CAT's clogged-fixed

[DavidV]

I was suspicios of the wood my eldest son gathered for the stove monday. We have had daytime temps in the 60s last week so we only did a small fire monday night and last night. My wife said she had a hard time getting the wood to burn today. and when I pushed in the bypass tonight we got a whiff of wet smoke. so after watching the fire struggle for another half hour, I opened up the stove and looked at the cats. completely clogged. I am wondering how they could clog so fast but it doesn't matter because I have to tear down the stove this weekend and clean the cats. This is gonna suck. Not really what I had planned for my time.

 

[Todd]

Low pressure air like those spray cans for computers work great to blow out fly ash. If it's heavy creosote try a pipe cleaner.

 

[DavidV]

Last time I tried the spray air.....there was a small log in the back of the stove still burning. FLAME THROWER> So I will wait till it is cold in the morning before I give that a try. I went outside and found some dry small splits and loaded the stove up I have the front surface temp at 500 right now with the damper bypas just a centimeter open. dry out the cresote that coated the stove in the last day or so and keep us warm tonight. Tomorrow morning I will turn the furnace on and tear the stove down Saturday morning to clean it.I would try the pipe cleaners but my stove is a first Gen cat stove and it uses 2 sets of cats. So I might get the front set clean and have the back set still clogged. Gonna have to bite the bullet and clean them properly.

 

[TreePapa]

Try cod liver oil. Opps ... wrong kind of Cat.

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[DavidV]

Wife had kids at soccer tonight so when I got home I tore it down. At 5:30 I was nealing down in front of the stove with my tools. At 6:01 I took a picture of the fire and sent it to my wife. I didn't soak them in viniger, just took them out, vacuumed them and blew them off. They were clogged up but not gunked up. Not a lot of carbon or creosote, just a bunch of light ash.

 

[Todd]

I get a lot of that fly ash burning Black Locust. I think it's that extra thick bark? I found about every 2 or 3 weeks I get some accumulation on my cat that I need to blow out of there. Other woods I don't seem to get that much but still check the cat about every cord or so.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I intend to check our cat today or tomorrow. Usually I find only a light coating of fly ash on the cat. Last winter I cleaned it twice (if my memory is right). I don't doubt that different woods will give different amounts of ash though.

Good to hear you got things working again.