Question ,First hot fire in Ashford 30,2

[brewer69]

Had the first hot fire in my Ashford 30.2 yesterday, yea filled the house with smoke and had smoke detectors working overtime. My question is I built the fire than added 2 pieces of poplar and 3 pieces of ash waited till cat termo showed well into the active zone than closed the bypass waited 10 minutes and dialed it back, burned great cat thermostat was almost pegged and cat was glowing orange, stayed that way for several hours, I decided not to add more wood and just let it burn down since it was first hot fire, but when it was just mostly coals and the cat thermo was still reading well into the active zone the cat was no longer the bright orange color and just went dark( I assume no longer igniting gases) is this normal or the sign of something being off. Thanks for any info

 

[spudman99]

The cat will not always glow when working. So long as it is in the active zone it is working. Remember when the wood first burns it emits smoke. The purpose of the cat is to "eat" the smoke and reduce particulate matter escaping the flue. Once the amount of smoke decreases (or stops in the case of hot coals), then the cat is likely to go dark. At that point the stove is not emitting many particulates and thus complying with the EPA standards. So short answer is -- perfectly normal. Judge your stove by the active/inactive zones, that is all you need to do.

 

[stoveliker]

I agree with the above, the cat works when it's 500 F (or so) or higher. Glowing is only visible from 850-900 F and up.
So you have a range of temps where the cat works and you don't see anything. Just go by the gauge.

The cat will clean things up and provide additional heat in doing so.

 

[brewer69]

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated