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The Kimberly™ wood stove is CSA/EPA certified.  In addition, Kimberly™ is EPA certified for use in Washington State, which has the most stringent emission standards in the United States.

Kimberly™ provides an exceptionally clean burn, emitting 3.2 grams/hour in EPA/CSA testing, as compared 7.5 grams/hour allowed by United States Federal EPA standards, and 4.5 grams/hour allowed by Washington State standards.

Katydid™ is also CSA/EPA certified at 1.9 grams/hour, making it one of the cleanest burning non-catalytic wood stoves on the market today. Katydid™ exceeds the new tougher EPA standards for the Year 2020 in the United States, one of the few wood stoves at this time to do so.

Both Kimberly™ and Katydid™ are and tested and approved by OMNI Test Labs in Portland, Oregon to UL Standards.

In determining which wood stove is best for your needs, one should consider not only the heat output of the wood stove but also the heat retention of your space, as well as your own personal expectations. In other words, are you comfortable at 68-degrees or is 75-degrees more to your liking?

Although Katydid™ can heat up to 2000 square feet and Kimberly™ can heat up to 1500 square feet, you will want consider the following variables in your purchasing decisions:

• Local climate and weather conditions.
• Square footage and ceiling height of your space.
• Insulation in your walls and attic.
• Window quality.
• Location of your wood stove within your space.
• Air movement & humidity levels within your space.
• Wood species and wood moisture content of your fuel.

Unforgettable Fire, LLC states that clients can expect up to 10 hours burn time for Katydid™ and up to 8 hours burn time for Kimberly™, from coal bed to coal bed.

In other words:

• Will you wake up to active live flames in the morning? {No}
• Will you wake up to a warm stove and chimney and live coals, making it easy to get your fire going again? {Likely yes, depending on fuel}

The species of wood and the moisture content in your cordwood will play a large role in the expected burn time and heat output from any wood stove; this is not unique to the Kimberly™ and Katydid™ wood stoves.

For example, while Douglas Fir and pine will produce a hot fire, these species will burn to ash far quicker than hard woods such as oak, hickory or maple. Likewise, a high moisture content in your cordwood will produce less heat and more creosote than a low moisture content. For maximum heat output, always burn wood that is 20% moisture or less as verified by a moisture meter.

As well, if you choose to burn extruded sawdust logs, your results will vary by brand; the size, shape, and amount of pressure that the logs are formed under varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

The temperature in your home when you wake up in the morning will be determined by your home’s ability to retain heat, which can be affected by one or more variables below:

• Local climate and weather conditions (temperature, wind speed, humidity, etc.).
• Square footage and ceiling height of your space.
• Insulation in your walls and attic.
• Window quality and number of windows.
• Location of your wood stove within your space.
• Air movement & humidity levels within your space.
• Wood species and wood moisture content of your fuel.

Because dry, seasoned wood will produce more heat, burn longer, and produce less creosote than wood containing greater than 20% moisture content, your investment in a moisture meter with an accuracy of +/- 1% can be made for less than $50 and it will help to ensure you are getting the most heat from the least amount of wood.

By definition, a British Thermal Unit (BTU) is the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. BTU’s are commonly used to describe the energy content of fuels and are used as a loose standard of comparison for the heat output from heating appliances such as propane furnaces and wood stoves.

While BTU/hour ratings may be fairly consistent when shopping for propane furnaces, BTU/hour ratings mean little when shopping for a wood stove.

In theory, one would think that wood stoves with a higher BTU/hour rating would produce more heat than lower rated units. However, BTU/hour test protocols do vary, causing a great deal of confusion for the general public. Therefore, to fully understand a particular wood stove’s BTU/hour rating, one must first understand the test protocol which produced it.

