"Cat stoves do very well with smoldering fires."

[Todd]

Looks like winter has arrived in the great white north.

 

[Treacherous]

Looks like winter has arrived in the great white north.

I'm truly envious... I can't get enough snow.

 

[North of 60]

Looks like winter has arrived in the great white north.

We are in the +s now this eve and getting rain. Hopefully gone and get two more weeks of seeing the ground. It didnt stop the fish from biting today.
Cheers

 

[Treacherous]

Looks like winter has arrived in the great white north.

We are in the +s now this eve and getting rain. Hopefully gone and get two more weeks of seeing the ground. It didnt stop the fish from biting today.
Cheers

I'd probably feel that way as well if I saw snow as much as you did. I live in WA state so see plenty of rain here.

Are northern lights such a common occurrence you don't pay any attention to them anymore?

 

[North of 60]

I moved up here from Vancouver B.C. over ten years ago now. Actually the lower mainland. Skied at MT Baker for years. I am always guaranteed snow so I dont mind if it stays away for awhile. As for the Northern Lights. After leaving the rat race I dont take anything for granted. I enjoy every second of what the north has to offer here. Its been my dream and I am living in it.
Cheers

 

[Treacherous]

Good for you.

That is certainly a path I would like to follow and leave the rat race behind as well.

I've always been drawn to the far north.

I moved up here from Vancouver B.C. over ten years ago now. Actually the lower mainland. Skied at MT Baker for years. I am always guaranteed snow so I dont mind if it stays away for awhile. As for the Northern Lights. After leaving the rat race I dont take anything for granted. I enjoy every second of what the north has to offer here. Its been my dream and I am living in it.
Cheers

 

[soupy1957]

I guess I should ask the following:

A) What creosote impact does the "CAT" leave behind? Greater or Less than without?
B) What Maintenance and/or replacement agenda and costs are associated with owning a stove with a CAT?

-Soupy1957

 

[Todd]

Here's some good info about cats for you Soupy.

http://www.firecatcombustors.blogspot.com/

http://www.chc-hpba.org/chc_news.htm

 

[soupy1957]

Based on what I see/hear here.........it must be kinda a PAIN to own a CAT: (Which came first, by the way,.........CAT stoves, or NON-CAT stoves?)

 

[branchburner]

I guess I should ask the following:

A) What creosote impact does the "CAT" leave behind? Greater or Less than without?
B) What Maintenance and/or replacement agenda and costs are associated with owning a stove with a CAT?

-Soupy1957

Based on my brother's experience with his cat, and others on this forum, a cat stove should leave less creosote (or similar amounts) than a non-cat... IF it is brought up to temp before engaging, and IF dry fuel is used. Maintenance is a few minutes to clean and inspect it, maybe a few times a year, so that is minimal. But cat replacement costs and times seem to vary a bit for different users... $100-200 a pop, every 3-10 years.

I always though a cat stove was a pain, too, but I'm wondering what you saw in that video that looked painful? My brother assures me, it's quite painless. His biggest "complaint" was that he couldn't use colored newsprint for fire starting, but he got over that pretty quickly.

 

[Todd]

Maybe a pain for some, not me. Non cats came first, catalysts came into the market after the EPA set pollution standards. Many old stove manufactures came up with a quick fix by simply installing a cat in the exhaust collar to clean them up but turned out not to work very well since it was exposed to flame impingement and thermal shock. This gave the cat stoves a bad rap. Over the years cat stove design has improved greatly. The newer steel cats are going in Woodstock stoves as we speak, the advantages of the steel is resistance to thermal shock cracking and lower lite off temps below 400 degrees. They should last much longer than the ceramic cats.

 

[soupy1957]

Branchburner: As a rule, I don't use colored newspaper anyway; even in my non-CAT stove.

"Pain" was my choice of word of course, but not literally intended. Perhaps a better way of describing what I was trying to say is that it would seem that a CAT-stove owner will have to surrender to replacement costs of the CAT; following additional burning guidelines for proper setup and running; ......etc........it just seems a bit more detailed. That is NOT to say that I can't see the benefit of it..........just wasn't on my radar when I was buying OUR wood stove.

I guess what this means is...........next time I'm in the market for a new stove, I'll be wondering if the Hearthstone Equinox stove, comes in a CAT version as well.

-Soupy1957

 

[branchburner]

I decided that extra detail of a cat stove was inconvenient when I started stove shopping. too. Closing the bypass after 30 minutes certainly doesn't seem like a big chore, but who needs the hassle? So I got my Oakwood, a downdraft stove. And then I found out it too needs me to close the bypass after 30 minutes! (And that's if I'm lucky.)

What was interesting about that video was that much of the detail involved applied equally to non-cat stoves: dry wood, proper draft, creosote buildup, etc. The little extra involved in cat stove operation seems to be worth it for the lower emissions and the greater control and efficiency it offers.

PS - Equinox is a Hearthstone, not a Woodstock!

