Decided on a Blaze King stove last year...My thoughts...

[nortcan]

They don’t. I replace mine every 2-3 years when they totally fail and drool tar on my chimney. It’s pretty obvious when they fail. So much smoke is the best clue.

Then a fresh cat makes everything awesome again so it confirms the cat was dead each time.

Is that short time is with regular cleanings of the cat with vac and or cleaned with vinegar and water?
How many cords of 16 inches long/ pieces? And what kind of wood? Thanks

 

[stoveliker]

Is that short time is with regular cleanings of the cat with vac and or cleaned with vinegar and water?
How many cords of 16 inches long/ pieces? And what kind of wood? Thanks

Good questions, as indeed this seems to depend on many parameters.
Some folk claim to get much longer out of their cats (and some of these are -also- very knowledgeable, so it's not necessarily that they are using a dead cat and don't know it). It is not clear, however, exactly what makes this so. There is some notion "out there" that they last 10-12,000 hrs, but that does not seem consistent.


Regarding a cord: it does not matter how long the wood is for something to be a cord or not. A cord is 128 cu ft.
It only matters if one talks about a "face cord" which is a surface area of 4x8 ft. (And for which one has to specify the split length.)

 

[Sandy Alan]

So, we bought our Princess in 2004. Replaced the cat in 2014. Replaced that one in 2023. That's it. We burn usually 24/7 from mid November through early April. Start and end can vary a few weeks. Last few years have been a bit warmer. We burn nothing but pine. We have only tried the vinegar cleaning once on the original cat. It didn't do anything, so we replaced it. Other than that we have never cleaned a cat in any way. No vacuum, no vinegar. I will look at the face of it every time I sweep, but it looks fine. No ash or visibly clogged holes. No reason to touch it.
I never realized others were replacing them so often. I thought Blaze King warrantied the original cat for ten years??

 

[nortcan]

So, we bought our Princess in 2004. Replaced the cat in 2014. Replaced that one in 2023. That's it. We burn usually 24/7 from mid November through early April. Start and end can vary a few weeks. Last few years have been a bit warmer. We burn nothing but pine. We have only tried the vinegar cleaning once on the original cat. It didn't do anything, so we replaced it. Other than that we have never cleaned a cat in any way. No vacuum, no vinegar. I will look at the face of it every time I sweep, but it looks fine. No ash or visibly clogged holes. No reason to touch it.
I never realized others were replacing them so often. I thought Blaze King warrantied the original cat for ten years??

I wonder why ash gets on the cat so much, some owners seem to have a lot and some not so much. Is it from opening the door too fast, or raking the ash while burning, or too much draft ??? On my Hearthstone, I got ash quite fast and on the Hearthstone Heritage stoves the cats are placed at the rear just beside the stove's outlet. But the B.K. cat is located much more in the front of the stove, so that may pull more ash on the cat? The good point of the B.K. is the heat exchage is probably better due to the cat placed more in the front of the stove compared to the Heritage cats placed very close to the exit, so a lot of heat gets out to the stove pipe and outside. Just my thoughts.

 

[BKVP]

I wonder why ash gets on the cat so much, some owners seem to have a lot and some not so much. Is it from opening the door too fast, or raking the ash while burning, or too much draft ??? On my Hearthstone, I got ash quite fast and on the Hearthstone Heritage stoves the cats are placed at the rear just beside the stove's outlet. But the B.K. cat is located much more in the front of the stove, so that may pull more ash on the cat? The good point of the B.K. is the heat exchage is probably better due to the cat placed more in the front of the stove compared to the Heritage cats placed very close to the exit, so a lot of heat gets out to the stove pipe and outside. Just my thoughts.

Species, burn rate and draft certainly are contributors.

BKVP

 

[nortcan]

Species, burn rate and draft certainly are contributors.

BKVP

I wonder if it would be possible to make a sort of flapper so when not using the cat, the flapper would be in front of the cat to avoid pulling ash on the cat and when using the cat, this flapper /damper would direct the gases to the cat as usually. A sort of damper liknked to the regular damper, like a reversible trap ...Maybe it could help to reduce flying ash to get in fromt of the cat when starting a new fire or when opening the door and stirring the coals.. (.I hope my English is not too complicated. Too bad we don't have more English here.) Thanks

 

[stoveliker]

I prefer not to have more mechanical parts...
Opening the bypass most gets sucked out there.
I empty ashes with a bunch of glowing coals that I shove in the back, creating draft through the bypass.

Being gentle when reloading and limiting draft to within specs will help too.

And for the rest, a vacuum, and occasionally a roll of interam gasket is all you need. I just took my cat out first time in 3 seasons. Bottom 1/2" had a little ash in the back only.

 

[nortcan]

I prefer not to have more mechanical parts...
Opening the bypass most gets sucked out there.
I empty ashes with a bunch of glowing coals that I shove in the back, creating draft through the bypass.

Being gentle when reloading and limiting draft to within specs will help too.

And for the rest, a vacuum, and occasionally a roll of interam gasket is all you need. I just took my cat out first time in 3 seasons. Bottom 1/2" had a little ash in the back only.

Good, what I suggested is just the same by-pass but with 2 functions . When it opens one door, it closes the other one at the same time.

 

[stoveliker]

Crucially, it would severely delay cat heat up on a cold start.

 

[nortcan]

Crucially, it would severely delay cat heat up on a cold start.

Hum, good point you got. Thanks, I will take a brake on thoughts...

 

[stoveliker]

Now don't do that, stopping to think!

 

[coutufr]

I own 1 BK insert and 3 BK wood stoves. 2-3 of them are used almost all winter long. The oldest one is 5 y old. I haven’t noticed a problem with ash accumulating in the cat nor that the cat needs to be changed. I am in Quebec