BELOW IS A VIDEO OF THE EVERBURN NON-CATALYTIC SYSTEM WORKING
Even after more than 15 years in the business, I am continually amazed at the technology being poured into something as seemingly primative as a wood heating stove.
Even though the EPA started regulating wood stove emissions in the late 80’s, the most significant improvements are just coming about in the industry. Today, the most common question I hear from shoppers is, “what is the meaning of catalytic vs. non-catalytic when referring to wood stoves?”
I can tell you, the whole catalytic / non-catalytic conversation is terribly overcomplicated by almost everyone associated with the industry.
Simply put, all stoves I sell are EPA certified for low emissions. Catalytic or non-catalytic ONLY relates to HOW these stoves achieve their secondary combustion to meet these strict requirements. A catalytic stove will pass exhaust through an active catalytic combustor whereas a non-catalytic stove will introduce air in a special way to cause secondary combustion to occur.
The quick-fix back in the late 80’s and early 90’s was to simply add a catalytic combustor and minor design modifications to a simple wood stove. This worked to reduce emissions, and for many years was the standard in efficiency.
Some manufacturers have failed to evolve past the early 90’s with their designs and continue to offer a simply designed stove with a catalytic combustor.
Some manufacturers have never offered a catalytic stove or did so only briefly in favor of a high-efficiency, non-catalytic design. Most manufacturers have evolved past catalytic combustors and now offer clean burning non-catalytic designs while the best of the best may offer your stove either way you like. Vermont Castings is just such a manufacturer.
Vermont Castings manufactures specialty lines in both Vermont Castings and Dutchwest brands. Vermont Castings offers 3 stoves, 1 insert and 1 fireplace in catalytic as well as 4 stoves, 1 insert and 1 fireplace in non-catalytic.
The dutchwest brand offer 3 catalytic wood stoves as well as 10 stoves and an insert in non-catalytic design.
As if these choices weren’t enough, there is always the follow-up question, “what is best for me?”
Personally, I am in favor of non-catalytic designs due primarilly to their lower cost of ownership. Catalytic combustors are sacrificial elements and will need replacement after 5-10 years depending on how much you use your stove and how well you maintain it. Heating primarilly with wood, you’re going to like changing your combustor every 5 years to keep your stove working like new.
As far as design function goes, generally you can expect that a well-designed catalytic stove will offer the highest efficiency and cleanest burning out of the box. MOST, but not all non-catalytic designs are relatively simple. MOST non-catalytic stoves will achieve secondary combustion (burning of smoke and emissions before they leave the stove) in the top of the stove by introducing super-heated air at a precise volume through air tubes or an airbox.
There is ONE manufacturer that is miles ahead of anyone else when it comes to innovative non-catalytic design. Since introducing the patented EVERBURN system to the market, Vermont Castings has set a new standard by which non-catalytic stoves are measured.
The EVERBURN system achieves remarkably long burn times as well as efficiency and emission numbers that rival catalytic systems without the additional cost of ownership. Would you expect anything less from a product designed and built 100% by the American worker? I think not.
While other “American” stoves are merely assembled in the USA of foreign acquired parts, Vermont Castings does it all right here in the USA from recycling metals and casting iron in their state-of-the-art foundry to final assembly and quality control, when you choose Vermont Castings, you choose to support American jobs and families.
This is a choice that does not cost you extra! When you stand a Vermont Castings stove next to ANY high-end manufacturer you will see that the prices are the same if not less for the Vermont Castings product line. The Dutchwest line comes in hundreds and even over $1,000 less than competitors and still MADE IN THE USA.
Although the price is soon forgotten, you’ll appreciate the value crated with these stoves since most stoves come standard with accessories other manufacturers sell as upgrades, you get a lot for your money when you choose Vermont Castings.
Come by or call today and let me compare a Vermont Castings stove to ANY other brand and you’ll see why you don’t have to search the globe to find the best stove or fireplace for your home.
We have this Vermont Casting Bordeaux on live burn display at the showroom. Come experience the world's cleanes burning stove for yourself.
