Concorde Catalytic

[tomt]

Wife and I bought our Concorde Catalytic from her painting friend when we were broke in the late eighties. Came with 40 waxed lettuce boxes of off cuts from her husband's carpenter work. He was a hoarder and he had burned all the not approved woods etc in it. They upgraded to a new wood stove then.

It has a shroud around it with a small electric motor at the back that blew hot air into the room when it got going. Could drive us out of the house then. Any info on this stove would be appreciated. We now have 2 mini split a/c units to heat/cool our house but I kept this stove in case of emergencies. Never had the stove pipe swept.

Stove pipe has weird stove pipe extension 26 inches up from fire box exit. It is a Modi-Fyre combustion stabilization system type MF.

Any and all info on this stove would be appreciated. And how to work Modi-Fyre combustion stabilization system type MF.
Thanks
tomt

 

[pen]

Can't tell you much other than that unit needs some maintenance if the catalyst has never been replaced and chimney never swept. Other than the sweeping removing potentially dangerous creosote, it also allows a visual inspection of the chimney to ensure it's still in good order.

Does the piece above the stove look something like this?


If so, it's a barometric damper.

Any pics of the setup?

 

[tomt]

Can't tell you much other than that unit needs some maintenance if the catalyst has never been replaced and chimney never swept. Other than the sweeping removing potentially dangerous creosote, it also allows a visual inspection of the chimney to ensure it's still in good order.

Does the piece above the stove look something like this?

View attachment 235968
If so, it's a barometric damper.

Any pics of the setup?

 

[tomt]

If so, it's a barometric damper.
How does this work as ours is similar but has an adjustible weight attached to top of damper.

 

[pen]

If so, it's a barometric damper.
How does this work as ours is similar but has an adjustible weight attached to top of damper.

For a very strong draft in the chimney, that swings open and allows cool air into the chimney reducing draft, and slowing the stove down.

The problem is with a wood stove, cooling the exhaust gasses can promote creosote accumulation.

 

[tomt]

For a very strong draft in the chimney, that swings open and allows cool air into the chimney reducing draft, and slowing the stove down.

The problem is with a wood stove, cooling the exhaust gasses can promote creosote accumulation.

Do you know how to adjust the weight to stop or slow the action down to much?

 

[begreen]

Do you know how to adjust the weight to stop or slow the action down to much?

Unless there is no other choice, I would remove it completely.

 

[pen]

As BG said. But, in the meantime. Lefty loosey (counter clockwise) should make it more top heavy and easier to open, which reduced draft more. Righty tighty, should bring the weight into the flapper, and reduce the counterbalance effect, making it less likely to open.

To add, because of the cold air input, and increased creosote mentioned above, these are a bad idea.

They seemed to be a good idea in an era of stove that could burn anything and everything when loaded to the gills, as this helped reduce the draft when the stove took off to holy hell when the wet fuel finally dried out in the stove.

That said, this helped compensate from poor burning practices,,,,, but this was also popular in an era where monthly chimney cleanings were considered normal,,,, as such, the increased creosote wasn't as big a deal.

In all, I suggest getting this out of there as BG said, getting the chimney swept and inspected, installing a new catalyst, and keeping some truly seasoned wood on hand...... All that said, I'm willing to bet you'll be amazed at what this stove can actually do when run right,,,,, and might want to use it more!

pen

 

[begreen]

Yes, cat stoves typically run cooler flues. Adding more cool air with the baro damper is an invitation for problems or very frequent cleanings. The odds are there is no need for it. If draft is strong add a key damper in the stove pipe instead.

 

[pen]

Here is some info on the stove from the founder of this site, if you haven't seen it.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/concorde-catalytic/

pen

 

[pen]

Could drive us out of the house then.

To add, the point of a catalytic stove is to make the most of good wood, at a low setting, giving you a more stable heat for a longer period of time. Non catalytic stoves are more prone to a hot spike in temp. Catalysts should be more even by nature in the heat they produce.