rdust said:
Keeping America Warm said:
War Horse
Sounds like you have already doing your homework, "nocat" is smart!
Been doing this for 34 years now, (but still learning)
I really hate to side track this thread since the OP is looking for a non cat stove.
Can you take some time and explain why you feel this way in this
CAT Talk Thread? A lot of us cat users always wonder why such bad advise is given out from hearth retailers. Is it as simple as you don't sell cat stoves so don't recommend them, think they're still like the early cat stoves that were made or don't think the consumer is smart enough to burn dry wood and flip a bypass lever?
As a previous non cat user(Lopi Endeavor) I can say I don't ever see myself going back to a tube style stove.
here's what i posted there FWIW....
well,
i’ll take a stab at it ;
for the record we built cat stoves frm the late 80’s through the early 2000’s before going to non-cat totally.
cat stoves have advantages and disadvantages just as non- cats do, biggest thing with non-cats is ease of operation. you literally can burn it like an old dragon, load light and go. cat stoves typically are a bit more involved. both do very well in controlling emissions however so the “clean burn IMHO is virtually a wash. burn times with cat stoves do generally stretch out a bit farher than non-cats as well, but non-cats typically rate higher in “btu/hr †which makes sense if ya think about it, faster burn time means faster release of energy. as for the fire itself, cat stoves (at least the ones ive operated) tend to make a lower smokier fire (which fuels the cat and lengthens burn time) this kind of fire isnt the most condusive to a clean glass or for that matter in my mind less attractive to look at. also in most cases cat replacement is a more involved task than changing say tubes and refractories in a non-cat. draw factor can be a point as well, typically a stronger draft is neeeded to “pulâ€â€ a cat stove than a non cat and a marginal draft can make a cat stove more finicky to operate at a reasonable rate than a non-cat.
now, all that is mostly my opinion, but looking at it from a builders standpoint, cat stoves (at least the ones we built), were harder to build and more labor intensive. our “non-cats†are much easier for us to manufacture.
from a “service tech’s†standpoint, the easier operation made for far and away less “my stove dont draw†calls.
as for dealers, one , they sell more non-cat units overall now than in the past and many who have been in the buisness since the “phase 2†inception probably have a bit of a bad taste in their collective mouths from the early days of phase 2 which was fraught with hastily designed “gotta have somthing we can sell†units which came out in the earliest years of phase 2. many of these stoves were dogs to be quite honest, clunky and hard to operate. newer more thought out cat stoves are the norm now and a lot of the issues with first generation cat stoves are a thing of the past, but the bad taste probably still lingers.
FWIW i like cat stoves as i do the non cat, but im a seasoned veteran of burning phase 2 stoves where a lot of new stove owners arent and typically struggle with operating a cat unit. in my opinion though, when run properly there is nothing wrong with either type of unit and as far as one being better than the other its kindalike the “ford chevy†arguement
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