84td said:
One thing I am not liking about a CAT stove is that the cat may need to be serviced.
Also I like to burn a hot fire and I want to see flames through a nice big window.
I am leaning towards no cat but am still open to changing if cat is better.
First let me say that North of 60 hit the nail on the head. Dry wood is the key no matter what kind of a stove you have.
Now I will say your post reminds me of when we started shopping for a new stove. We had heard all the bad things about cat type stoves and figured we needed to stay away from them for sure. To shorten the story, I'll just say that we ended up with a cat stove. We are now into our 4th year with this cat stove and we love it. Also, this stove is our only source of heat in winter besides sunshine. It keeps us nice and warm.
But what about that service you speak of not liking? Great question!
We too wondered about it but found it to be a non-issue. We have found that we clean our cat 2 times per year. Once during mid-winter and again on the normal summer cleaning. So let's talk about that mid-winter cleaning, or service because that is all we are cleaning rather than the entire stove. I can clean, or service, our cat in around 2 minutes. However, I am slow and usually take maybe 3 minutes. Even my wife can do it in 3 minutes. This is what we do.
The top lid of our stove lifts open. With one hand we reach in and pull out the cat. I take it outside and with an old paint brush, just lightly brush the fly ash off the cat. Place it back in the stove and close the lid. End of service. I have read that one can use a pipe cleaner to unclog the holes in the cat if need be but we've never seen anything near a clog as all the little holes are always clean. So to us, servicing the cat is a non-issue.
What other benefits are there? Although I can not compare our stove to a non-cat EPA stove, I can compare our stove to our old stove. We have found that we burn only 1/2 the amount of fuel that we used to burn....and stay a whole lot warmer. A point was brought up a while back sort of berating me about making this statement and stating that I'd be burning less wood today also if I had bought a non-cat stove. I agree. However, I will also point out that I have never heard of anyone burning only 1/2 the amount of wood they did with their old stove. More typically they will claim to use about 1/3 less and that is what I've been told I could expect with a different stove.
Another great benefit with this stove is the chimney. Most folks sweep their chimney annually and rightfully so. Some clean more than once per year and we used to do ours from 3-6 times per year. With our cat stove, we have cleaned our chimney exactly one time and got only around a cup of soot and no creosote.
Cat or non-cat? Listen to both sides, but go with your heart. Get a stove you really like the looks of and has some great reviews. Find a dealer you respect and can believe. Do you want some guarantees? You will not find a better one than the one Woodstock gives. If you aren't satisfied with a Woodstock stove, send it back for a full refund. Buy from a stove shop and if you aren't satisfied, sorry, but you are out of luck.
Good luck in your quest for a new stove.