Cat stove owners

[tiber]

Well, there may be certain legal and liability issues around selling something that was originally designed by another company and then using it in a wood burning appliance. I'm just saying.. I see you were in the post where someone talked about what Brian VT did. I'll post it here just for continuity sake.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/42492/

He used kaowool from a plumbing supply store.. looks like thick panels. There are places where you can order refractory board which would probably be the correct stuff. When I was cleaning mine, I broke the shelf that's inside of it and I pieced it back together with sheetrock screws. Seems to be holding up.

I'm in software, so trust me I know. If the item isn't a copy it's generally OK, which is how the pep boys of the world get by. Since my refractory is shot, it's definitely not going to be an exact copy. More on the point the stoves have no warranty since the company got bought and there's already third party refractories out there. (The VC one, as far as I can tell, is made out of two blocks which have been carved out and glued together, which is right where mine split). If I got a C&D I'd probably stop just to avoid the headache.

Kawool has the same problem the existing cat has where it's a fairly soft material, which gets brittle, which then has to deal with the forces of the cast iron compressing it while the catalyst itself changes shape. It's generally a lose-lose as far as mechanics go. On the other hand furnace cement is an ideal material to use for this since it is designed to hold two cast iron parts together. The only problem, in my mind, is that the cat is going to need a bit of slack so it can expand before the refractory.