Alternative Power sources - Question about catalyst woodstove

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Question about catalyst woodstove

northcountry

2005-11-09, 2:21 am

I may have a line on a decent catalyst woodstove.
I've been burning wood for the last 7 years, but with an Avalon Rainier
non-catalyst model.
We're adding a second stove and I have a line on an older Silent Flame
model with a catalytic combustor.
My question is - how does a catalyst stove perform on an overnight
burn?
I understand there needs to be a certain temperature to light-off the
combustor, but what happends later when the fuel runs low while the
combustor is still engaged?
I know I will be doing overnight burns and want to be sure that a
catalyst stove will perform well under those conditions.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has such a stove and uses it for heat
24-7.

Thanks.

George Ghio

2005-11-09, 6:21 am

If you are talking about a two chamber stove I have used one for some 18
years and have found it to be great. Alas it is nearing the end of its
life. It will keep a good sized log going for 18 hours when damped. And
heat 40 gallons of water to thirty five degrees C in around twenty minutes.

Good value, very efficient.

northcountry wrote:
> I may have a line on a decent catalyst woodstove.
> I've been burning wood for the last 7 years, but with an Avalon Rainier
> non-catalyst model.
> We're adding a second stove and I have a line on an older Silent Flame
> model with a catalytic combustor.
> My question is - how does a catalyst stove perform on an overnight
> burn?
> I understand there needs to be a certain temperature to light-off the
> combustor, but what happends later when the fuel runs low while the
> combustor is still engaged?
> I know I will be doing overnight burns and want to be sure that a
> catalyst stove will perform well under those conditions.
>
> I'd like to hear from anyone who has such a stove and uses it for heat
> 24-7.
>
> Thanks.
>

Bob Wennerstrom

2005-11-09, 9:21 am

northcountry wrote:
> I may have a line on a decent catalyst woodstove.
> I've been burning wood for the last 7 years, but with an Avalon Rainier
> non-catalyst model.
> We're adding a second stove and I have a line on an older Silent Flame
> model with a catalytic combustor.
> My question is - how does a catalyst stove perform on an overnight
> burn?
> I understand there needs to be a certain temperature to light-off the
> combustor, but what happends later when the fuel runs low while the
> combustor is still engaged?
> I know I will be doing overnight burns and want to be sure that a
> catalyst stove will perform well under those conditions.
>
> I'd like to hear from anyone who has such a stove and uses it for heat
> 24-7.
>
> Thanks.
>

We bought a used catalyst stove last year (Earth 1002C). We found it
works very well on overnight burns. Once the catalyst is fired, you can
shut the thing down and the smoke actually burns in the catalyst instead
of going up the chimney. The result is a lot more heat we used to get
out of our old 1980 vintage stove and the fire lasts eight hours, no
problem.

However, catalytic combusters do wear out. They're only rated for so
many hours. Most estimates are 3-5 years, depending on how many seasons
you use the stove. Check into the price of a new combuster, I know the
one for our stove is ~$250. If I were to buy a new $1000+ stove, I would
not choose one with a combuster because of the high annual cost of
replacing the combuster. Everything I've read says the new fancy
dual-burn stoves are just as efficient as a combuster stove, with no
expensive parts to replace every three years.

-Bob

barry@sme-online.com

2005-11-09, 12:21 pm

All woodstoves sold in the USA for some years have had to meet EPA
particulate emissions specs. Typically the catalytic converter-equipped
stoves are a bit lower in emissions, indicating that the combustion
efficiency of both types is essentially the same.

Really, how you feed the stove, and what you feed it, are more
important in determining how it meets your needs. Among other factors.

Non-catalyst stoves typically rely on sophisticated secondary-air
systems to burn what would emerge otherwise as smoke. Such that you
should see no smoke.

For both types, once the volatiles are gone, you have a charcoal burner
and secondary combustion is essentially over, with both still having
air input for secondary combustion. Thus the area where that secondary
combustion was taking place gradually cools.

