We are wroking to install a Blaze King Princess model catalytic wood stove for next year. These stoves have an automatic damper and very long burn times (20 - 40 hours depending on the model) There is a lot of information about Blaze King and other brands at : http://www.hearth.com/talk/ The Blaze King web site is: http://www.blazeking.com/

I am not affiliated with either site or company. I hope this is appropriate under the banner of "wood burning stoves."

20 - 40 hours suggests that you are choking it down and a lot of gas isn't being oxidized all the way.

And then when you do crank this baby open and get closer to 100% combustion too much heat is going out your chimney.

I like stoves that burn efficiently and don't send all the BTUs outside to do it.

Daniel Truax wrote:20 - 40 hours suggests that you are choking it down and a lot of gas isn't being oxidized all the way.

And then when you do crank this baby open and get closer to 100% combustion too much heat is going out your chimney.

I like stoves that burn efficiently and don't send all the BTUs outside to do it.

Daniel, a catalytic stove burns cleaner (lower emissions) at a lower temperature than a stove with secondary combustion. So, yes, you choke the stove down to a smolder while the catalyst does its job burning the gasses and particulates in the smolder from the wood. Blaze King has a video on their site (http://youtu.be/jBSNWKI-d-A ) which explains some of this. Catalytic stoves send less heat up the chimney than secondary combustion stoves.

OK

Don't EVER forget to change the catalytic element! You gotta do it on a regular basis, if not, you've got a SERIOUS chimney fire maker there.
Folks forget this, even though it's printed clearly in the manual.

I have memories of my pop on the wood shingled roof with a dribbling hose, in gale force winds, scrambling to save the house from yet another chimney fire..
Happened once a year like clockwork, and somehow they never learned..

Kirk, I think that's a little misleading. Catalytic combustors do not need to be replaced regularly if they are used correctly.

You cant add wood to them till the charge is fully down to coals, and the combustor has cooled. Adding wood while the combustor is hot will cool it rapidly and damage it.

Start up procedure is important too. You need to get the fire hot and the combustor active before you close the bypass, or the element will become dirty in a hurry.

You have to pay attention when using cats, buy they work very well.

Wet wood kills them fast too.

I have a blaze king and can report that it works as advertised.

The catalytic combustor technology has improved dramatically in the last ten years. They now come with a 10 year real warranty and are not the fussy delicate things they once were.


The blaze king has a lever to take the combustor out of the flame path while you reload.


I "clean" my double wall insulated chimney every year. It typically has a 1/16th of an inch of fine powdery residue that comes right out with one or two sweeps with the chimney brush.


When I switched from an EPA rated airtight stove (with secondary combustion) to the Blaze King, my wood consumption dropped by ~half.

hth,

troy

Kirk Mobert wrote:I have memories of my pop on the wood shingled roof with a dribbling hose, in gale force winds, scrambling to save the house from yet another chimney fire..
Happened once a year like clockwork, and somehow they never learned..

Sonofagun. What a great story for, "How'd you get into rocket stoves, anyway?"

(Reminds of when I tried to sell life insurance. The most successful guy in the office had an honest-to-goodness passion for selling life insurance. Turned out, he had gotten his job, sold his parents a policy, and within a few MONTHS delivered a big death benefit check to his mother. No wonder he made a career out of it.)