Add-On Catalytic stove damper

[mikepinto65]

Has anyone heard how these perform? I was considering buying one for my VC Vigilant and adding it to try and make it more efficient. Its $209 bucks and I certainly dont mind paying for it if it would increase performance and lower the emissions of my stove.
This might seem funny but supposing it does work, would chimney fire risk go up considering this is added directly to the black pipe?

thanks in advance

(broken link removed)

 

[wellbuilt home]

I was looking at those cat things to day . They look cool and i think they would burn up the smoke but i cant see how it would bring heat into the house . I guess it would let you burn damper ed down with out creosote build up but cant see how the heat is going to come from 12" of pipe . It reminds me of my friends fish camp . It had a old 6' height pot belly stove with the flue run horizontally thru the hole house thru the wall in the living room down the 30' hall into the dinning room up into the foyer to the sand floor, thru all 5 bed room walls back into the hall and up the chimney WOW I couldn't even sleep with that thing cooking It was hung with coat hangers and eye hooks There was every bit of 150' of 8" pipe and 15 elbows I don't think the damper thing could work . With the old vigilant you could get a good secondary burn with a rear heat shield bottom heat shield sand in the bottom of the stove and dry hard wood . John

 

[Todd]

This has been brought up before and many say they don't work well and plug up. I don't see how it could work, cat stoves need a source of combustion air near the catalyst to help lite off the smoke. Maybe if you could get it right near the exaust collar it might work?

 

[fossil]

I'm no expert, nor am I a stove designer, nor do I have a cat stove...but it seems to me that cat stoves work the way they work because the stove is designed around having the cat within the envelope of the stove, so that the heat generated by the cat is available for radiation/convection to the living space through the stove as a system. Placing this thing in the stovepipe seems to me like if it did work, it would just produce a very hot spot in the stovepipe, and I can't see where that would do anything I'd like to have happening in my system. I'd no sooner buy one of these than I would a "magic heat reclaimer" to put into my stovepipe. But hey, whatever floats yer boat. Rick

 

[mikepinto65]

Thanks for the responses. Thats pretty much what i assumed, just thinking of ways to clean up my old stove as I really dont have the money to buy an EPA model. I would still like to hear if anyone has actually had any success with these...or something similar. I really cant imagine it producing any noticeable heat output, nor was that my desired outcome. I was more interested in efficient/cleaner burning.

P.S. if anyone on the site would like to donate an EPA burner to me to help with my desire to help the environment and my neighborhood by all miens pm me!

 

[fossil]

I don't know of anyone on here who uses one of these, mike, but as Todd said, they've been discussed before. You might try a couple of searches to see if you come up with an old thread or two about them. Sorry I don't have a stove to offer up, both of mine are currently in service. Rick

 

[Todd]

Eric Johnson used one in his old boiler years ago and it didn't work well for him as I recall. PM him, he's over in the boiler room.

 

[raybonz]

I have an old cat stove and on my stove the cat actually heats a hot plate directly above the cat so it actually reclaims the heat before it exits the exhaust to the flue pipe. Based on that I can't see what you will gain other than a cleaner chimney.. Bear in mind that cats generally run upwards of 1400-1600 degrees and I have seen my hotplate which is cast iron glow red around the cat thermometer.. For a stage 1 epa stove mine is very efficient and heats my 1632 sq. ft. home year round on 3 cords or less 24/7 here in Mass...

Ray