First of all, it is critical to realize that the EPA/CSA test protocol for wood stoves was established to measure emissions, not a BTU/hour heat output. The EPA/CSA emissions test protocol is standardized to burn milled pine lumber of the same size, shape, and moisture content, relative to the size of the firebox for each stove. The EPA/CSA emissions test protocol requires that each stove’s draft control be set to its lowest and smokiest setting.

Therefore, the BTU/hour measured during an EPA/CSA emissions test will always be lower than what would be produced if burning a firebox full of seasoned hardwood fueled by oxygen from a more open draft. It is for this reason that the following disclaimer appears on every EPA label in upper case letters:

EPA Disclaimer: *NOT TESTED FOR EFFICIENCY. THE VALUE INDICATED IS FOR SIMILAR WOOD HEATERS.

It is therefore misleading for one to compare the BTU/hour heat output of one wood stove against another wood stove, because the BTU/hour ratings are not the subject of the EPA emissions test, and are therefore not trustworthy. Furthermore, other test protocols are not standardized.

Comparing BTU/hour ratings on wood stoves would be like comparing apples to oranges and oranges to bananas. While they are all fruits, they are all very different from one another.

In catalytic wood stoves, smoke flows through a coated ceramic honeycomb device, contained within the firebox, where smoke particles and gases ignite and burn. This is much like the catalytic converter on your car. Even though catalytic stoves are capable of producing long, even heat output, there are many disadvantages to this technology.

First, many owners of catalytic wood stoves find that they need to “babysit” a catalytic wood stove until it heats sufficiently to activate the catalytic element.

Second, if at any time a catalytic wood stove is over-fired, or fueled with inappropriate material (such as treated wood or household trash), the catalyst may fail in as little as two years. Burning paper printed with colored inks or a stray nail ends up in the combustion chamber will render the catalyst immediately useless. Compare that to the six years which can be expected from a well maintained catalytic stove using only appropriate fuels. Nevertheless, even under the best of conditions the catalytic element will degrade, and require replacement, which is not inexpensive.

Third, the mining and processing of catalytic elements is costly to the environment, not to mention there are the political considerations and risks of mining the catalytic elements in the volatile Middle East.

Given the very nature of catalytic wood stoves, they are perhaps more suited to people who enjoy gadgets and technology, and are sufficiently disciplined to maintain a catalytic wood stove properly, so as to maximize performance and longevity. Even then, catalytic elements, when spent, must be disposed of, causing an unnecessary burden to our landfills.

Kimberly™ and Katydid™ are non-catalytic wood stoves. By use of gasification technology, Unforgettable Fire, LLC has developed the means to get catalytic action from a non-catalytic stove.

Our non-catalytic Kimberly™ gasifier wood stove was CSA certified at 3.2 grams per hour particulate. Our non-catalytic Katydid™ gasifier wood stove was CSA certified at 1.9 grams per hour of particulate, making Katydid™ one of the cleanest burning non-catalytic wood stoves on the planet.

When considering the price of any new wood stove, one should always consider TOTAL installation costs, not just the cost of the stove itself. Even a “free” wood stove can quickly become a $2,000 investment by the time one adds in the cost of Class A chimney pipe, hearth pad, shipping, and installation labor.

However, because Kimberly™ and Katydid™ EPA/CSA certified and tested/approved by OMNI Test Labs to UL Standards to vent with double-wall stainless steel pellet stove pipe (which is much less costly than Class A chimney pipe) the reduced cost of installation makes Kimberly™ and Katydid™ competitive with other high end wood stoves.

As well, you should also know that Kimberly™ is made of high quality heat and corrosion resistant stainless steel. There are 118 laser cut and hand-welded parts inside, which are made from domestic feed stock by American workers. Six years were devoted to research and development; the certification testing alone cost $40,000. It will be some time before these costs are recouped. Katydid™, too had her design costs. Small production runs do not allow for economies of scale.

On the other hand, by replacing expensive or environmentally unfriendly options such as gas, electric, or oil heat, a Kimberly™ or a Katydid™ is a sound investment, which can be recouped in as little as two years.