You know, I get asked all the time, “What’s the best stove you have?” That is a hard question to answer for a lot of reasons. If the question were, “What’s teh best stove for my house and burning habits?” it would be a lot simpler answer.
In today’s market, I want to touch on something that is hardly ever considered. What is the best stove for America? Ever think about where your products come from, where their components are made or where they are assembled?
Let’s consider for just a minute that I had a stove line here at the shop that was 100% American made by Americans using parts also made in America. Would you buy it? What if the price was no more than foreign made products of like quality? What if the performance of the American product was far superior to anything made anywhere else in the world? Would that interest you?
I am very proud to say that I have just such a product. VERMONT CASTING is America’s stove company. The foundry, enameling and assembly facilities are in Vermont, USA and the company provides almost 400 American jobs. More than double that number when you consider the other opperations such as fireplaces, logs, metalwork, etc.
Vermont Castings stoves are the world’s most efficient appliances. Vermont castings wood stoves have reached efficiency levels better than many gas appliances on the market! That is amazing. Emissions have been reduced to the point they are almost eliminated completely with numbers falling well below 1 gram of emissions.
When you’re shopping higher end appliance such as the Cast-iron line of stoves, Vermont Castings, although superior in design and function, boast a price tag as affordable as other high end stoves produced overseas.
What Vermont Castings offers that others don’t is a line of efficient, clean burning stoves and inserts that are priced to agressively take market share from other manufacturers.
The Dutchwest line of cast-iron stoves will save you hundreds over other cast-iron models by any make. The Dutchwest steel stoves and inserts are unbeatable in price for their quality. Sure you can find a cheaper stove, but it will be disposable. Dutchwest has done a magnificent job making a durable product at an affordable price.
America is in a trying time with our jobs being lost and the economic issues we face and are yet to face. There are so many things we can do to look out for one another. One of those things is simply looking at where things you buy were made and buy American whenever you can. On a major purchase like your wood stove and chimney, you look out for many people and inlike smaller things, it doesn’t cost you more to buy a quality American made stove by Vermont Castings.
The most efficient direct-vent gas fireplace product you can buy – so efficient, it uses PVC pipe for venting.
The first and only condensing vented gas fireplace system certified for use in the U.S.
A gas fireplace so unique, it takes multiple industry standards to certify it.
The only vented fireplace system that also humidifies as it heats.
The most advanced solid-state computer-controls on any fireplace – for even greater comfort, efficiency, and safety.
The fireplace with the greatest installation flexibility.
Super-Efficient Design Exceeds 90% AFUE
The Mantis stands alone as the most efficient fireplace you can buy. The concealed three-stage heat exchanger captures more than 90 percent of the heat energy from the burner and directs this warm air into your home – not up the flue. With so much of its heat extracted, the exhaust can be vented outdoors in conventional PVC piping – saving money, labor, and space on installation compared to traditional direct-vent systems.
The Mantis puts the green in environmentally friendly. Its powered inlet/exhaust blower ensures the optimal air/fuel mixture for consistently clean-burning operation under any conditions.
As the first condensing vented gas fireplace certified for use in the U.S., the Mantis is unique. The certifying agency drew from multiple national standards to test and certify it.
With the vast majority of the heat delivered to your room, the top and sides of the Mantis stay cool-to-the-touch – so cool, in fact, it earned a zero-clearance certification for installation against any combustible building materials.
The dual burner delivers 9,000 Btu (front only), 19,000 Btu (rear only) or 28,000 Btu (combined). Operating the front burner alone lets you enjoy the ambiance of the attractive log set and gas fire without overheating the room. But, when the temperature dips, the Mantis rises to the occasion, switching on the second burner to produce maximum heat output.Humidify While You HeatCondensed water – a by-product of the Mantis’s super-efficient heat extraction – is captured and then evaporated to introduce humidity to the room air. The automatic blower gently diffuses the humidified air into the room.The result is a more comfortable home environment, fewer complaints of dry throats, and less frequent static electricity discharges as you move about the room.
