Running a catalytic stove but running without a converter?

[Yorks]

Anyone have experience running a catalytic stove without the converter installed?

I realize that efficiency will be lost but theory apart, how does it work in practice. What problems have you faced and how did you overcome them. I have a Jotul #8 with, but soon to be without, the converter.

Thanks

Neil Jefferson

 

[webbie]

With that particular stove, you will not be as affected as with others.....The #8 was a decent stove before it had a cat. Still, the baffle arrangement is different in the cat, so you might lose some efficiency.

My guess? It would be 60% efficiency with the cat and 50% without it. Obviously you have to burn "right" without a cat in regards to not create excess creosote, etc....but, then again, this is not exactly a smoke dragon (smaller firebox, etc.).

 

[jpl1nh]

Why would you choose not to use the combustor?

 

[Yorks]

Why would you choose not to use the combustor?

I found a crack in the cast iron just below the converter and I think that the only way I can use the stove without stressing it is is without the converter.

 

[RedRanger]

Well-----duh, maybe he cant buy it anymore. Eg-my PE 1985 insert had the cat option.#CC35- but just try and buy it.?/ Can`t be done. Oh, think, maybe that`s not true. Well, I just happen to live less than 20 klicks from the PE factory, no support, absoutley, no support for old products, not even the blower. These people are still in the mind-set of the 80~s computer mind-set. Just throw it away when we no longer support it. Hopefully, you the sucker will buy the latest and greatest. Well, after reading tonnes of threads on this forum, specially about hot temps, can`t control, on the new EA stuff, the more and more I love my old PE insert, "at least I can control it". And, yes I can get an overnite burn, but only with that precious (hardwood) SO hard to find here on the west coast.







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[stoveguy2esw]

gonna be like driving your car around in second gear , it will get you where you are going , but slowly and inefficiently,cat stoves are designed to be cat stoves, and should only be operated as cat stoves, besides operating a cat stove with the cat removed is not exactly legal

 

[webbie]

York, I don't think that crack is really going to have much to do with the cat function (internal baffle crack), so as long as the bypass is functioning you might as well use either the cat you have or try one of those new lower cost models from stove combustors, etc.

Mike mentions "legal", which really means the stove was tested with the converter in it......and removing it would void any warranty, etc. - Of course, there are probably millions of stoves out there with cats that are degraded and not functioning (so they are technically "illegal".....)
Come to think of it, that is probably the wrong word.......it is pretty obvious, as Mike says, that running a car in third gear instead of 4th may not be illegal, but it will get worse mileage and pour out more pollution.

 

[Yorks]

York, I don't think that crack is really going to have much to do with the cat function (internal baffle crack), so as long as the bypass is functioning you might as well use either the cat you have or try one of those new lower cost models from stove combustors, etc.

Mike mentions "legal", which really means the stove was tested with the converter in it......and removing it would void any warranty, etc. - Of course, there are probably millions of stoves out there with cats that are degraded and not functioning (so they are technically "illegal".....)
Come to think of it, that is probably the wrong word.......it is pretty obvious, as Mike says, that running a car in third gear instead of 4th may not be illegal, but it will get worse mileage and pour out more pollution.

The crack is not in an internal baffle but on the backplate of the stove. THe cat runs between 1000 and 1500 degrees and is only an inch from the edge of the crack. If I pull the still functioning cat out then the temperature at the crack will probably not exceed 700 degrees, so less stress.

 

[webbie]

I hear ya - I guess the real answer is that is time to scrap the stove or get new parts (which may or may not be available)........

As I may have mentioned before, some of those Jotul cats were not their finest moments....

But, heck, if I were down to my bottom dollar I'd probably make up a mending plate for the crack (stainless, and tap into the cast on both sides of it, and then screw it, etc.), and then use it with the cat. You could even bolt right through to another piece of stainless on the inside......

 

[begreen]

I have done that in the past and admit it has worked. On the inner plate, add a nut first as a standoff, so that the stainless is not in direct contact with the casting. It shields the heat a bit better by not being in direct contact with the main casting.

 

[RedRanger]

What about inserts like mine. Where the manual clearly states that it is an option? Is that what perhaps the OP is referring to?

 

[Yorks]

I haven't read the manual since installing the stove but I don't recall seeing any cat in cat out options.