Nice. I have the same stove and put in a steel cat last year after refurbing. This year our heat is disappointing too - what was John's rationale for ceramic vs steel in the 201?
John at Woodstock said that the 201 needed the bigger cells in the cat for the 201 to heat to its potential. . .The steel cat got plugged alot which really bothered me since it was suppose to be better than the ceramic. . .
https://store.woodstove.com/product.php?productid=16703&cat=259&page=1
No inconel screen available for the 201.
This is what is supposed to keep the ash off of the steel cat. . .the screen gets plugged instead of the cat.
Personally, I don't have to clean my screen much. My problems with the steel cat have been related to the gasket. . .double wrapping(or "1.5x" as Woodstock says) with the interam gasket seems to be the solution for me. I would encourage anyone having problems with the steel cat to try this, especially if your cat moves around a lot in its frame(~1/4" in my case.) I'm told that the first cats were made too small, and this is why it was such a problem for me, so YMMV.
Before we figured this out, they did send me a replacement cat with a new & improved wash coat, but after noticing that it did not have the "lattice"construction that the new cat for the PH had, I was hesitant to swap cats just to experience the same disappointment after the "hypersensitivity" of the new cat wore off. I mention this because the replacement cat is wrapped only once with the gasket, so maybe the extra wrap is beneficial only to me and a few other early adopters who got smaller cats. When I first posted this, Charly called Woodstock to ask about his cat, and they told him that some movement of the cat in the frame is normal; slop to allow for thermal expansion of the steel cat.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/fireview-cat-wash.106098/
OTOH, Condar says it's okay to double wrap, so I don't see the harm in trying it, if you can fit an extra layer inside the frame with your cat. At the end of the day, there may be multiple issues with optimizing the steel cat. As I've posted a few times, I've taken to burning "hybrid style," so I don't have to worry too much about how well the cat is performing. I adjust the air for a good secondary burn, which typically lasts, um. . .say, 3 hours. After the light show is over, I usually lose interest and wander off, but not before observing that the cat is still glowing, even if not brightly. I imagine this continues until the coaling stage. Stovetop temp during the secondary burn period runs 525-575°. . .seems a bit lower than when this cat was new, but when you run more fire in the box, the sides of the stove run hotter. I'm getting plenty of heat for at least 12 hours(8 hours in a cold snap) and nothing but wisps of steam from the top of the chimney whenever I look.
