Your stove normal temperature?

[Woody Stover]

400° air opened 1/3 cat at 1300° but it's only 40° outside tonightView attachment 187484
She can go 7 hours easy with a half load, haven't had a reason to load up a full load yet, where the hell is the cold weather

7 hrs. on a half-load of marshmallows...that's impressive. Say nothing more about the weather, please; I'm loving it! I've only burned one small fire, and I didn't even need that really. The house has been at least 66 in the morning, and gains a couple of degrees during the day, probably because of the sunshine and warm basement earth temps.
Once my little (1.5 cu.ft.) Keystone is cruising with the air set at .3 on a scale of 4.0, will peak at about 500 give or take over the cat, about an hour into the burn. It will then slowly taper down to about 200 over the next six or seven hours. If I want, I can open up the air on the coals and get back up over 250 for another hour or more. This is on a load of Red Oak. On White Oak, Hickory, Dogwood or Black Locust I can stretch that burn out a bit more.

 

[redyute]

Just want to point out that your "half load " of compressed bricks is not equal to half load of our average seasoned wood. Those brick burn hotter and longer due to low moisture content. Spent one year burning it and miss it. Nothing beats free wood , though.

Yeah I got all mixed oak css one year not ready to burn so I'm burning those bricks this season. I do have some dry gum that does pretty good for heat but it's not much, I got tired of it twisting up in thevery splitter so I said screw it

 

[kennyp2339]

Yeah I got all mixed oak css one year not ready to burn so I'm burning those bricks this season

Ive burnt those bricks also and actually like them, I would burn them all the time is the wood I get wasn't free either.

 

[redyute]

7 hrs. on a half-load of marshmallows...that's impressive. Say nothing more about the weather, please; I'm loving it! I've only burned one small fire, and I didn't even need that really. The house has been at least 66 in the morning, and gains a couple of degrees during the day, probably because of the sunshine and warm basement earth temps.
Once my little (1.5 cu.ft.) Keystone is cruising with the air set at .3 on a scale of 4.0, will peak at about 500 give or take over the cat, about an hour into the burn. It will then slowly taper down to about 200 over the next six or seven hours. If I want, I can open up the air on the coals and get back up over 250 for another hour or more. This is on a load of Red Oak. On White Oak, Hickory, Dogwood or Black Locust I can stretch that burn out a bit more.

Still got lots to learn with this new stove they advertise 8 to 12 hour burn, I think with a well packed full load I might just be able to get that time out of it

 

[Dmitry]

Still got lots to learn with this new stove they advertise 8 to 12 hour burn, I think with a well packed full load I might just be able to get that time out of it

This is as good as it gets. You are not going to dry your wood to consistent 6% or so. And you are not going to be able to pack it tight because of unique shape of every piece of wood.

WARNING: Don't pack full load tight as you've suggested above. Its easy to over fire your stove this way. Add little by little to get a grip on it.

 

[redyute]

WARNING: Don't pack full load tight as you've suggested above. Its easy to over fire your stove this way. Add little by little to get a grip on it.[/QUOTE]

The manual says packing it tight yields longer burn time I keep an eye on the cat temp and keep her under 1500°. But yeah I have noticed with the size of my splits I won't be able to get it tight. Need to start splitting smaller.

 

[Dmitry]

The manual means seasoned wood of different species with moisture below 20% or so. Not compressed wood with moisture of 6%.

Let's put it this way . BIo bricks manufacturer claims that one tone yields the same amount of BTU as one cord of wood . One cord of wood is much bigger in volume than one ton of biobricks.
Just be careful , especially without knowing the real temperature , just reading from your door thermometer.

 

[redyute]

The manual means seasoned wood of different species with moisture below 20% or so. Not compressed wood with moisture of 6%.

Let's put it this way . BIo bricks manufacturer claims that one tone yields the same amount of BTU as one cord of wood . One cord of wood is much bigger in volume than one ton of biobricks.
Just be careful , especially without knowing the real temperature , just reading from your door thermometer.

Oh by all means I'm referring to seasoned wood not the bricks lol.I'm not gonna load her up with a full load of bricks not at all. I've been mixing some half season red oak with some good results, last night I put 10 bricks in alone just to see how they burned, they're not that big and the air was turned down pretty low

 

[Woody Stover]

400° air opened 1/3 cat at 1300°

I see the cat probe, but where have you got the stove meter?

 

[redyute]

I see the cat probe, but where have you got the stove meter?

