trade-off re: Supervent standard vs "deluxe" rain caps

There have been many suggestions on this forum to use a screen of some type on chimneys - as a spark arrestor and / or to keep critters out.

I have a Supervent 2100 chimney with the "deluxe" rain cap shown here. On my old chimney, just dismantled, this deluxe cap (15 years of service) still looks like new. Great quality.



Supervent (Selkirk) also lists a "standard" rain cap in their catalogue. Interesting that I have never seen this as a stock item in any of the box stores (Supervent is sold in a lot of places).



Note the spark arrestor screen included with the standard cap; it is also listed as a separate item in the parts catalogue (I suppose to replace a damaged screen).

The deluxe cap is pretty much rain proof - even the driving rains. They also mention a "venturi effect" that apparently improves draft. And it locks solid on the top of the pipe. It does seem to keep birds away (haven't had ever come down in either stove over the years) but the bats aren't phased by it.

The standard cap is more "universal", and the screen obviously is intended to keep critters out and keep sparks down.

Not sure if anyone considering a new install with Supervent will find this info useful before purchasing a cap. But I wonder what do you all think about the "trade-off" you have to make with this brand of chimney and cap - having to give up one that's more rain proof (and we've had some wicked rains this year) and (if their claim isn't bogus) gives you a better draft, in order to get some better critter (in my case, bat) protection?

Or is there a generic / hybrid cap out there that would do a better job attached to a Supervent chimney?

Or am I over-thinking this - should I just take a pill and find / order the standard cap?

As PapaDave says, it seems to be a crapshoot. Birds here seem to be more keen on flying into the living room windows, as opposed to dropping down the chimney.

Bats - over the years I've found them right in the stove firebox, up on top of the baffle plate (my old stove), a tiny one stuck in the primary air slot in the new stove (found him when I was spraying the graphite powder on the slider last year). In the house I've had a couple (same time) way up at the peak of the cathedral ceiling one night, another time I found one on the back of the old couch, then one clinging to a wall in a storage room, and the latest episode with one flying around my bathroom in the middle of the night. I'd think that those that come down the stove generally shouldn't survive the experience. I think maybe sometimes half asleep, middle of the night, I go let the dog out for a pee, a bat is out there gorging itself on the cloud of bugs out by the porch light - the dog goes out, the bat flies in. I dunno. It's no fun trying to capture one and get it out, but the mosquitoes this year have been (still are) horrendous with all the rain. So I guess the bats are in a feast mode. They eat something like a zillion times their own weight in bugs?