Barndominium/Shop or "real" House?

[Duds13]

I should add, if anyone here is looking for a catalytic stove, you’d do well to limit your search to Blaze King (BK) and Woodstock. Many other companies engineered catalytic stoves 35 years ago, and some continue to produce them, but most are finicky and more trouble than they need to be… hence the bad reputation catalytic technology developed 25-30 years ago.

BK and Woodstock are really the only two companies that have not only continued to develop and refine this technology, but also have top-notch customer support and warranties. They’re not the cheapest out there, by a long shot, but there are very good reasons for this.

I’d go so far as to say I’d not even buy a catalytic stove, if it were not one of these two brands… and I’m a guy who cycled through a clean half-dozen wood stoves in my first 5 years in the present house. I put 6 - 10 full cords thru my stoves every year now, which is less than what I used to burn, but still double or triple what most “full time” burners do per year, due to owning a large and older home.

I dont know anything about Woodstock stove other than reading comments and it seems they are highly respected and often get recommended. I can speak to Blaze King and agree 100% with WinterDeere. I believe we both have the same stove, the Ashford 30.2. It's been an excellent purchase. Dry wood (,20% moisture) is imperative though!

 

[WinterDeere]

I dont know anything about Woodstock stove other than reading comments and it seems they are highly respected and often get recommended. I can speak to Blaze King and agree 100% with WinterDeere. I believe we both have the same stove, the Ashford 30.2. It's been an excellent purchase. Dry wood (,20% moisture) is imperative though!

Same stove, but mine are the older 30.1 variant. In fact, they're transitional stoves, built as they were re-tooling from the original 30.0 design to the 30.1 update, each has a few lingering features from the older 30.0 design (like numbers dial vs. swoosh).

I've been running them since 2015, which means I have more than 100 full cords through the pair now, at our usage rage. I'm on my third cat in each, not that I'm sure replacements were even that necessary, and still running all of the original door and bypass gaskets. They're as close to "zero maintenance" as any stove I have ever owned, despite what inexperienced non-cat owners would like to try to claim about cat stoves.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Same stove, but mine are the older 30.1 variant. In fact, they're transitional stoves, built as they were re-tooling from the original 30.0 design to the 30.1 update, each has a few lingering features from the older 30.0 design (like numbers dial vs. swoosh).

I've been running them since 2015, which means I have more than 100 full cords through the pair now, at our usage rage. I'm on my third cat in each, not that I'm sure replacements were even that necessary, and still running all of the original door and bypass gaskets. They're as close to "zero maintenance" as any stove I have ever owned, despite what inexperienced non-cat owners would like to try to claim about cat stoves.

The cats on Blaze King stoves can last for decades if you run them correctly. The secret is to stoke it, get it burning, and then shut it up, until that load burns completely. One of the guys who worked for me bought a Blaze King and installed it at the same time his father and sister bought the same stoves. He loads it with as much wood as it can hold, lights it off and closes the door. They would load it half way, then open the door frequently to load more wood. He had to change out the catalysts in theirs every other year at the most. His was still going strong fifteen years later.

 

[WinterDeere]

The cats on Blaze King stoves can last for decades if you run them correctly. The secret is to stoke it, get it burning, and then shut it up, until that load burns completely.

True. But cat life is highly dependent on what and how you're burning, too. They're usually rated around 10k - 12k hours, but burning low on softwoods can shorten that, or at least really highlight any diminished performance. My higher burn rates on hardwoods can either extend that or at least mask diminishing performance, as increased burn rates consume more of the wood gas volatiles in the firebox.

I'm actually one of the beta testers for BK, which is why I've been thru three combustors on each stove. When they came out with their latest experimental catalyst technology, I'm one of the 3 - 5 people in North America that they sent it to for testing. They said they like to use me as a test case, because I have two of the same stove on different chimneys, and because I'm runnnig two at a time in a house with high heat demand, I probably have more hours or cords of experience than anyone else they know on this particular model (BK 30.1).