Advanced Solid-State Controls
The sophisticated control system monitors every critical aspect of the Mantis’s operation to maximize efficiency, comfort, and safety. For all its advanced technology, the system is amazingly easy to operate, with just two on/off buttons for the two burners you can set the temperature to low (front only), medium (rear only) or high (both burners).
Or, choose the optional programmable thermostat to deliver the right amount of heat for each day of the week and time of the day.
The Mantis automatically purges unburned gas from the combustion chamber after each burn and before each ignition for controlled, even starts every time.
The automatic fan cycles on only after the Mantis reaches operating temperature and continues blowing as long as it senses warm air. You never feel a cool draft, just warm,
humidified air.
Versatile Installation
The Mantis may be installed in an existing fireplace as an insert or as a zero-clearance system with a wood cabinet mantel or, with the optional pedestal, as a freestanding stove.
With the exhaust and intake pipe made from PVC and a blower controlling the flow of air and exhaust, the venting options are numerous. Install the Mantis as a direct-vent or ambient-vent system with PVC pipe.
Fireplace Options and Accessories:
Pedestal Base
Thermostats and Remote Controls
Metal Surround (for insert and mantel installations)
Tops, 5-inch and 10-inch (for insert and mantel installations)
Cabinet Mantels and Corner Cabinet Mantels (Cherry, Dark Oak, Oak, Unfinished, and White)
Jack’s Stove Shop in Black Mountain, North Carolina strives to conduct business with as little environmental impact as possible.
This commitment goes beyond our modest opperation in Black Mountain. We invest the time and resources necessary to educate consumers on how to buy and use the products we sell most efficiently and with the least amount of pollution.
Here are just a few of the ways Jack’s Stove Shop is getting greener every day;
When choosing our suppliers we look for those that are investing in making their opperation environment-friendly.
We recycle our waste which includes old stoves and fireplaces that were not E.P.A. certified – keeping them out of the landfill.
All of our printing and marketing materials are printed on recycled paper stock with special soy and vegetable inks with water-based coatings.
For every stove we sell (regardless of fuel) we plant 10 trees in our National Forests. That translates to almost 2,000 trees in a typical year!
We even specially tune our vehicles to be cleaner and more efficient than designed – capable of utilizing clean, ethanol or bio-diesel fuels.
For lighting we use low-mercury flourescent bulbs and L.E.D. lighting wherever possible.
When installing a stove or fireplace in a home, one question that always comes up is how often does the chimney need cleaning? The answer isn’t always as simple as “every year”.
The frequency at which you will have to clean your chimney will depend on several factors such as;
~How many cords of wood you burn per season. Burning twice as much wood as your neighbor, your chimney will need cleaned twice as often.
~What is the quality of your firewood? Did you buy seasoned firewood with a moisture content of 20% or did you buy someones “cut-to-order” firewood with a moisture content of 75%? Seasoned firewood burns hot, clean, and more complete and will deposit a fraction of the creosote as wet wood. Your firewood should be split and stacked to air dry for about a year to fully season.
~Is your stove or insert properly sized? An oversized stove burned on low most of the time will deposit a lot more creosote than a properly sized stove burning hot. Don’t worry, the stove can take it. Fire that baby up!
~Is your stove or fireplace EPA Certified? An EPA certified stove, burned hot, will reburn smoke and gasses before they ever enter the chimney resulting in much cleaner chimneys.
~Are you burning an open fireplace? Open fireplaces burn very hot with a lot of dillution air. They produce very little accumulation in the chimney.
As you can see, many factors play into a seemingly simple answer. To make things simple, always have the sweep out to have a good look at your chimney. A light cleaning will cost you less and you will know that you’re ready for next season with a healthy chimney. You may find your burning habits are good and not much creosote is deposited. GOOD FOR YOU! On the flip-side, poor burning habits, wet wood, old stoves or over-sized stoves may require more than one cleaning per season. I have several customers using old stoves that need cleaning 3 or 4 times per season! WOW, add those bills up and an investment in a new stove doesn’t sound so out of reach.
