Looking at your website, the Sardine and Little Cod (beautiful little stoves btw) are described as having Modern "Clean-Burn" Technology - Non Catalytic.

Can you elaborate on the "Clean-Burn" Technology aspect? (I understand the Non-Catalytic part) Does this mean advanced, secondary combustion, as with most landlubbing woodstoves these days? (at least the Non-Catalytic ones)

Have you changed the insides (from the original Lunenburg Foundry patterns) to achieve the "Clean Burn"?

There's another stove that claims to be the smallest cast iron EPA stove on the market, also with the lowest price, but the Sardine has it beat on both counts - if I'm reading your website correctly.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your forum posting.

We did modify stove combustion dynamics in terms of air delivery (primary). COD & SARDINE both EXCEEDE EPA National standards and comply with Washington State's even lower particulate emission limits. Fortunately we could do this WITHOUT altering the original castings. (Sorry, but we do not wish to discuss design details in depth). The industry term "Clean Burn" is simply a convenient way to say a stove has been designed and built to function at a level that is the current "clean" standard. Rumor has it that some counties in Colorado will be adopting WA State's lower emission rates. Wonder what other ststes will follow?

Curious to know of the other small stove you mention?

Cheers , Andrew @ Navigator

The other stove is the Jotul 602. At 160 lbs it's not exactly competing in the same market (heats up to 800 sq ft), but they do claim to be the "smallest Cast Iron woodstove on the market" with "the lowest price of any EPA Approved Cast-Iron Woodstove."

I guess what I was getting at was whether your stoves achieve their EPA certifications through one of the various loopholes - based on size, air control, the fact that they have an oven, etc, or whether they really burn that clean.

I suspect many people want an EPA stove not just because they want to meet the regulatory requirements - they don't want to smoke out their neighbours, they want to keep their chimneys clean and they want to maximize the heat yielded by every piece of wood.

Combustion aside, I haven't seen nicer stoves for heating small spaces.

Matt,
Matt,

Oh yea, the 602. From our micro vantage point that's a BIG stove.
Can't believe the 602 only puts-out 28K BTU maximum? That's what the COD does! (and that does not count the heat coming off the pipe). As for Jotul 's claims....well, we are a bit below the radar and not generally known about in the regular stove world. (kind of like it that way and not sure it will last.....?)

NO loopholes for the COD or SARDINE. They just burn clean by design @ 4.5 & 3,9 grams per hour particulate emissions. We spent a good bundle at our testing lab making sure both stoves would pass Wa. State before we put them through the various certification tests. Nice thing about clean burning stoves is that they can dispell the general perception that wood is dirty & foul. Looking at the big picture & weighing the pro's and con's of different fuels, wood might just end up on top. Maybe someday there will be folks fighting over cutting firewood?

Thanks for the praise. We are trying to make the best SIMPLE, foolproof, small stove available. Their interesting heritage does not hurt either! Maybe NAVIGATOR's claim should be the oldest EPA certified stove available....besides being smallest?

Cheers, A.

Just wanted to update the emission figures for both our small stoves:

Navigator NSW2 LITTLE COD
3.6 grams per hour emissions.
10,500-28,200 BTU's

Navigator NSW1 Sardine
3.5 grams per hour emissions
11,400-19,400 BTU's

(last posting was done while away on holiday when the temp. was in the 100's....brain cells were not working properly)

Have you tested the Halibut yet? Does it use the same clean burn technology of the other two stoves? Is the glass "air washed" to keep soot from building up on it?

A.S.

Since HALIBUT is a cookstove, it is exempt from EPA emission testing. As defined in CFR 40-60, a cookstove exhibits the following characteristics:

Cookstove means a wood-fired appliance that is designed primarily for cooking food and that has the following:

(a) An oven, with a volume of 0.028 cubic meters (1 cubic foot) or greater, and an oven rack.
(b) A device for measuring oven temperatures
(c) A flame path that is routed around the oven
(d) A shaker grate
(e) An ash pan
(f) An ash clean-out door below the oven
(g) The absence of a fan or heat channels to dissipate heat from the appliance.

The glass/ceramic ROBAX pane in the upper firebox door is air washed.... and does a good job of it I may say!

Overall, we are very impressed with the HALIBUT.
It's oven coasts along nicely temp. wise without having to fuss and adjust excessively. The folks who have just taken delivery of a stove have had very positive things to say! Hope you may end up being among them?

Pardon my engineer geekyness, but how does an oven that is 9 x 9 x 8" work out to more than a cubic foot? I understand from your response that EPA certifion is not in the works? Do it burn less efficently that the sardine and little cod? My particular application is a small house and the primary purpose of the stove would be heat in the winter, that is why I am curious about the efficency.

A.S.

Your math is accurate regarding the inside dimensions of the oven proper. However, the area inside the stove which allows the oven to be the oven (space used by the flamepath ducting around oven box)is actually larger than the stove's oven ID's and this is where we "tip" the 1 cu. ft. number which is dedicated to the oven feature.

EPA does not require that we certify this cookstove for particulate emissions and we do not plan to.
[We are still trying to pay-off the testing of the COD & SARDINE! More testing is not what we need!]

Efficiency numbers for COD & SARDINE are set @ 65%. This percentage is a minimum efficiency rating that all noncatalytic woodstoves are rated at during EPA testing if a manufacturer does not elect to run a further test (+$$$) to determine actual efficiency numbers. Is HALIBUT as efficient as the two other stove models? Practical experience says yes but I have not measured the total BTU's produced for a given volume of wood loaded....and then compared that to NSW1 & NSW2 stoves.

If you are looking for a heating stove for a land based structure, you should look to LITTLE COD which is designed & rated as a heating stove. The larger firebox size of the "COD" is much more friendly to larger land based wood sizes than the HALIBUT. Halibut produces heat as a by-product but it's main job is to cook! Bon Apetite!