My comparisons of: (Lopi Revere vs. Freedom) vs. (PE Super) vs. (BK Princess) ***Fan Noise & Door Wa

53flyer said:

... I'm used to most people talking about cats irt super long burns at "low" settings but during the middle of a cold winter the stove would need to be set higher than low all the time. That's why I was wondering what setting most BK burners felt they could set their stoves without worrying much about damaging the cat.

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The way I look at it is, I only care about the super-long burn for running overnight.
I want to fully load the stove before I go to bed, have it run all night without the catalytic
becoming inactive (and thus inefficient and polluting), and still have a fire going in the
morning, one which can be raised to an inferno simply by opening the thermostat and
maybe adding some wood. I want this to work even if I don't want to have to pack the
stove RIGHT before beddy-bye, and if I want to sleep in (more than 8 hours). So the 12hr
I've been seeing works very nicely. I don't care if the house gets a little chilly, which even
on a low burn will only happen if it's below freezing (not that common in NC these days),
because I like sleeping in a cold room and have a thick comforter.

You cannot violate the laws of physics. You can only load so much wood in the firebox (MAYBE
60lb in the Princess, if you have BIG chunks of very dense hardwood), and this wood can only
release so much heat per pound (more if it's good and dry). So if you need to set the stove
to a higher temp, you're just not going to get as long a burn - sorry. If you set it so high that
damaging the cat is a risk, it's only going to stay that high for a few hours.

So, like others have said, it doesn't really make sense to set the stove to a high temp and then
abandon it, for two reasons: there's no reason to heat your house so warm if you're sleeping
or going out for the evening, and it may run out of wood. So I think your worry/question is
sort of moot. Hope this helps ...

When burning on High I was looking into the glass and didnt see any flames getting sucked thru the cat. Seems the flames where going up to the by-pass plate and not go up front towards the cat, its the smoke that is drawn into the cat not the flames. BK dudes is that what you are also seeing or is my by-pass plate not fitting tight?

Lanning, that has been my experience as well. The flame might barely lick the bottom of the cover in front of the cat.

SolarAndWood said:

Lanning, that has been my experience as well. The flame might barely lick the bottom of the cover in front of the cat.

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Mine also.

53flyer said:

Can someone please address these 2 specific questions that I still don't think have been answered (unless I missed them). Thank you very much.

This concerns heat output irt catalyst stoves:

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53... A good example for you would be..... When Iam gone for work for the day and we get a good drop in outside temps. Like leave in the am and its -5c and it drops to -30c in the evening when I get home. I will turn up the stat to max ...Above /past 3 and burn down whats left. If I loaded that morning It will take an hour or so to burn up whats left on High. After shower and get food Cookin I will reload to about 75% and set the stat at 2.75-3 and turn my fans onto High. Stove top will settle at 650- 700f for 4-5 hrs and start to drop. At the 6hr mark before bed I will have room to reload set it at 1.5 with fans off and go to bed. House temps were 19c when I got home and 23c before bedtime. It helps be get a good gain. It will be 20-21c in the AM. I will reload if the outsid temps are below -20c and leave stat at 1.75 fan off. I will return 10-12 hrs later with a warm house above 19c. I will turn the stat up to 2.25,fans on and reload only before bed.

53flyer said:

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like there's not much concern about damaging the cat if it becomes necessary to run on med/high or high for a few hrs during a real cold spell. Here are the last two comparisons I'd appreciate info on if you people have time:

Fan Speed- Can the Lopi and Princess insert owners chime in on how loud the blowers are? A dealer told me the Princess was supposed to be fairly quiet due to the type of fan it uses. Agree/disagree? Thanks

Door Airwash- Lopi and Princess experiences? I’ve read about cats generally being a bit dirtier but do a few hrs on med/high-high clean it up the same way it does for a non-cat?

Thanks again for all the info so far

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fan on the princess is quiet.

yes, a few hrs on high will clean glass on the princess. my lopi allows me to point the holes on the front firetube directly at the glass, so when i get a good secondary burn going, the glass is awash in superheated exhaust. cleans up nicely. Lopi always has cleaner glass than BK.

