Ok over a month now with this stove and it has the ability to cook me out of this room but I dont load it to the point its full as ive seen other do it. Overall I like the stove and the design.
Points to note in my system.
1. Im burning dry seasoned wood, mostly fir, pine, cherry right now and using a moisture meter and not burning anything over 15% as measured.
2. The chimney is DLV inside and class A outside with two 45 degree angles and about 20 foot stack.
3. I make top down fires, I use the internal and external surface thermometers with a infrared gun. I don't burn paper.
4. In the first couple weeks of fires it was easy to get the CAT to 1000F. With just a couple small pieces of wood. Now its more difficult and take longer and more wood.
5. I don't use the ash door to get the fire going by opening it up. This design scares me that one day it might get left ajar. Not good cause it acts like my toro leaf blower is in there when I checked this out of curiosity.
6. You cant cook on this stove cause it stays too cold for my amount of wood burning. Temps on the top front are about 200F to 250F. In back on top about 300F to 400F. Hotter than this and Im getting cooked out of the room if my fans are not on. I usually like the CAT to show me 800F and I leave it.
7. I dont use the dampener if the CAT temp is below 500F, I run it wide open. Once thats done I dampen down to med/low.
8. Im using more wood than I thought I would. About a full recycle bin a day. Or what you see here in large splits 20" long and pretty good size.
9. At one month I checked the creosote build up. None to be found. The draft is amazing. Much much better than my Englander NC-30 that smoked like a SOB. Not sure why its the same stack.
10. I do have to empty the ash pan every 4-5 days if used all day long. Ash pan needs to be maintained alot or it gets messy, need to open the ash door and scrape ashes forward in the pan since ashes accumulate in the back. Annoying.
11. The stove needs to be babied a bit and watched. Air adjusted when getting too empty and you dont want to add more wood. Probably normal.
I like this stove but I am burning more wood than I thought. All the wood in the photos would be burned in one day if it was a cold day in the 30's. Seems like alot for a CAT stove. Ive seen some load this thing to the gills and get a 10 hr burn. Ive not experienced a good 6 hour burn yet however. Typically for me one large split and 2 medium splits and some kindling is like 4-5 hrs of good heat. More than that and I cant be in the room or im too afraid to go to bed since im actually scared of burning the place down.
Points to note in my system.
1. Im burning dry seasoned wood, mostly fir, pine, cherry right now and using a moisture meter and not burning anything over 15% as measured.
2. The chimney is DLV inside and class A outside with two 45 degree angles and about 20 foot stack.
3. I make top down fires, I use the internal and external surface thermometers with a infrared gun. I don't burn paper.
4. In the first couple weeks of fires it was easy to get the CAT to 1000F. With just a couple small pieces of wood. Now its more difficult and take longer and more wood.
5. I don't use the ash door to get the fire going by opening it up. This design scares me that one day it might get left ajar. Not good cause it acts like my toro leaf blower is in there when I checked this out of curiosity.
6. You cant cook on this stove cause it stays too cold for my amount of wood burning. Temps on the top front are about 200F to 250F. In back on top about 300F to 400F. Hotter than this and Im getting cooked out of the room if my fans are not on. I usually like the CAT to show me 800F and I leave it.
7. I dont use the dampener if the CAT temp is below 500F, I run it wide open. Once thats done I dampen down to med/low.
8. Im using more wood than I thought I would. About a full recycle bin a day. Or what you see here in large splits 20" long and pretty good size.
9. At one month I checked the creosote build up. None to be found. The draft is amazing. Much much better than my Englander NC-30 that smoked like a SOB. Not sure why its the same stack.
10. I do have to empty the ash pan every 4-5 days if used all day long. Ash pan needs to be maintained alot or it gets messy, need to open the ash door and scrape ashes forward in the pan since ashes accumulate in the back. Annoying.
11. The stove needs to be babied a bit and watched. Air adjusted when getting too empty and you dont want to add more wood. Probably normal.
I like this stove but I am burning more wood than I thought. All the wood in the photos would be burned in one day if it was a cold day in the 30's. Seems like alot for a CAT stove. Ive seen some load this thing to the gills and get a 10 hr burn. Ive not experienced a good 6 hour burn yet however. Typically for me one large split and 2 medium splits and some kindling is like 4-5 hrs of good heat. More than that and I cant be in the room or im too afraid to go to bed since im actually scared of burning the place down.
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