Comparing Catalytic to Secondary Air Wood Stoves

This is by far the clearest and the most concise explanation for the subject. Thank you

I have a Blaze King Princess. I am a shift worker and I work 12 hour shifts. What I like about the Blaze King with the catalyst is that even with the air vent fully open (it gets down to -35 C in northern Alberta), there are still lots of coals left when I get home. I live about 45 minutes out of town. So, basically, it has not problem burning for a full 14 hours, even with the air vent fully open. That is a big plus for me. After a 12 hour shift, I don't want to be bothered relighting a cold stove. I just throw more wood in the woodstove and it takes off. I do agree that that catalyst is expensive. Part of the reason that I want to burn wood is to save money. However, with heating costs going up every year, I think maybe buying a new catalyst every other year is not the worst thing in the world. When the catalyst is new, the whole thing blows bright red. When it gets older, it doesn't glow as bright, however, there is still virtually no smoke going out of the chimney. It still burns very clean.

We have the Blaze King Princess this is our 8th year with it I have NOT replaced the CAT yet but one day I will have to I knew this going into this deal. We follow the instruction with the stove to a T!!! This stove is one of the best purchases we've ever made the stove does what the brochure says. I manly feed and run the stove myself 7 months a year get you one you wont be sorry.There is a reason it has King in the name its the KING of wood stoves!!! Thank You Blaze King!

This is with out a doubt the best video I've ever seen on explaining the differences between a catalytic and a secondary air wood stove. I've never had a catalytic stove, but I sure get tired of feeding my secondary air stoves. I now have the Hearthstone. My previous stove was a LOPI. My friend nick-named this stove, "Low output, per input" and he was right. My Hearthstone takes at least an hour to heat up those soapstones so they start radiating heat. Then the fire only last about 2 hours and it's time to refuel. Unless you want the stove strictly for the way the fire looks, I'd get the catalytic stove.

I’ve been burning a hobby stove in my ice fishing hut for a few years now. No ice fishing has me wanting a wood burner in the house. Best video I’ve found talking about the difference in modern stoves. Thanks.

thanks for the information......this is the first time I understand the difference between these 2 kind of stoves....

Its amazing how these wood stoves have grown. Makes my wood stove look like a backyard fire for efficiency. And it was the best stove available years ago.

Absolutely one of the best videos explaining the efficiency of a wood stove. You made it easy for me to decide as I am now replacing my 20 year old Regency.

Definitely team catalyst here. My Dad has a Blaze King princess. I remember visiting during November a few years back. (west coast of BC) He was working 12 hour days (6AM-6PM), Mom was out of town. I stopped in to visit and beat him home by about 10 minutes. I walked in the door at 6:30 PM and was greeted to a hot house that felt like stepping off a plane in Hawaii. It was about 3°C outside, but the rain and wind were pounding like crazy. Blowing rain sideways. A real cold damp night. I just so happened to have my IR temp gun with me. It was 25°C inside the house on the wall the farthest away from the wood stove. Every room felt wonderful. I asked him when he last put wood in there, because I couldn't fathom him putting in wood at 5AM just to go to work. He said "I put some in about 8 PM last night." I said "You've been burning this for over 22 hours?" He answered yep like I'd just asked him if 2+2 = 4. No smoke outside. No smell outside. The catalyst was in the active zone. I threw another log in and it caught fire with ease. (All his co-workers with non-catalyst stoves came home to cold houses) He has one of those heat sink powered fans on top of the stove. I've learned that when that fan starts to spin is also when the stove crosses into the active zone. Thus if you see the fan spinning, it's time to close the bypass and let it run clean. Takes about 20 minutes. The longer the fire runs, the better the catalyst works. Because as a fire starts to smoulder and slow down near it's end cycle, the cat will see more smoke. The smoke ignites in the cat and keeps the cat active, pushing heat back down into the wood until the fire is completely out (some 30 hours later......40 hours if you have the Blaze King king model) Those long burns leave you with very little ash. He told me he took about a teaspoon of creosote out of the chimney during his annual cleaning. Wood is his only source of heat. The catalyst lasted about 8 years or so. That seems decent to me. When you get older, the ability to burn about 1/3rd as much wood as you would with a traditional stove is a nice selling point. That's a lot less stacking, carrying, buying etc. The automatic thermostat (that you set from 1-4) is a nice feature. You set it on 4 (max) during the initial light. And then about 30 minutes later dial it down to where you want it. Usually 2, maybe 2.5..... 3 would be for nights when it's below freezing. Turning it down to 1 will prolong the fire. It's way better than constantly adjusting a manual damper all evening long. It's a real steady heat. House is comfortably warm without being too hot. The secondary air models have their place. If you only heat on weekends or only want a few hours of burn time (let the furnace do the rest) than a secondary air is what you want. If you're renting a home out, you want a secondary burn for the simplicity. (You need to open the bypass handle on a catalyst model before you open the door to keep smoke from spilling out). Secondary will give you the dancing flames but won't do much during the last stages of the fire for efficiency. The catalyst will often give you glowing orange wood with little to no flames. Occasionally you'll see a horizontal flame along the top of the stove but no flame coming out of the wood. That's the smoke igniting in the catalyst. It's a strange thing to see even when you know why. It will do the dancing flames after an hour or so during the initial light. But they won't be as pronounced as the secondary air stoves. The chimney is surprisingly not hot with the Blaze King. It's warm. You can touch it. But you won't burn your hand. There are lots of videos on youtube of people cutting a hole inside the chimney and holding their hand in there while the stove is running. They'll close the bypass and sure enough, the smoke goes to nothing. But why would it be hot? There is very little air going up a catalyst stove when it's active. Everything gets burnt inside the catalyst and radiated back downwards into the wood.

