just wondering if a cat stove is worth all the hassles that i keep reading about.seems kinda fussy,could be wrong wouldn't be the first time lol
Worth the minor hassle, however unless your wood is stellar, 20% moisture or lower it would be a waste of time, cat stoves thrive on dry wood,it brings out their maximum potential.just wondering if a cat stove is worth all the hassles that i keep reading about.seems kinda fussy,could be wrong wouldn't be the first time lol
The same goes for any stove honestly that is absolutely not specific to cat stovesWorth the minor hassle, however unless your wood is stellar, 20% moisture or lower it would be a waste of time, cat stoves thrive on dry wood,it brings out their maximum potential.
just wondering if a cat stove is worth all the hassles that i keep reading about.seems kinda fussy,could be wrong wouldn't be the first time lol
Very well said but I would add the regency pro line to that list as well. The cascade line not so muchThe benefits have to be of value to you for the fuss to be worth it. To me the benefits of wide range of outputs which allow for long burn times on low or short burn times on high is huge for a house stove providing full time heat. If you only burn part time, or only when it's really cold, then this flexibility of burn rate may not be so important to you.
I saved 25% on wood consumption compared to the modern noncat it replaced. That wood savings is worth real money and pays for new cats twice as often as I need them.
Some cat stoves suck. Lots of new ones hit the market recently as a way to try and hit emissions requirements. Some cat stoves are great and were cat stoves on purpose and even before the extra stringent emissions requirements. Those "by design" cat stoves with long term reputations are not as fussy if installed per the instructions. Think Kuma, woodstock, blaze king.
But if you are running your noncat that hard to keep up with the BTU loss a cat stove run low and slow isn't going to cut it. Now that being said many hearthstones don't have the best reputation when it comes to real world heat transfer efficiency. A different noncat might do much better.I have 2000 sq. ft ranch house on a slab. 2x6 construction. Large family room with a cathedral ceiling and ten foot walls open into the kitchen. Lots of windows. All my window go to within a foot of the floor. I have a Hearthstone Mansfield non cat. I burn about 7 cords of wood. When it’s single digits outside I burn it hot and have to refill as quick as I can. If I had a cat stove would I be able to set it on low and burn all night without refilling. And would I expect to save about 3 cords of wood?(40%)
I have 2000 sq. ft ranch house on a slab. 2x6 construction. Large family room with a cathedral ceiling and ten foot walls open into the kitchen. Lots of windows. All my window go to within a foot of the floor. I have a Hearthstone Mansfield non cat. I burn about 7 cords of wood. When it’s single digits outside I burn it hot and have to refill as quick as I can. If I had a cat stove would I be able to set it on low and burn all night without refilling. And would I expect to save about 3 cords of wood?(40%)
Depending on the cat stoves yes you absolutely could get those long burn times at any time regardless of outside temps. But that doesn't mean it will heat your house at that burn rate. Most cat stoves are slightly more efficient than most noncats. But not enough difference in efficency to make much of any difference when it comes to the ammount of heat you get from each piece of wood. The benifit is that they can still run clean at much lower burn rates. If your house can be heated with the stove at a low burn rate a cat stove may be right. If your house needs higher BTU input it probably doesn't make much sense to go with a catWhen I first started with the Equinox my wood wasn’t dry enough and the stove would take forever to heat up. I was new to wood burning and didnt know the importance of dry wood. I came on this site and other people were complaining about how slow they are to warm up when started cold. When you start a hearthstone cold you need to leave the door open until they really get going. If you don’t and you shut the door they really slow down. They don’t get much air even wide open. Now I know. Dry wood starts like gasoline and leave the door open until it really gets going. Stove gets hot fast. I think whatever stove you have there is a learning curve. I can get 12 hours out of a burn when it’s 35 to 40 degrees. Not when it’s 8 degrees with a 40 mile an hour wind. No way. If I had a cat stove could I?
I can run my Keystone with a bit of flame in the box if I want. I do that when I need more heat, since flame in the box heats up the sides of the stove more, whereas with a cat burn most of the heat is coming off the top of the stove above the cat.Where we put our stove in the house, I'm not sure if we would enjoy the "black box" appearance of a cat stove running on low unfortunately.
I have 2000 sq. ft ranch house on a slab. 2x6 construction. Large family room with a cathedral ceiling and ten foot walls open into the kitchen. Lots of windows. All my window go to within a foot of the floor. I have a Hearthstone Mansfield non cat. I burn about 7 cords of wood. When it’s single digits outside I burn it hot and have to refill as quick as I can. If I had a cat stove would I be able to set it on low and burn all night without refilling. And would I expect to save about 3 cords of wood?(40%)
It's physics that when the flow through the stove is slower, as in a cat stove, it allows the stove to extract more heat from the exhaust rather than flushing it up the flue, therefore I'd expect to see some wood savings with a cat stove. I don't doubt that some have seen a 40% savings after switching to a cat, but I don't think that most will.I went from a regency 3100 to a blazeking princess. And like I said I get more even heat which is certainly nice. And it absolutely has potential to burn much longer on the same load of wood than the regency could. But if I am actually trying to heat the house I very rarely use those long burn times. And I have seen no wood savings at all
You have to decide what you want to accomplish with a wood stove. Are you looking for a primary heat source? Are you wanting long burns? Do you care about air quality?just wondering if a cat stove is worth all the hassles that i keep reading about.seems kinda fussy,could be wrong wouldn't be the first time lol
Well it's allot more complicated than that. There are plenty of other ways to increase retention time and heat transfer efficency without using a cat.It's physics that when the flow through the stove is slower, as in a cat stove, it allows the stove to extract more heat from the exhaust rather than flushing it up the flue, therefore I'd expect to see some wood savings with a cat stove. I don't doubt that some have seen a 40% savings after switching to a cat, but I don't think that most will.
There are plenty of other ways to increase retention time and heat transfer efficency without using a cat.
Lol no...Magic heat
Did you read my response? Of course the burn time is going to be adjusted according to outside temps. That's a big part of what determines your needed BTU load. Which determines your desired burn rate.For me outside temperature makes a difference in how I burn my stove. Someone can say I need a bigger stove if it can’t handle the coldest temps but I don’t feel that way. Probably 95% of my burning season isn’t below 20 degrees. When it’s under 15 degrees I just have to pay more attention to it. The one night this year when it was single digits and we were having 40 mph winds I gave up and turned on the heat for a couple of hours. Next day temperature was the same but the wind died right down and I had no problem. First time I turned the heat on in 6 years.I can’t come close to telling you my burn times. Outside temps determine that for me. I had the chimney swept the first time in 6 years this fall and had maybe a half cup of white ash. Cleaned stove in the garage first time in 11 years.Had maybe a cup of dark creasote. 25’ of chimney. I’m pretty sure if you tell me you have a 12 hour burn time at the end of that burn time the temperature in the house would end up different at the end of that burn if it was 5 degrees outside than if it was 40 degrees.
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