Whatever your habits, always be safe with an annual inspection and cleaning if necessary. The best time to schedule is in the off season from April through July. Once July ends people start to prepare for winter so the cleaning promotions will be gone.
If you need your chimney cleaned, Jack’s Stove Shop in Black Mountain, NC can help. Just give us a call and we will set up service for you at your convenience.
You have lots of choices, but which one is right for you?
When to choose an insert – When converting a wood burning fireplace to gas or to burn wood more efficiently. A fireplace insert is a convenient and affordable way to convert your existing wood burning fireplace to natural gas or liquid propane gas (LPG). Perhaps you still want to burn wood or pellets, but for efficient heating purposes more so than ambiance. Inserts fit into your existing fireplace and use the existing chimney. To determine the size you will need just measure the opening of your fireplace – (width x height x depth) and give Jack a call or email. We’ll help you select the correct fireplace insert for your home.
When to choose direct vent gas - When you don’t have a chimney or when you want the most efficient sealed-combustion design. A Direct Vent Fireplace is a perfect solution for homes that don’t have an existing chimney. The sealed combustion units draw outside air in for combustion and simultaneously exhaust the flue gasses out a small exhaust vent. The fireplaces can be installed in almost any room in your house*…several options and styles are available. You can have a direct-vent appliance configured as an insert, stove, or fireplace. Choices abound with direct-vent technology; the most advanced available and the target of the most agressive investment by manufacturers.
When to choose a stove – Can be used with or without an existing chimney. Freestanding stoves are an attractive and functional addition to any room. Stoves are available with multiple venting options and can go virtually anywhere in your house. Cast iron and steel stoves are admired for their esthetic beauty and are available in a variety of colors and options to suit your every need. Stoves are available in wood, gas, coal, oil, pellet and kerosene. Some gas stoves are unvented and require no chimney at all and manufactured chimney systems are available if your home has no chimney.
When to choose Gas Logs – When converting a wood fireplace to a gas fireplace to keep the fireplace look. LPG and natural gas log sets fit easily inside your existing wood fireplace providing fireplace ambiance with added convenience and less mess. No more lugging wood and dirt into the house. With a gas log set you enjoy the fireplace and robust flames while adding thermostat or remote control convenience. Jack has personally installed thousands of gas logs in fireplaces. Contact Jack to find out if your fireplace is a good canditate for conversion.
*Local building codes may prohibit installation in certain rooms.
Don’t be a sucker when you are getting firewood. Buy your firewood a year in advance of the heating season.
If you are buying wood for immediate use, call around and find seasoned firewood even if you have to pay more. If wood is still wet you won’t heat much with it no matter how hard you try.
The video below is really good and explains how to harvest, split stack and cure your firewood for the season.
When I did the math and found out I could heat with gas cheaper than any other fuel, including wood and pellets, I must admit I was blown away. I’m not talking about some expensive high-efficiency gas wall furnace either. Those are great but not much to look at. What if we could surpass even those efficiencies but have a visible, decorative firebox with logs and a flame? Would that get your attention? It has my attention and that’s exactly what I’m writing about now.
Introducing the Mantis. This Chameleon is amazing in so many ways. Very futuristic, but it is available today! Check out this short list of features;
- 93% AFUE Efficiency! WOW
- 28,000 BTU and you get 26,000 of those as heat in the house!
- So efficient, it vents with PVC pipe!
- It is vented so you can use it around the clock without pollution.
- This is the world’s first vaporization fireplace. It extracts water vapor from the exhaust, pumps it to a vapor tray and puts the moisture back into the home. Finally, a gas stove that does not dry out the house.
- Available as a STOVE, RAISED PEDESTAL STOVE, FIREPLACE, INSERT.
- Is power vented. Can even vent down!
The Mantis currently holds the title on technology. This stove is absolutely the cheapest heat you can buy. Even cheaper than pellets or firewood!
