Cat Insert Recommendation

[Niro]

I have decided that my second insert would be a cat model, for several reasons the main being that I don't need a ton of heat in the room its going. it will be used in the day, a few times a week when I'm working from home and overnight low and slow to supplement heat going upstairs to bedrooms.

I currently have large Lopi in the open concept family room which leads to dinning area and stairs up to bedrooms. on the many winter nights the heat upstairs will kick on as the reach on the insert isn't enough to get to my bedroom. my plan is to get a cat stove that I can run a few days but most in the cold nights for overnight long burns. it hard to get past 8 hours on the large Lopi now.

my question is on brand quality. the two options in considering have been recommended frequently on this forum by several contributors. in just not sure which is better for my application. I'm considering the following.

1. Blaze King Sirocco
2. Regency pro CI 2700 hybrid

 

[bholler]

I have decided that my second insert would be a cat model, for several reasons the main being that I don't need a ton of heat in the room its going. it will be used in the day, a few times a week when I'm working from home and overnight low and slow to supplement heat going upstairs to bedrooms.

I currently have large Lopi in the open concept family room which leads to dinning area and stairs up to bedrooms. on the many winter nights the heat upstairs will kick on as the reach on the insert isn't enough to get to my bedroom. my plan is to get a cat stove that I can run a few days but most in the cold nights for overnight long burns. it hard to get past 8 hours on the large Lopi now.

my question is on brand quality. the two options in considering have been recommended frequently on this forum by several contributors. in just not sure which is better for my application. I'm considering the following.

1. Blaze King Sirocco
2. Regency pro CI 2700 hybrid

The major difference between the two is the thermostat on the bk. For you who won't need allot of heat I would probably recommend the bk. For higher heat demand I think the Regency is a bit better. But down low the bk is definitely better

 

[webby3650]

Is it the large flush inert?
If so, I’m not sure you will gain anything with changing. Large Lopi is a big heater, 8 hours is respectable in cold weather. These numbers being put out by cat stove manufacturers are legit, but not at high output. I’m afraid running a stove slow won’t help your situation, considering the Lopi isn’t effective.

 

[Niro]

Is it the large flush inert?
If so, I’m not sure you will gain anything with changing. Large Lopi is a big heater, 8 hours is respectable in cold weather. These numbers being put out by cat stove manufacturers are legit, but not at high output. I’m afraid running a stove slow won’t help your situation, considering the Lopi isn’t effective.

It would be in addition to the Large Lopi. I'm fortunate to have two fireplaces and we just haven't been using the other one since we moved a few years ago. But now I'm setting up the "formal living room" which has the fireplace into a home office and it directly under my master bedroom I'm thinking it's time to get another. The floor isn't insulated so I'm hoping the heat will go up to the master bedroom and help the upstairs get heat.

 

[Niro]

The major difference between the two is the thermostat on the bk. For you who won't need allot of heat I would probably recommend the bk. For higher heat demand I think the Regency is a bit better. But down low the bk is definitely better

Thank you that's good to know. I'm your opinion the quality of the units are on par with each other?

 

[bholler]

Thank you that's good to know. I'm your opinion the quality of the units are on par with each other?

Yes both high quality. The Regency is a hybrid the bk is straight cat with a thermostat.

 

[EbS-P]

Two thoughts.
BK makes the only thermostatically controlled stove/inserts. They are good. Can’t go wrong.

Second. Do you really want to mess with a cat stove for limited use it will see? I too have two fireplaces. One runs a lot. The second is supplementary. Really cold days or days when we we have plans to be in the basement. I thought about a BK but could not justify the the cost. I ended up with a Drolet 1800i. It’s connecting 24’ ft of insulated liner. I added a damper. It burns well well on low with the damper. With 12-14” long wood loaded N/S 8 hour burns are regular with my southern yellow pine.

Again I wanted a BK Princess insert. And some day I might get to upgrade but I probably will always have something more pressing to spend that money on.

 

[dafattkidd]

Not sure if this is helpful, but I have the BK Ashford (same insert as the Sirocco). The manufacturer burn times are exaggerated with this unit. I love it. It’s beautiful and burns really clean, but no where near 25 hour burn times for my set up.

These pictures are from different days, but wanted to send you something for reference. One picture is just my fireplace. The other is the BK Ashford packed to the gills with oak and Osage Orange. That load burned like 12 hours before I reloaded it. The other picture is the stove with a pretty full load and the cat fully engaged.

What I have found is that this stove seems to have much longer burn times on partial loads than my larger non cat insert in my other house. Larger non cat puts out more heat on the coldest nights.

 

[Niro]

Not sure if this is helpful, but I have the BK Ashford (same insert as the Sirocco). The manufacturer burn times are exaggerated with this unit. I love it. It’s beautiful and burns really clean, but no where near 25 hour burn times for my set up.

These pictures are from different days, but wanted to send you something for reference. One picture is just my fireplace. The other is the BK Ashford packed to the gills with oak and Osage Orange. That load burned like 12 hours before I reloaded it. The other picture is the stove with a pretty full load and the cat fully

It was very helpful thanks. It's what I've been finding ,the BK is greak low and slow, which works great for my application.

