Building Alaska

[clemsonfor]

Watching this show on DIY network, where the guy is building a cabin to fish out of for his business in Alaska. The show yesterday that im just now getting to on DVR, he bought a used Stove cause there so expensive in Kodiac.

He says he is panting it and cutting out the old catalytic converter thing cause they never draft right and you can only fit half the wood in them?? When he pulled the smoke shelf out he said "no wonder the smoke cant get out of them", I don't have any trouble with my cat stove?? So now he is burning a catalytic stove as a smoke dragon?? I guess its better than nothing but think in this nice lodge he is building I would of just got a new cat and self for it!!

 

[BrotherBart]

I had burned wood for 30 years and when I waded in here I had a lot of long held misconceptions just like that guy. Thought I could tell folks how it is done. Spent some time sitting back and reading threads and learned that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Folks here gave me an education. Of course it cost me a fortune replacing stoves and installing liners and stuff but it has been worth it. A percentage of old dogs can learn new tricks.

But there are a bunch of the old me''s out there.

 

[bag of hammers]

I like the DIY network but I've seen some things that make you go "hmmmm" a couple times. Like watching them throw tiles on backer in a brand new shower with no drainage membrane, etc. I'd take the stove thing with a grain of salt. I know nothing about operating a cat stove, but there's a legion of loyal fans here singing the cat praises. My money's on the forum...

 

[dafattkidd]

You tricked me with this one. I thought this thread was going to be about building houses in Alaska. I'm so curious how they build houses to hold up to those temps. BTW that guy sounds like a ding bat.

 

[Tramontana]

Yes, I cringe at a lot of what I observe on many of the DIY shows, including bad info, technique and habits by some of the "Pro" hosts.

I'm glad that our house was mostly original (before I got ahold of it!) ;-)

 

[Tramontana]

I watched the episode of Building Alaska where he decided to demolish his original structure by hitching it up to successively larger boats and trying to pull it down. That and watching him saw back and forth repeatedly with a file trying to sharpen his saw chain was the final straw.

I canceled recording any more of the series.

Best of luck to him and his family.

Cheers.

 

[MasterMech]

I had burned wood for 30 years and when I waded in here I had a lot of long held misconceptions just like that guy. Thought I could tell folks how it is done. Spent some time sitting back and reading threads and learned that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Folks here gave me an education. Of course it cost me a fortune replacing stoves and installing liners and stuff but it has been worth it. A percentage of old dogs can learn new tricks.

But there are a bunch of the old me''s out there.

You were smart enough to realize that you were wrong.

As you say, there are plenty of "expert" wood burners out there that cut and burn within 30 days 'cause green wood burns nice and slow, pine will burn your house down, these new stoves won't burn worth a damn, and there's a whole group of nut-jobs on the internet that are full of it.

Watching this show on DIY network, where the guy is building a cabin to fish out of for his business in Alaska. The show yesterday that im just now getting to on DVR, he bought a used Stove cause there so expensive in Kodiac.

He says he is panting it and cutting out the old catalytic converter thing cause they never draft right and you can only fit half the wood in them?? When he pulled the smoke shelf out he said "no wonder the smoke cant get out of them", I don't have any trouble with my cat stove?? So now he is burning a catalytic stove as a smoke dragon?? I guess its better than nothing but think in this nice lodge he is building I would of just got a new cat and self for it!!

I burnt a cat stove as a smoke dragon for a season and what a waste that was. Used 2x the wood, didn't get squat for heat and the house smelled like smoke. Well, turns out a leaking 20+ year-old stove, worn-out catalytic element, leaky stove pipe with more horizontal than vertical run, all venting into an 8" square unlined masonry flue shared with an oil-fired boiler had nothing to do with my problems. Should've just cut the baffle out and it would've drafted much better.

Yes, I cringe at a lot of what I observe on many of the DIY shows, including bad info, technique and habits by some of the "Pro" hosts.