We sure have our abundance of old homes around here. Some of these older homes were built for millworkers, servants quarters, summer homes and retreats. While charming, these homes are almost always cold and drafty in the winter. Here are a few tips to help you survive the winter;
make those windows more air tight. An economical way to do this is to run out to the local hardware or builder supply and pick up the plastic SHRINKABLE window film. The shrink type is the best. You put it on and heat it with a hair dryer to shrink tight. Once shrunk you can’t even tell its there except you will notice the lack of draft.
If you’re burning a wood stove, it will consume a lot of oxygen from the room. That has to be made up so it sucks in through the cracks, doors and windows in the house. I remember when I fired up my wood stove I could sit on the couch and it felt like someone breathing on my ears from the air sucking in the windows behind me! If your stove is outside air adaptable and you can install it, ABSOLUTELY start there. All combustion air is outside air anyway so you should try to control how it comes into the house to get to the stove.
If you’re choosing a gas stove this winter, go with a direct-vent model. They have outside air built into the system so they will be burning outside air and not creating a negative pressure inside the home.
If you have some extra buck-a-roos laying around (does anyone have that these days?) you can lay in some more insulation wherever you can – especially the attic.
Of course if you want to save some money heating even after you have done the obvious, you can dress a little warmer indoors then cut back a couple degrees on the thermostat. Once you acclimatize, you’ll be shedding that sweater. You’ll be amazed at the energy savings heating to 65 instead of 72 for a whole month. Give it a try.
If you’re heating with oil, OH MY! You want to do all you can. To heat with oil and have less environmental impact, you can get bio-heat from our friends at Blue Ridge Biofuels. Bio-Heat is to your furnace what Bio Diesel is to your car; ECO-FRIENDLY.
Hey, if you have some good winterizing tips add your comments to this article and share. Thanks! -Jack
If you’re a fireplace lover you probably have a secret place where you dump your fireplace ashes when you clean out the fireplace.
Since a cord of firewood produces about 50 pounds of ash, it can add up rather quickly.
Since ashe came from trees, it is carbon neutral to the environment so why not use this free by-product of keeping warm to eliminate some of the other things that may not be so environmentally friendly? Here is a list of uses for fireplace ash;
When it snows, keep a box in the trunk of the car. Fireplace ask is great for giving you enough traction to get out of the snow when you’re stuck.
Did your pet come out on the stinking end of a skuink encounter? Rub a nice handful into scruffy’s coat to neutralize the smell.
Mix with water into a paste to make a fabulous metal polish. No more masks and harsh chemicals!
Use ash on a damp towel to clean your stove or fireplace doors.
You can make your own organic soaps! Soak ashes in warm water to make lye. Mix with lard and boil to make soap. Salt makes it harden as it cools. niiiice.
lay a perrimeter of ash around your garden to keep out slugs and snails.
Ash makes a great deicer that will not harm your lawn.
Mix ash with your compost to make it super-enriched.
1 tbsp of ash per 1,000 galons of water in your pond will control algae.
ROSES LOVE FIREPLACE ASHE! I hope I am not giving away a secret but my old friend Alice Parks in Montreat had the most beautiful roses. I would tend her fireplaces annually and she would show me her roses and tell me about how the fireplace ashes did wonders for them.
Sprinkle ashes on your lawn as a natural fertilizer for your soil.
Have some other great uses for ashes? Registered users can leave new ideas as a comment.
Jack’s Stove Shop in Black Mountain, North Carolina strives to conduct business with as little environmental impact as possible.
When installing a stove or fireplace in a home, one question that always comes up is how often does the chimney need cleaning? The answer isn’t always as simple as “every year”.
You have lots of choices, but which one is right for you?
We sure have our abundance of old homes around here. Some of these older homes were built for millworkers, servants quarters, summer homes and retreats. While charming, these homes are almost always cold and drafty in the winter. Here are a few tips to help you survive the winter;
If you’re a fireplace lover you probably have a secret place where you dump your fireplace ashes when you clean out the fireplace.