The Affordable Cat Stove....Does it Exist?

[raybonz]

Thanx for posting that Bart I think this is the exact info Burnit13 needs to read! The tunnel through the coals makes total sense maybe I will try this on the T-5 sometime.

Ray

 

[Todd]

I don't understand why you would want a tunnel under the load to the back? Wouldn't that allow air to the back splits that you don't want burning til the front splits are done? I always raked the coals forward, packed it tight in back and it would slowly burn from front to back.

 

[raybonz]

I don't understand why you would want a tunnel under the load to the back? Wouldn't that allow air to the back splits that you don't want burning til the front splits are done? I always raked the coals forward, packed it tight in back and it would slowly burn from front to back.

I think you misread Barts post Todd.. He places the wood tight to the back EW with the coals forward then creates a tunnel from the front to the wood and places a small split in the front. He then gets the stove up to temp and reduces the air or something that line..

Ray

 

[Todd]

I think you misread Barts post Todd.. He places the wood tight to the back EW with the coals forward then creates a tunnel from the front to the wood and places a small split in the front. He then gets the stove up to temp and reduces the air or something that line..

Ray

Ok, so the tunnel is only through the coal bed and doesn't continue all the way to the very back? I can see that, it would help get that front part going quicker.

 

[raybonz]

Ok, so the tunnel is only through the coal bed and doesn't continue all the way to the very back? I can see that, it would help get that front part going quicker.

Yup that's what I understood..
Ray

 

[clemsonfor]

my vogelzang tube stove says to put the trough in too.

 

[BrotherBart]

Sometimes I cut it all the way back and sometimes I don't It doesn't make a lot of difference in the burn. Just starts the off gassing of the back splits sooner.

 

[Bluerubi]

To put things in perspective I recently purchased a Jotul Firelight 12 for $20, and after putting in 10 hours of work and $500 in parts I have a beast of a stove. This is my first experience with a catalyst, so a lot of learning to still be done, but already I'm amazed with the amount of heat it puts out and the burn time with a relatively small load. Looks great, and is far superior to anything new that can be had close to that price.

 

[Huntindog1]

I'm daydreaming a little bit but here goes....

I bought and installed an Englander 30 in 2010 to try to beat the heating bill. I am happy to say it has saved us a lot of money on heating costs. The problem, if you can even call it that, is that my house gets TOO HOT!

I think our 115 year old 1600sqft house is tighter than I originally thought. The 30NC does not like to run low and slow so even when its pumping out 550 degrees during the coldest winter night our house gets a little too warm.

I need a low and slow stove that won't be a pollution factory like when a secondary stove is turned down too low. What I want is a cat stove. Low heat when needed and 12-24hr burn times.

I would love a Blaze King Princess or Chinook 30 but those are way over our price range. Is there an affordable cat stove out there that is actually a good stove?

The Englander 30 is the industry standard of affordable secondary stoves that actually perform well. Is there a Catalytic equivalent?

Thanks!

I heat my approx 2500 sq ft house which that sq footage number includes the a 24x27 family room in the basement with my medium size 2.12 cu ft stove. I get nice 8 to 9 hour burns and I heat from the basement. If my family room in the basement gets warm I just open the french doors that opens to the garage part of the basement and lets the heat level out. It works really well.

 

[Ashful]

To put things in perspective I recently purchased a Jotul Firelight 12 for $20...

Where's the guy from last week who had trouble accepting he might get less than $1500 for his parents' used Firelight 12?

 

[Bluerubi]

Where's the guy from last week who had trouble accepting he might get less than $1500 for his parents' used Firelight 12?

I think I got really lucky. For the look, quality, and heating capacity I can see someone shelling out some serious cash for a firelight 12, especially if they don't want to put any sweat equity into it. I'm at the point now, where I don't think I'd sell mine for $1500, just because I don't know what I'd replace it with that I'd like better. I'm sure there are really good values out there, so I'm not implying that the open market value for this stove is that high, I just really like the design.

 

[mfglickman]

To put things in perspective I recently purchased a Jotul Firelight 12 for $20, and after putting in 10 hours of work and $500 in parts I have a beast of a stove. This is my first experience with a catalyst, so a lot of learning to still be done, but already I'm amazed with the amount of heat it puts out and the burn time with a relatively small load. Looks great, and is far superior to anything new that can be had close to that price.

Wow Score! Congrats

 

[Bluerubi]

Wow Score! Congrats

Thanks. I spent way too much time staring at it in disbelief last night, when I had a relatively small, slow moving flame, yet the top stove temperature stayed above 500F. I kept thinking I needed to ge the fire bigger, but the catalyst was burning at 900F, and flue temp was steady at 400F, so I resisted. In the stove I previously had a fire of that size would have allowed me to touch the top of the stove. Takes a bit more work to set up and manage, but seems hard to beat for efficiency.

