The Woodstock Fireview's manual says to bypass the cat for 10-15 minutes after each reload. The purpose of this post-reload period is to boil away any water in the wood before it goes through the cat.
During this bypassed period I can see a fair amount of grayish white smoke coming out the top of the chimney. I usually have to reduce air to ~1 to keep the flue temp down. After ten minutes I engage the cat. Then I can observe that most of the smoke from the chimney goes away (presumably burnt up in the cat, burning cleaner).
I am using really dry wood. I measured 12% in a split yesterday. During these post-reload ten minute burns I can almost see my splits getting smaller and I feel like a lot of useful BTUs are just going out the chimney needlessly.
Do you think this post-reload time should ALWAYS be 10+ minutes or do you think that you can "let the wood be the guide"? If so, how do you know if there has been enough time and it is OK to engage the cat?
Secondly, seeing the smoke come out like that when the cat is bypassed makes me think that the post-reload burn period is probably the primary source of any creosote. So it would seem like the shorter you could make that period the less opportunity there would be for creosote buildup.
What do other Woodstock owners do? Follow the 10 minute rule religiously or use some other rule of thumb depending on the wood characteristics?
During this bypassed period I can see a fair amount of grayish white smoke coming out the top of the chimney. I usually have to reduce air to ~1 to keep the flue temp down. After ten minutes I engage the cat. Then I can observe that most of the smoke from the chimney goes away (presumably burnt up in the cat, burning cleaner).
I am using really dry wood. I measured 12% in a split yesterday. During these post-reload ten minute burns I can almost see my splits getting smaller and I feel like a lot of useful BTUs are just going out the chimney needlessly.
Do you think this post-reload time should ALWAYS be 10+ minutes or do you think that you can "let the wood be the guide"? If so, how do you know if there has been enough time and it is OK to engage the cat?
Secondly, seeing the smoke come out like that when the cat is bypassed makes me think that the post-reload burn period is probably the primary source of any creosote. So it would seem like the shorter you could make that period the less opportunity there would be for creosote buildup.
What do other Woodstock owners do? Follow the 10 minute rule religiously or use some other rule of thumb depending on the wood characteristics?