Vermont Casting NC vs CC
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OK, I will open up the can of worms on this. I have a cat Dutchwest, I like it. Nice long burns, clean burns.
For the time being because of some problems with the technology and user issues, I would avoid the VC "everburn" series of non-cat stoves. Their cat versions are fine.
Any stove will have a certain amount of upkeep. This comes with the territory when burning. From what I can tell, if you are diligent, burning properly with good seasoned wood, a catalyst is not a major increase in maintenance. It will need to be replaced every 5-7 years, depending on how well it is treated, but that is not that big a deal. What you will get is nice, extended burns and very clean burning.
FWIW, the downdraft, NC equivalents, are fussier stoves to run and appear to have tight draft requirements. There have also been some complaints with refractory ceramic breakdown with some of the everburns, so another plus for the cat version is flexibility with a wider range of flues and durability.
FWIW, the downdraft, NC equivalents, are fussier stoves to run and appear to have tight draft requirements. There have also been some complaints with refractory ceramic breakdown with some of the everburns, so another plus for the cat version is flexibility with a wider range of flues and durability.
I had the Defiant Catalytic. Let stove top reach temp and close that damper, cat fires up and a clean burn for 10+ hours. Real easy to use, long, consistent burns, a home heating machine for sure.
Have the Jotul Oslo now, great stove. No top loading like the VC Defiant, which is the BOMB for sure. HOWEVER, the JOTUL allows me the ambiance of watching the fire, a BIG plus for my wife and me, not much firewatchin in the old Defiant.
Have the Jotul Oslo now, great stove. No top loading like the VC Defiant, which is the BOMB for sure. HOWEVER, the JOTUL allows me the ambiance of watching the fire, a BIG plus for my wife and me, not much firewatchin in the old Defiant.
To echo what some others have said, long, steady, clean burns. Dutchwest "large" new this fall. It's a big improvement over other stoves I've used. Replacement cat for this model is $85, or about 30 gallons of oil at todays prices.
I think the real answer is that it depends on the particular stove. Personally I think the Acclaim non-cat works great. Again, personally I would not buy an Intrepid cat or non-cat, because I think a tiny stove like that should (in general) be simply and non-cat.
As to the larger units, you have to consider your use. Given the VC designs, BOTH their cats and non-cats can take a while to come up to full heat and temperature, which means they are better for full time (or almost full time) users. If you are looking for quick heat, it may pay to consider others. Same goes for soapstone stoves, even soapstone cats......take a while to heat up.
All VC's (except for some steel DW and Century) are "downdraft" stoves, which do take longer to get to temp. If you are going to get one of these, the best advice I can give is to not oversize (a smaller unit will hit critical mass easier). Again, that points to the Acclaim in a mid-range.
Amazingly enough, we hear about a lot of VC's here, but less about the Acclaim! I think that means it just works! (just a guess).
As to the larger units, you have to consider your use. Given the VC designs, BOTH their cats and non-cats can take a while to come up to full heat and temperature, which means they are better for full time (or almost full time) users. If you are looking for quick heat, it may pay to consider others. Same goes for soapstone stoves, even soapstone cats......take a while to heat up.
All VC's (except for some steel DW and Century) are "downdraft" stoves, which do take longer to get to temp. If you are going to get one of these, the best advice I can give is to not oversize (a smaller unit will hit critical mass easier). Again, that points to the Acclaim in a mid-range.
Amazingly enough, we hear about a lot of VC's here, but less about the Acclaim! I think that means it just works! (just a guess).
GlennH said:
Depends on what you're doing. I have a catalytic VC Defiant. It keeps an excellent constant temp for 10+ hours without any fuss. But the fire isn't that pretty compared to the non-cat versions.
There isn't much upkeep involved. Just burn normal wood and don't burn anything odd and the catalytic will work fine.
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