Picked up a combustor for the Buck 91; It came directly from firecatcombustors.com, the place they send you to from the Applied Ceramics site (Buck OE.) I almost sent this thing back. My first thought was "They should have a machine spraying on the catalyst, not some guy with a spray gun who gets distracted every time the hot office chica walks through the plant." 
And where's the QC inspector? I could look down through the cells and see where there was little catalyst compared to other areas, or none at all. It is sprayed from both sides, and the other side looked pretty good.
Here's a question: If the combustor substrate is glowing, would it be burning smoke that passes through it, but not burning it if the cat wasn't glowing, whereas areas that were coated with catalyst would be burning it at that lower temp?
I understand that the catalytic metals aren't cheap, but I spent hundreds of dollars on this thing. Maybe I'm way off base on this. I saw one on Condar's site (made by Sud Chemie?) that had similar thin spots in the coating, but not to this extent. Maybe it doesn't mean I have a sub-standard comustor; It's working fine...so far. If it craps out early, though, I'll certainly be calling in the warranty...
Condar site pic:
![[Hearth.com] New combustor...maybe it's not as bad as it looks.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/95/95305-83dfcc0d34931d937a68c342cfe90014.jpg?hash=MWBYd-uqcN "[Hearth.com] New combustor...maybe it's not as bad as it looks.")
My AC:
(broken image removed)
And where's the QC inspector? I could look down through the cells and see where there was little catalyst compared to other areas, or none at all. It is sprayed from both sides, and the other side looked pretty good.
Here's a question: If the combustor substrate is glowing, would it be burning smoke that passes through it, but not burning it if the cat wasn't glowing, whereas areas that were coated with catalyst would be burning it at that lower temp?
I understand that the catalytic metals aren't cheap, but I spent hundreds of dollars on this thing. Maybe I'm way off base on this. I saw one on Condar's site (made by Sud Chemie?) that had similar thin spots in the coating, but not to this extent. Maybe it doesn't mean I have a sub-standard comustor; It's working fine...so far. If it craps out early, though, I'll certainly be calling in the warranty...
Condar site pic:
My AC:
(broken image removed)
