Catalytic combuster

[Highbeam]

My cat probe bottoms out often no flame just a red hot glow with orange flame on the inside of the honeycombs,works for me.I'm not afraid to run my stove,if it craps out BK will get a call,I personally don't believe you could overfire a BK?could be wrong,but I did overfire two (2) Quadrafires cracked the sides on both,both replaced by Quad a good thing,poor design I guess.

Warning... BK specific information below.

Operated per the owner's manual, you can't overfire a thermostatic BK. That seems to bother folks that worry about things falling from the sky so said another way, you may turn the thermostat to full throttle on a full load and walk away. There is a thermostat so even when you set the throttle to maximum, the stat takes over and closes draft to maintain a safe maximum temperature. There are some conditions of course. The stove must be in good working order and operated per the manual but that's not hard. People that own a BK will understand.

Hey, if you ruin a cat following the manual then you have a 10 year cat warranty. Even without a warranty it's like 250$ and takes about 5 minutes to swap in a fresh cat. Cat failure is caused by a leaky door gasket 95% of the time according to BK. Very good odds that it is not caused by running the stove per the manual.

This is different than your other brands of cat stove that have manual draft controls. Those guys need to pay more attention. I believe that even those stoves are safe to run at high temperatures as very smart people have designed them and safety tested them to not fall apart when they are run hard but I would expect the owner's manual to tell you how to run the stove.

 

[velvetfoot]

Let me ask you Cat people, with an cat insert stove, does the heat generated by the cat go up the chimney, or is it transferred to the room?

 

[Highbeam]

Let me ask you Cat people, with an cat insert stove, does the heat generated by the cat go up the chimney, or is it transferred to the room?

The cat resides inside the firebox under the stove top so like a non-cat insert the stove gets hot and is stripped by blowers into the room. Generally, on a cat stove, the flue temps are much lower so less heat is going up the chimney.

 

[velvetfoot]

It sounds like the cat consumes some firebox space. True? If so, more of an impact on insert, rather than a stove.

 

[Highbeam]

It sounds like the cat consumes some firebox space. True? If so, more of an impact on insert, rather than a stove.

So I have both a cat a non-cat. The cat chamber consumes some firebox space but not any more than the baffle and tubes of a non-cat. Those non-cat bits hang down into the firebox several inches.

The usable firebox volume should not include the volume lost to either secondary emissions system.

 

[velvetfoot]

not any more than the baffle and tubes of a non-cat. Those non-cat bits hang down into the firebox several inches

Thanks, I didn't think about that.

I have to say, it would be nice to have somewhat more even heat rather than the peaks and valleys. Does a cat stove help with that?

 

[Highbeam]

Thanks, I didn't think about that.

I have to say, it would be nice to have somewhat more even heat rather than the peaks and valleys. Does a cat stove help with that?

That's where they shine. Relatively low but steady output for the whole burn cycle. I can't speak for the other brands but my BK, with a 30 hour burn time and thermostatic control, puts out almost the same amount of heat for the entire 30 hours. If you reload on top of burning fuel then you can have nearly constant output all season long, just keep throwing more in whenever it gets low. Maybe 12, maybe 24 hours depending on just how much heat you want to be constantly emitted.

 

[velvetfoot]

That's pretty good. The cycles are annoying, and wasteful.