Please give me some catalytic stove recommendations

[fabsroman]

My wife and I are about to move into a new to us house. We are looking at using a couple of wood stoves to heat a couple of areas. The areas measure 2,000 sf and 1,000 sf. My wife likes the look of the Regency Hampton, but it is not a catalytic stove. She is dead set against the Regency Pro Series with the catalytic converter in them because she does not like the way they look.

Gist of it is that I am looking for an efficient, good looking, free standing wood stove that can heat 1,000 sf and another that can heat 2,000 sf. I have about 10 manufacturers bookmarked from 8+ years ago, but going through them and trying to figure out which stoves are cata stoves is mind numbing. All suggestions are welcome.

 

[snaple4]

If it was me I would look at either Woodstock's ideal steel, Woodstock's Progress, or a Blaze king Chinook/Sirocco/Ashford.

 

[Woody Stover]

Woodstock Keystone for 1000 sq.ft, sweet little rig.

 

[AlbergSteve]

My wife and I are about to move into a new to us house. We are looking at using a couple of wood stoves to heat a couple of areas. The areas measure 2,000 sf and 1,000 sf. My wife likes the look of the Regency Hampton, but it is not a catalytic stove. She is dead set against the Regency Pro Series with the catalytic converter in them because she does not like the way they look.

Gist of it is that I am looking for an efficient, good looking, free standing wood stove that can heat 1,000 sf and another that can heat 2,000 sf. I have about 10 manufacturers bookmarked from 8+ years ago, but going through them and trying to figure out which stoves are cata stoves is mind numbing. All suggestions are welcome.

Check out the Blaze King line, the Ashfords are the pretty ones.

 

[toddnic]

I would recommend the Woodstock Soapstone Company stoves. We have the Progress Hybrid which would very easily heat the 2000+ sq. ft. area. One of their smaller stoves would easily handle your additional space.

 

[Woody Stover]

Check out the Blaze King line, the Ashfords are the pretty ones.

They look pretty generic to me, but that's just me...

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Do you have your wood put up? It's probably getting hard to get by now, especially dry enough for a cat stove.

 

[Woody Stover]

Do you have your wood put up? It's probably getting hard to get by now, especially dry enough for a cat stove.

He's been around here for a while..long enough to have heard everyone harping on dry wood, ad nauseam.

 

[trguitar]

I can third (or fourth?) the Woodstock Progress Hybrid. Absolutely fantastic stove. We use it as a primary heat source for heat 2400 sf.

 

[fabsroman]

He's been around here for a while..long enough to have heard everyone harping on dry wood, ad nauseam.

That made me laugh pretty good. I have even converted my dad. Once upon a time he thought that seasoning for a year was alright for every kind of wood out there. Showed him how to use a moisture meter on fresh splits to see if they are ready. Just the other day he told me that he can really notice the difference between the 1 year aged locust and the 3 year aged locust. He is about 5 years ahead now and stingy as can be with giving out any of his supply. Nowadays, he is preaching to those that do not know better. My sister had a 4'+ oak come down in her backyard a couple weeks ago and my brothers and I were talking about cutting it up and splitting it this weekend. My brothers need some wood for their fireplaces (gasp). My dad chimed in to my brothers, "That wood is not going to be good for burning for 2 to 3 years." It made me smile.

Been heating with a wood furnace at this house for the past 7 or 8 seasons. Always have a ton of wood on hand. Moving into a new house on Friday and a wood burning furnace or boiler is not really an option there. Going to put a wood stove in the garage/apartment, which I am using as my office, and then I want to put wood stoves in the basement and main floor of the house. Each level of the main house is about 2,200 sf and the garage has 600 sf finished on the lower level with 900 sf finished on the upper level.

On the backside of the 50 foot wide garage, I am going to put in a shingled overhang to store wood and then I will store what I am going to burn for the year in each of the garages. 2 car garage on the house and a 2 car garage on the stand alone "garage". Best laid plans of mice and men, and all that.

 

[fabsroman]

If it was me I would look at either Woodstock's ideal steel, Woodstock's Progress, or a Blaze king Chinook/Sirocco/Ashford.

I like the Ideal Steal. A couple of years ago I had book marked the Woodstock Progress Hybrid after reading about it, but I showed it to my wife the other day and she vetoed it as "not even close to good looking". Going to go with a waterfowl theme for the one in the garage. My wife saw the pic of the Woodstock Ideal Steal in white and tan this morning and she liked it. Told her that we could get our kids to come up with some artwork and Woodstock would incorporate it into the stove, and she liked it even more. Stove in the basement will be a Labrador Retriever theme. Might have the wood stove issue covered. One less item on the list of 250 items to deal with.

 

[Woody Stover]

Always have a ton of wood on hand. Moving into a new house on Friday

That's what I (and maybe EBL) was wondering.."Is he bringing some dry wood with him?" Lotta folks have had to leave their wood behind in a move.

I had book marked the Woodstock Progress Hybrid after reading about it, but I showed it to my wife the other day and she vetoed it as "not even close to good looking"....My wife saw the pic of the Woodstock Ideal Steal in white and tan this morning and she liked it.

That's rather surprising. I figured that women as a rule would view the Ws steel stoves as something that might be seen in a man-cave, with their machine-like look.

 

[ne87565]

I would recommend a Vermont Castings stove. In my area you can find workable old models on craigslist or facebook marketplace for 300 - 500 bucks. Will prob have to put a few hundred bucks into it to replace catalyst and refractory, but you will have an awesome stove for under $1000 easily.

 

[Dataman]

I had BK King and it was great stove until I replaced with Pellet Stove. It could go all night easily with Pine. Only downside is 3-5 years you have to replace Cat. It put out Great Heat.

 

[trguitar]

My wife was the exact opposite. I really wanted the Ideal Steel, but she looked at it and said "No way." I showed her the Progress Hybrid, and she said "Yes." It was a win for me either way!

 

[Highbeam]

Whichever stove from woodstock or BK suits your aesthetic desires. They are the only ones that have the cat stove thing figured out at the moment. There are (or were until 2020) a couple of more options that are a bit okay from Kuma and Buck but the cat stove thing is not a time for an "okay" stove since failure to design them well can lead to short cat life and short burn times.

Lots of noncat options if you want more possibilities.

 

[begreen]

There are cat hybrids on the market like some of the Woodstocks. Regency has several that so far are doing well.