So I have the Buck 91 and I am wondering if my cat is starting to go. I received the stove from the neighbor who used it very little but had it for 12 years. He can not remember if the cat was replaced. He definitely did not put a lot of wood through it.
Had it inspected while I was in Afghanistan and the installer dropped the plate and stated it looked good. Pipe was also clean after a year of burning at proper temps with dry wood. That was last year.
My observations: takes 20-30 minutes to get the stove up to 500 degrees to get the cat going. (If using oak it takes less time then say punky poplar.) Once there, it will jump up n temps pretty fast - 1500 if I have soft wook in there and it is going pretty good within 30 minutes of closing the diverter. Today (wet, 35 degrees) it was putting off gray white smoke. (Of note, my non cat was also putting off similar steam/smoke.)
My thoughts: cat is getting older, but since it lights off and the "smoke" was not black and the temps did climb albeit after a while...it is getting older, but handing in there.
Am I thinking wrong? I do not want to try and drop the pan myself for fear of snapping a bolt heading into the winter. (I have a history of that in other equipment.)
Just looking for confirmation...
Had it inspected while I was in Afghanistan and the installer dropped the plate and stated it looked good. Pipe was also clean after a year of burning at proper temps with dry wood. That was last year.
My observations: takes 20-30 minutes to get the stove up to 500 degrees to get the cat going. (If using oak it takes less time then say punky poplar.) Once there, it will jump up n temps pretty fast - 1500 if I have soft wook in there and it is going pretty good within 30 minutes of closing the diverter. Today (wet, 35 degrees) it was putting off gray white smoke. (Of note, my non cat was also putting off similar steam/smoke.)
My thoughts: cat is getting older, but since it lights off and the "smoke" was not black and the temps did climb albeit after a while...it is getting older, but handing in there.
Am I thinking wrong? I do not want to try and drop the pan myself for fear of snapping a bolt heading into the winter. (I have a history of that in other equipment.)
Just looking for confirmation...