just wondering if a cat stove is worth all the hassles that i keep reading about.seems kinda fussy,could be wrong wouldn't be the first time lol
is a cat stove really worth the hassle?
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Depends on what you think is "worth it" and what a "hassle" is. I have both cat and non-cat stoves and the cat stove requires me to clean the cat from ash dust twice a winter or so. I had to replace the cat at 6 years, think it was $140 US. Takes ten minutes to remove and replace the cat, either for cleaning or replacement.
For that, I use 40% less wood in that stove than I did in the non-cat it replaced. Plus cleaner emissions in the exhaust.
For that, I use 40% less wood in that stove than I did in the non-cat it replaced. Plus cleaner emissions in the exhaust.
I have owned a Kuma Aspen LE for one winter now, and the winter is not over. There is a learning curve but I have enjoyed the process. It is not overly complicated. This forum has been a great source of information and some stoves come with good instructions. These are very efficient stoves and I would not hesitate to buy another one. After several months I still have questions, I will ask one of them on this forum today; but we are using a minimal amount of wood resulting in good heat production with very little inside air pollution.
As a non cat owner of a stove, I do see the merits of a cat stove that has the ability to be set on a low burn rate to slowy dump btu's into a space. Your building envelope and typical outside temperature play a large role in the decision if a cat will work for you. If you dont have the need for the low output I do not see large benefits on the decision to buy a cat stove. In my own situation a cat stove would work well possibly as we have a new, well insulated, with great air sealing home. Where we put our stove in the house, I'm not sure if we would enjoy the "black box" appearance of a cat stove running on low unfortunately. In the end I believe it just boils down to whether one fits your situation well or you like the technology it offers. Any choice a person makes on stove choice comes with bonuses along with some disadvantages.
Well yes and no. If you are going to be burning low and slow most of the time I would say yes it's worth the slight added hassle and the increased cost of going with a cat stove. If you have a higher BTU load I really don't see much benefit. I switched from noncat to cat and really didn't see much benefit other than more even heat. Not much longer burns and absolutely no wood savings. And I have to buy a new cat every 3 years or so
Worth the minor hassle, however unless your wood is stellar, 20% moisture or lower it would be a waste of time, cat stoves thrive on dry wood,it brings out their maximum potential.
The same goes for any stove honestly that is absolutely not specific to cat stoves
In order to qualify for the EPA Tax Credit, many stove require a CAT to reach the required efficiency (Some non-cat stove qualify). That tax credit availablity may factor into the equation. My insert (Regency I2500) is effectively the Non-cat Regency I2450 that they slapped a cat in. I actually heard a Regency Rep tell my dealer on the phone that you don't need to engage the cat with this insert. I do for longer burns, but I think I can run either way. So the answer is very specific to each situation.
The benefits have to be of value to you for the fuss to be worth it. To me the benefits of wide range of outputs which allow for long burn times on low or short burn times on high is huge for a house stove providing full time heat. If you only burn part time, or only when it's really cold, then this flexibility of burn rate may not be so important to you.
I saved 25% on wood consumption compared to the modern noncat it replaced. That wood savings is worth real money and pays for new cats twice as often as I need them.
Some cat stoves suck. Lots of new ones hit the market recently as a way to try and hit emissions requirements. Some cat stoves are great and were cat stoves on purpose and even before the extra stringent emissions requirements. Those "by design" cat stoves with long term reputations are not as fussy if installed per the instructions. Think Kuma, woodstock, blaze king.
Very well said but I would add the regency pro line to that list as well. The cascade line not so much
I have 2000 sq. ft ranch house on a slab. 2x6 construction. Large family room with a cathedral ceiling and ten foot walls open into the kitchen. Lots of windows. All my window go to within a foot of the floor. I have a Hearthstone Mansfield non cat. I burn about 7 cords of wood. When it’s single digits outside I burn it hot and have to refill as quick as I can. If I had a cat stove would I be able to set it on low and burn all night without refilling. And would I expect to save about 3 cords of wood?(40%)
But if you are running your noncat that hard to keep up with the BTU loss a cat stove run low and slow isn't going to cut it. Now that being said many hearthstones don't have the best reputation when it comes to real world heat transfer efficiency. A different noncat might do much better.
For your first question, yes, you can set a good cat stove on low and it will easily burn all night without refilling. Heck, some folks go 30 hours without refilling when on low.
If you are running that mansfield on high output all day, and it's a pretty big stove, you will not get the same heat from a cat stove running on low but you will have a running stove that can be stoked whenever you get around to it and you can crank it up for higher output as desired. Are you really running the mansfield on high all day to keep the house warm or are you trying to recover from the cold overnight, and then again after being away at work all day? Keeping a house warm is much easier than heating up a cold house, especially with a stone stove.
I upgraded from a modern noncat hearthstone heritage to a catalytic blaze king princess. The stone stove was pretty but I had to run it at high output a lot because the fire would dwindle overnight or during the day while I was at work and the house would cool. So it felt like I needed to run it on high a lot because I was always catching up. The cat stove just loafs along on low keeping the house a steady 75ish all day on one load each evening.
I have a Hearthstone Equinox in my garage and a Mansfield in my house. I’ve had the Equinox for about 12 years and the Mansfield for about 7 years. Only problem was one door handle on the Equinox($55). I have a couple of cracked stones on each stove that cause no issues. I’ve read about all the problems with the Hearthstones but I have about 19 years between the two and don’t see it. I assume other stoves never have issues. Sometimes i see people post about 12 and 14 hour burns and I look at their avatar and see where they are from and average winter temperatures are in the forties. I suppose I could use a bigger stove in the house but when the temperatures above 20 degrees I have no trouble. I am not against cat stoves. I just have never had one. 40% less wood would be nice.
