Roger Lehet

Hello folks,

I thought I might share some things I have seen in the last several months. Since I spend much time educating myself about matters of all kinds "wood stove" and have direct contact with EPA and industry people I believe this information is correct and there are things people should be aware of so as not to face new laws after they are passed. In the late 80's the stove industry was unregulated and needed to be. Old stoves were routinely emitting 70+ grams per hour of carcinogenic particulates into the air, imagine a one pound coffee can full of cancer causing dust an hour from every stove in America? The new laws brought stoves which cut this by 90%, pretty amazing but at the cost of nearly three hundred factories if my information is correct. The limits were then set at 7.5 grams per hour nationally, 4.5 in Washington, Colorado and Oregon.

Today the EPA is doing much the same thing and for little reason, there are proposals going through public comment periods that would set the new limits at 1.3 grams per hour. At the same time there is a group called the cold weather institute studying the effectiveness of Catalytic stoves and claiming they need new cats every 5500 hours. An associate of mine in Fairbanks has informed me that there is talk of banning cat stoves in the state as they feel the catalytic elements are rendered useless by 5500 hours of use which is about 1.5 years in Alaska. I am not here to argue against better performance nor style of equipment selected, I am here to discuss a big picture.

I often champion the idea of creating jobs through benefit to the environment. We can put people to work and create huge industry supporting American workers in ways that benefit the environment. The wood stove and any renewable based industry is just that. We can reduce dependence on ever more dangerous and toxic gas and oil development by incorporating renewable's. I am often asked why I do not support the EPA proposals when our new stove, the Katydid is testing in the lab at between .5 and .75 grams per hour as a non cat stove when this move would be awesome for my market share? My answer is that the best thing we can do for the economy is stop passing laws that create poverty. As I have scraped by most of my life I am quite well aware that being poor makes it hard to properly tune up your car or re-insulate your home, if you even own it.

If you care about having access to affordable wood stoves I suggest you make contact with your state representative and make your self be heard. Over regulation of these products will have a far greater negative effect on the environment by creating joblessness. It will create more moms and dads who can not feed their children and who will burn anything they have to to stay warm. This is something I have witnessed.

We continually strive to bring good technology to market and have just committed another $85,000.00 to the Katydid project due to these upcoming regulations, our first stove Kimberly will have to undergo the same thing in 3-1/2 years and cost much more. It is really tough to do business in America today but we are also committed to manufacturing a top notch American made stove here at home. I am so humbled to read things people write about our stoves, and our company, I am very proud. I also appreciate that we have had so much support from people literally all over the world, with Gods love we will cleanly heat many homes all over the world!

Roger Lehet

Hello all,

Roger from Unforgettable fire llc, inventor of the Kimberly stove.

Most folks have a hard time at first understanding our little creation, and cost is usually the first big question, comparing this to a rocket stove would be the second. I think the best place to start is that the market standard stoves ( which I sold, installed, and maintained professionally for years {Pacific energy, Country, Vermont castings, regency, Osburn and many others}) have a single flame path with secondary combustion air injected in at the front of the baffle at the top of the flame to create a longer burn time. Rocket stoves are much the same but were originally conceived for cooking purposes in third world applications as an in expensive method of replacing the indoor camp fire normally used by mothers trying to cook for their family in an impoverished lifestyle. These methods use tons of fire wood ( The damage seen to the Amazon Forest) and create completely unhealthy air quality conditions.

The Kimberly gets called a wood stove when it is in fact a gasifying stove, but few people would understand the vernacular. The bottom fire is barely strong enough to keep the fuel pile at more than a smoldering rather than an aggressive and clean burn, it is in a sense a generator of fuel for the secondary fire ( a completely separate fire zone) on the top of the stove, which often hits internal temperatures of 1400 to 1700 deg F. Since wood combustion is complete at 1100 deg f. we get a long burn on the bottom with and aggressive gas re-burn on the top.

Cost.......there are 118 precision laser cut and welded high grade stainless steel parts in this stove, the certification has so far cost me over $42,000.00 for EPA, UL LIST and CSA for Canadian export........While we have one of the most expensive wood stoves ever built ( all domestic materials and craftsmanship) our completed package price is very average when compared to the awesome stoves I used to sell due to the decrease in construction costs of the complete installation, while providing far more in accessories such as our thermo electric generator, oven, hot water coils and portability, not to mention the fact that it can be safely installed in the tiny space where most stoves can not go.

The best testimony for this stove fooled even myself. We actually used two Kimberly's in a display in North Eastern Oregon to heat up a 3000 sq/ft single story house from 45 deg F (with an outside temp of 34 deg F.) to 71 deg F. in under 12 hours and held that temperature with the door opening and closing as people came and went. Even I was a bit shocked at this. The disclaimer......this home was brand new (never before heated) but had r 40 in the ceilings, 30 in the floors, 19 in the walls and good double panes......as with any heating source there has to be three key aspects in heating (1) heat production (2) heat retention (3) heat circulation. In this case we had all three components working in harmony.......in this way we advertise the best case scenario of 1500 sq/ft capability.

I hope this helps people wondering if we are nuts, but it really does work. For more information feel free to email me directly at


Sales@unforgettablefirellc.com

Thank you
Roger & Bridget Lehet inventors/founders