Anyone Else Having Cat Stove Regrets?

[John E. Law]

I’m a 1.5 seasons into owning a Hearthstone Manchester cat stove. I gotta say I’m not impressed. If I had to do it over I wouldn’t buy a cat stove. It’s not worth the rebate. The rebate is what drew me to a cat stove and now I see why they have to pay people to own these.

The pros: It’s a good looking stove. Wonderful view of the fire. Heats very well. Easy to start a quick hot fire. Easy to clean with the removable ash pan. The side loading door is genius. Takes 24” logs. When cat is working properly I get a 12 hour burn.

Cons: The cats. They cog easily with fly ash. I have to shutdown the stove to let it cool to vacuum them out. They even clog even when the bypass is OPEN. I can’t dampen down the air intake as much as I want to. Removing, properly cleaning and reinstalling the cats is a royal PIA. The dual grate sifter does little to move ash to the pan.

They are great in theory but in reality I feel I can do more for less with a traditional wood stove.

 

[bholler]

I’m a 1.5 seasons into owning a Hearthstone Manchester cat stove. I gotta say I’m not impressed. If I had to do it over I wouldn’t buy a cat stove. It’s not worth the rebate. The rebate is what drew me to a cat stove and now I see why they have to pay people to own these.

The pros: It’s a good looking stove. Wonderful view of the fire. Heats very well. Easy to start a quick hot fire. Easy to clean with the removable ash pan. The side loading door is genius. Takes 24” logs. When cat is working properly I get a 12 hour burn.

Cons: The cats. They cog easily with fly ash. I have to shutdown the stove to let it cool to vacuum them out. They even clog even when the bypass is OPEN. I can’t dampen down the air intake as much as I want to. Removing, properly cleaning and reinstalling the cats is a royal PIA. The dual grate sifter does little to move ash to the pan.

They are great in theory but in reality I feel I can do more for less with a traditional wood stove.

It sounds like a problem with the design of your particular stove because most cat stoves don't have those issues.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

From what I've seen on this site your Hearthstone is notorious for this.
Just because Pontiac built terrible cars it doesn't mean my Ford is bad.

 

[stoveliker]

Also, what is your flue setup?
Too much draft can suck up flyash into the cat.

If you have a tall flue, maybe a key damper might be useful?

 

[MrCampbellAHS]

What is the moisture content of your fuel? We are in the second burn season of our Green Mountain 60 and it turns out last year a lot of our streets were due to wet wood.

 

[John E. Law]

My wood source is plenty dry and aged. It burns very well and hot. Mixed hardwoods mostly Ash. I do have a tall stack and no external flue damper so I like this suggestion. True about my brand - I’m kicking myself for not researching more. The wife liked how the Manchester looked.

The Manchester has two cats either side of the exhaust flue. When it gets to temp you flip a lever that closes that exhaust flue directing the exhaust through the cats. The problem I’ve seen is while starting a fire with the flu open is fly ash still goes through the cats with the flue open because it’s still part of the draft. They constantly get clogged. To the point they can’t be vacuumed and need to be removed to be cleaned which is a huge PIA. This results in me not engaging the cat because it’s not worth the hassle. They worked great in the beginning but I would not recommend this brand of cat stove. I don’t hate cat stove but this one left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

So maybe I better title to this thread would be is anybody else having Hearthstone Manchester Regrets........

 

[stoveliker]

I do think it's more general; in many cat stoves, too much draft can (and has) result in fly ash clogged cats.
"Too much" depends on the design of the stove, but the fundamental issue is not related to one stove.

Even Ashful had this issue with one of his Ashfords.
A key damper will help.

 

[velocity1]

My wood source is plenty dry and aged. It burns very well and hot. Mixed hardwoods mostly Ash. I do have a tall stack and no external flue damper so I like this suggestion. True about my brand - I’m kicking myself for not researching more. The wife liked how the Manchester looked.

The Manchester has two cats either side of the exhaust flue. When it gets to temp you flip a lever that closes that exhaust flue directing the exhaust through the cats. The problem I’ve seen is while starting a fire with the flu open is fly ash still goes through the cats with the flue open because it’s still part of the draft. They constantly get clogged. To the point they can’t be vacuumed and need to be removed to be cleaned which is a huge PIA. This results in me not engaging the cat because it’s not worth the hassle. They worked great in the beginning but I would not recommend this brand of cat stove. I don’t hate cat stove but this one left a bad taste in my mouth.

How long are you getting in between needing to clean the cats? Last year Id say even after a few weeks of 24/7 burning I had some noticeable build up in my cats and one thing I also noticed is there was one time i cleaned off the cats and i still had burning issues with the bypass engaged. I removed the cats and on the back end of them there was build up accumulated over the course of 2 years that the vacuum wasnt getting when you vacuum off the face of them. After i put them back in it was like a new stove, lesson learned was to make sure sure i pull the cats after every season for a full cleaning. So circle back to this season I have far less build up on my cats by tweaking how i get rid of ash build up and rake coals for a reload. I was too aggressive over the past on sifting through the ash to get coals so I have been much gentler there and as far as removing ash I open the grate and carefully move the ash around getting it to fall down into the ash pan. Just being gentle i noticed much less ash flying around. I rarely never shake the grate unless its totally clogged with coals/ash. Over all being more cautious has made a large improvement in the fly ash in the cats i had got in the past. Regardless we shouldn't have to be careful to that extreme and agree with your regret but i still do really love this stove outside of that and the god awful design/function of the air control lever which im still battling

 

[Pinesmoke]

The shaker grate on the ash pan in my Mansfield is the same as yours I'm sure. I removed the shaker grate and now when I rake the firebox around it just falls into the pan. I will say the latch on the ash door is junk.

I rarely use the ashpan.