Burn Wise with a Buck Stove

The Buck Stove is synonymous with high quality workmanship  and with stove design of efficient wood heating.

However, you get the following two types in the market:

•    Catalytic wood stoves
•    Non catalytic wood stoves

This is certainly confusing to most people, unless of course one is familiar with the technical concepts of catalytic and non-catalytic burning.

So, here is a brief on the key differences between the two.

In the beginning of 1985, all EPA-rated stoves were required to have a secondary burning system to make the combustion more efficient. This was also done to reduce the particulate matter, like ash that flows out of the chimney along with smoke.

To comply with the EPA regulations, wood stoves can use catalytic or non-catalytic converters.

Catalytic wood stoves

These stoves contain catalytic converters made of specialized material. These converters absorb heat from the wood stove, become red hot, and help the escaping particulate matter catch fire while still in the stove. 

Non-catalytic wood stove

Here, air jets direct particulate matter into flames for combustion, while at the same time feed the flames with air for combustion.

For the same size, a wood stove with catalytic converter has 10 percent more thermal efficiency than a non-catalytic one. The reason is catalytic converters become hot, thereby sustaining and radiating heat. This reduces the fuel requirement. 

On the other hand, non-catalytic stoves use more fuel for the air injection systems to cause the flames burn stronger.

A buck stove has undergone many innovations. In a recent innovation, one of the buck stove parts is a platinum-coated filter in the flue that burns ash or wastes carbon. This increases heat output, reduces air pollution, and also enhances home safety by reducing creosote build-up in chimneys.

A lot has happened since Darius Buck patented an improved wood fired cook stove in 1839.