I'm back with another question.

[crater22]

Right now my Buck is reading 1500 on the cat and IR reading is 420. 5 splits in the box and one with a low nice flame, but no secodaries at all. Is this right? I am trying to get my first long term fire going, as I am tired of getting up every 3-4 hours to feed this thing. However, with no secondary burn, I am getting concerned.

Again, thanks for putting up with me.....

 

[TheRambler]

With a cat stove, if your trying to get a max length burn then you don't really want any secondaries. If you have secondaries you will have a shorter burn time. You may have a few here and there, I am talking mainly about consistent secondaries.

 

[webby3650]

With a cat stove you will see very few secondary flames. Like was mentioned, you want the cat to consume the smoke nice and slow. 3/4 hour cycles are very poor with this size of a stove, are you filling it up?

 

[brad wilton]

don't have a cat but from what i understand you don't see much flame once cat becomes active maybe your refilling when you don't have to?

 

[crater22]

With a cat stove you will see very few secondary flames. Like was mentioned, you want the cat to consume the smoke nice and slow. 3/4 hour cycles are very poor with this size of a stove, are you filling it up?

I have not completely filled it up. Being new to this I was concerned until this new info. I thought you had to have burning flame or glowing goals for it to work. Sorry, but I had no instruction from the company that installed it and the liner. You would think for 5,500.00 they could of spent a few minutes showing me how things worked. I would have even bought the beer.

Some of my wood is very dry, but not to well seasoned, which I am guessing means turning ugly in color, splits on the ends and very light in weight. I have a moisture meter coming to me tmrw.

I can't say enough about how great you guy's have been. Actually surprised that I have not been banned from this site..LOL

Thanks again, I am off to load this puppy up.

Happy New Year to everybody........

 

[brad wilton]

cats like dry wood so you might not be to impressed till your wood is properly seasoned

 

[CenterTree]

I have not completely filled it up. Being new to this I was concerned until this new info. I thought you had to have burning flame or glowing goals for it to work. Sorry, but I had no instruction from the company that installed it and the liner. You would think for 5,500.00 they could of spent a few minutes showing me how things worked. I would have even bought the beer.

Some of my wood is very dry, but not to well seasoned, which I am guessing means turning ugly in color, splits on the ends and very light in weight. I have a moisture meter coming to me tmrw.
.....

You will appreciated that meter.

If wood is "Dry" then it is seasoned.
If wood is "seasoned" then it should be dry.

Seasoned is mainly a misused term. It has nothing to do with color. Nothing to do with the amount of time since it was cut either, not about split-ends, nor the weight.
It is all about moisture content.

 

[webby3650]

cats like dry wood so you might not be to impressed till your wood is properly seasoned

I do not find this to be the case at all. My Blaze Kings have been WAY more tollerable of under seasoned wood. It'll fire up and cruise in half the time my non-cats will!

 

[webby3650]

I have not completely filled it up. Being new to this I was concerned until this new info. I thought you had to have burning flame or glowing goals for it to work. Sorry, but I had no instruction from the company that installed it and the liner. You would think for 5,500.00 they could of spent a few minutes showing me how things worked. I would have even bought the beer.

Some of my wood is very dry, but not to well seasoned, which I am guessing means turning ugly in color, splits on the ends and very light in weight. I have a moisture meter coming to me tmrw.

I can't say enough about how great you guy's have been. Actually surprised that I have not been banned from this site..LOL

Thanks again, I am off to load this puppy up.

Happy New Year to everybody........

Load that puppy up! Your not gonna hurt it!

 

[Woody Stover]

Read the manual thoroughly, lots of good info in there. I fully load the 91 with Oak, White Ash or Hickory, and at 12+ hrs there will still be a couple semi-intact splits left. I pull that to the middle and open up the air a little to get the cat probe back up to 600 or so, then load it full and establish the new load with medium flames .At about 700 or so I close the bypass and get the cat going (mine glows at about 1000, give or take.) In the meantime, I start the blower on low when my stove thermometer on the front next to the bypass rod gets to about 325 or so, usually the cat probe is about 1000. With the left slider, you can concentrate the fire in the center of the load, with the right slider you can get the entire front of the load going. If you have big splits you can be more aggressive, but with a load of small stuff, try to get just the center going; You don't want a ton of small wood gassing all at once, or the cat temp can go high (1800.) I like to run the 91 about 1200-1500. Then the load is burning clean, at a rate that will give plenty of heat yet burn a long time. There might be a little flame in the box early in the load but it usually ends up with the wood just glowing, giving off smoke to feed the cat. A cat stove will not have the "secondaries" that you would get with a tube stove, but a little flame or an intermittent "flash-over" burn is fine, and nothing to be concerned with. I make it sound more complicated than it is, so just experiment and observe the results, and before you know it you'll be able to predict how your stove will react to different wood types, split sizes, outside temps (colder=more draft,) as well as how it will react to your inputs when starting a new load, such as air settings, how you get the load burning, and so on. It sounds like you are doing well so far, so just continue to "burn and learn."