Looking at cat stoves- questions regarding burning habits and wood used

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bjorn773

Member
Sep 12, 2007
240
Rockford, Illinois
I'm shopping for a replacement stove. I heat my 1100 sq. ft. home with a stove in the basement, so I'm essentially heating 2200 sq.ft. I know, less than ideal, but that's another subject. I burn 24/7 during the winter months and this is my primary heat source. I'm looking at cat stoves, since we both work full time and tend to burn long and low. I've never owned a cat stove, so I have a couple questions. One, I typically start my fires with a handful of 2x3 pine boards.(free wood, unlimited supply) I burn this until I have a nice bed of coals and the stove is up to temp. Then I fill the stove with either oak or soft maple, depending on how cold it is outside. On work days, I will let this get burning, then dampen back the stove. I've heard rumors that pine can be detrimental to cats. Is this fact or urban legend? I don't want to invest in a stove only to quickly ruin the cat. I'm looking at the blaze king princess, mostly because I don't know of many other cat stoves and it seems to be known for it's long burns. I considered a woodstock fireview, but it seems much smaller than the princess.. I guess my second question is, are there any other stoves comparable in low burn performance to the blaze king that I should consider. I'm looking at about a 265 mile trip one way to get a blaze king reasonably priced. Any input will be greatly appreciated.
 
I couldn't be happier with the BK. It is a big stove controlled by a thermostat that burns both high and low well. If you go with the BK, I highly recommend the blowers. They allow you to run low while you are at work or overnight and then bring your home up to temperature quickly. Dry wood is dry wood, pine included.
 
I love our Fireview, but I think you are right it might be too small to heat a 2200 sq ft area from the basement in Illinois. I can heat my 2300 sq ft near Boston with it, but not from the basement. Woodstock announced a new stove 50% larger than the Fireview, but probably won't be available till February 2011.
 
Question 1 has been answered, dry wood is dry wood. You should have been burning dry wood in that century you have now anyway, so I assume you have dry wood.

Question 2, in my opinion, based solely on what I have read here there is no stove that is set up better for low slow burns than the Blaze King king and princess stoves with the combination of cat and thermostat. This time next year, I should be able to tell you by personal experience. I have burned an old pre-epa earth stove with thermostatic air control, and loved it so much I will not have a stove without it. I have run my father-in-law's fisher, and what a pain in the butt to run in comparison. I have put a small amount of money in my mouth, as I have installed a used BK Royal Heir, which is patiently setting on the hearth until it gets cold enough to burn. I am concerned about it's small firebox size, but the pencil says it's big enough to do the job when stuffed with wood, the princess would be my choice if I could run out and buy a new stove. Soapstone and cat may be a close second for low and slow, but I would rather have plate steel construction myself. Buck makes a good solid large stove, but no thermostatic air control.

After reviewing your posts, you seem to be very nervous about this purchase. If your current stove is still functioning properly, the most sure way to get a return on investment would be on the insulation of the house, and I would make that a priority over the new stove. If you have cold air entering your house on those cold windy days, no stove in the basement is going to heat your upstairs well.

If your current stove is not functioning properly, then a new stove is in order, and I would be choosing a BK if my budget could swing it.
 
I have never really burned pine in my cat stove. When I'm cutting wood during the year I always cut up tree tops and store them inside a kindling bin. This allows me to always have small dry hardwood kindling throughout the year to start my stove with. as long as your wood is good and dry it shouldn't take much to get it burning.
As far as my cat stove goes I love the ability it gives me to obtain long slow burns. Around this time of the year I can easily obtain a 12 hour burn time with enough coals left over to restart a fire. One of the better things I did was replace my catalyst with the Condar steel cat, It allows you to light off the cat about 100 degrees lower than the original cat my stove came with as well as reducing the start up time to light off the cat but this is just my .02 cents worth. I would not replace your cat with a new one until it's useful life is over.
 
daleeper said:
After reviewing your posts, you seem to be very nervous about this purchase. If your current stove is still functioning properly, the most sure way to get a return on investment would be on the insulation of the house, and I would make that a priority over the new stove. If you have cold air entering your house on those cold windy days, no stove in the basement is going to heat your upstairs well.

If your current stove is not functioning properly, then a new stove is in order, and I would be choosing a BK if my budget could swing it.

You are absolutely correct, I'm a bit gunshy. The stove is a significant investment and I want to make the correct decision. As far as tightening up the house, I've been working on that too. I blew 18 inches of insulation into the attic last fall. I am working on tightening up any leaks I can find as well.

