Another new old guy here. How have I missed this site for so long??

[WoodpileOCD]

Hello to everyone. Great to be here. I've been heating with wood off and on for about 20 years with an old 1980 Black Bart Model 3200 insert that I'm finally replacing. Just scored a deal and a half off of Craigslist on a 2 year old Buck Model 91. Called in some favors on manpower and am going to get it tomorrow. MAN am I excited.. If anyone has any experience with this brute (4.4 cu ft firebox) or catalyst stoves in general, I would certainly be interested in hearing from you.

I live in Mint Hill, NC in the central part of the state and the winters are pretty mild (seldom below freezing for more than a couple of days at a time) and I've been burning about 3-4 cords/yr. and looking forward to cutting that down to 2-3 with my new cat burner.

Only been 'lurking' for a few days before I had to jump into the fire so to speak. Looking forward to learning a bunch here and sharing my experiences.

 

[CTYank]

Welcome to the discussions. For one, I overlooked it almost as long.

Enjoy your new cat.

 

[bogydave]

Welcome
You got many varieties of wood there.
Snakes too :bug: though.

 

[Wood Duck]

I think there are a lot of catalytic insert owners here who can answer questions once you get started. Good Luck.

 

[Naandme]

Welcome, And don't feel bad just find the site myself. Wish I would have found it years ago but just wasn't suppose to be I guess. Anyway a great site with great people enjoy!!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum WoodpileOCD.

Good luck with the new stove. May it work out well for you. I am a bit surprised at the amount of wood you do burn so you must have a large place. Before we purchased our Fireview we used an average of 6 cord per winter and one winter was over 7. Since getting the Fireview the most we've burned has been 3 cord. On the cat, we usually wait until the stove top is over 250 degrees and usually 10-15 minutes after reloads but even more we go by the flue temperature. On our single wall pipe, when it gets up near 500 we engage the cat and all is well. This is our 4th winter with the Fireview and it is our only source of heat. We have cleaned the chimney exactly one time and got very little soot (around a cup full). We do remove the cat once or maybe twice per year and, using an old paint brush, dust off the fly ash. That takes 2-3 minutes maximum so maintenance is pretty light with this stove. How could we lose? We now burn half the amount of wood we used to and stay much, much warmer.

 

[smokinj]

Welcome...With a name like WoodpileOCD looking foward to a pic of your stacks.

 

[Shari]

Hello to everyone. Great to be here. I've been heating with wood off and on for about 20 years with an old 1980 Black Bart Model 3200 insert that I'm finally replacing. Just scored a deal and a half off of Craigslist on a 2 year old Buck Model 91. Called in some favors on manpower and am going to get it tomorrow. MAN am I excited.. If anyone has any experience with this brute (4.4 cu ft firebox) or catalyst stoves in general, I would certainly be interested in hearing from you.

I live in Mint Hill, NC in the central part of the state and the winters are pretty mild (seldom below freezing for more than a couple of days at a time) and I've been burning about 3-4 cords/yr. and looking forward to cutting that down to 2-3 with my new cat burner.

Only been 'lurking' for a few days before I had to jump into the fire so to speak. Looking forward to learning a bunch here and sharing my experiences.

Welcome to hearth.com! If you need specific details on running your stove you might want to post in "The Hearth Room: here: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/2/
as right now you are in "The Wood Shed" portion of hearth.com

There are lots of great people here with LOTS of knowledge.

 

[scottandlorig]

Welcome. This has been a helpful site for me and I know you will enjoy yourself.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Thanks to all for the welcome. Pyro, your right there are many, many kinds of wood here (and snakes). I'm purely a scrounger and I've been on a run of good luck lately and seems like everything I run into is oak. I've probably got close to 3 cords gathered and ready to be split. White, red and willow oak. Life is not always so good however so I'm feeling particularly lucky.

 

[firefighterjake]

Welcome to the forum WoodpileOCD.

 

[FireWalker]

There is gonna be days you wished you had your old stove back if you try pushing not so well seasoned oak thru that cat stove. Get it split up and out in the sun asap. Get it all dialed in and I'll bet you will never look back and no doubt a smaller wood supply will be in your future.

 

[Boozie]

I have a Buck 91 ... installed Dec 17, 2010. I'm a newbie and still learning regards inserts. It's so different than lighting up the fireplace. I've had a couple smoky starts, but when I get it going it really heats the place up. I'm so glad the salesperson talked me into this larger stove. My insert is in a family room in the basement. I've been experimenting with fans to get heat upstairs. There are a few others on here that have this insert. No matter what anyone has, they are ALL so very helpful.

Barb in Indiana

 

[WoodpileOCD]

There is gonna be days you wished you had your old stove back if you try pushing not so well seasoned oak thru that cat stove. Get it split up and out in the sun asap. Get it all dialed in and I'll bet you will never look back and no doubt a smaller wood supply will be in your future.

Thanks for the encouragement FireWalker... Already had that day and realized that what I thought was well seasoned wood wasn't. Had no idea until this site that oak needs a couple of years to dry. With my former big steel box, I just shoveled it in and opened er up.

I did a documented, controlled burn this morning with pallett wood (about 50/50 oak/pine). Just got home from work so I'm going to look at my notes and data and do a post on the experience.


Barb, glad to hear you are happy with yours. Thanks

 

[mainemaul]

welcome Woodpile, this place is a jackpot of info! really made my learning curve shorter had i not found it.
these guys are great and most really know there stove stuff.
just ask away and learn to do a search for specifics and find all your answers