Better n Ben

[johann]

I'm really on a roll today reading as much and searching as much as I can to avoid real work. So my parents have a Better N Ben Fireplace insert setup in their basement as just a stand alone wood stove.
While surfing today I found a company that make retro fit combustors, cat's or something for these stoves. I'm guessing this is something similar to the stoves now that have catalytics or secondary burns today.
Is it worth it to investigate getting one of these 100$ retrofits for my parents?

They really have no complaints from the stove as it is. It works great heats the whole house up, on those cold Norther NY nights(have had days under -20 no problem.

Also, what is a secondary burn, and whats a cat for a wood stove? Educate me!


cheers.

 

[Corie]

A cat combustor is a ceramic honeycomb or other ceramic mesh that is coated in precious metals. These metals lower the combustion temperature of the smoke of the wood and allow it to reignite and recombust, keeping the burn clean and allowing very low rates of fire.

These retrofits, generally were not well thought out and probably made things more difficult than actually help the situation. We've seen a few here recently that looked to be well constructed and designed pieces. Anything is possible with the kit you're talking about. If you can post a link to it, some of us can look it over and give you a better opinion.

 

[jabush]

I looked into these a while back. There's also been some threads on the topic.
The units I have seen are made to fit into your stove pipe like a damper. You keep it 90 degrees (open) until you get adequate exhaust temps, then you pivot the cat so it catches the smoke (closed) and (hopefully) engages. Sounds good in theory, but I would think with an old stove you'd have to have one hell of a draft to overcome the restrictive cat. Plus once that thing engages the stove pipe could easily hit 800-900 degrees. That's a little too much stove pipe heat for me!!

 

[Corie]

Well jabush, there are actually some other retrofit designs out there. The are usually baffle replacements and they have you drill a hole in the side of the stove to operate some type of bypass gate.

 

[elkimmeg]

cori you phone still will not connect to mine anyhow
since you have experience in stove design, Tell me how effective add on combustors are without a secondary combustion chamber? and a proper air path to feed it?

 

[Corie]

Oh its marginal Elk, to say the least.

But it can still work, OK, provided you have good draft and good burning habits. Almost all of the retrofits are a compromise, there is no doubt about that. I believe some of them did include secondary air feed somewhere along the lines, of course most did not.

The big problem with any cat retrofit, even if you were to find a way to include a ceramic combustor chamber, secondary air feed and an effective bypass gate is simple. How can you make it installable without requiring the user to own a plasma cutter or Oxy torch.

And i have no idea why you can't call my phone? Everyone on earth has called me today, no problem? hrmmmmmmm

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

Check into this...

(broken link removed)

On a lot of the older, pre-epa units this unit can be used as a retrofit.
It is much preferred over the stovepipe cat retrofit because it is located
closer to the fire - in the firebox. Thus, it stays "lit" with a lot less fuss.
This is the way to go, and with the larger, pre-epa units, it is very possible
to achieve 12+ hr. burns using this configuration.
I hope they still have them in stock.....

Let me know how it goes....

Rob

 

[jabush]

Well jabush, there are actually some other retrofit designs out there. The are usually baffle replacements and they have you drill a hole in the side of the stove to operate some type of bypass gate.

Thanks Corie...if I could keep the "add on" inside the stove body I might revisit this option as I do have a good strong draft. Of course there's no way to replace the baffel on my stove. It's an extension of the top of the lower "step". Also...no way I'm drilling a hole in the side of my cabinet to facilitate this.