URGENT ADVICE NEEDED, PLEASE

[crater22]

Very new at this and this is the first time I have seen this happen. I was watching the fire while watching t.v. and all of the sudden the whole box seem to explode with flames. It went out almost at once and I just thought it was a good secondary. Later, I noticed on top of the heat shield . there were flames but no secondary fire. I have seen the cat glow bright red before but have never seen flames dancing on top of the heat shield between the cat. Is this normal and did I finally get hold of some good wood? The cat is reading 1500 and the IR is reading about 375. I have turned all the air flow off until I hear back from you good people.


Many thanks in advance....

 

[ailanthus]

Sounds like a back-puff but I don't have a cat, so can't help with what you're describing.

 

[prezes13]

I do not have any experience with a cat stove. To it sound like for some reason your wood was off gassing at a higher rate that you were used to. The cat couldn't burn it all and it got ignited in the fire box. I am sure someone more experienced will chime in and will have a better explanation.

 

[begreen]

It does sound like the air may be turned down a little too far causing the wood to smolder badly, the ignite all at once in the presence of a flame. Try a little more air and see if it settles down.

 

[crater22]

Thanks to all that replied. When you are an old man, handicapped and living alone in the country, plus new to burning wood, it did not take to much to get me afraid. I had never seen that happen before but I have been only burning for the last month.

Begreen, a special thanks to you since I took your advice and it seemed to help. Once I got a flame going, I still had the big blast of flame, but no dancing fire on top of the heat shield. In fact, the secondaries kicked right in about 900 degrees cat temp. Still need to figure out if it was the wood I used or the way I had the controls set.

Many thanks again....Have a Happy New Year everybody and stay warm.......

 

[begreen]

Don't be afraid to ask for guidance and ideas. We're here to help.

 

[mellow]

I got the same puff backs on my insert which is quite similar to yours when I cut the air down too hard, you get quite a bit of smoke buildup then.. *boom* the hot catalyst ignites the smoke. Surprised it didn't shoot a bit of smoke out the controls. I find that having a tiny bit of flame helps control against this.

It does tend to happen more with wood 25% and above in moisture.

In a cat stove you will see more ghost flames than the usual secondaries since we do not have air tubes on the top baffle.

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[crater22]

I got the same puff backs on my insert which is quite similar to yours when I cut the air down too hard, you get quite a bit of smoke buildup then.. *boom* the hot catalyst ignites the smoke. Surprised it didn't shoot a bit of smoke out the controls. I find that having a tiny bit of flame helps control against this.

It does tend to happen more with wood 25% and above in moisture.

In a cat stove you will see more ghost flames than the usual secondaries since we do not have air tubes on the top baffle.

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That is pretty much what I was looking at. What really worried me, was the dancing flames between the cat and the heat shield. I had never seen that before. Just ordered a moisture meter off of Amazon and I plan to use that as regular as my daily constitution.

It's hard to maintain a small flame at all times, but I am sure that within the next 10 years I will get it right....

Thanks again.