On our Defiant the top of the CAT is visible and has a light glow during operation. Earlier this week I was burning some oak pallet wood and noticed the CAT chamber started glowing EXTREMELY bright and had visible flames coming from the top of the bottom fireback (this is where the secondary air comes in). I also noticed a much different noise coming from the back of the stove sounding like rushing air that I had never heard before, and increased temp from the rear of the stove. Temp per magnetic griddle was no more than 500*.
I panicked thinking the actual CAT chamber was having a meltdown, and hit it with the fire extinguisher. The next day I took the whole thing apart and could not find any problem what so ever, except the extinguisher goo caked up on everything.
After putting it back together I fired it back up with a very small load of the same wood and sure nuff it did it again.
Stove top griddle at about 500* per the magnetic gauge. I moved the gauge to a spot on the upper rear of the stove and the gauge started climbing very fast, but much to my surprise never got above 700*. I just watched it through the whole burn cycle. Noticed that if I get back puffing or reflame up in the primary chamber the glowing in the CAT chamber dies down until the flames die out again. I figure this is pretty normal. This is my first time burning pallet wood. It does not happen with any cord wood I have burned, only a light glow.
I made a video of the glowing CAT but due to lighting and what not it really does not do it justice. The chamber is glowing much brighter than the video looks. but I'll link it any ways. Here is also a pic of the temp gauge on the back of the stove at 700* as the griddle was no more than 500.
Here is also a pic of my CAT after the extinguisher had it's way with it. Surprisingly after I scraped it off as best I could it didn't seem to harm it.
I also learned that the $20 kitchen fire extinguishers are for SMALL fires and are completely empty in about 3-5 seconds!
And please ignore the background sound of the video. I was catching up on my Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory!
I panicked thinking the actual CAT chamber was having a meltdown, and hit it with the fire extinguisher. The next day I took the whole thing apart and could not find any problem what so ever, except the extinguisher goo caked up on everything.
After putting it back together I fired it back up with a very small load of the same wood and sure nuff it did it again.
Stove top griddle at about 500* per the magnetic gauge. I moved the gauge to a spot on the upper rear of the stove and the gauge started climbing very fast, but much to my surprise never got above 700*. I just watched it through the whole burn cycle. Noticed that if I get back puffing or reflame up in the primary chamber the glowing in the CAT chamber dies down until the flames die out again. I figure this is pretty normal. This is my first time burning pallet wood. It does not happen with any cord wood I have burned, only a light glow.
I made a video of the glowing CAT but due to lighting and what not it really does not do it justice. The chamber is glowing much brighter than the video looks. but I'll link it any ways. Here is also a pic of the temp gauge on the back of the stove at 700* as the griddle was no more than 500.
Here is also a pic of my CAT after the extinguisher had it's way with it. Surprisingly after I scraped it off as best I could it didn't seem to harm it.
I also learned that the $20 kitchen fire extinguishers are for SMALL fires and are completely empty in about 3-5 seconds!
And please ignore the background sound of the video. I was catching up on my Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory!