2025/26 VC performance discussion thread

[Smokey Da Bears]

This is how I do it. STT, I have 3 magnetics on it in 3 different positions. Don't ask me why...I trust the one on the griddle the most. The other 2 are cheap amazon ones and they just ended up there and I kind of like it so they've stayed there. But as you can see from the picture of the stove top, they all are reading around 500 right now. I do have an IR gun, I rarely use it. But I just scanned near all 3 of those magnetics and I'm getting readings from those locations between 460-520 degrees F. If I have a left to right burn going on, I'll see the left most magnetic hotter than the other 2 which then fades as the burn progresses. Vice versa if I have a right to left thing going on, but my stove seems to almost always burn left to right.

So yesterday it was warm here, in the 40s. And I did end up taking the time to sweep my chimney, mostly soot, not a lot. I also emptied my ash pan which we'll see if that comes back to bite me or not. I put the brand new catalyst in and decided I'd light a fire this morning which I did around 5am. Colder here today in the 20s and windy. The new Cat lit off like a rocket and scared the poop out of me. The Auber was counting up by like 30 and 40 degrees at a clip which I hadn't seen in a long while. I thought ohh great, here we go - I'll be emailing midwest hearth by the end of the week. But she trailed off and hung out in the high 1200s and I was able to relax. I've been running some smaller loads today (3-4 medium splits) in consideration of that ash pan and a brand new cat. I'll probably put in a similar sized load in after dinner tonight but I'm not expecting that to heat all night and the oil will take over at some point. Stove glass is a bit boogered up but it'll either burn off or I'll clean it tomorrow.

 

[dmccoole]

Thinking the stove has been going well with the cold air so far this December, I had an interesting over night burn and afternoon burn today.

Ash pan is full, I emptied the box 2 days ago. New ceramic cat about 1 month old. Outside temps in the 20s with winds 20 mph.

At 9pm, I loaded the stove 3/4 full of med/large dry maple on a hot reload. At 1000, I turned primary down to 50%, at 1200 I turned it down to 10% open and let it go for the night. All seemed well at 11pm. I woke at 3am and noticed the cat temp was 374. So I went and checked. Stove was all black charcoal. I tried to add another split thinking it might all crumble, but had to push the split in as the box was still quite full. I turned the primary up to 30%, in a few minutes the cat hit 800 and I went back to bed. My wife got up at 6am and the cat was at ~600, she opened the bypass, burned off the glass, added a few splits and closed the bypass.

Why did the temp crash but still have a full charcoal load in the box? I've not had that happen before.

I let the wood in the stove burn down today, This afternoon I wanted test out a full load as I typically only do 3 splits at a time during the day. At 2:20pm I loaded the stove at least 3/4 using the same med/large dry maple on a hot reload. I tested a fresh split, the middle was 14.5%, closer to the ends was < 14%. Within 5 minutes the cat hit 1000, I turned the primary down to 50%. A few minutes later the cat hit 1200, I turned the primary down to 10% open. The cat continued to climb over the next 30 minutes. It hit 1600, so I closed the primary. Cat continued to climb. About an hour into the burn, the cat hit 1684 and then over the next 5 minutes it went down to 1660. I thought I was in the clear, but then over the next 5 minutes it quickly rose to 1702. STT 510. It then quickly dropped in 8 minutes to 1500 at which time the stove started back puffing. At 1450, I turned primary up to 50% and it stopped back puffing. STT 550. Cat continued a steady drop and at 6:30pm it was at 600 and the box was mostly burned down. I then added 3 more splits. So a 4 hour burn time.

Did I not learn my lesson and I should have left the primary at 10% open? Choking it down causes more smoke which causes the cat to rise. But then when the temp was coming down to 1500 why did it start back puffing?

Is the wood too dry?

Whatever is feeding or not feeding air to the cat is still a mystery! I can clearly hear the cat accelerating like when you open the door and the fire surges.

Two similar burns but two very different results.