I have a new encore 2040 cat and I was curious to hear others specific procedure on burning a bigger load of wood. Like 1/2 full to full load. Whenever I do I am constantly fighting either the cat or the stove top over heating. I have tried several different ways on cutting down air and engaging cat and it seems with a decent amount of wood I’m always having to switch back n forth between open n close damper to keep cat or stove top from overheating until I get maybe 2-3 hrs into burn. Then I can keep closed with air off or barely open n hold 450-600 stove top n cat temp probe around middle. My flame definitely dies down when air cut back and cat seems to be working properly other than something always gets to hot.
Encore 2040 cat c overheat
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I had one of those a few years back. I never had that problem but try to pull some of the coals away from the refractory when reloading. Wood may be too small and/or too dry. Yes according to VC manual the MC should be north of 15% or so. Those combinations create too much off gassing which would raise or spike your temps. Just may have too much wood in there.
Thanks for reply, wood is between 17-21, I re split n checked 20 or so. I try to use biggest splits when burning a lot of wood for long burn. Are stoves not meant to be pretty full of wood. It happens when it’s half full as well, only time it doesn’t is if I just use 3-4 logs
I have the same stove. The only time this happens to me is when a person in my house is cold and cranks the thermostatic control all the way up with a full load. Otherwise I'll get a spike 1400 or so then it backs off.
I load it every day. As much wood as I can get in. I try bigger splits on bottom. Then they get smaller as I stuff the top load.
How hot is the stove when you load it?
I load it every day. As much wood as I can get in. I try bigger splits on bottom. Then they get smaller as I stuff the top load.
How hot is the stove when you load it?
When I load it with significant amount of wood I wait till 200-300 stove top temp. Or even cold start small load to warm things up n get coal bed then load with 1/2 full or more. Like I said I have tried many different orders of things from reading posts on here. First I followed manual. Then I have closed bypass at 400/450/500/550/600 made sure cat engaged n then slowly dial back air to 3/4 then 1/2 then 1/4 n sometimes to all the way closed over 15 minutes or so. I have also done air closing process before closing damper. However I’ve done it the catalyst gets to top of white range n I open damper back up because i think that kind of thermometer is delayed. Give it 15-20 to cool off n by then stove top gettin 600-650 n close damper again. 15-20 minutes later same thing. Normally after two or three times doin this it’s under control and I can get stove top wherever I want n cat temp stays in middle. I have ordered the auber thermostat so I can see actual number to know if it’s for sure overheating or not but sure seems like it as it climbs extremely fast and doesn’t seem like gonna stop
Did you use the thermometer that came with it before you got digital? Is 1400 near top of white range? Does that happen to you early on after closing bypass, like 20-30 min? I would like to hear rundown of how you do it?
I never used the probe it came with, just digital so I don't know how they compare. But I so highly recommend going digital. 5 min install and costs is under $100.
My process on a hot reload is this. Let the stove burn down to just coals. I rake them back. Load the stove. As much wood as I can fit. Then just close the damper and go. I ran the stove for a week straight before letting it go out to clean the ash.
On a cold startup I put 2 med splits on the bottom. Piece of fat wood and kindling on top. Light her up. Let all of that burn down to coals and toss 2 more med splits on. Close damper and it is usually hot enough for Cat to go. When the car gets to 1000 which I would say in middle range on the white dial I cut the air half way. Maybe 15 min later I drop it down more depending on temps in room. From there I pretty much operate it with the air all the way down. But if it feels cold I'll open it a little bit.
Since I installed the digital cat thermometer I really don't pay much attention to the stove top temp much. I just let the cat run the stove
Ok I got the probe suppose to be here Friday I’ll be curious to see if it just the one that comes with isn’t accurate. So you don’t worry bout lettin wood ignite before closing bypass long as cat is hot enough? And also do you get the torch sound in back of stove? When it’s real hot? Thanks for your replies by the way
No problem I al very much still learning so happy to help. I'll send a pic of my glass in the morning. It's certainly not clear. But you can see flame through it. If it gets foggy I just let my fire burn hot like 700ish for 20-30 minutes and it cleans off. I'll do this in the morning usually. Especially sat/sun when I'm sitting in front having coffee. I just toss small splits on the coals when I wake up and they go up and burn hot if you toss a bunch.
If the cat is hot I don't worry about the wood catching, it always catches. Normally I reload when the cat gets down to about 600. When I rake the coals back and load it climbs basically right back up to 1000. I think the manual actually says on a hot reload you can have your air set at whatever temp you want
Happy Thanksgiving. Here is what I have done so far this morning. I tossed 3 splits on when I woke up at 4 to let the dog out. Got back from the gym at 8:30 have this bed of coals left cat at 540 and griddle at 400.
I tossed 4 splits on as seen in pic below. Shut damper air is all the way closed. 13 min later my cat is back up to 900 and clowly climbing. So I know it's engaged. My griddle is down to about 300 but to be expected. This should get me solid 4 hours of burn before I load it.
Pics of glass also below. I have not cleaned the glass this year so whatever buildup is there is from late Sept to now. I'll just run a hot fire and let it clean and do it's thing.