Quality does not come cheap in this world, and Unforgettable Fire, LLC refuses to produce any product that is less than world class

Contact Us for more information about the availability of our thermo-electric generators. The COBB baking oven is available now. The Stove Lite thermo-electric LED lantern will be released soon. Other accessories remain in prototype, which include a blower fan and a water coil unit.

Because the accessories are optional, you can confidently buy your Kimberly™ or Katydid™ wood stove now, knowing that the accessories will work on either stove when they roll out.

The Kimberly™ stove and the Katydid™ stove are gasifier wood stoves, not rocket stoves.

When a Kimberly™ or Katydid™ wood stove is dampered down, the fuel maintains an approximate 450-degree Fahrenheit temperature as it burns, thus creating massive amounts of smoky gases. As the smokey gases rise to the top of the combustion chamber in our Kimberly™ or Katydid™ wood stoves, the gasses ignite and burn at a very high temperature.

The bulk of the heat produced in our Kimberly™ and Katydid wood stoves comes from the secondary combustion process, which produces a very efficient and clean burn, with very little smoke emitting from the chimney.

On the other hand, while rocket stoves burn very hot and very clean, they are not efficient. Rocket stoves are hungry and consume lots of fuel.

Kimberly™ and Katydid™ burn regular cordwood, although given the size of their fireboxes, cordwood should be cut shorter than for stoves with larger fireboxes.

At the home offices of Unforgettable Fire, LLC, extruded sawdust logs are burned almost exclusively for two reasons.  First, because they are readily available, and they do not have to source, cut, split, or properly store firewood.  Second, because they offer a consistently low moisture content for testing purposes.

Should you choose to burn extruded sawdust logs in your Kimberly™ or Katydid™ wood stove, never burn sawdust logs which contain waxes or paraffins.

According to the Department of Toxicology Division of the Washington State Department of Ecology, burning saltwater driftwood is hazardous to the environment and to human health.

The salt residue which remains in the pores of the wood (even when dry) contains chlorine atoms. This chlorine forms dioxins during combustion, creating chemicals which are toxic to the immune system and known to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing).

Kimberly™ can accommodate one log of 4-inches across and 9.5-inches in length, broken in half.  Typically, we burn one to two half-logs at a time in Kimberly™ and two whole logs at a time in Katydid™, due to the larger firebox in Katydid™.

If loading wood horizontally in Katydid™ plan on cutting to 8-inches lengths. Slightly longer logs can be burned if loaded vertically or at a diagonal.

Our Kimberly™ wood stove is has been tested and approved by OMNI Test Labs to UL Standards to use 3-inch double-wall stainless steel pellet stove pipe with a Class A pass-through thimble at the ceiling, attic and roof.

Katydid™ uses 4-inch double-wall stainless steel pellet stove pipe with Class A pass-through thimble at ceiling, attic, and roof.  Contact Us for further information.

This unique venting system saves owners hundreds of dollars in installation costs , perhaps as much as $1200 in savings, simply because pellet stove pipe is far less costly than using Class A chimney pipe for the entire length of the chimney, as other wood stoves require.

In Roger Lehet’s 31 years of selling and installing wood stoves, he has always preferred to vent straight through the roof at all times. There are few instances where this becomes impossible due to construction styles, but this is rare.

When one vents out a wall, the cost of installation increases substantially. As well, the flue is exposed to cold outside air, which can cool the exhaust temperatures and can negatively impact the performance of the chimney. This method also allows heat to be transferred to the outside, rather than kept inside the home where it belongs.

Furthermore, horizontal runs can further impede the performance of the chimney during start-up (when the chimney is cold) causing smoke-back to become an issue.

Consider that a wood stove and chimney are comparable to a human heart and lungs. The two must work together for maximum efficiency. Whenever possible, always install your venting vertically inside the house, through the ceiling and roof.