J

David Hunt

2005-11-09, 7:21 pm

I am one of those that can't praise my catalytic stove enough!! We
previously had been burning more than three times the wood that we do now
with this stove. I bought mine used as well. I is a Russo stove, and was one
of the earliest of the catalytics out there. I LOVE it.
One nice feature about this stove is that it has a window over the catalyst
which shows you when it is touched off. (I also drilled a hole and added a
pin style catalytic thermometer to the area where the catalyst is so that I
could more accurately monitor the process). Being in the fire service, I
have been to a few chimney fires. A few of them with catalytic stoves. Some
of the older ones seem to have been just stoves that they -the stove
manufacturers- threw catalytic honeycombs into without doing any great
re-engineering. (one of the reasons I installed my own thermometer -even
though mine had a window to the catalyst). Many people seem to have run them
like they were running their old air-tight units. Load it up, choke it down,
make creosote, and pollute the hell out of the valley. When they converted
to the catalytic versions they did the same.... got the same results, and
cursed them because they were worse than what they had !! Too bad, because
they overwhelmed the marked with a lot of negative feelings. Let me ask you
something.... when you put in your first wood-stove (let's assume you were
running an oil burner before) did you still heat the house the same? Did you
still just turn up the thermostat and go to bed, or did heating the house
mean that you needed to learn how to run a stove and feed it when it needed
it? That was a big change. If you change to a catalytic, please take the
effort to realize that it is different than a standard stove, and that it
requires some learning, testing, and fine tuning as did your woodstove when
you got it. Also note though, that if you were to buy a different stove than
the one you are presently running, you should take the time and effort to
study it's differences -test it, fine tune it, and run it for what it is,
and not just like the one you had. Would you care for, and drive, a Ferrari
the exact same way you care for and drive your vw? Probably not! Does it
make the Ferrari wrong though? I say not, if you are willing to enjoy it as
a Ferrari instead of saying that it sucks as a VW !! Yes.. my stove runs
quite nice through the night. I am able to excite the combustor and shut it
down farther than I ever have been able to shut down a stove before. But
when I go outside I only see a cloud of steam that -on a cold dry day-
disappears as it moves form the flue. All of my neighbors do not do this.
Theirs fill the valley in smoke when they are choked down. Mine just looks
like cotton-ball around the flue, with no residual smoke -even when fully
choked down !!
The catalyst does go every so often. I ran mine with the one that came with
it for about 2 years. Stupid me. When I replaced it with one from Condar
(www.condar.com) I was amazed at how well it has run since. I am careful not
to put trash into the stove, and make sure that the CAT does excite before I
shut it down. IF you go to their site, Condar has a section on how to clean
them, and how to run them. Should you buy one? ... depends on your ability
to appreciate it for what it is.. .let me ask, can you appreciate a vintage
car for what it is, or must you compare it to your present one with a
cd-changer? I think I have about 5 years on this catalyst.. still going
strong !!
later,
David Hunt

"northcountry" <northcountry76@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1131514259.892419.200360@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> I may have a line on a decent catalyst woodstove.
> I've been burning wood for the last 7 years, but with an Avalon Rainier
> non-catalyst model.
> We're adding a second stove and I have a line on an older Silent Flame
> model with a catalytic combustor.
> My question is - how does a catalyst stove perform on an overnight
> burn?
> I understand there needs to be a certain temperature to light-off the
> combustor, but what happends later when the fuel runs low while the
> combustor is still engaged?
> I know I will be doing overnight burns and want to be sure that a
> catalyst stove will perform well under those conditions.
>
> I'd like to hear from anyone who has such a stove and uses it for heat
> 24-7.
>
> Thanks.
>

northcountry

2005-11-10, 12:21 am

Thanks everyone and thanks David for the excellent explanation .
I looked at www.condar.com and they actually have the combustor for my
future stove (it's a pre-1992 Silent Flame which unfortunately takes a
2x10 combustor - more expensive thatn the common 2"x7" that fit many
others.) Most other sites only have the 2 x7

barry@sme-online.com

2005-11-10, 3:21 pm

Wow! Kinda passionate, eh?

Your neighbors are irresponsible idiots, I can accept, but I'd prefer
to know what sort of stove they were using and how they got the smoke
up. Or none of it.

You generally can't see catalytic combustion in operation; you can
easily see secondary combustion in current non-catalyst woodstove.
'Nuff for me. Tight feedback loop.

Been using non-cat for 4 yrs, and have used a couple of
catalyst-equipped. Good ones. Keep the catalyst.

J

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