I'm glad that our house was mostly original (before I got ahold of it!) ;-)

You know what they say, those that cannot do...... get "reality" TV shows to show us all what determined individuals they are!

 

[jjs777_fzr]

By removing the cat from the stove doesnt the stove still have some type of secondary burn or does a cat stove by nature not use the typical epa-exempt feature of secondaries to help maximize burn efficience and reduce smoke ?
Or does the removal of the cat really revert the stove back to a 'smoke dragon' ?

 

[MasterMech]

By removing the cat from the stove doesnt the stove still have some type of secondary burn or does a cat stove by nature not use the typical epa-exempt feature of secondaries to help maximize burn efficience and reduce smoke ?
Or does the removal of the cat really revert the stove back to a 'smoke dragon' ?

Only 1 stove I know of has both a cat and secondary burn technology, that's the Woodstock Progress Hybrid. Remove the cat from an ordinary cat stove and you have a steel box in which to build a fire.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

LOL.. "old dogs"...

Good buddy of mine, who has been heating with wood his whole life, and I, just had a conversation along these lines a couple weeks ago after deer hunting..

He buys his wood, this fall for this winter. I know where he buys from, I know that it goes from the splitter to a truck via conveyor belt, to his yard. he has to unclog his flue two-three times a year. He has a pretty good instal, for the 80's. House is passive solar and designed around wood heat.

My wife had loaded and was running the stove all weekend while we hunted, he pointed out his wife, after living with the same BuckStove 25 years, still wouldn't touch it, because it was to much trouble. My wife says.. "what trouble?" .. "you put in 4-5 splits when it needs them, watch them catch, air down, repeat in 8-10 hours"

He points out that they put wood on every 2-3 hours, and never mess with the air. He also pointed out.. (and this is the good part).. that last year we had such a mild winter that he ended up with about half a year of his usual need left over. Well that old "seasoned" wood burns much to fast, so he only puts in one split of that with 2 splits of fresh.. While I know that old dog has learned a couple new tricks since I have known him, he ain't going to be told that his way of burning wood, passed down since Daniel Boone was the patriarch of his family, is wrong...

He really doesn't understand all the wood stacks in my yard. Sees no need to do that.

 

[lopiliberty]

I seen that to and it looked more like some kind of baffle instead of a cat assembly. As I recall i really didn't see any secondary air tube on the assembly. Guess he doesn't know he is going to use a ton more wood without it. Hes going to really have a problem if he tries to burn the pine he cut down in the first episode

 

[BrowningBAR]

By removing the cat from the stove doesnt the stove still have some type of secondary burn or does a cat stove by nature not use the typical epa-exempt feature of secondaries to help maximize burn efficience and reduce smoke ?
Or does the removal of the cat really revert the stove back to a 'smoke dragon' ?

Nope. It's just a box with a hole in it once you remove the catalyst. It is less efficient than the 35 year old Vigilant I burned for three and a half years.

 

[clemsonfor]

By removing the cat from the stove doesnt the stove still have some type of secondary burn or does a cat stove by nature not use the typical epa-exempt feature of secondaries to help maximize burn efficience and reduce smoke ?
Or does the removal of the cat really revert the stove back to a 'smoke dragon' ?

not sure on all of them but on my cat stove I do get secondaries as well as smoke burning from the cat. I do have a basically channel in the middle of the stove with air holes in it that injects hot air into the top of the firebox. It will have flames coming out of the holes in the top of the stove and is what catches the smoke from titme to time. I think its like an air tube? NOt sure if they all have it or not?

I guess that if you put a damper into the pipe it would burn more like a smoke dragon? You could damp the draft and cut the air down? Still gonna use way more wood than a cat!

 

[Todd]

Never seen the show but there are still plenty of people like that around here and you can't tell them any different. I bet he doesn't know it's illegal to burn a cat stove without a cat and they have it on tape!