Are thermostatic controls for primary air only available on catalytic VC stoves? How do these work? Can you light a fire and immediately leave the house? Do they give a more efficient, more regulated burn? My stove is non-cat and manually controlled air (jotul f3 cb), and though once it’s up to temp you can close down the air and it will pretty much take care of itself, you do have to hang around and wait for it to get hot for a little while. Are thermostatic controls there to protect the cat? If only on cat stoves, why? Do people out there like them? With a cat stove you still have to hang around till the stove gets hot to engage the cat, right? So is there a stove that will allow you to light it up and leave without concern that it will overfire or will smolder out because primary air was manually shut down too early or not enough?
thermostatic primary air
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I loved the thermostatic control that was on our old VC Resolute. It worked very well. I might consider giving up a limb if Jotul added this to their line of stoves. Pacific Energy has a somewhat similar secondary regulation on their largest stove - called EBT, extended burn technology.
I have a thermostatic control on my Blaze King cat insert and I love it.
It does have to be up to cat temp to engage the cat before you set the stat down.
From a cold start it takes 15 to 30 minutes to get to cat temp. Then you add a couple of splits, and slowly adjust the stat.
It is recomended to leave the stat open for 15 to 20 minutes after adding wood to burn off initial moisture.
In the mornings, I still have fire and hot box, so I usually open stat, fill the box with wood, and leave it open while I finish getting ready (15 to 20 minutes) then adjust the stat to get 300 to 400 degrees stove top temperature and leave for the day.
This gives me 10 to 12 hours of 300 to 400 degree stove top temperature.
It does have to be up to cat temp to engage the cat before you set the stat down.
From a cold start it takes 15 to 30 minutes to get to cat temp. Then you add a couple of splits, and slowly adjust the stat.
It is recomended to leave the stat open for 15 to 20 minutes after adding wood to burn off initial moisture.
In the mornings, I still have fire and hot box, so I usually open stat, fill the box with wood, and leave it open while I finish getting ready (15 to 20 minutes) then adjust the stat to get 300 to 400 degrees stove top temperature and leave for the day.
This gives me 10 to 12 hours of 300 to 400 degree stove top temperature.
The non-cat "Everburn" VC stoves also use a thermostatic control. My understanding is that some of the other stove brands with thermostatic controls are also non-cat. So it's definitely not a cat vs. non-cat thing, and the thermostat isn't there so much to protect the cat as it is to regulate the amount of secondary air coming in so as to increase the burn technology, however it's done.
Everything I've heard says that you do need to do some babysitting on a freshly loaded or newly started stove no matter what brand it is or whether or not it has thermostatic control, however some folks claim it is easier and / or faster to get into a "leave it alone" state with a thermostatic stove.
Sorry but there is no such thing as a "load and go" stove.
Gooserider
Everything I've heard says that you do need to do some babysitting on a freshly loaded or newly started stove no matter what brand it is or whether or not it has thermostatic control, however some folks claim it is easier and / or faster to get into a "leave it alone" state with a thermostatic stove.
Sorry but there is no such thing as a "load and go" stove.
Gooserider
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