Beta Testing CUSTOM STOVE ART with the Kopp Family

Click image to enlarge

The Woodstove Design Challenge has focused our attention on questions that we hadn’t really addressed before:

1. Can we make a really high performance woodstove that is completely affordable?
2. We don’t have the chutzpah to think we can produce a stove design that will make everyone happy.  So, how do we make a flexible design that can harness our owners’ creativity?
3. How can we have fun with this product? How can our owners have fun too?

Under the Hood 6: Smoke-free front loading

The Design Challenge Stove is carefully engineered for smoke-free loading even under marginal draft conditions:

Under the Hood 5: Secondary Combustion Chamber

The Design Challenge Stove has a sloping secondary combustion chamber, which has two big advantages:

Two Recent Items from the Mail Bag...It's what keeps us going.

First, one of our young customers recently sent us a note and some pictures that we just had to share.

Under the Hood 4: Catalyst Air: we apply an old idea in a new setting

On our design challenge stove, we have added “catalyst air” - an air intake controlled by a self adjusting bi-metallic coil which feeds a perforated stainless steel tube located behind the catalyst. Here’s the dilemma “catalyst air” is designed to solve:

Under the Hood 3: Andirons- movable, removable, customizable

Our andirons are custom cut from 1/2” plate steel, and mounted on a thick hinged plate.  When the loading door is closed, the andirons are locked in place by a security tab on the door.

Your choice of andirons- or you can design your own! A small sample is shown above.

Under the Hood 2: Catalyst Bypass

The catalyst bypass lever has to be lifted before the front loading door can be opened, otherwise the door cannot be opened more than a few inches.

More Info on Beta-Testing

 Thanks to everyone who offered to be a beta tester!  We are moderately swamped.  Initially we will keep the stoves close to home (NE/Eastern NY).  Our focus is on testing under different draft conditions (and both top and rear exits) to focus on front window cleanness,  smoke-free loading, and ease of operation.

Under the Hood

The Steal Hybrid has a firebox design with both a catalytic combustor and secondary combustion. We’ve been testing it all winter, and are pleased with both efficiency and emissions results (more on that later). The test units don’t look like much, but we have been more interested in performance than looks.

BBB rates wood stove manufacturers!

We link below to an article in the Alliance for Green Heat about BBB ratings of wood stove manufacturers.  We are proud of our record of no complaints!