2023/24 VC owners thread general discussion

[Woodsplitter67]

Metal cat showing signs of distress..... been about 1.25 seasons. About the samelife I get out of my cremics.
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looks factory new...

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Plus you just refreshed your stove with new gaskets etc. so that could be a helping factor.

Come on man.. Let me think that Iv gotten better over the years..

 

[nortcan]

Metal cat showing signs of distress..... been about 1.25 seasons. About the samelife I get out of my cremics.
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What is your top of the stove temperature when you engage the cat and after a while of burning, what is the temp. on the stove ? What is the max. temp you get the stove at for a steady burn time ?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

What is your top of the stove temperature when you engage the cat and after a while of burning, what is the temp. on the stove ? What is the max. temp you get the stove at for a steady burn time ?

So most of this is in the manual. The majority of us are closing the bypass at around 500/550 degrees

After the bypass is closed and the catalyst is engaged the stove top temperature (STT) will vary.. Obviously due to where the primary air setting is and how much wood is in it. With my stove the STT can be as little at 350 degrees with the aire all the way back. or I can run a STT of 625 with a half load of oak in the box and the air turned up.

This is pretty much the same for any stove .. the more wood and air the higher the STT turn the air all the way back the STT will drop..

There is no max temperature for a steady burn. You can burn steady as long as you have enough wood in the stove. The duration of the burn will have alot to do with the air setting

If you really want to get technical about this, a steady burn has more to do with the quality of wood that your using. For example, Poplar has about 14 million BTUs per cord VS willow oak that has 30 million BTUs per cord. If you load your stove full with either of them your burn times will be completely different. This has everything to do with the density of the wood. With popular your wood density is alot less. So comparing the 2 species of wood above. If you wanted to maintain a STT of 575 degrees with the popular your primary air setting would need to be higher then the air setting for the willow oak, altering the duration of the burn

To be direct.. there is no standard temperature for a steady burn.. When we do overnight burns the stove temperature will vary to some degree depending on what part of the burn cycle. It can be as low as 350 degrees or as high as 550/600 With the stove fully loaded and the air all the way back I can easily get 10 hours out of my stove Ive gotten over 15 hours with a load of white oak and hickory mix.

 

[arnermd]

What is your top of the stove temperature when you engage the cat and after a while of burning, what is the temp. on the stove ? What is the max. temp you get the stove at for a steady burn time ?

Agree with all that @Woodsplitter67 said above.

• Generally my key for closing the cat is flue gas temp > 650
  • Note I am measuring exhaust gas temp inside the pipe 14" above the stove top, not pipe wall temps
  • If the stove is cold I will push temps to 700 - 750. Sometimes I need to double clutch it (open the damper for a bit then re-close it) because the exhaust temp crashes.
• Usually the STT is about 450-500 but that is not what I key off of for engaging the cat
• During the burn, griddle temps vary from 350 - 600 depending on the size of the load and stage of the burn and air setting
• I generally don't pay much attention to STT for controlling the stove. I watch the cat temps a lot more and feel the heat coming off the stove.
• You can see all this info in my plots in previous posts. If you have questions let me know.

 

[Eman85]

Metal cat showing signs of distress..... been about 1.25 seasons. About the samelife I get out of my cremics.
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That's surprising that they distress that much. I put pics of my ceramic cat about the same amount of use and the ceramic looked fine. My frame had distortion on one side, I wonder why one side does that?
My stove's gotten a break here lately, pretty warm and wet here 50's at night so the heat pump takes care of it.

 

[nortcan]

Agree with all that @Woodsplitter67 said above.

• Generally my key for closing the cat is flue gas temp > 650
  • Note I am measuring exhaust gas temp inside the pipe 14" above the stove top, not pipe wall temps
  • If the stove is cold I will push temps to 700 - 750. Sometimes I need to double clutch it (open the damper for a bit then re-close it) because the exhaust temp crashes.
• Usually the STT is about 450-500 but that is not what I key off of for engaging the cat
• During the burn, griddle temps vary from 350 - 600 depending on the size of the load and stage of the burn and air setting
• I generally don't pay much attention to STT for controlling the stove. I watch the cat temps a lot more and feel the heat coming off the stove.
• You can see all this info in my plots in previous posts. If you have questions let me know.

Just to know, when cat is engaged and sove is burning , have you ever been outside to see if smoke was coming out of the chimney , and repeat that check up a few times, jus a curious question cause for many yrs, with some VC and hearthstone cat stoves, I was surprised to see the results....so I decided to have a better observation vue LOL...