The main reason I want to upgrade the stove is to rid myself of the baffle system in the century. I badly warped my first baffle due to overfiring in the first couple seasons. When I replaced the baffle a couple years ago, I installed both a stovetop and flue thermometer and have been careful of my temps. However, the baffle is still warping and deteriorating. When I cleaned my stove a couple weeks ago, I had a heck of a time gettting the baffle out. Then I spent quite a bit of time with my press, trying to straighten it again. Add to that the fact that my low burns in this stove are not very efficient. I really want something that will burn cleaner at low burns. I've run this stove for seven years now, it's time to upgrade. Again, I just want to make the most educated decision I can and ask as many questions as possible prior to buying. I feel more confident about asking here, since the opinions are for the most part unbiased. Some stove dealers may just try to convince me to buy their product and not really try to give me the best info for my needs. (No offense intended toward any dealers here) Perhaps I have not yet found the right dealer. I have contacted a BK dealer 265 miles away from me who has been helpful, but with a work and a family, it's difficult to find time for the 500 mile drive to go there.
 
bjorn773 said:
I'm shopping for a replacement stove. I heat my 1100 sq. ft. home with a stove in the basement, so I'm essentially heating 2200 sq.ft. I know, less than ideal, but that's another subject. I burn 24/7 during the winter months and this is my primary heat source. I'm looking at cat stoves, since we both work full time and tend to burn long and low. I've never owned a cat stove, so I have a couple questions. One, I typically start my fires with a handful of 2x3 pine boards.(free wood, unlimited supply) I burn this until I have a nice bed of coals and the stove is up to temp. Then I fill the stove with either oak or soft maple, depending on how cold it is outside. On work days, I will let this get burning, then dampen back the stove. I've heard rumors that pine can be detrimental to cats. Is this fact or urban legend? I don't want to invest in a stove only to quickly ruin the cat. I'm looking at the blaze king princess, mostly because I don't know of many other cat stoves and it seems to be known for it's long burns. I considered a woodstock fireview, but it seems much smaller than the princess.. I guess my second question is, are there any other stoves comparable in low burn performance to the blaze king that I should consider. I'm looking at about a 265 mile trip one way to get a blaze king reasonably priced. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

jborn, I understand why you want to go with a cat stove and agree with you (we were against them until we learned the truth about them).


I do have one question on your starts. You state you start with some small boards and let that burn until coals and then put on the splits. I wonder why not do it in one operation? We typically start the stove and add more splits once the kindling gets started good rather than waiting for the coaling stage and it works fine. Also the use of the soft maple along with the oak is great because the soft maple burns hotter and starts much easier. We would put the soft maple directly in the front of the stove. It works great for us.

Do not ever wonder about pine again. As long as it is seasoned, it burns just as well as any other wood and better than some. It won't hold a fire as long but it will still give you good heat without doing anything wrong to the stove or flue.

Blaze King is good as is the Fireview. Depending upon insulation and good windows, etc., we do have some folks on here who heat a larger space with the Fireview, but I am not a fan of placing a stove in the basement.

Good luck
 
I do sometimes combine the operation. The main point I was trying to get across was the use of pine for initial startup and whether that was a concern for cats. I sometimes place my small splits on the bottom or near the front of the stove and the larger splits on top or toward the rear. Like I said, I just wanted to make certain the pine would not damage anything. All of the wood is seasoned and dry, so that is not a concern. Also, I know the basement stove is not ideal, but it's the only place that I have room. The upstairs is pretty cramped and we use all the space we have. An addon would be better, but then I'm redoing the entire system, moving the chimney, etc. The system I have has served me for seven years, not perfect but we stay warm.
 
Don't feel bad bjorn, the question about pine comes up really often. It is just another of those old wives tales. Just keep on burning that pine. And as long as your system is working, that is what counts in the end. Heck, our chimney is not at tall as necessary, but we get along just fine.
 
bjorn773 said:
You are absolutely correct, I'm a bit gunshy. The stove is a significant investment and I want to make the correct decision.

I really want something that will burn cleaner at low burns. I've run this stove for seven years now, it's time to upgrade. Again, I just want to make the most educated decision I can and ask as many questions as possible prior to buying. I feel more confident about asking here, since the opinions are for the most part unbiased. Some stove dealers may just try to convince me to buy their product and not really try to give me the best info for my needs. (No offense intended toward any dealers here) Perhaps I have not yet found the right dealer. I have contacted a BK dealer 265 miles away from me who has been helpful, but with a work and a family, it's difficult to find time for the 500 mile drive to go there.