The plan is the have the BK in the office opposite side of the main family room where I have a lopi large insert non cat. I'll run the lopi more nights and run the Bk when I'm working from home and really cold nights for sure. I think if I open the office double door the heat will spill into the hall and up the stars to the bedrooms and it will allow me to get 100% coverage with the two stoves.

I ordered the BK s/b 3 weeks from now.

Keep you posted.

 

[begreen]

Not sure if this is helpful, but I have the BK Ashford (same insert as the Sirocco). The manufacturer burn times are exaggerated with this unit. I love it. It’s beautiful and burns really clean, but no where near 25 hour burn times for my set up.

What I have found is that this stove seems to have much longer burn times on partial loads than my larger non cat insert in my other house. Larger non cat puts out more heat on the coldest nights.

Interesting observation. The extended burn times only come when burning low and slow. The glass would probably be mostly black in that case. Osage orange is a primo fuel but as noted, if the demand for heat is strong then the burn time drops down to the range of 3 cu ft non-cat stoves.

 

[begreen]

The major difference between the two is the thermostat on the bk. For you who won't need allot of heat I would probably recommend the bk. For higher heat demand I think the Regency is a bit better. But down low the bk is definitely better

The other major difference is that the BK is a pure cat stove. The Regency is a hybrid with tube secondary combustion before the cat. That's what helps the top end heat.

 

[dafattkidd]

Interesting observation. The extended burn times only come when burning low and slow. The glass would probably be mostly black in that case. Osage orange is a primo fuel but as noted, if the demand for heat is strong then the burn time drops down to the range of 3 cu ft non-cat stoves.

To clarify: I get longer burn times in the Ashford from larger loads of wood. The burn times are not much longer than my Osburn 3.1 cf insert non cat. However the smaller loads in the BK cat insert last way longer than smaller loads in the Osburn non cat insert.

 

[begreen]

That is the cat advantage. It makes sense when smaller loads are in the stove and just a little heat is desired for a low and slow burn to go longer. For us that is heat pump territory, but in areas with very high electrical costs this might not be a preferred option.

 

[BKVP]

Not sure if this is helpful, but I have the BK Ashford (same insert as the Sirocco). The manufacturer burn times are exaggerated with this unit. I love it. It’s beautiful and burns really clean, but no where near 25 hour burn times for my set up.

These pictures are from different days, but wanted to send you something for reference. One picture is just my fireplace. The other is the BK Ashford packed to the gills with oak and Osage Orange. That load burned like 12 hours before I reloaded it. The other picture is the stove with a pretty full load and the cat fully engaged.

What I have found is that this stove seems to have much longer burn times on partial loads than my larger non cat insert in my other house. Larger non cat puts out more heat on the coldest nights.

View attachment 316798 View attachment 316799 View attachment 316800

Assuming you have about 30lbs of wood in your Ashford, I see about 12-15 pieces making up the load. The burn time is not exaggerated and I would welcome your observations on 30lbs comprised of 3-4 pieces of wood. The load shown has a tremendous amount of surface area exposed to combustion. That is why your experience of shortened burn times is occurring. Do you have access to much larger pieces of wood, say 8"-10" diameter?

BKVP

 

[webby3650]

I’ve owned several different Blaze Kings. I’ve put the burn times to the test, they are legit, no doubt about it. Obviously it has to be a heavy charge of wood and turned down after the cat is engaged. That type of heating doesn’t work all season long, but is very valuable much of the season in my environment, and many others.

 

[BKVP]

 

[dafattkidd]

Assuming you have about 30lbs of wood in your Ashford, I see about 12-15 pieces making up the load. The burn time is not exaggerated and I would welcome your observations on 30lbs comprised of 3-4 pieces of wood. The load shown has a tremendous amount of surface area exposed to combustion. That is why your experience of shortened burn times is occurring. Do you have access to much larger pieces of wood, say 8"-10" diameter?

BKVP

Ok. Very helpful feedback. 8”-10” pieces of wood are not my typical wood split size at all. I’ll try to get some bigger splits in my supply. Wood that size takes longer to season than more typical 4-6” splits. I’ll start working on it. Maybe three winters from now I’ll achieve a 20 hour burn.

I scrounge a lot of my wood, so split size isn’t always under my control. Lately I’ve been scrounging split and seasoned firewood, not just logs that need to be processed.

 

[dafattkidd]

For reference, this is more typical for my full loads NS. Don’t want to highjack this thread, but it’s good to know that my version of a full firebox is not the same as BK’s expectations when testing and recording burn times. This information is helpful to a new buyer in the market.

And to be crystal clear, I love this unit, it’s beautiful and I’m very happy with its performance.

 

[begreen]

Yes, hardwood needs to be split down to 4-6". I can get away with larger pieces of Doug fir as long as they have a year to season, but not locust. Our Doug fir is split 4-8". That looks like a decent loading. It seems like the cat housing is cutting out usable loading volume. In the Osburn that would be a full width third row. Still, considering how slowly dense locust burns, I would expect decent burn times with it. Is the flue liner very tall on this insert?