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Just to know, when cat is engaged and sove is burning , have you ever been outside to see if smoke was coming out of the chimney , and repeat that check up a few times, jus a curious question cause for many yrs, with some VC and hearthstone cat stoves, I was surprised to see the results....so I decided to have a better observation vue LOL...

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Verry little do I check for smoke.. sometimes I look to see how the catalyst is doing by checking the smoke or lack of, and Im only doing this to see how the life of my cat is. Your catalyst temperature is really what your should be looking at. Not many people use the bimetal but have switched to a digital probe... with actual temperatures .. I dont really need to look outside when my digital probe is saying over 1000 degrees.. its clean.. when the probe is saying 550.. the catalyst is starting to light off.. If your running a stove with a bi-metal thermometer.. your kinda running the stove blind as the bimetal is really slow to show temperature and it not really accurate... no matter the brand.. unless its a fireX.. which come digital from the factory ..

 

[arnermd]

That's surprising that they distress that much. I put pics of my ceramic cat about the same amount of use and the ceramic looked fine. My frame had distortion on one side, I wonder why one side does that?
My stove's gotten a break here lately, pretty warm and wet here 50's at night so the heat pump takes care of it.

1700F cat temps does not help.....

 

[arnermd]

Just to know, when cat is engaged and sove is burning , have you ever been outside to see if smoke was coming out of the chimney , and repeat that check up a few times, jus a curious question cause for many yrs, with some VC and hearthstone cat stoves, I was surprised to see the results....so I decided to have a better observation vue LOL...

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Is that a camera monitoring your exhaust stack? If so, you are obsessed my friend, hahaha.... you are in the right place and in good company.

I am with @Woodsplitter67 again on this one, I rarely check. I have had mixed results checking.... I have seen smoke with the cat at 1400 numerous times. Most of the time it shows nothing when the cat is over 1200. For me it has not been that reliable. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between steam and smoke.

I have a TC probe in the exhaust stack, i will pull that out and check once in a while. If I have been burning dirty it will come out black, crusty and gummy. If I have been burning clean it will come out clean or a light coating slightly brownish.

 

[Eman85]

I can easily see my chimney and cap from my back deck single story house. I'll see smoke and or steam if the cat is below 1000 and some times when it's over 1000. But once it's into full burn I usually don't see anything but heat waves. Cap will get some black gunk at times around the rim. My neighbors probably don't think I burn often since there's rarely smoke. I can tell all of the time when my 2 neighbors are burning.

 

[GrumpyDad]

These warm outside temperatures have me scratching my head.
For some reason recently, my low temp burns are just puking creosote on the glass and inside the stove. I guess Im lowering it down too much, but the cat is still active and the stove is still generating enough heat to bake me out of the room. It is just too warm outside to have a hot fire to burn that creosote off.
I cleaned this weekend, everything looks good. The cat had a tiny bit of ash on it but nothing worth mentioning, and is in good shape. Flue looked pretty good.
My problem is, if I let it burn another 50 degrees warmer at 400STT I wont have this problem but that still warms the room too much. If I let the stove cool during the day, then it's almost too cold. It just needs a little fire. So my only solution is to throw one or two small splits in at a time, but that isnt enough to clear the glass.

 

[arnermd]

These warm outside temperatures have me scratching my head.
For some reason recently, my low temp burns are just puking creosote on the glass and inside the stove. I guess Im lowering it down too much, but the cat is still active and the stove is still generating enough heat to bake me out of the room. It is just too warm outside to have a hot fire to burn that creosote off.
I cleaned this weekend, everything looks good. The cat had a tiny bit of ash on it but nothing worth mentioning, and is in good shape. Flue looked pretty good.
My problem is, if I let it burn another 50 degrees warmer at 400STT I wont have this problem but that still warms the room too much. If I let the stove cool during the day, then it's almost too cold. It just needs a little fire. So my only solution is to throw one or two small splits in at a time, but that isnt enough to clear the glass.

Your house have windows? hahaha....

I had to cook on the stove for my Superbowl chili and baked beans this weekend. Of course it was the warmest it has been in months. Opened all the windows and burned one log at a time. Worked out fine.

 

[sargeott]

These warm outside temperatures have me scratching my head.
For some reason recently, my low temp burns are just puking creosote on the glass and inside the stove. I guess Im lowering it down too much, but the cat is still active and the stove is still generating enough heat to bake me out of the room. It is just too warm outside to have a hot fire to burn that creosote off.
I cleaned this weekend, everything looks good. The cat had a tiny bit of ash on it but nothing worth mentioning, and is in good shape. Flue looked pretty good.
My problem is, if I let it burn another 50 degrees warmer at 400STT I wont have this problem but that still warms the room too much. If I let the stove cool during the day, then it's almost too cold. It just needs a little fire. So my only solution is to throw one or two small splits in at a time, but that isnt enough to clear the glass.