One of the best things about dumping my masonry chimney and Lopi insert was to get rid of those stupid noisy insert fans. The fan was loud at best and rattly and loud at worst. I would adjust it to the best sound/flow level which wasn't full blast and it would be loud enough to wash out the refrigerator, frogs, and many other noises that I want to hear at night. Loud fans stink. Some people like the background noise while they sleep but what about when you're watching TV or trying to have a conversation? I removed and cleaned the fans, the fans were all working properly.

Geez Nof60, the celsius thing kills us southerners.

Highbeam said:

One of the best things about dumping my masonry chimney and Lopi insert was to get rid of those stupid noisy insert fans. The fan was loud at best and rattly and loud at worst. I would adjust it to the best sound/flow level which wasn't full blast and it would be loud enough to wash out the refrigerator, frogs, and many other noises that I want to hear at night. Loud fans stink. Some people like the background noise while they sleep but what about when you're watching TV or trying to have a conversation? I removed and cleaned the fans, the fans were all working properly.

Geez Nof60, the celsius thing kills us southerners.

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53… A good example for you would be….. When Iam gone for work for the day and we get a good drop in outside temps. Like leave in the am and its 23F and it drops to -22F in the evening when I get home. I will turn up the stat to max ...Above /past 3 and burn down whats left. If I loaded that morning It will take an hour or so to burn up whats left on High. After shower and get food Cookin I will reload to about 75% and set the stat at 2.75-3 and turn my fans onto High. Stove top will settle at 650- 700f for 4-5 hrs and start to drop. At the 6hr mark before bed I will have room to reload set it at 1.5 with fans off and go to bed. House temps were 66.2F when I got home and 73.4F before bedtime. It helps be get a good gain. It will be 68-69.8F in the AM. I will reload if the outsid temps are below -4F and leave stat at 1.75 fan off. I will return 10-12 hrs later with a warm house above 66.2F. I will turn the stat up to 2.25,fans on and reload only before bed.

OK Highbeam hows that. :cheese:
http://www.worldwidemetric.com/Measurements.html

53flyer said:

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like there's not much concern about damaging the cat if it becomes necessary to run on med/high or high for a few hrs during a real cold spell. Here are the last two comparisons I'd appreciate info on if you people have time:

Fan Speed- Can the Lopi and Princess insert owners chime in on how loud the blowers are? A dealer told me the Princess was supposed to be fairly quiet due to the type of fan it uses. Agree/disagree? Thanks

Door Airwash- Lopi and Princess experiences? I’ve read about cats generally being a bit dirtier but do a few hrs on med/high-high clean it up the same way it does for a non-cat?

Thanks again for all the info so far

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My PI has a wonderful fan. When you run it at medium to a low setting you can hardly hear the fan. On high, I can but I am 10 feet from the PI with all hard wood floors and no rugs in the living room where we hang out and watch TV. It was 27 F last night and I turned the fan Off before bed. It was 76 degrees in the house at 5 AM. with the cat temp at the 12 O'clock engaged position. When the fan is off it does not restrict air movement thru the insert. If I compare the PI insert fan to my Century inserts fan its a quiet fan, no comparison.

I do have stains in the right and left corners of the insert glass. Seems if you load the splits E/W and keep the wood away from the glass it stays alot cleaner. I do not have a problem with this issue at all. Most of it will burn off on a high temp setting. I am just really happy with this insert and the amount of heat it puts out, its amazing. I cannot believe how much wood you can load either! The other good thing is you don't have to clean ash out every 3 days either. I would advise you to get the PI1010A insert.

north of 60 said:

OK Highbeam hows that. :cheese:
http://www.worldwidemetric.com/Measurements.html

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That's way better but you didn't have to do that for me. Hard to imagine going from 22F (dang cold) to -22F while you're away at work. That's real cold. Also amazed that your house seems to hold a moderate temperature, a 6 degree swing is really small for wood heat. I regularly run from 66F in the house to 79F.

Thank you for your effort.