Catalytic or Non-catalytic?

Inside joke?

 

I'll definitely give an update!

 

Nope, not a cat stove joke...well, not on purpose anyways!

 

I always thought that this entire forum was created because of the woodstock brand. The other forum had other advertisers or something like that. I don't know, but if not for forums I would have never heard of the brand either.

 

I have two friends with the Buck 81. The one really likes it, they had a hot blast before. The hot blast would decimate their firewood supply in no time. So they are very happy with its heat output and efficiency. Their wood supply goes much further and their home is much warmer.

The other friend was not so happy with theirs. They had a pre EPA stove that was getting thin in some spots and begrudgingly bought a new stove. (Buck 81) The metal lip at the front of the firebox leading to the flue was not right from the factory. The door would not close all of the way. A chimney sweep came out and had to grind and remove material from it so the door would close/seal. She calls it a Monday morning stove. It’s still not quite right I think it’s going to have to be tweaked again. Me personally I would have returned it. QC issues can happen with just about any manufacturer.

Also I think she would have been unimpressed with most anything new she bought. I know a catalytic stove would have been too complicated for her though. They are truly simple but I just don’t think it would compute.

I think the 81 is the first stove I’ve seen in person that has “bay windows.”

 

Once you've lived with a woodblast, er, I mean a Hotblast, everything else is

 

Everyone I know who has owned one has bemoaned its wood consumption. It’s like commuting an hour each way with a big block with 4.10 gears.

 

I bought a Buck 81 last year. It's a great stove, decent on wood, longer burn times, it's pretty decent! The only thing I don't like about mine is that it doesn't put out a lot of heat on low. The wife fills it when she leaves to go to work at 7am and when I get home at 4:30, I have a decent coal bed to build off of but its pretty cool in the house. My old non epa stove would throw out tons more heat for longer times, but did burn more wood. Shoulda got a cat stove...

 

A cat stove might not have thrown out more heat on low. In the end it's a firebox volume issue; pile of BTUs goes in and is released over a set time. The longer that time the lower the output.

Cat stoves don't magically make BTUs appear out of thin air. Efficiencies of most modern stoves are basically the same, cat or not

Some cat stoves allow to stretch the release time to longer, but given the fixed amount of BTUs that went in, this means the longer burn is at an even lower output - and your home might have been colder (assuming the same firebox size)

 

Correction cat stove don’t make smoke out of thin air; Cat stoves do make heat out of Smoke/air

I agree wood has X BTUs per pound
My experience NC-13 2 cubic feet roughly; 12 cord
IS cat stove 5 cord and I am warmer than before

 

Rereading my post I'm not sure I said something different...?
Wildbill said his home was cool after a day out and "shoulda got a cat stove". My point was that a cat stove would not create more BTUs as compared to a modern tube stove (efficiencies are the same for all intents and purposes).
A cat stove may be able to spread the release of those BTUs out longer, but that doesn't solve a problem of a cool house after a day out... No more BTUs to be had ("out of thin air")...

That was all I was saying

 

To me it comes down to a cat requiring a little bit of extra mechanical maintenance.
Just about everyone that has gone that route are more than willing to do the maintenance to gain all the benefits of cat burning.
Most will justify cat expense as well.

 

But didn't that NC13 have a burnt out baffle?

 

How often does that need to be done?

 

2 minutes for all and every stove ?
All stoves are created equal ? It doesn't matter which one you buy ?

 

I’ll second this question. I’m hoping to get my CAT stove installed this year and would like to know how often the cat needs TLC maintenance.

 

I bought it new.. so not in the beginning; the hole plate above firebox had been damaged by over filling (definitely guilty) that and new firebrick went with it!

Learned later my chimney has exceptional draft..
Same chimney, drier wood, better quality stove