 

[Huntindog1]

After lots of experimenting the last half of last season and so far this year I am burning it E/W. The key is in the stoves manual. I load it tight E/W about two thirds of the firebox with the splits approximately even with the top of the brick retainers. But this is after pulling the coal bed forward where it covers the front half of the firebox floor. Then I, as stated in the manual, take the poker and make a two inch trough front to back through the coal bed. After packing the back two thirds of the firebox I lay a small split on the coal bed in front of the load and let it get up to 400 and cut the air back a third, another third at 500-550. And the bad boy inches up to 600 during off-gassing and settles back to 500-550 for a long, long time.

Next morning if it is gonna be a sunny day or in the fifties I load three medium splits N/S on the coals pulled all the way to the front and cigar burn'em down and let is go out. Usually three or four hours later and it gives off soft heat most of the afternoon.

The key to the night load is that trough up the middle. Cooks the gases out of the wood and they burn on top of the wood long and low. Pretty much the same way a cat burns'em.

Guys this is the key what Brother Bart said so read it 3 more times maybe it will sink in. This will work in other stoves as well.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Great find, Blue.

 

[rover47]

This is for sale in the Albany NY area I think it is the guy who posted the other day about his parents stove
(broken link removed to http://albany.craigslist.org/app/3434096926.html)

or this one:
(broken link removed to http://albany.craigslist.org/hsh/3434048119.html)

 

[BrowningBAR]

$2400 for a 15 year old stove when you can get a new one for a few bucks more? Good luck with that.

 

[Bluerubi]

This is for sale in the Albany NY area I think it is the guy who posted the other day about his parents stove
(broken link removed to http://albany.craigslist.org/app/3434096926.html)

or this one:
(broken link removed to http://albany.craigslist.org/hsh/3434048119.html)

For $2400 I think I might be able to let mine go .

 

[Ashful]

Well, you can see he took our advice.

 

[raybonz]

To put things in perspective I recently purchased a Jotul Firelight 12 for $20, and after putting in 10 hours of work and $500 in parts I have a beast of a stove. This is my first experience with a catalyst, so a lot of learning to still be done, but already I'm amazed with the amount of heat it puts out and the burn time with a relatively small load. Looks great, and is far superior to anything new that can be had close to that price.

Man that stove is worth more than that in scrap iron! Great deal and work on your part!

Ray

 

[raybonz]

I think I got really lucky. For the look, quality, and heating capacity I can see someone shelling out some serious cash for a firelight 12, especially if they don't want to put any sweat equity into it. I'm at the point now, where I don't think I'd sell mine for $1500, just because I don't know what I'd replace it with that I'd like better. I'm sure there are really good values out there, so I'm not implying that the open market value for this stove is that high, I just really like the design.

Have you posted pics?

Ray

 

[Bluerubi]

Have you posted pics?

Ray

Here are a few from the project. First one is as I found it in a guys basement, followed by the teardown/rust removal, and then painted and in place. Definintely learned some lessons on this project since my original assessment was that I could get away with just replacing a single pane of broken glass. Once I started pulling it apart the list of items needed continued to grow, and I almost cried when I saw how pricey they were. Some of this sticker shock was also self induced since I was a bit excessive and installed a digital temperature probe for the cat, a probe style thermometer for the flue, and a surface temp gauge for the top of the stove.

Toughest part to swallow on this project was the cost of the parts associated with the cat. I ended up springing for the steel version from Condar, though I can't say whether it's worth it since I've never had a stove like this before. In the end I'm really glad I did this, and find it really fun to observe how stingy it is on wood consumption compared to my VC Merrimack on my first floor.

.

 

[Ashful]

Beautiful. There's not an attractive stove on the market today that comes close to this stove on performance, so your money was well spent. I switched to the Condar Steelcat last year, after trying their ceramic cat and seeing how the expanding gasket can damage your cat chamber. Since the Condar ceramic cat is not a good option for this stove, and the Steelcat is less than the ceramic cat from Jotul, you made a good choice. I've been happy with the performance of mine, but I didn't have that much experience on the ceramic cat (didn't install temperature probe until I switched to steel), so I can't really compare the two objectively.

You will be amazed with the heat this thing can throw, and how controllable it is. My wife has let this stove run too-open for too long a few times now, and I've always been able to reign it back in pretty quickly. Seems you'd really have to work to make this stove run away, although I still have some trouble with back-puffing in my one setup, when I shut the air control all the way down. I'm anxious to get the second one online in the next few weeks, to see how the other chimney works, in that regard.

 

[raybonz]

Great looking stove Blue!

Ray

 

[Sprinter]

Very nice restoration.