Igniting Oly-6 catalytic heater?

I have a Wave 8 that needs a catalyst pad but the cost of replacing it is nearly the same as buying a new heater and no warranty. It seemed to me the newer heater pads don't last as long as the older ones did.

Is there anyone West of the Rockies that rebuilds them? Quartzsite would be handy.

Running it on High for the first 10 minutes is recommended by the manual. I understand this is not for burning the dust, but for warming up the whole catalyst pad - it works better then.

Dust should be kept away as much as possible. Quite a few catalyst pads in heaters of this type died prematurely of dust poisoning, and those pads are expensive. I kept the plastic bag it came in, and made a cover out if it. Always cover it when not in use, like during the day.

No, I'm not mailing it to anybody :). It works well - perhaps too well for this climate zone. They should've added thermostat, cheap b.astards.

Always run mine on high first 5-10min, figure it will burn off any dust/dirt on element and fully heat element before turning down. Wether it's needed or not dont know but makes me feel better.

Almot wrote:
My bathroom fan lid I'm trying not to keep open when sleeping, unless it's totally calm. Westerly winds are sudden and fierce, and for some reason half the time they come in the night. Few hours before sunrise the outside temps drop a lot, can be 60 after sunset and 45 at dawn.

Didn't have problems with Wave piezo lighter. Always starts from the first click. Maybe because it's a semi-permanent setup, the propane is always in the pipe. BBQ lighter is nice for making a bonfire to burn the garbage.

Having a roof vent cover help rid all the worries of having the vents open.

My bathroom fan lid I'm trying not to keep open when sleeping, unless it's totally calm. Westerly winds are sudden and fierce, and for some reason half the time they come in the night. Few hours before sunrise the outside temps drop a lot, can be 60 after sunset and 45 at dawn.

Didn't have problems with Wave piezo lighter. Always starts from the first click. Maybe because it's a semi-permanent setup, the propane is always in the pipe. BBQ lighter is nice for making a bonfire to burn the garbage.

Just a correction to my post above,.....
The olycats w/o oxy sensors, do not have a pilot lite, and those you do have to hold the button longer till you actually see a slight glow in the pad, and that can take nearly 1 minute. In the meantime, the flame can get rolling over the pad perdy good. I've had those non sensor heaters in previous RVs, and they take much longer to lite. One other thing, the oxy sensor heaters have an open pilot flame all the time the heater is burning.

Almot,
No matter what the outside temperature, I open the rear bath ceiling vent all the way and control the inside temperature by opening/closing windows at the front of the trailer.
In our 22' trailer, the Wave 6 on low produces too much heat to run constantly when the outside temperature is above about 60 degrees. In those conditions, I usually just run the furnace for a couple minutes to take the chill off. If I know it is only going to be that warm for a couple hours, I let the bath fan thermostat regulate the heat by turning on the fan and dumping heat when it gets too hot. Wasteful of propane and electricity, and it doesn't regulate over a very narrow temperature range, but it's "almost" automatic.
I find it easier to use a BBQ (or similar) long stem lighter than the built-in peizeo lighter to light the Wave heater.
Hope this helps.

I don't believe the manual is saying to hold the button any longer than necessary to keep the pilot going, which on both of mine is never over 10 seconds. I never put it on hi,....low only and walk away. They will sometimes puff a couple flames as I leave.
Both my wave 3 have oxy sensors on them, but they did discontinue them several years back, for 2 reasons, ...one, they will not operate above 6K elevation, but I have never verified that. Second, they don't need an oxygen sensor. Even w/o any windows open or any vents cracked, but just the normal (not very well sealed) Rv venting, neither of my heaters have ever attempted low oxy shutdown.

Then comes the safety issue,.....what makes people think that are going to die at nite when a cat heater is burning, and not die in the daytime under the same conditions ? But if you don't trust your cat heater to be on low all nite long to just keep the chill off, then don't do it,....it is you that looses the value.
Me, I cannot remember the last time I did not sleep all nite w/ at least one of my cats on low all nite.

Last I'll say, these heaters are great here in Quartzsite, but in high humidity, I still use them, but they make a lot of water on the windows.

Bought my first wave 3 in 1974, been burning them ever since.
The pads don't last forever, if dust dirt gets to them,....keep them covered when not in use.

Okkey... Then it must be my narrow comfort zone to blame. 77 too warm to sleep, 70 too low. (Remember Bart Simpson terrorizing his grandpa, threatening to lower the thermostat from 76 to 75.5?)...
Will bite the bullet and get a goose down duvet. It keeps the body temperature better than a (missing) thermostat.

Regulating by opening the windows is a good tip but it has to be colder than 50-60 outside for that. Too much heat from Wave 6 on the Low, it's rarely below 45 there.

Almot wrote:
Manual puzzles me. It says:

6. After initial ignition (i.e. when pilot ignites) keep control knob depressed for 45-60 seconds max....
7. When ignition occurs, you will see small blue flames playing over the catalyst pad while it heats up. This flaming is normal during start-up"....
8. Turn control knob to High, etc, etc.

Those flames don't seem to stop if you keep pressing the knob for longer. I didn't notice any difference in subsequent work of the heater whether I release the knob and turn it to High after the first "puff", or after 5 or 10 of them. I understand that these puff-puff flames are "normal" but something tells me that catalyst pad is designed to process the propane with no flames. Hence - the less you let those flames playing and burning the pad - the better. So... being mistrusting, I've opted to turn it High after the very 1st "puff". Any thoughts?

Btw, I'm not thrilled with it. It is silent, yes. Sleeping with furnace on, one has to be either clinically deaf or really drunk. This Oly is silent. VERY easy on propane, too. Still I don't like it. It eats the oxygen up. So I let it please me :) after sunset when the desert cools down, until I go to bed, then shut it down. Better quality air and no waking up all sweaty - it's 50-60 in the night, and this thing has no thermostat, only 3 settings: High-Med-Low. Windows are open several times more than 24 sq.in. suggested by the manual. Oly is not "vented" but I doubt that venting would change the picture dramatically, given the existing inflow of fresh air.

Usually after the first or second flame over you can switch over to high. After it's going you can turn it down to low or where ever to help regulate the heat. We had a Wave 3 in the pickup camper and during the winter up in the snow we would regulate the heat by how far the windows was open.
If it was freezing outside, we had the windows cracked overnight and had the Wave 3 set on low most of the time.