I live in Ohio and installed a 2in 1 about 6 weeks ago. I've burned a lot of wood in it. I came from a VC Intrepid, The small stove and it was a CAT stove. I have a 6 inch pipe, running straight up 12 feet, into an 8-6 to 8 inch converter that goes into the roof and out the top. I have a 'top hat' flew topper that rotates with the wind. These really help with stopping backdraft. I have about 4 years of experience with CAT stoves. First, the CAT is easy. Anyone who says it's hard, I don't understand that. The Encore 2 in 1 is 470 pounds of iron. You have to get some heat momentum going and it really takes about 40 minutes from a cold start BEFORE you can put it in CAT mode. If you do this any earlier, you will probably flame out or get smoke in the house. If the stove has any heat left, you can achive it in sometimes 10 minutes, from say a 200 degree temp reading from the iron behind the griddle. I never use griddle temp. The griddle could be 550 and the stove is only 200. For CAT stoves, I have to get a reading on the thick iron, not thin cast iron hit directly by flames. My procedure is as follows. Newspaper, wood bark and thin pieces of wood kindling to start the fire. Only non-color regular newspaper. Not the circulars from Kohls or Home Depot. They produce creosote and other junk. I do not clean out ALL The ash, I like about a 1/2 inch bed, even it it's cold as that will heat up and provide a nice base. Anything more, I push through the holes and into the swing out ash pan for removal. I cheat and slight crack and open the ash pan to let air in from the bottom. This creates a quick fire situation. I only do this for maybe 3-5 minutes. You can also crack the front door for a similiar but less effect. Once I am getting good flame, I put a few smaller logs and get those burning. Once I have stove temp of 400-650 for about 3o minutes, I load it up with heavy wood and let that go full air and non-CAT for 5 minutes, then I close the CAT up. Simply pull the handle on the left all the way forward. I then let that go for about 5 minutes, then if I want a 400-500 burn for a long time, I push the air control handle full closed. With harder wood, I'm getting 6-8 hours. With smaller or softer wood, you'll be lucky to get 4 hours. You need good thick pieces of wood with density and gerth to get a long overnight burn. I even burn some unsplit logs that are 6 inches-8 inches around occasionally and they burn fine as long as they are at least 1 year old. Some said they heard you have to turn the CAT off. You HAVE to turn the CAT off to load this stove. I don't know of a CAT stove that you can leave in CAT mode. The entire reason for CAT is to force air through a chamber and burn ash and smoke and gain efficiency. Also, the CAT will burn in the 1100-1400 range if you do it right, producing a HUGE amount of heat in the chamber. I"ve run CAT stoves with CAT temp probes and they run well around 1200. That's where they need to be to burn the smoke. I might install one tonight as I just love to play and see what going on. It's simple though, if the stove is hot, and needs wood, turn on the air full, then turn off the CAT (these are simply swinging two handles) then slowly open the griddle. I usually wait about 3 seconds before turning off the CAT and opening the griddle to get smoke running up the flew. Then load it, close the griddle, turn CAT mode back on, leave full air on for about 3-5 minutes, then choke it back. If the temp has dropped, I will leave the CAT off, crack the ash pan for about 2 minutes, close that, let it run open for 3-5 more, then close the cat, leave air full for 3-5 mintues, then choke it back. This way, I get max heat, but don't want to burn the wood up too quickly. The faster you can get it in CAT mode, the better, but if you put it there too fast, your CAT won't burn the ash and smoke and you actually loose heat. There's a sweet spot there. In comparing the Intrepid 2 to the Encore 2 in 1, I like them both. I would never own a non-cat stove. I would burn way to much wood. I can go 6-8 hours at 450 on 6 good size pieces. In non CAT mode, with the same 6, I would get 2 hours, both chocked back. CAT mode is just that much more efficient. Someone mentioned the front panel with the flower breaking. I guess if you are slamming wood in and you have an item that is at high temp, you are likely to break anything. Mine is thick and I only let wood hit the cast iron bottom. I wear long gloves that go to my elbows and manage the install of wood all the way down. My gloves are fire proof and I put the logs where I want them, never letting them hit the glass in front of the back plate. I anticipate no problems with broken plates. I ahve burned at least 350 hours on my encore 2 in 1 already without problems. I definetly had some learning to do. My biggest complaint was I wanted 6-8 hours of burn time. I was using too small and too soft a log. I also installed a return air vent behind my stove, put a magnetic vinyl cover and a 6 inch round duct receiver, I then put a dryer vent over that, painted all this nice shiny black to keep the wife happy, and have it sitting on the flue collar. I'm drawing 160 degree air back to the return plenum of my house and my geothermal hardly ever runs. I am heating a 6000 square foot house this way with temps around 20 outside. I will say though I built the place 3 years ago and did spray foam insulation which is worth every penny. Takes very little to heat the 6000 square, no drafts, no vented softits. I live in a foam cooler. I also have an airi to air exchanger running 24/7 in the winter. I really went nuts with my HVAC. And I have a fan cycler going so even if the heat is not on, my house fan turns on, churns the heat from the stove and blows it around and shuts off, regardless if the thermostat calls for heat. It's a complicated system, but my bills are less than $250 for 8000 square total. I have other spaces above garage not on the HVAC.
