BK Ashford 30 cat question

[green pacific]

Hello all,

I throw the cat when the needle point to active. But that is sometimes when there is a new load of wood (and when I haven't been home, or haven't been paying attention, sometimes cold wood).

Question: Is it ok to have the converter running with a big load of new wood? Seems it is (by the rules) but smoke does pour out the chimney and perhaps it take longer for the load to "cook" to settle in?

Comments?

 

[green pacific]

CX: points to active

 

[jetsam]

It's ok. The instructions in the manual are trying to make sure that the cat is over 500° and the air flowing through the cat is over 500° before you put the cat in.

I suspect that they are also trying to get you to bake some water out of your wood so you don't get water vapor flashing to steam and leaving mineral deposits on the cat.

 

[Woody Stover]

If you have a stove top meter, and more importantly a connector pipe meter (magnetic for single-wall or a probe for double-wall) you can experiment to find the temps/time that your setup requires for the cat to light off and start glowing within a minute or two of closing the bypass.