Cat or no Cat?

Which stove is the better one? A reburn stove or one with a Cat and why?

 

The "reburn", I call it "secondary burn" technology is the best for high heat, but they don't do as well as the catalytic technology for longer lower temp slow burns. For most of us we need both at one time or another. High heat on those below zero days here in New England for instance, but we also want nice slow burns at lower temps for overnight burns for example, or warmer days like it is right now here in New England for what we call shoulder season.

Many of the new stoves provide both technologies, called Hybrid stoves. If you're in very cold weather for most of your needs, and have a large area to heat, I would strongly advise one of the Hybrids. I have a Cat only stove, as well as a hybrid stove heating my New England 1600sq ft home and the Woodstock Fireview does a wonderful job. I use the Hybrid Woodstock Soapstone Abolute Steel stove in my basement/family room on the really cold days and it is also a great stove.

Given your location, I'd be thinking catalytic and hybrid, and be thinking how many sq ft you're heating and how often you are available to refill the stove between loads.

I hope this helps.

PS: Welcome to the Firewood Hoarders Club!

 

Never ran a cat, mine is a secondary tube . I'd buy it again.
Kind of anti-cat here so I'm biased. I Probably avg 6 hr burn time, most times I can still get a new fire going after 8 hrs with the coals.
If I was to get a cat, I'd look into buying a stainless cat and have it ready for when the ceramic fails.
Maybe it's all changed since I don't follow those stoves much anyway.

 

I had a non cat and now have a cat stove. I prefer the cat stove hands down. The non cat sends a ton of heat up the stack. Our stove pipe runs through our bedroom, the non cat made it hot in the bedroom. Not ideal for sleeping, for my wife and I. The cat stove is making most of its heat on the stove top and the flue temps are lower but our downstairs is as warm as we like. I can get 10 to 12 hours of usable heat out of the 1.5 cubic foot firebox. On my old non cat stove I would be lucky to get 6.

I don’t necessarily think one is better than the other. It just depends on your needs and what your expectations are.

welcome to FHC.

 

Not a ton of experience here burning a non-cat stove and I've only burned in one model, one brand. But as others mentioned seems to be true for mine, they burn hot and fast, less burn times. However I am sure other models get longer burn times but am in the 6 - 8hr range, with the last few hours really dipping down.

Don't know much about cat stoves and I know there is more maintenance and more involved with running one. Not to mention the need to replace the cat every so often. But from reading folks experiences, they certainly have longer burn times, low and slow more consistent heat output compared to a non-cat where there is an initial surge of high hot heat and continues to taper after a few hours.

If given an opportunity I'd like a chance to run a cat stove, I am in for the longer burn times. If I could load up and go to bed and wake up to a fire still going I'd be thrilled. Not to mention the less wood that would be used.

 

I appreciate all the replies! I have a 6” flue and in my area, for what I had to choose from, I got the Buck 81. I really would’ve liked to try a cat stove but everything my dealer had to offer in a cat stove took a 8” flue. Burning in the 81 today since we have some cooler temperatures and have filled it up to see what kind of useable burn time I can get with it. I’ll pass that on.

 

12 cords with non cat
Average 4.5 cord with cat
More heat, warmer house and longer burn times

 

I have both, the two technologies each do well at what they’re made for but also you can make good heat with either. No bad choices.

A hybrid is a cat stove, there’s a cat. It’s a gimmick or a tweak to call a stove a hybrid since it’s still a cat stove. Don’t be afraid to look at regular cat cat stoves. All of the good cat stove brands have had hybrid versions and cat versions, it’s not really the best of both worlds because you still have all the cat drawbacks.

For heating a home full time I prefer, as most who’ve had the chance to try, a good cat stove. They’re awesome. Good cat stoves come from blaze king, Woodstock, and maybe a couple other brands to a lesser extent. You can use 6” pipes for most models.

Long, steady burn times are awesome.

 

I have a Blaze King (cat) and I love how I can get very long burn times with little to no smoke. Uses much less wood also.

 

Either are fine, but if it's going in my house I'd select the catalyst stove.

Smooth consistent heat that lasts longer and uses less wood.

 

Highbeam, I hope you didn't think I was trying to hide the fact that the Hybrid had a cat? It wasn't my intent at all. Does anyone or especially a vendor try to do that? That's a pretty wild gimmick.

 

No, I was more concerned that anybody would rule out a good cat stove because it didn’t also have the “hybrid” feature.

 

IIRC, somewhere around here in recent times I recall a thread where some cat stove owners felt that a hybrid stove could be pushed a lil harder than a plain cat stove...if one needed a lot of heat occasionally...

 

One with a cat! ...just because!

 

I’ve burned many different stoves cat and non cat. I can’t say one is better over the other, depends on your needs and wants. Currently burning a Jotul F45 and it really has good control for a non cat. No problem burning a 12 hour reload schedule this time of year, glass stays cleaner than any other stove I’ve owned. Very easy to operate and low maintenance. I don’t feel it goes through any more wood than the cat stoves I’ve owned.

 

I agree my F55 as well

 

It's a big deal on here.....

But I will just say that the better stove is the secondary stove......my opinion

 

Seems safe to say, that both the secondary burn technology and the cat technology get the job done. I think it's more important to get the right-sized stove for the climate you're in and the size of the home/area you are looking to heat. Also, your ability to feed the stove. For example, if you're not home from early morning to late in the day, will the stove be big enough to get a long burn from it? If someone is home all day and can feed the stove 2 or 3 times, then that is much less of an issue.

Also, WOF, (Wife Opinion Factor) how will it look and will we be happy with its look in our home?

Food for thought anyway.