I started with a 1st gen cat stove and being a newbie, made all of the mistakes possible with wet wood, less than ideal chimney, etc. the stove didn’t work out, but that’s not necessarily the stove’s fault. I had to switch to a non cat and haven’t looked back. They’re more forgiving of less than ideal wood, and that can make a difference to a new burner.
Cat stoves are worth it, if you can assure dry wood.
Cat stoves are worth it, if you can assure dry wood.
I went from a regency 3100 to a blazeking princess. And like I said I get more even heat which is certainly nice. And it absolutely has potential to burn much longer on the same load of wood than the regency could. But if I am actually trying to heat the house I very rarely use those long burn times. And I have seen no wood savings at all
When I first started with the Equinox my wood wasn’t dry enough and the stove would take forever to heat up. I was new to wood burning and didnt know the importance of dry wood. I came on this site and other people were complaining about how slow they are to warm up when started cold. When you start a hearthstone cold you need to leave the door open until they really get going. If you don’t and you shut the door they really slow down. They don’t get much air even wide open. Now I know. Dry wood starts like gasoline and leave the door open until it really gets going. Stove gets hot fast. I think whatever stove you have there is a learning curve. I can get 12 hours out of a burn when it’s 35 to 40 degrees. Not when it’s 8 degrees with a 40 mile an hour wind. No way. If I had a cat stove could I?
Depending on the cat stoves yes you absolutely could get those long burn times at any time regardless of outside temps. But that doesn't mean it will heat your house at that burn rate. Most cat stoves are slightly more efficient than most noncats. But not enough difference in efficency to make much of any difference when it comes to the ammount of heat you get from each piece of wood. The benifit is that they can still run clean at much lower burn rates. If your house can be heated with the stove at a low burn rate a cat stove may be right. If your house needs higher BTU input it probably doesn't make much sense to go with a cat
I can run my Keystone with a bit of flame in the box if I want. I do that when I need more heat, since flame in the box heats up the sides of the stove more, whereas with a cat burn most of the heat is coming off the top of the stove above the cat.
It's physics that when the flow through the stove is slower, as in a cat stove, it allows the stove to extract more heat from the exhaust rather than flushing it up the flue, therefore I'd expect to see some wood savings with a cat stove. I don't doubt that some have seen a 40% savings after switching to a cat, but I don't think that most will.
I got my SIL a non-cat a few years back, but am just beginning to experiment with it of late. So far, it doesn't seem like I can burn it very low without the secondary crashing and the stove burning dirty, so I have to open the air back up and end up flushing heat out the flue. Now, some of that may be the lower-btu wood I have over there. Once I can get her further ahead, I can feed her more Oak etc. Maybe with slower-gassing dense woods, the load can be controlled better while burning cleaner. The Red Maple gasses faster on startup, making more smoke for the secondary to clean up, so I open the air and end up flushing more BTUs, I think..
Running the BK at your house, at a high burn rate in cold weather and with the constant wind always sucking heat out of your house, I don't doubt that you see zero wood savings. It doesn't help that the BK has low peak BTU output...you burn the hell out of it but get little heat in return, it goes up and out. I can run my stove with just a bit of flame in the box and it puts out quite a bit more heat through the sides. The flow rate through the stove is still low though. With a cat stove better designed for your climate, maybe you could save a bit of wood, I don't know.
Seems to me that a well-designed hybrid might be the best of both worlds, provided that you could control to some degree which mode the stove burns in, secondary or cat.
Even those living in cold climates have shoulder seasons, so the low, efficient cat burn should benefit everyone to some degree.
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You have to decide what you want to accomplish with a wood stove. Are you looking for a primary heat source? Are you wanting long burns? Do you care about air quality?
I have an old cat stove but I don't live in a very cold area. It requires more thought than burning a non cat stove, I have burned both and burn mine in non cat mode. I can get long burns with less wood but with less heat output with the cat and a cleaner chimney. I can burn hotter with more heat output, less thought, more wood used and a dirtier chimney without the cat. While the air quality part is nice in theory for me it's nicer to not have to clean the chimney as often.
Well it's allot more complicated than that. There are plenty of other ways to increase retention time and heat transfer efficency without using a cat.
Lol no...Magic heat
It's in the design of the stove. Some stoves are better at it than others.
For me outside temperature makes a difference in how I burn my stove. Someone can say I need a bigger stove if it can’t handle the coldest temps but I don’t feel that way. Probably 95% of my burning season isn’t below 20 degrees. When it’s under 15 degrees I just have to pay more attention to it. The one night this year when it was single digits and we were having 40 mph winds I gave up and turned on the heat for a couple of hours. Next day temperature was the same but the wind died right down and I had no problem. First time I turned the heat on in 6 years.I can’t come close to telling you my burn times. Outside temps determine that for me. I had the chimney swept the first time in 6 years this fall and had maybe a half cup of white ash. Cleaned stove in the garage first time in 11 years.Had maybe a cup of dark creasote. 25’ of chimney. I’m pretty sure if you tell me you have a 12 hour burn time at the end of that burn time the temperature in the house would end up different at the end of that burn if it was 5 degrees outside than if it was 40 degrees.
Did you read my response? Of course the burn time is going to be adjusted according to outside temps. That's a big part of what determines your needed BTU load. Which determines your desired burn rate.
The fact that you are getting that little buildup in your chimney tells me you are dumping massive amounts of heat up the chimney. That means wasted BTUs. In my experience many hearthstones tend to do that. Or your stove isn't large enough and is being run to hard
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