I took advantage of a short warm spell this week to do my first (somewhat overdue according to the manual) cleaning of the cat in my stove. Since I've never done this before, I had all the various cleaning options ready to go (except distilled water, so I'll try that for an end of season cleaning). Overall, it went really well! After about 10 weeks of continual running, there wasn't much ash on the cat at all, but the protective grate was about 1/3 blocked, and there was about 1/4" of fine ash at the bottom pan below the cat. The process wasn't terribly messy - I took the cat outside to brush it off, but otherwise I just ended up with a few easily rinsed off soot streaks on my hands. No need to protect the hearth or do a big cleanup after.
I thought it might be useful to post the results of my cleaning experiments, so here they are:
Can of compressed air: very little effect, got some ash off the grate, but left a lot behind. Overall not worth it - while higher pressure from a compressor might help, it can also damage the cat itself, and the manufacturer very specifically says not to try that.
Vacuum: great for the ash in the pan, not much effect on the grate or the cat.
Paintbrush: super effective with the grate, mildly effective with the cat (although there wasn't much there in the first place).
Going forward I'll stick to the paintbrush and vacuum. Total time was about 15 minutes even with my experimenting - the cat removal and reinstall was as easy as promised! Everything is back in place and chugging along smoothly now that we're back to snowstorms and 20 degree weather.
I thought it might be useful to post the results of my cleaning experiments, so here they are:
Can of compressed air: very little effect, got some ash off the grate, but left a lot behind. Overall not worth it - while higher pressure from a compressor might help, it can also damage the cat itself, and the manufacturer very specifically says not to try that.
Vacuum: great for the ash in the pan, not much effect on the grate or the cat.
Paintbrush: super effective with the grate, mildly effective with the cat (although there wasn't much there in the first place).
Going forward I'll stick to the paintbrush and vacuum. Total time was about 15 minutes even with my experimenting - the cat removal and reinstall was as easy as promised! Everything is back in place and chugging along smoothly now that we're back to snowstorms and 20 degree weather.
