Hello, i have a new to me Vermont Castings Intrepid with a catalytic. I'm wondering about how to handle the catalytic when adding wood. When starting the stove I make sure I get a good hot fire and the stove top up to about 400 degrees before closing the catalytic. When I add wood I open it. Do I need to wait for the new wood to get going really good before closing the catalytic again... Thanks
New to VC Intrepid Catalytic
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I can tell you for the Woodstock catalytic stoves the answer is definitely yes, the stove has to burn a new load of wood for about 10 minutes to get the firebox back up to temperature and get the wood burning well before engaging the converter.
I can't imagine any other stove with a converter would operate differently but its best to download the owner's manual and run the stove per the manufacturer's directions.
I can't imagine any other stove with a converter would operate differently but its best to download the owner's manual and run the stove per the manufacturer's directions.
WoodBurnerInWI
Feeling the Heat
I agree about reading over the Intrepid's manual to see what temps would constitute activating the catalyst. Does your stove have a temp gauge (probe) that can read catalyst temp? I burn a hybrid type stove which has both a catalytic converter and a secondary burn system. I also have a temp probe that reads catalyst temps. For my stove, I activate the catalyst when the temp on the probe reads 600 or so. Stove top temp at this time would also be over 300 degrees. The time it takes to reach this temp on my stove will usually depend on the size of the splits in the firebox but on average the fire is hot enough to activate the catalyst after 10 min.
As a VC Encore owner, if the cat is currently engaged and I flip it off to add wood, I engage the cat again as soon as the door is shut. I have a digital cat thermometer and the cat temp may go from 1,100 degrees to 1,000 degree when loading the wood. After wood is loaded and cat is immediately engaged, it fires right back up and often past the previous cat temperature.
Thank you all. I do not have an internal probe cat thermometer. But I have a thermometer on the stove top and on the pipe. VC owners manual says to engage cat at about 400 degrees. Which I do. Good info about Cat temps, I would have no way of knowing that. So, what I'm gathering from all this, is the primary concern is cat temp. Which I'll have to guess at. Thanks for the replies...
If you have the cat firing, adding wood won’t ‘put out your cat’, at least not often. And if your cat dips below 500 degrees or so and you can’t tell, it will eventually cross that threshold again in fairly short order if your wood you are adding is dry. I like having the probe, and I recommend it, but it is not necessary.
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