Catalytic or Non-catalytic?

Though we don’t get as cold for as long as the eastern folks our burning season is 9 months long so we go through similar amounts of wood. I’m up in the foothills at about 700 feet ASL. It’s dark, rainy, muddy, and cool most of the year. I’m getting a little tired of it to be honest.

As to the question of using less wood with a cat stove it doesn’t matter where you live. It just takes much less fuel to get the job done.

 

Agreed!!

 

The only downfall is learning how to run a cat stove. I've always had a conventional stove and would just cram it full and run. With my Buck I had to learn not to put in so muck, use the coals and turn down the air intake draft.

 

Interesting. My cat stove likes being tetris-stuffed to the gills.
Different brand tho.

 

I have had our Buck 91 for quite a few years now and it has served us well.

 

Mine too, the struggle seems to be in the shoulder seasons.

 

I've heard good things about buck stoves, the older and the newer ones.

 

I'm sure there is more efficient stove's out there but that Buck does a pretty decent job. The only gripe I have is that the side viewing windows soot up with the first fire. They never stay clean. The front glass never gets dirty. Crazy....

 

Front window usually has air wash...I doubt the side does

 

True statements. The side windows do not stay clean and also correct with no air wash on side but yes on frt window.

 

I finally got the motivation to chime in on this thread......

Over the years I've had 4 wood stoves in the house: A pre-EPA Fisher Grandma Bear, a Quadrafire 2100, a Quadrafire 4300 and a Woodstock Ideal Steel. Cliff notes version, I like the Woodstock.

The Fisher would throw out serious heat but it would belch smoke like crazy even with dry firewood. The Quad 2100 was OK; the firebox was too small to really hold long burns and it was more of a supplemental heating appliance than primary. The Quad 4300 could put out some good heat and would put on some serious light shows, as in, crazy secondary flames that were mesmerizing to watch. It could kinda sorta hold an overnight burn but the Quad ash pan setup (or lack thereof) meant shoveling a lot of ash and coals out of the stove in order to set up for a new burn cycle. The Ideal Steel heats very differently. Folks may say, "Well, heat is heat". Not really. The Ideal Steel is an enormous thermal mass, close to 700lbs if I remember correctly and it takes a good while for the stove body to come up to temp. But that also applies to retaining heat. The heat cycles with the Quads were more "V" shaped and the Ideal Steel is more of a dome shape. The Quads would quickly get up to temp, crank out heat for 4-6 hours and then rapidly cool down. The Ideal Steel takes longer to come up to temp but once it has done so, it retains the heat The cat does take getting used to. Sure, the Ideal Steel will go low & slow for a long time (12+ hours) but that might not be the best fit for folks that want a quick heat cycle and a light show. The Ideal Steel doesn't produce much of a light show, particularly when it's tamped down and is doing a cat-only burn. Some friends of mine have been baffled by a stove that displays no visible flame but is still throwing heat. There is also a tell-tale sign from the Ideal Steel that separates it from an EPA stove: I'm burning two year old white ash and only see faint wisps of steam coming out of the chimney cap. A neighbor down the road has a Regency, he's burning 3-year old cut/split/stacked ash and his chimney cap is throwing blue smoke. The Ideal Steel is doing something right.

The cat is a maintenance item and the cost of it can not be overlooked. The longevity consensus is about 3 years with heavy use but I see noticeable degradation of performance after two seasons and that is with regular cat cleaning and vinegar baths as recommended by Woodstock. Woodstock cats are not cheap. All in all I would still pick the Ideal Steel over the Quad because of its long burn times, build quality and the innovative ash pan system that allows you to rake ash into the pan while still preserving coals for a relight. Disclaimer, I have no experience with Buck, Blaze King, Jotul, Englander, Osburn, Vermont Castings etc and can't offer comment on them.

 

You sound like a repeat of myself! I know I've hurt the Cat life of my Buck learning it, but now that I have learned a little bit about it, I'm sure liking it! I uisually save my cut-off's for a couple of seasons and Monday, I brought in a wheelbarrow load of them. I put a couple of chunks in my 91 yesterday, let get to going good, and it was around 6 hours before I put anything else in it and even though it was on low, it was heating sufficiently. And mind you it's been around 15-30 deg. and windy ( 10-25mph gusts) here in SW VA this week. When I fill it and choke it down, according to the species of wood, it'll last for 7-12 hours and more and still be putting out heat. I've heard Ideal Steel stove work very well also. This is season 2 of use and although I vacuumed it a few weeks ago with out pulling the CAT from the stove, was just looking to order a gasket set so I can pull out the CAT on a warm day and soak it in vinegar as well. Do you notice a difference when you do that? My stove seems to be working but noticed the steam after a fill up last week and there may have been a little color in it.