 

[RIDGERUNNER30]

This winter, I will have two wood stoves in my home a non cat and a cat. last winter i started thinking about a second stove to keep from running my other stove so hard to maintain the warm temps me and my family have got use to, buy heating with wood. what has interested me in cat stoves is the long burn times and when you work 12 hour days and have cut and stack your own wood it only makes sense to use a cat stove. alot of people like myself hate to think maybe they could have made a better choice when purchasing a wood stove and for some folks a non cat is the way to go, but being able to burn on a load for such a long time and maintain good temps in the house, cause me to purchase the fireview in the spring. I have a country wood stove that i purchased last year. I will be able to test the two. The long burn time will be the test followed by stove temps and the country stove has a bigger firebox than the fireview but it will still be interesting to see which stove comes out on top, my vote is leanig toward the fireview.my country stove is s-260 lecacy i think it has 2.6 cu ft firebox, but with a full loaded firebox of black locust, I only get about a six hour out of it so let the testing begin.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Based on what I see/hear here.........it must be kinda a PAIN to own a CAT: (Which came first, by the way,.........CAT stoves, or NON-CAT stoves?)

Soupy, I fail to realize just what you are seeing to think that it must be a pain to own a cat stove. Where is that pain?

If it is in the operation, I just don't see it as it is no more of a problem to operate a cat stove than any other stove. If it is in the maintenance, I also fail to see that. For example, our plan this year is to clean the cat one time and that will probably be sometime in January. The total time needed for that cleaning will be approximately 2-3 minutes or less. Not much pain involved there. In replacing the cat there is not much work involved at that would take about a minute or less. The cost is right now around $100 and if you consider 5 years use that is $20 per year. Is that more than changing a baffle? Yes, I've read and talked to folks who have to do this rather often.

Or perhaps we should compare all this to the cleaning of the chimney. You recently had your chimney cleaned. How much did that cost? Many have their chimneys cleaned annually or bi-annually. How much does that cost? By comparison, we have a chimney that was put up new in 2007. Just for kicks we cleaned it after 2 full winter's use. Consider first that this wood heat is 100% of our heat supply so we burn pretty steady for many months (yes, Michigan can get a bit cold). But after 2 full winter's use, we got around a cup of soot which means that chimney would not even have to have been cleaned then. Since that cleaning we've burned one full winter and the thing is nice and shiny so we probably won't clean it for a couple more years. That is a nice savings right there and is worth much more than having to replace a cat now and then. I know people like to lean on that fact of replacing the cat but it is not a valid argument at all. There are always maintenance issues with every stove. The cat is just one.

We could go on and on but it will be pointless. The fact is that those who do not own a cat stove are usually against having such an animal. Those who have a cat stove could do with either type but see the cat stove as giving more benefits and that is why they own one.

 

[Todd]

This winter, I will have two wood stoves in my home a non cat and a cat. last winter i started thinking about a second stove to keep from running my other stove so hard to maintain the warm temps me and my family have got use to, buy heating with wood. what has interested me in cat stoves is the long burn times and when you work 12 hour days and have cut and stack your own wood it only makes sense to use a cat stove. alot of people like myself hate to think maybe they could have made a better choice when purchasing a wood stove and for some folks a non cat is the way to go, but being able to burn on a load for such a long time and maintain good temps in the house, cause me to purchase the fireview in the spring. I have a country wood stove that i purchased last year. I will be able to test the two. The long burn time will be the test followed by stove temps and the country stove has a bigger firebox than the fireview but it will still be interesting to see which stove comes out on top, my vote is leanig toward the fireview.my country stove is s-260 lecacy i think it has 2.6 cu ft firebox, but with a full loaded firebox of black locust, I only get about a six hour out of it so let the testing begin.

Yes, this will be an interesting comparison. I'm sure your bigger steel stove will throw much more heat but it will be all at once, the Fireview will even out the BTU's over a much longer period and get twice the burn time.

 

[Treacherous]

Does a "non-cat" do a better job if you need rapid warm up as opposed to a cats long burn time?

Or do they perform the same when it comes to the initial heating of a room?

I am assuming stoves with equivalent BTU output.

 

[rdust]

The fact is that those who do not own a cat stove are usually against having such an animal. Those who have a cat stove could do with either type but see the cat stove as giving more benefits and that is why they own one.

Not always true! I would love for my next stove to be a CAT stove, now if someone would just make one that's good looking and fit my requirements! I'm hoping the new woodstock stove does the trick. I doubt it's rear clearance will be low enough for me though.

One could also argue that being able to burn at lower temps in the shoulder season will also save money/time on wood so it could even out the cost of the CAT when it comes time to replace it.

Being a Tech. Support guy for years though I can see why most stoves are non CAT stoves. Asking most "normal" users(we are not the normal users) to do one more task and make sure they have good seasoned wood is a big task. :lol: I used to be amazed daily by some peoples inability to follow the most simple task.

