New to burning looking for direction

[RapidFire]

Last year I had the Regency I2500 installed. I love this insert but after 3 months of heavy use the combustor function declined and eventually stopped working and would snuff out my fire. The dealer sent a guy out who pulled the cat out and it was completely clogged with ash. He said i was not burning correctly and proceeded to show me how to properly build a fire....that was 3 weeks ago and I have been building my fires exactly how they told me which is start with small kindling then build it up gradually over 30-45 minutes. They also told me not to close the bypass until i was between 600-700 for best results. Well, I'm not sure what's going on but I am having very inconsistent performance from the cat. ...2 nights ago - I built my fire and at 665 i closed the bypass - the probe temp dipped a few degrees then went up only by about 50 degrees total over 15 minutes...I shut the air down a bit and in 5 minutes the temp dropped by almost 70 degrees then came back up then back up the 70 degrees over the next 10 minutes.....over the next hour my temp continued to drop and when it hit 513, i opened everything up and reloaded with 3 large splits. in 5 minutes my temp was at 687 and i closed the bypass. over the next 20 minutes my temp jumped 138 degrees and I was happy thinking i made progress. Last night when i was burning I closed the bypass somewhere in the mid 600's and it dipped 25-30 degrees - rose up 45 degres then settled back to where I started.....is this kind of variance normal behavior?? - i know so many things come into play such as type of wood, moisture, coal bed etc etc.... But this is driving me nuts....

 

[bholler]

What is your moisture content? How full are you loading the firebox

 

[RapidFire]

Moisture runs about 12-18 - im not loading it full - maybe1/2 - 3 or 4 good size splits