![[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/303/303730-ecf0349d6ec395f6ee6d1bfcdb238c94.jpg?hash=hXnhsJRNZu "[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat")
![[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/303/303731-224df77b0c42bb2a7b38525acce95974.jpg?hash=h1XdSGAUn1 "[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat")
![[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/303/303732-944e8b4a97791546cd90a36940c4796d.jpg?hash=D4HDCOwdo8 "[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat")
![[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/303/303733-afe4d78ae1528a6f35c99acc300a1e9b.jpg?hash=lA_snhB0ER "[Hearth.com] Encore 2040 cat c overheat")
Happy thanksgivin. Awesome thanks. I’ll get my digital installed n see how it goes, n just engage right away on second load like you do, n hopefully all will be good. Preciate it I’ll let you know how it goes. We got a little warm spell here so probably won’t try a significant fire for next couple days. After those four burn to coals you would just load it full n close damper again regardless of stove top temp, like even if still round 500
Yup. Load it and the stove temp drops.
Yeah I'll just throw more on and re-engage. When you load the stove temp will drop so not concerned with that. More concerned with having enough coals so the cat engages
Still haven’t had a big fire been in 50s-60s here suppose to get cold again tomoro night so plannin on puttin more wood in but got auber installed. From what I’ve seen on the few fires I’ve done I think the probe that comes with is super delayed. N I think(hopin) what it reads as too hot is actually the 1400 or so range. I’m sure they have to do that to avoid people burnin up cats. I’ll let you know tomoro evenin how it goes once I load it up pretty good
Put 6 big splits in probably 2/3 full or little less n goin good, just did it like you said ignored stove top temp n left air off n immediately engaged cat on this load. I had previously burned 3 splits so was hot n good coals. Cat went up fast, peaked about 1-1.5 hrs later at 1500 degrees. Now goin back down didn’t stay that high long. Preciate the advice hopefully just operater error. I had read where a lot of people had said to get stove top to certain temp or let wood burn a bit with air open before engaging cat, but this definitely seemed to work better. Do you actually pack this stove completely full too?
Ok so around 6:30 my stove top had climbed to 750 and stayed that way for 30-45 minutes. my cat had got down to 1200, it stayed there for probably two hours. Now is around 900 and stove top 600. This is with air all the way down and bypass closed so nothing to be done to control temp as far as I know. Think I started fire at 4. The 750 stove top for that long with everything closed down just doesn’t seem right to me, definitely makes me nervous to load stove up full being that there’s nothing to do to slow it down
750 is hot. Where is your thermometer? If it is right on the griddle you could have just had a split catch and it reads hot. I would also assume griddle will read hotter than the actual stove itself. I let my stove griddle temp get up to like 700 this morning ~25 min to clean the glass. Then I shut the damper and turned air down. Stove settled down in about 20 min. Cat went up to 900 pretty quick. When it got back to 600 I loaded it. I'm working all day so I loaded it as much as I could. Like tetris to get it reap full. Air mostly closed this should burn for the next 8-9 hours or so. Usually my stove doesn't get much above 600 when it's hot after a full load but I also keep the air down. Don't want it 85 degrees in here
If you figure this out some day, Im all ears. There is a very delicate balance that is almost seemingly impossible to achieve on my VC. My glass / flue pipe is constantly getting covered. I honestly rarely use my stove now because I think it is dangerous but I do get the itch and toss some wood in there, get it nice and hot and enjoy it for awhile including 1/2 the glass clearing up....then I go back to it cooling down and black glass.
Definitely seems like it takes a little finesse. The first 3 weeks I was burning I kept getting my house up to like 85 degrees working off stove temp instead of cat temp because I didn't want to stall out. I think I am dialed in now. My glass stays pretty clean at least to where I can see wood and flames in the box. And I can get 8-10 hour burn times out of it. House stays between 70-73 all the time. Once the real cold weather comes we'll see how it does. Not expecting much to change except maybe slightly shorter burn times from having to run the stove a little hotter. I have never used a wood stove before this year so this is all new for me. Spent a lot of time reading on this site to figure things out and make some tweaks here and there. Seems as if all of these VC stoves work a little different based on the setup so some individuality in use is going to be needed.
It’s on griddle where the manual says. My air and bypass were all the way closed. Stove responds to cuttin back air when I have it open n let it got hot then start dialin back. But this was with it air all the way closed and cat engaged for couple hrs. I guess I will try a little more n get with dealer if I can’t figure out how to get concistense out of it.
Yeah I hear ya that’s what it seems like. I will keep messin with I can run it with 3-4 big splits and does perfect. Operating how manual describes or how you do it or what others have said or a mix. But with a decent amount of wood I haven’t got it dialed in. Something’s is overheating or to close for comfort every time, I don’t think leaky gaskets as I’ve checked but gonna check a little more thoroughly n hopefully can get it figured out. Heats our home great, love the look of it n happy with burns times. I can do three or four splits before bed and have 2-300 stove top in mornin with plenty of coals to ignite wood in minutes. Just hope to figure out how I can get more wood in for 8-10 hr burns without much attention.