I certainly understand you on wanting to make the best decision on this. I find it interesting that for the most part in this region the BK dealers are hardware stores or heating/cooling people, not a typical wood stove dealer. They sell them because they like them, are using them in their own homes, and can tell you by personal experience how they will run. I have only been to one dealer that also sells other brands of stoves, and have not been able to find out what kind of stove they burn at home. It is unfortunate that the distributor to the east has BK bound so tight that it makes economic sense to drive that 265 miles to purchase one.
 
daleeper, I think you find hardware stores in many areas also sell one or two types of stoves. We even have one in our area that sells corn burners and one with pellets. True wood stove dealers seem for the most part to be a thing of the past. You would think states like Michigan might have lots of wood stove sellers but there is not, or at least not in our area. We did find one that is 80-85 miles from us (not too bad of a dealer with a large selection but only fair on knowledge) and there was another that had 3 stores, one less than 20 miles from us but they went out of business.

On the other hand, over the last 5 years there have been new dealers popping up all over the place selling the outdoor wood boilers. It is also amazing how many they have sold and amazing how many of them were junk. Then they tell the buyers they can burn about anything in them.....and that is what gets burned. Of course one of the worst thing about them is the amount of wood it takes to keep you warm. Most find they burn about double or more the fuel they used to burn.

Corn burners were the rage for a short time but that is when a bushel of corn sold for less than $2.00 and now it is up around $5.00. So much for the corn burners.

Will this change? I doubt it at least for the foreseeable future.
 
From the top. Wood stoves are basic space heaters; convection or heating air to circulate is secondary.
So, a stand-alone stove should be where you spend the most time...normally.

Placing a wood stove a basement where you don't spend living time is not efficient. Much of the heat seeps out through the foundation walls and concrete floor into dirt. You're heating the outside. Few homes have well insulated foundations.
You'd get more heat from less wood putting the stove where you live.

Cat stoves do put out more heat for a longer cycle and more controlled than non-cats IF operated correctly. Non cats are engineered for easy user use ( ! ): not too much air, not too little air. It is the true mommie wood burner. But cat stoves take more care, more attention to the burn cycle and maintenance.

We've used both cat and non cat stoves to heat 100%, 24/7. Cat is preferred.
 
bjorn773 said:
I do sometimes combine the operation. The main point I was trying to get across was the use of pine for initial startup and whether that was a concern for cats. I sometimes place my small splits on the bottom or near the front of the stove and the larger splits on top or toward the rear. Like I said, I just wanted to make certain the pine would not damage anything. All of the wood is seasoned and dry, so that is not a concern. Also, I know the basement stove is not ideal, but it's the only place that I have room. The upstairs is pretty cramped and we use all the space we have. An addon would be better, but then I'm redoing the entire system, moving the chimney, etc. The system I have has served me for seven years, not perfect but we stay warm.

The Pine won't damage the cat as long as it's dry. There are plenty of cat stove users here that have nothing but Pine to burn and get by just fine.

I've heated 3 different homes from basement installed woodstoves and yes a woodstove is a space heater but sometimes the space you want to heat is your whole house. If your Century is doing fine a Blaze King will be even better. I think it's well worth the trip but maybe it would be cheaper to have the dealer ship it to you or meet you half way?
 
We do spend quite a bit of time in the basement. The stove is in our family room. My office and home gym are both down there too. We don't sleep there, but spend most evenings down there. One nice thing about it is there is no stove associated mess upstairs. The wood is dropped from outside into a wood bin around the corner from the stove. I am quite certain that insulating the basement walls would make a drastic difference, but I'm still fighting some minor water leaks that prevent that at this time. I'm on a high water table with no drain tile under the floor. I installed a sump, which helped, but not entirely. Anyway, I'm getting way off topic. The bottom line is, I don't know if I will live in the house long enough to justify the cost of framing and finishing the basement. A better stove I can take with me if I move.
 
I did get ahold of my local dealer yesterday... by local I mean 60 miles away vs. 260 miles away. They dropped the ball on gettting back to me a couple weeks ago, but were helpful yesterday. I can save a bit by driving to the further dealer, but time has to be worth something as well. Then there is the subject of any warranty issues, I think the closer dealer is the way to go for that reason.
 
branchburner said:
I don't think anyone but BK has the dial-down thermostat, but for other cat stoves check out Buck:
http://www.buckstove.com/wood.html

I agree! I love my Buck 91 puts out some serious heat with the temp 25deg outside the wife and I are walking around in shorts and tank tops with the doors open. Perhaps the reason I love it so much is the fact that the thermostat is my wife stripping down to a tank top :)
 
You could pretty much heat a house made with screen doors with it being only 25* outside! That's what it is outside right now and I was out all morning in a thin sweatshirt.

I hope my Blaze King is going to be enough to heat the house when it gets cold... -30*
 
NATE379 said:
You could pretty much heat a house made with screen doors with it being only 25* outside! That's what it is outside right now and I was out all morning in a thin sweatshirt.

I hope my Blaze King is going to be enough to heat the house when it gets cold... -30*

Thats why you gotta love California. The weather that is. Not much else about this state is worth a damn.
 
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