My concerns re: catalysts

[Osm3um]

We are in the process of looking at wood stoves. As part of the process I have been digging through these forums.

Although I doubt we will be purchasing a cat stove, I am curious about a few things:

What happens if the manufacturer of the cat stove goes out of business? Can you buy generic catalyst parts?
What are the odds that the metals used in Catalyst parts go through the roof as for price? Is that possible?
Is it possible to run a cat stove without the catalyst piece?

Etc.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Corey]

Bear in mind, I don't have a cat stove, but that won't stop me from taking a stab at a few of your questions...

...
What happens if the manufacturer of the cat stove goes out of business? Can you buy generic catalyst parts?

I have seen a couple of 'aftermarket' catalyst sellers. At one point, I had considered retrofitting a cat to my stove. There are a few basic shapes/sizes which seem to be pretty commonly available. So I suspect even if the manufacturer went out of business and all surplus parts were gone, you could still buy an 'aftermarket' cat in the same size.

What are the odds that the metals used in Catalyst parts go through the roof as for price? Is that possible?

Platinum, palladium, etc - yes, they could go 'through the roof', but they are already $1000+ per ounce. The amount used in most catalysts is so small, I doubt it is $5 - $10 of the actual price. So even if they doubled to $2000/ounce, the catalyst might cost $10 more.

Is it possible to run a cat stove without the catalyst piece?

I suppose 'technically', it is...that is how you burn them before they are up to temp and you 'engage' the cat. Though the downside is: because a cat stove is basically 'straight through' (as far as smoke is concerned) without the cat, it would be even less efficient than a secondary burning stove...a cat stove with no cat is pretty much just an old time 'smoke dragon' at that point.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

We are in the process of looking at wood stoves. As part of the process I have been digging through these forums.

Although I doubt we will be purchasing a cat stove, I am curious about a few things:

What happens if the manufacturer of the cat stove goes out of business? Can you buy generic catalyst parts?
What are the odds that the metals used in Catalyst parts go through the roof as for price? Is that possible?
Is it possible to run a cat stove without the catalyst piece?

Etc.

Thanks,
Bob

catalysts are generally not manufactured by stove builders. they are an industry unto themselves. "cat" stoves are generally manufactured to operate with cat's of a specific size and cell density. building to specs from a common cat manufacturer is smart buisness as developing your own or building to a special size creates unnecessary cost.

yes, aftermarket cats can be had for virtually any modern stove on the market.

and no you should not run acat stove without the cat , it will simply not do what its designed to do

hope this helps ya

 

[BrotherBart]

Bottom line is that a cat for a stove you buy is going to be available for a long time.

You can still buy one for stoves built in the seventies for the same price as one built last week.

 

[Frostbit]

Page up 4 clicks to the Blaze King posts. Take a look at N of 60's pics. Realize you're looking at a cat stove run hard for 4 years. That ought to dispel any reservations about a catalytic stove.

If my house were bigger and I needed more heat, my Jotul would be for sale.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Bob, it appears you are in the same place as my wife and I were a few years ago. We wanted a new stove but were unsure what we wanted except that we wanted something that would heat our old drafty place.

We had heard some real horror stories about cat stoves and had simply decided we'd not buy a cat stove because we didn't want something that was difficult to operate or didn't even work as good as a different type of stove. We looked at dealers and on the web and even in a few homes that had newer stoves than we had. Then we also remembered that many moons ago we wanted to buy a soapstone stove from a company named Woodstock. So we sent for some literature. Oh my God! They are cat stoves! What to do now?

Well, we continued to look at their literature and read a few short reviews but did not know anyone personally who owned one. We finally called the company. Long story short, we still balked at buying this stove but then were directed to a family some distance from us who invited us to come see their stove and answer any questions. After a couple of calls we set a time and date and went for a visit. Boy am I happy we did that too. This fellow turned out to be a business man I had done business with a long time ago and also with other relatives of his, so we hit if off right away. He not only answered our questions but told us of some of the ways Woodstock helped him but I won't list them all here. He also informed us that all his sons and daughters had Woodstock stoves.

To shorten the story, the following week we ordered a Fireview and crossed our fingers. We still were not totally convinced this thing would kick out enough heat to keep us warm. We bought the stove around March 1 and had it delivered to a local business who had a fork lift. They received it for us and also loaded it onto our trailer at no cost (but I did give a generous tip). I unloaded it from the trailer with no help and placed it onto a furniture dolly. It set in our carport until September when we installed it ourselves.

The installation amounted to a raise hearth (16") and a horizontal pipe through the wall (1/2" raise per foot of horizontal) into a tee with SS chimney going up the outside wall of the house. We even went shorter with the chimney than required but did check the draft to make sure we could. This has proved to work really great and if it had not, we would have added to the chimney and perhaps built a chase. Neither has been necessary.

We have used this stove for 3 full winters now and it is our only source of heat because we sold the old furnace! So how has this cat stove worked out?

The first thing we noticed was the amount of heat this little think kicked out! The second thing was the longer burn times of the wood. The third thing we noticed was that we were burning a whole lot less wood than we ever had in the past. Then we also noticed that there was a more even heat in the house.

I had argued with my wife that a 16" raised hearth was too much because heat goes up and not down. Yet, to our amazement, the floors were very warm now but had never been warm with our other stove. We had a plastic runner by our entry door where we brought the wood in and that is where I always sit to put the outdoor shoes on. My feet had always been cold there when getting ready to go out. But now even that plastic was warm! I was and am amazed.

So how does the fuel use compare with our old wood burner? This is difficult to believe, but we use just about half the amount of wood we used to and stay a whole lot warmer all winter long. Where we used to burn around 6 cords annually (sometimes more) we have burned for 3 winters now and have never used more than 3 cords.

So what about this cat thing? Yes, I was a bit concerned. Here is what I found. First, you must burn good dry wood, which is no problem with us but can be with some folks. The cat is easy to use and easy to maintain. To use the cat, when first lighting the stove you wait until the stove top thermometer has reached 250 degrees and then move a little lever from off to on. Now you can forget about the cat. It will do its thing and the temperature of the stove will rise much faster now.

What about reloading the stove? First, just before or at the time when the fire has burned down to coals, we open the draft full for a while to allow the coals to burn down a bit else in time you will end up with a firebox half full of red hot coals and not much place to add more wood. This is easy to control though once you know how to do it. So now we are ready to load some wood. What do we do?

The draft is now full open, so now you move that little lever from on to off with the cat. Add the wood, close the door and wait until the fire gets going good; usually 10-15 minutes. Make sure the wood is charred, turn the draft down maybe half way and flip that little cat lever to turn the cat on. Now most will gradually decrease the amount of draft. Many times we don't have to do that but will set the draft about 1/4 of the way to 1 (scale of 1 - 4 on the draft). Now sit back and enjoy a good fire and lots of heat.

What about maintenance of the cat? That is pretty simple. Woodstock says clean the cat after every cord of wood. We have found that we do not have to do it that soon. For us, once per winter is plenty. It takes only a couple of minutes to do. After the fire has burned down (we don't let it cool completely but use welder's gloves when doing this and we also use those gloves when reloading the stove), simply raise the top lid, lift out the cat and go outdoors. We take an old paint brush and lightly brush the white fly ash off the cat. Go back and set the cat in, close the lid and build your next fire. It takes me about 2-3 minutes maximum to do this.

As has been stated, there are no worries about not being able to find a new cat when the time comes.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Bob, the above post was too large. Here is the contact for Woodstock.

800-866-4344

And the website:

Woodstock stoves