I use infrared thermometer

 

[begreen]

The manual means seasoned wood of different species with moisture below 20% or so. Not compressed wood with moisture of 6%.

Let's put it this way . BIo bricks manufacturer claims that one tone yields the same amount of BTU as one cord of wood . One cord of wood is much bigger in volume than one ton of biobricks.
Just be careful , especially without knowing the real temperature , just reading from your door thermometer.

Yes, having instrumentation is important, especially when learning new fuel behavior. Note that burning instructions vary with the compressed block manufacturer. One should not overfill the stove, but packing tightly is recommended by some companies. When I tested BioBricks and ECO bricks I packed the stove tightly (13 bricks in an F400) as per instructions with alternating row orientation, so that there were minimal air gaps between bricks. The fires lasted long and never overheated the stove.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/biobricks/
http://originalbiobricks.com/howtoburn

 

[heavy hammer]

What are good probe temps to have for a cat stove my sequoia usually stays between 600 to 800 once the air is dialed back. The highest I've seen so far is 1000. I'm just curious because I see others on here getting 1300 plus temps. I know I'm in the proper burn zone just wondering if each stove can vary, or if I'm dialing it back to soon. Any insight would be great.

 

[Woody Stover]

What are good probe temps to have for a cat stove my sequoia usually stays between 600 to 800 once the air is dialed back. The highest I've seen so far is 1000. I'm just curious because I see others on here getting 1300 plus temps. I know I'm in the proper burn zone just wondering if each stove can vary, or if I'm dialing it back to soon.

All you can do is burn a new load in a little more to get a little more wood gassing, and see what happens. Or run with a slightly higher air setting, and see what it does...

 

[redyute]

What are good probe temps to have for a cat stove my sequoia usually stays between 600 to 800 once the air is dialed back. The highest I've seen so far is 1000. I'm just curious because I see others on here getting 1300 plus temps. I know I'm in the proper burn zone just wondering if each stove can vary, or if I'm dialing it back to soon. Any insight would be great.

You need the cat to be hot to burn the smoke, I regulate mine at 1300° to me 800° is warm up temp right there. I'm a mechanic by profession and the cat on cars serve the same purpose they get hot in excess of 1200° that's where they are most efficient. Now you can overheat the cat and damage it to, but I think following manufacturers recommendations is always best

 

[heavy hammer]

I figured it was a learning game. Since I'm new to using a cat stove just trying to figure out the best way to burn it. As long as I'm in the correct burn zone it should be good correct?

 

[redyute]

I figured it was a learning game. Since I'm new to using a cat stove just trying to figure out the best way to burn it. As long as I'm in the correct burn zone it should be good correct?

Me and you both lol, I monitor the cat temps like a hawk I saw 1500° last night and turned it down but the manual says under 2000° is safe but don't think I will let her go past 1500°

 

[heavy hammer]

Every manufacturer must be a little different kuma recommends not getting over 1400 for their cat. All the manual says is get up to 600 to activate the cat and keep under 1400 by adjusting the air. Like I said earlier just trying to figure out the learning curve.

 

[redyute]

Correction the manual does not say keep it under 2000° I just wen back through it and this is all they say

After the temperature in the catalyst has reached operating temperature (500°F), push the Catalyst Bypass (top center handle) closed to engage catalyst. 6. You can now further control the burn rate by leaving both Dampers 100% open for high burn, open 50% for a medium burn, or open 25% for a slow burn. 7. It blower toggle switch is in the “Therm” position, it will come on automatically after temperature at the thermostat reaches 100°F. Regulate heat by adjusting fan speed with rheostat and adjusting burn as described above in Step 6.

The cat temp probe say normal operating temp is from 500° to 1700°

 

[heavy hammer]

So we're pretty much at the same with the info given to us. The temp are about the same, adjusting the burn rate the same.

 

[Woody Stover]

Every manufacturer must be a little different kuma recommends not getting over 1400 for their cat. All the manual says is get up to 600 to activate the cat and keep under 1400 by adjusting the air. Like I said earlier just trying to figure out the learning curve.

That sounds like a good range. I would go outside when the cat is running at various temps, and look at the stack. I don't like to see any smoke coming out, and run my cats accordingly.

 

[heavy hammer]

I have been trying to keep an eye on that as well thanks for the info. I usually see no smoke just the heat vapors coming out of the chimney. I figure that I have to have something working right.