat probe dropped down below 700 I opened the bypass and threw in another oak log. Now my sidewall temps and stove pipe temps are coming up... and the stove is starting to throw some heat. why/how could the temp be so high yet not throw any heat? Could it have been the fuel?

When the probe hits 600 again I'll flip the bypass and try again, but what gives here?

 

[Corie]

Remember the temperature in the cat combustor chamber doesn't necessarily reflect the temperature of the stove body. Was that 600 degree reading from the stove body, or from the cat combustor thermometer?

Although unadvisable, I've gotten rip roaring fires going where the cat was wrongly engaged and operating before the body panels were above 250 degrees. This is generally a bad idea, but you get the point. It isn't impossible to get the cat to light off before the entire stove body is up to operating temperature, but it is a bad idea. You should let everything come to realtively steady state operating temp before engaging the cat.

Not sure if that's the problem at all though....

 

[Corey]

Two things come to mind.

1) What are you measuring the temps with? If you are using a non contact IR thermometer, there may be substantial differences in the emissivity between the stove top and the stove pipe - this can throw the readings off if you have not calibrated for the difference.

2) I don't have a cat stove so this may be different, but I find my stove gets hotter when I close down the air some. It seems that when the stove is burning "wide open" the heat is flushing up the flue so fast that it hardly has time to warm the stove or flue. When I damper down the stove, things start to heat up because the flue gasses are moving more slowly and have a chance to heat up the surfaces they pass by.

Corey

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I was measuring with magnetic thermometers. I let the stove heat up as it normally would. It probably took about an hour for the probe above the cat to reach 600. At 600 I closed the baffle and routed all the exhaust through the cat. I didn't think the cat was working but wanted to pull the last bit of heat I could out of the exhaust. I had to run upstairs to help the wife and when I came down the cat had engaged. It was running 1000deg. I read in the manual that the cat air supply should be opened at this time so I did. I also noticed that the stove side thermometer was reading only 200 degrees. The stove pipe only 150.

As I fiddled with it, the temp started dropping. I ended up adding more wood. This brought the stove side temp to 300. The cat was as high as 1400 last night before I bypassed it for a bit to cool it back down. I obviously don't have the experience yet and don't want to hurt it. The stove pipe never read above 200 unless I was reloading and bypassing the cat. In which it would read 300. My pipe can't be reading correctly. Gas comes out the cat at 1000K+, hits the probe and cooktop and makes a 90 degree bend. About 9 inches back it hits the stove pipe and makes an exit straight up. There is no way that the gas is only running 150-200 degrees. The stove has no way to pull that much heat out of the gas that fast. It's all single walled pipe and I have used 2 magnetic thermometers to verify temperature... One made by Rutland and the other from Condor. I guess this is one of the unique qualities of my system?



Matt

 

[tradergordo]

It does sound pretty strange to me (but I also do not have a cat stove). Could it be possible that your CAT thermometer is not working correctly (for some reason showing higher temps than it should)?

I was measuring with magnetic thermometers. I let the stove heat up as it normally would. It probably took about an hour for the probe above the cat to reach 600. At 600 I closed the baffle and routed all the exhaust through the cat. I didn't think the cat was working but wanted to pull the last bit of heat I could out of the exhaust. I had to run upstairs to help the wife and when I came down the cat had engaged. It was running 1000deg. I read in the manual that the cat air supply should be opened at this time so I did. I also noticed that the stove side thermometer was reading only 200 degrees. The stove pipe only 150.

As I fiddled with it, the temp started dropping. I ended up adding more wood. This brought the stove side temp to 300. The cat was as high as 1400 last night before I bypassed it for a bit to cool it back down. I obviously don't have the experience yet and don't want to hurt it. The stove pipe never read above 200 unless I was reloading and bypassing the cat. In which it would read 300. My pipe can't be reading correctly. Gas comes out the cat at 1000K+, hits the probe and cooktop and makes a 90 degree bend. About 9 inches back it hits the stove pipe and makes an exit straight up. There is no way that the gas is only running 150-200 degrees. The stove has no way to pull that much heat out of the gas that fast. It's all single walled pipe and I have used 2 magnetic thermometers to verify temperature... One made by Rutland and the other from Condor. I guess this is one of the unique qualities of my system?



Matt

 

[elkimmeg]

I have had rutland stove top vent pipe thermo stick meaning the indicator plain did not move I tap them and instantly they moved Ihad them also stick reading ther highest temps when the stove is almost finnished burning. that why I monitor my stoves with more than one They are not exac.

as for the combustor temps it takes 1000 or more degrees to ignite smoke being over 1000 degrees is not uncomon within the combustor compartment