2025/26 VC performance discussion thread

[dmccoole]

Same here, but I was always cleaning the ash pan every week. I'm leaving the pan full this year and so far it seems to be burning better. Though I'm occasionally still getting a few back puffs 2 hours in at around 1100-1200, 50% open, with half a load. Even with a half load, there are plenty of coals in the morning to restart the fire.

 

[Smokey Da Bears]

In a wildly strange turn of events, my stove has been burning for 4 straight days. I honestly never thought I'd get to this point. I'm actually letting it die out today as it's not super cold and the house is warmed up. I plan to shovel out the ash from the fire box tomorrow and check the cat. I'm leaving the ash pan full, not planning to open that drawer all season. I think this has been the source of my struggles all along.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

In a wildly strange turn of events, my stove has been burning for 4 straight days. I honestly never thought I'd get to this point. I'm actually letting it die out today as it's not super cold and the house is warmed up. I plan to shovel out the ash from the fire box tomorrow and check the cat. I'm leaving the ash pan full, not planning to open that drawer all season. I think this has been the source of my struggles all along.

That's great! Are you saying it burned that long on one load of wood? Leave some of the ash as it helps insulate the bottom firebricks. Doesn't have to be a lot. I usually level off the ash and then clean out the sides and then spread the center back across the bottom, but gingerly so as not to stir up the fly ash.

 

[Smokey Da Bears]

That's great! Are you saying it burned that long on one load of wood? Leave some of the ash as it helps insulate the bottom firebricks. Doesn't have to be a lot. I usually level off the ash and then clean out the sides and then spread the center back across the bottom, but gingerly so as not to stir up the fly ash.

No, definitely not one load. But I’ve been getting 8 hours

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I thought we had a miracle, brothers and sisters. hahaha

That's a big improvement though. What are you doing differently?

Now what can you do to stretch it out a little longer?

 

[skb31]

John D and I manage our stoves basically the same. I check and clean the cat chamber every 4-6 weeks. I never clean the ash pan and just clean ashes out with a shovel maybe once a week.

 

[AsylumResident]

I'll jump on the ash pan train this year, see if that makes a difference in the control of the stove. If that does work I'm going to very happy but also a tad enraged.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Yesterdays burn was great. Sat with the wife for a while. Cat poped up to 1200 STT was 475. Burned for 9 hours on super low

 

[skb31]

Keeping the ash pan full seems to help a bit but also I didn’t want to keep working/compressing those gaskets. I don’t find removing the limited amount of ash I deal with the small shovel to be any extra work. I personally find the ash pan system to be clunky.

Additionally I plug 2 of the secondary air holes (1 on each side) with #10 hex head bolts. I wanted extra control with the primary air and this option worked for me. I tested plugging 4 to start and it was obvious I was limiting the secondary air too much.

I generally work the primary air to 90%+ closed on a hot reload even with these two holes plugged. I also had a key damper installed after season 1 but haven’t used it this year.

I’m pretty sure @Woodsplitter67 pointed out to me that if your primary air control doesn’t significantly affect an open damper fire then you have an issue. That was the case for me in season 1 until I fixed some air leaks, tightened my doors, replaced gaskets, left the ash pan full, etc.

I have a longer chimney run that passes through the middle of my house so lack of draft hasn’t been an issue for me. I do a fair amount of cold starts during the work week and have that process decently sorted. The stove absolutely runs better the longer I run it so cold starts on work nights mean more babysitting but I’m home anyway. On weekends and vacation it runs almost non stop.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I'm posting this because I see a bunch of chatter about this.

Allowing ash to build up in the stove and not emptying the ash pan.

I used to clean my stove often. Seriously, like every 4 days to a week. I stopped doing this for a couple reasons. I found out there is no real reason to. I found that keeping ash in the stove actually helps the stove run better by insulating the bottom portion of the stove and it gets up to temperature faster. I allow a lot of ash to build up.
I do clean out the pan. I don't shovel out my stove like some. I allow the pan to fill and the ash to build up in the stove. I empty the pan then take the ash from the stove and fill the pan and leave ash some in the stove. Allow the ash to build back up and repeat the cycle.

Ash is our friend

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I'm posting this because I see a bunch of chatter about this.

Allowing ash to build up in the stove and not emptying the ash pan.

I used to clean my stove often. Seriously, like every 4 days to a week. I stopped doing this for a couple reasons. I found out there is no real reason to. I found that keeping ash in the stove actually helps the stove run better by insulating the bottom portion of the stove and it gets up to temperature faster. I allow a lot of ash to build up.
I do clean out the pan. I don't shovel out my stove like some. I allow the pan to fill and the ash to build up in the stove. I empty the pan then take the ash from the stove and fill the pan and leave ash some in the stove. Allow the ash to build back up and repeat the cycle.

Ash is our friend

Sometimes it's just a real pain in the ASH

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Sometimes it's just a real pain in the ASH

Ok.. I'm gonna haul my old ASH outta here .lol

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Here's a big happy thanksgiving to all of my hearth friends

May your turkey be moist.

I'll be lighting the stove soon and starting the stuffing like 7am

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Got the stove going.. STT is anywhere between 330/369 with a cat temperature of 1290

And the house is not overheating

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I put this in the wrong thread so I'm copying it here

Here's my stove this morning after 10.5 hours of burn time last night. I loaded the stove last night a little before 7pm it wasn't loaded full but enough to get me to morning. The first picture is just opening up the stove and the 2nd is with a little rake and some air in it

 

[Woodsplitter67]

So I got the stove going. It's not running super ultra mega low, but low low. I have like 3 large splits in it. STT is under 400 and cat spiked to around 1423. It hung there for a few minutes and now down to 1333 with a ton of secondary burns in the box. This will last a few minutes and it will settle down. As I'm typing the the cats already down to 1312. The STT will pop up some with all the action in the box but will go back to under 400
My glass is still a little dirty form last night's burn but I can still see and enjoy. I'll probably burn it better with the next fire or if I let the stove really cool down

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Secondaries

 

[Todd]

I don’t get it? You VC guys have high cat temps with low stove top temps. Where is all that heat going, up the flue?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I don’t get it? You VC guys have high cat temps with low stove top temps. Where is all that heat going, up the flue?

What's up Todd, I'm pretty sure you also have a cat stove to. There are some differences in the stove we burn. All of the principles are the same.

A BK stove will burn say 20 hours with the stove on low setting. The stove itself isn't putting out much heat. The smoke created is burned by the combustor keeping draft up. Also the combustor is running at a high temperature over 1k degrees.

The difference being the the BK stove has it combustor at the top of the stove and the VC hast it's combustor in the back and near the bottom. This is why it's called a down draft stove.

This design has its advantages and of course disadvantages. The advantage in this situation is that where the combustor is place it actually heats up the back of the stove creating additional heat. This heat created heads the back of the stove. The heat created heats the lower back, sides then goes up the back, heats the flue collar area and the damper housing then up the stovepipe it goes. Although the reading of a 1400 degree cst temp is taken that normally doesn't last long. Most times the cat runs around 1000/1250 and hovers there for hours. Also by the time the heat gets to the stove pipe it's cooled the outer part of my stovepipe reading roughly 400 degrees

This is the beauty of a catalytic stove. To burn low and slow

Tube stoves burn the smoke inside the firebox this is why you get the massive temperature swings with that design