Clear, concise explanation that made sense to this wood stove newbie. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.

My wife and I just got a house with a stove. I was researching if it was any good and apparently it is a very nice secondary air stove. This video helped me identify what type it was. This video also helped me understand that the secondary air stove is what I want for the goals that I have for a stove.

I tend to favor hybrid burners that feature the best of both types of stoves like the Jøtul F 500 V3 Oslo or the Woodstock Progress Hybrid stove. They deploy both technologies described in this video and allow you to decide whether to go for a hotter, more attractive fire or a longer burning fire. The Jøtul stove has a new type of combustor that is guaranteed for 20 years and doesn't require a bypass damper for when the stove is heating up, so its first hour emissions are extremely low because it always burns in a clean mode. Catalytic stoves have very high emissions while their bypass dampers are open, and require you to pay close attention to the catalyst temperature after lighting a fire so that you know when to close the damper. If you happen to get an engrossing phone call or you fall asleep right after lighting the stove you may burn all the wood up with the damper open. Catalysts have come a long way but are still often the Achilles heels of catalytic wood stoves. When they are new and undamaged they do a great job of giving you a high efficiency burn but if they become damaged or worn out the efficiency of the stove can drop substantially.

Thank you for the clear concise explanations. After moving from Arizona to the Ozarks 15 years ago only recently decided to put in a wood stove. Had inefficient fireplaces in the past. But it was mostly aesthetic thing anyway. I've been using the stove a little over two weeks burning primarily Red Oak cut from standing dead trees. It is a secondary air England wood stove but I had done no research before buying from the local hardware store. And that gentleman wasn't much help. LOL Seems I was lucky though. In England's owner handbook they stated the fresh air intake port on the back could either draw off house air or outside air if code demanded it or if the house had a negative air pressure. So I hooked it up both ways using a tee and 2 shut off valves I can either draw outside or inside air. I have a friend who's shop stove has a fan hooked up too blow fresh air in the Firebox to assist in Rapid ignition during startups. So while I was at it I hook a nice quiet $15 computer fan up to the intake that draws off the house. "Seems to work as intended" England's handbook also stated to latch the door in the open position which cracks it about 1 in. For about 15 minutes upon startup. That is as efficient as the fan I installed. But the fan works better reloading on the hot coals in the morning. It helps to read the book all the way through in the beginning. I didn't do that. It has a airflow dampener which works really well but then I found out if you turn it counterclockwise it will set the valve to close off the primary air completely. It is thermostat controlled. Do how much depends on how hot it is. If you don't set it you will have nothing but Ash in the morning. but if you reload the stove before going to bed you do not only have a large coal bed but many of the logs will also be a giant glowing piece still intact. with little Flames popping up here and there about an inch. Which is why I came here. I was curious if that was enough Flame? Or that huge bed of glowing coals was better? my questions were answered. I'd like to add I didn't have time to season my firewood very well. I realize it will create more creosote but things are what they are. And after half an hour there rarely is any smoke exiting the stovepipe. 🤠🐂🏞️🛩️

I sell wood stoves and inserts at our hearth store. The one thing that no one can seem to answer is "Define a 20 hour burn time" . What does that mean to the consumer. 20 hours at WHAT temperature. Sure the stove will burn down to embers and decrease down to 200 degrees, but you're not "heating" the house anymore. We tell our customers who come in and are concerned with "efficiency". " If you don't have a free source of firewood, then you have lost your efficiency because you are now paying for wood". We get a lot of customers who think wood stoves are romantic and nostalgic and then the opposite ones who know what they are doing and use it as main heat for their home. Over the years, I have heard some pretty stupid stories from consumers about how they use their wood stove.................... Honestly all of us in the industry are surprised more homes have not burned down over stupidity and ignorance.

This has been the most helpful vid in comparing the virtues of each style. I want a backup heat source and something to run on weekends so secondary burn it is. I love the simplicity of it. Thanks!

You can make any stove more efficient by feeding it outside air rather than having it consume your warm air which forcibly draws cold air into the house.

Thank you. Great explanation. I just put a deposit on a catalytic stove, but didn't really understand how it worked until now.

had both types and like the secondary air stove MUCH BETTER. No waiting for the combustor to heat up. The best way to tell if a stove is burning efficiently is to see what is coming out of the chimney. If you see smoke (unburned gasses) it is not efficient. If you see shimmering wavy exhaust with no smoke you are burning most efficiently. The secondary air stove is better in that regard in my 45 years burning experience. No smoke is most efficient (and no creosote).

Thanks, best overview / comparison of the two types I've heard. Still don't know which way I'll go though. LOL

I have a lopi evergreen which is a secondary burn stove. I get about 10 hour burn times and will still have a nice bed of coals in the morning to start the next fire. I dont want to deal with a replacement catalyst every so often and i can make my own reburn tubes if i wanted. And seeing the floating dancing flames when I shut down the air is amazing to see