Maybe just yell at it louder or more. I hear that helps.

 

[arnermd]

Metal cat showing signs of distress..... been about 1.25 seasons. About the samelife I get out of my cremics.
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I think my metal cat is toast. Last few loads I can't get cat temps over 800F. Even with air full open and 3/4 load it won't go. Had STT up to 600 and still no light off on a couple loads in a row. Swapped it out for my ceramic and it lit off nice, 1300 -1400 in no time.

I will try another vinegar wash but I am not hopeful.

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

I can easily see my chimney and cap from my back deck single story house. I'll see smoke and or steam if the cat is below 1000 and some times when it's over 1000. But once it's into full burn I usually don't see anything but heat waves. Cap will get some black gunk at times around the rim. My neighbors probably don't think I burn often since there's rarely smoke. I can tell all of the time when my 2 neighbors are burning.

I feel the same way. I burn 3x as much as my neighbors but my stack never looks like it's burning and theirs smoke all day.

 

[AsylumResident]

Agree with all that @Woodsplitter67 said above.

• Generally my key for closing the cat is flue gas temp > 650
  • Note I am measuring exhaust gas temp inside the pipe 14" above the stove top, not pipe wall temps
  • If the stove is cold I will push temps to 700 - 750. Sometimes I need to double clutch it (open the damper for a bit then re-close it) because the exhaust temp crashes.
• Usually the STT is about 450-500 but that is not what I key off of for engaging the cat
• During the burn, griddle temps vary from 350 - 600 depending on the size of the load and stage of the burn and air setting
• I generally don't pay much attention to STT for controlling the stove. I watch the cat temps a lot more and feel the heat coming off the stove.
• You can see all this info in my plots in previous posts. If you have questions let me know.

This post is exactly how I would have responded. My stove and how it operates is pretty much exactly the same as yours.

 

[AsylumResident]

I cleaned out my flue last weekend. I have probably burned close to 3 cord of wood and they wasn't much coming out of the flue. The cap has some crustys on it but other than that it was some black/gray fluffy stuff.

 

[arnermd]

I think my metal cat is toast. Last few loads I can't get cat temps over 800F. Even with air full open and 3/4 load it won't go. Had STT up to 600 and still no light off on a couple loads in a row. Swapped it out for my ceramic and it lit off nice, 1300 -1400 in no time.

I will try another vinegar wash but I am not hopeful.

I usually get a gallon or so of stuff out, once a year, 4 cords.

Put the ceramic cat in with a half load of ash and we were off to the races.... 1650 on the cat and 1100 on the flue.

Back to normal..... sigh.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I cleaned out my flue last weekend. I have probably burned close to 3 cord of wood and they wasn't much coming out of the flue. The cap has some crustys on it but other than that it was some black/gray fluffy stuff.

This sounds great.. I normally get less then 2 cups of material during my cleanout. Its a graphite looking color.. I get some black crusty guys on the cap.. did you take a picture..

 

[AsylumResident]

This sounds great.. I normally get less then 2 cups of material during my cleanout. Its a graphite looking color.. I get some black crusty guys on the cap.. did you take a picture..

I did not take a picture of the cap but I did take a picture of what came out. Probably about half a gallon total.

 

[AsylumResident]

Now looking at that picture, not only is there no snow on the ground but the grass is still green! Just a crazy 'winter' for Northeast Wisconsin.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

next time see of you can get an up close picture of the material.. it looks a little dark.. but the material is also a little rar away.. good job on the cleanup.. your moving along you first year for sure

 

[skb31]

Getting a bit better at managing my Encore 2040 cat. Got two Auber meters including the cat one which is helping me learn. I’ll be getting a damper just in case before next season. Not comfortable fully loading the stove but that’s ok.

Current temps are STT 500 and cat is 1100 nearing the later part of this burn. I mostly lurk and have read a bunch so thanks to you all for the info. It doesn’t go unnoticed. I don’t have a lot to contribute yet as my noobery would show!

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Getting a bit better at managing my Encore 2040 cat. Got two Auber meters including the cat one which is helping me learn. I’ll be getting a damper just in case before next season. Not comfortable fully loading the stove but that’s ok.

Current temps are STT 500 and cat is 1100 nearing the later part of this burn. I mostly lurk and have read a bunch so thanks to you all for the info. It doesn’t go unnoticed. I don’t have a lot to contribute yet as my noobery would show!

welcome aboard