Old stove new cat?

[tiber]

Buddies heard I was saving up for that Jotul Oslo and pointed me to a family member who has a BETTER THAN BEN (who is Ben and what does he do?) woodstove. I BELIEVE this is a catalytic stove from the 1970s.

Worth the refurb and backache? Suicide box? Creosote factory? Can I even get a new cat for these and make it work?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'd call my insurance company and ask them if they mind if you drag a 30+ year old hunk of metal in unknown condition into your house and light a big untended fire in it.

I'd go with what they say.



Matt

 

[tiber]

What's insurance?

 

[firefighterjake]

Buddies heard I was saving up for that Jotul Oslo and pointed me to a family member who has a BETTER THAN BEN (who is Ben and what does he do?) woodstove. I BELIEVE this is a catalytic stove from the 1970s.

Worth the refurb and backache? Suicide box? Creosote factory? Can I even get a new cat for these and make it work?

To each their own . . . but for me, I would rather save my pennies and buy something brand new with new tech (whether it be cat or non-cat) rather than try to save a few bucks and go with a 30 year old+ stove which may or may not be problematic . . . I mean to say, even if everything was in perfect working order and in factory like condition (which I highly doubt) the stoves from that period were not actually known for being super efficient or reliable when it came to those old cats.

 

[tiber]

Oh wow thanks for the late reply Jake - I thought people didn't know so I started digging on my own. I thought the thread had died.

The BETTER N BEN stoves got terrible reviews in the 70s but you can retrofit them with modern catalytic converters. I could have the stove for $100 and then put another $100 into the kit for the retrofit cat and have a functioning stove for the garage for $200.

Wife still wants the jotul for the house but if you remember all my original posts lamenting the heat situation in the workshop, that's still on The List of things I would like to see materialize. For the price of the Vogelzang at lowes for $200, I could have a stove with a cat and it'll probably do better than the vogelzang.

Retrofit cat for the stove:
http://www.inandoutlifestyles.com/benbenwostca.html

 

[begreen]

Get a decent stove. It is going to have a raging hot fire just feet away from you. You want to be in control. The cheapy box stoves are just that. A stove doesn't need a cat to burn cleanly. Putting a cat on a Vogelzang box stove would be like putting a high-end Michelins on a Yugo. It is not going to run better. Hard to think of a Jotul in comparison, there isn't much other than they both burn wood.

While at Lowes, look at the Summer's Heat 50-SNC 13 for comparison. I think you'll find that a decent new 2 cu ft stove can be bought for under $800. With the tax credit, that comes down to $560, and it's ready to run, safely and cleanly.

Personally, I'd rather have the Oslo, it's a class act. But we have a lot of satisfied Englander owners here. They offer good value.

 

[firefighterjake]

Oh wow thanks for the late reply Jake - I thought people didn't know so I started digging on my own. I thought the thread had died.

The BETTER N BEN stoves got terrible reviews in the 70s but you can retrofit them with modern catalytic converters. I could have the stove for $100 and then put another $100 into the kit for the retrofit cat and have a functioning stove for the garage for $200.

Wife still wants the jotul for the house but if you remember all my original posts lamenting the heat situation in the workshop, that's still on The List of things I would like to see materialize. For the price of the Vogelzang at lowes for $200, I could have a stove with a cat and it'll probably do better than the vogelzang.

Retrofit cat for the stove:
http://www.inandoutlifestyles.com/benbenwostca.html

I still stand by my previous thread . . . to use BeGreen's analogy . . . If you needed a car (or wanted a car) and you had the choice of going with a 1978 Pacer or a 2010 Ford Mustang which would you choose . . . or to be more specific, which vehicle would your wife choose . . . if you wanted a vehicle to be reliable, good looking and have the modern touches to run better and get better mileage while being cleaner with emissions.

Oh sure, you could try to justify buying the Pacer for a lower price and could say that you could repaint it and maybe try adding on some better air filters and a new exhaust system . . . but in the end you would still have a 31-year-old car with a bunch of modern add-on parts . . . the car would still not be worth much, it would still be prone to having parts break down on it due to its age and your wife would insist that she wouldn't ride in that car even if it meant taking the bus to work.

My opinion . . . sure, throw a cheap stove in the workshop . . . but either get an old smoke dragon if price is an issue or one of the better inexpensive stoves like the Englanders if you want clean and efficient . . . and most definitely get the Jotul or similar stove for the house if the wife says she wants one . . . and get that one installed first.

 

[tiber]

I still stand by my previous thread . . . to use BeGreen's analogy . . . If you needed a car (or wanted a car) and you had the choice of going with a 1978 Pacer or a 2010 Ford Mustang which would you choose . . . or to be more specific, which vehicle would your wife choose . . . if you wanted a vehicle to be reliable, good looking and have the modern touches to run better and get better mileage while being cleaner with emissions.

I would offer her both of those and she'd go with the Mercedes. That's how we got into the Jotul situation - I was like "We can buy this one from Lowes and do all the work" and she wanted to see what exactly a wood stove looked like and what it entailed. Instead of talking about features and whatnot she just jumped to "sexy" and off we went.

Oh sure, you could try to justify buying the Pacer for a lower price and could say that you could repaint it and maybe try adding on some better air filters and a new exhaust system . . . but in the end you would still have a 31-year-old car with a bunch of modern add-on parts . . . the car would still not be worth much, it would still be prone to having parts break down on it due to its age and your wife would insist that she wouldn't ride in that car even if it meant taking the bus to work.

DON'T MAKE FUN OF MY PACER. Actually that's the nail on the head - I have a turbo MR2 in the garage which might run she won't ride in, I have a camry that works 90% of the time for my work car (she won't ride in) and she's got a jeep. Funny car analogies adding up. I'm not planning on resale, I'm looking at it with the goals of getting the jotul in the future and weighing the current workshop heat (kerosene) with the eventual goal of heat (wood). Since the workshop is a money-maker (cars, computers) I need the workshop to work in. Last time I was picking up heat-juice it was $4.20/gal for kerosene.

My opinion . . . sure, throw a cheap stove in the workshop . . . but either get an old smoke dragon if price is an issue or one of the better inexpensive stoves like the Englanders if you want clean and efficient . . . and most definitely get the Jotul or similar stove for the house if the wife says she wants one . . . and get that one installed first

What's a smoke dragon? A fire pit? Point being I have the offer for the BETTER N BEN on the table now. If I understand smoke dragon as being an old, noncat stove, it's just the same as any other argument against antiquity. But, if I buy some old stove which just eats wood and heats, I may or may not be able to get parts. The Better N Ben stove still has parts floating around the internet, so it makes it an attractive choice. Specifically updating the cat which seemed to be the biggest complaint.

I may not have been clear - it looks like begreen interpreted my post other than I intended. I'm not going to retrofit a Vogelzang to use a cat or whatever, I'm planning on refurbing an old stove with the modern retrofit. Take the pacer, keep the body, and put a modern engine in it.

I was hoping someone on the board would chime in with their BETTER'N BEN experiences doing the retrofit but I'm guessing the fan club for used stoves is slim.