 

[rdust]

Does a "non-cat" do a better job if you need rapid warm up as opposed to a cats long burn time?

Or do they perform the same when it comes to the initial heating of a room?

I am assuming stoves with equivalent BTU output.

I think stove construction has more to do with that. Steel stoves throw heat the fastest imo. I broke down last night and had my first fire. I burned about half a 5 gallon bucket of kindling size pieces and warmed the house from 68 to 74 in no time. I screwed up though and forgot to turn off the a/c though. I was wondering why/how the a/c ran for 12 minutes yesterday till I realized I didn't shut the a/c off(it was set at 74). I went to bed about 12 and didn't hear the a/c come on so it must have happened after that. :lol:

 

[Treacherous]

I've had a couple fires this weekend. Not too cold out here but overnight lows were in the low 40's. I'm pretty excited to see how this stove works in the bitter cold winter. It will often be in the upper 30's inside cabin when I get here. I drain all the water from lines and tank when I am away so no freezing concerns. The old Centennial smoke dragon seemed to only start throwing usable heat after the second load of wood. It didn't have any kind of baffle in it so probably most heat just went straight up the pipe.

 

[soupy1957]

BranchBurner: Yep, you are correct (Hearthstone). I have corrected the misspeak, (thanks).

Backwoods Savage: I guess I'm thinking that there is more to go wrong, is all. Chimney cleaning is a given, for both types of stoves of course. In the end, I'm not saying that folks should not own a CAT stove, or that I WOULDN'T. Just realizing that many of the answers to how folks set up and run a burn in their stove, is at least partly driven by whether they have a CAT or not. I'm thinking that answers to wood burning questions should be prefaced by the type of stove being used, since it seems that there is a slightly different approach to burning, depending on the kind of set up you have.

rdust: you said, "I screwed up though and forgot to turn off the a/c though. I was wondering why/how the a/c ran for 12 minutes yesterday till I realized I didn’t shut the a/c off(it was set at 74). I went to bed about 12 and didn’t hear the a/c come on so it must have happened after that
We had the same issue HERE one day. We're in transition between warm days and cold nights and sometimes the wife or myself forget to turn off the A/C. Then we hear it running when we have the stove going, (and shut it off, of course) and it surprises us.

-Soupy1957

 

[nate379]

Holy cow. If I let the stove in my house get that hot it would probably melt the furniture in the living room!

this is what I have going today at this time. Loaded at this am. Some pine and poplar 3/4 load 4hrs into burn and smoldering. Will get 12 hrs min for sure out of it. High temps above the cat but 400F at the rest of stove top locations. Been doing this since day one in mild outside temps. YR5. CAT still purring along like a kitten.
Not a inline filter Soup. A heat source that smoke fuels.

 

[allhandsworking]

This winter, I will have two wood stoves in my home a non cat and a cat. last winter i started thinking about a second stove to keep from running my other stove so hard to maintain the warm temps me and my family have got use to, buy heating with wood. what has interested me in cat stoves is the long burn times and when you work 12 hour days and have cut and stack your own wood it only makes sense to use a cat stove. alot of people like myself hate to think maybe they could have made a better choice when purchasing a wood stove and for some folks a non cat is the way to go, but being able to burn on a load for such a long time and maintain good temps in the house, cause me to purchase the fireview in the spring. I have a country wood stove that i purchased last year. I will be able to test the two. The long burn time will be the test followed by stove temps and the country stove has a bigger firebox than the fireview but it will still be interesting to see which stove comes out on top, my vote is leanig toward the fireview.my country stove is s-260 lecacy i think it has 2.6 cu ft firebox, but with a full loaded firebox of black locust, I only get about a six hour out of it so let the testing begin.

please let us know!

 

[RIDGERUNNER30]

I will let everyone know how the testing goes. should have the fireview up and running by november, I was at work today and was thinking about this topic and how so many people trash cat stoves but most of these guys have never own one or seen someone with good up to date fireview or a blaze king with those insane long burn times, why would anyone not want to save wood, maintain good even temps, and long burn times. to me its a hands down choice for me. The noncat stove i have puts off alot of heat but the temps cannot stay even for very long, they spike very high, then start heading down hill. I guess why my second stove is a cat,look at some of memebers on this site that have been burning all there life and have learn the art of burning wood by hands on experience and burned in many diff stoves threw the years. and they using cat stoves now, If a man use good dried seasoned wood,proper burn methods In my opinion a cat stove will out perform a non cat stove just my opinion.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well said Ridgerunner30. The Fireview is our first cat stove. When we started looking for a new stove we were dead set against any cat stove. That is because of some misinformation we had gathered. Fortunately we caved in and bought a cat stove and have not looked back except to see just how much fuel we have saved. Of course, having a warmer house than we ever had means a whole lot too.

When all is said and done, it is the heat you get from any particular stove that is the end product and what we all look for. We just get to that point in different ways. For us, we are no longer afraid of a cat stove.