[TheForge] OT - wood stove catalytic combustors, heat extractors, etc. (was: Barrel Stove Kits)

[Jerry Frost]

Yeah, in the last 38 years I've used almost any kind of wood stove you can 
think of. I tried replying yesterday but forgot and attached a pic of my 
shop barrel stove with my heat exchanger and you know how theforge list is 
about attachments. I'm blaming the TREE!

There are more and more cities in the country that either ban or set strong 
limits on wood stoves so it is getting harder to find simple stoves and 
kits. Catalytic stoves are going away because they're burning too many homes 
down. They require careful warmup and use or they can soot up and plug 
literally in a few hours. Then they actually make creosote production more 
efficient so you get the experience of a stack fire. This is just what 
happened to us a few years ago. Literally four days after having the stove 
and stack cleaned, inspected and certified the catalytic plugged and I got a 
terrifying call at work. The stove pipe was orange hot for about 24" an Deb 
couldn't get the stove under control. I told her how to use a fire 
extinguisher in a wood stove and to start tossing cups of water in to put 
the stack out but first hang up and call 911. That gutsy wife of mine stood 
her ground and when the fire dept got there about 5 mins later she had it 
under control.

The old catalytic wood stove is out on the front porch waiting for someone 
to come get it. We're supplimenting heat with a Jotul multiple combustion 
zone stove now and not only does it put out more heat for the wood it burns 
cleaner, less smoke and almost no creosote buildup.

That's the other type of low emission wood burners and is rapidly replacing 
the catalytics. Multiple burn zones are exactly what is being done when more 
combustion air is fed into a heat exchanger or another area of the main fire 
chamber. The Jotul has three zones, #1 at the main draft center front at the 
level of the grate. #2 is above the door aimed down across the glass to both 
supply more combustion air and to keep the window clean. #3 is at the top of 
the main fire chamber and consists of a zig zag of SS pipes that supplies 
air at the top of the chamber and shoots more into the space between the top 
baffle and the stove top. Maybe it's actually a four zone stove.

While I'll never have another catalytic wood stove I'll be the first to tell 
you you MUST maintain the stove and stack regularly and correctly, use it 
properly and most important never NEVER take it for granted, always pay 
attention to the stove. It doesn't matter what kind of solid fuel stove it 
is, it needs to warm up before it'll work properly. If you stuff a stove 
full and light it up you are ASKING for trouble.

I have a barrel stove in the shop with my type heat exchanger or stack 
robber as the old timers call em. The heat exchanger is a shortened 55 gl 
drum with a 15gl grease barrel welded through the center. It's mounted on 
the pipe jack just like a double barrel setup but mine will rotate so I can 
aim the warm air where ever I want it in the shop. Oh yeah, there's a blower 
that'll go on it when I'm finished. finishing it got put on hold last 
September like a lot of other stuff like insulation in the shop.

When you have a heat exchanger on a solid fuel stove it'll cool the smoke 
making it percipitate out more creosote. Robbing heat from the smoke is what 
they're for after all so multiple burn zones is a really good idea.

Jer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce Freeman" <freemab222 at gmail.com>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 3:47 PM
Subject: [TheForge] OT - wood stove catalytic combustors, heat extractors, 
etc. (was: Barrel Stove Kits)


>I just looked up "Magic Heat" and it's described as a heat exchanger
> only (with thermostated fan).  OTOH, there are Condar's catalytic
> combustors which actually burn the gases, but wear out after 10000
> hours or so, they say.  And I don't know whether they can be installed
> in a flue pipe, or whether some special stove is needed for them.
>
> Does anyone out there use these things?  What luck have you had?  How
> do they install?  How often must they be replaced?  Do they reduce the
> need for chimney cleaning (with brush)?
>
> I probably will not be using my wood stove all that much anyway, so my
> inclination is to do without.  From two test burns I find the smoke
> quits when the thing heats up anyway.
>
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:12 AM, CGRAF <adveniam at att.net> wrote:
>> On 10/11/2010 10:38 PM, Andrew Vida wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> JAMES OESTREICH wrote:
>>>> Paul N wrote:
>>>
>>>> Have one in my shop got it at menards 4 or 5 years ago with a majick
>>>> heat in the stack
>>>
>>> THose things draw a LOT of the waste heat out of the gases. But as
>>> Jerry will no doubt point out, you don't want your smoke going too cold,
>>> lest ye set thyself up for a raging stack fire one day.
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>>
>>
>> The ones that I have seen had secondary combustion of all those
>> vaporized volatiles and soot. Done properly the creosote gets burned and
>> the flue products are clean.
>>
>> Solid fuel on the bottom essentially a gas burner on top.
>>
>> The ones that have all the tubes in the secondary are mostly just heat
>> extractor setups.
>> These are two very different animals.
>>
>> Mike Graf