Filter all air at intake???

[DriftWood]

I have two old lady cats. One short hair and a long hair. Needless to say cat hair is in the air and at times every where and in every corner. The short hair cat camps down behind the stove in the old fireplace for hours every day.

The single 3 inch dia. all air intake for combustion is 1 1/2 inches off the hearth and really sucks air at times. When I first started burning wood in my Heritage I called the people at Hearthstone about filtering out cat hair, they said yes filter the intake air.

The system I'm now using is a wad of Stainless Steel liner insulation mesh shoved into the intake hole. It catches the big gobs of hair and lint. It will slow down the burn when it gets full when I forget it is there. Other wise I see no change in burn rate.

Any one else filtering the intake air on a wood stove.

 

[Corey]

You're talking about filtering the intake air for combustion? I haven't gone that far, but have considered what it would take to filter the air that gets circulated through the blowers. I don't keep pets in the house, but the fly ash seems to make enough of a mess on its own.

I think you've hit on two key components, though - the filter needs to be non flammable - stainless steel mesh. Plus, there might be some drop in performance if the cleaning isn't performed on a regular basis.

 

[Highbeam]

Why on earth would you filter the air? Are you afraid of filling the stoves intake manifold with cat hair? Wow. You must be on to something if HS agrees.

Maybe plumb the full outside air kit.

 

[DriftWood]

Why on earth would you filter the air? Are you afraid of filling the stoves intake manifold with cat hair? Wow. You must be on to something if HS agrees.

Maybe plumb the full outside air kit.

Yep!!

I have thought about a full outside air kit using the air above the damper block off plate (fireplace install) as the air source. Mice, voles, rats, spiders, leaves, squirrels ect. would need to be kept out.

 

[swestall]

Any filter you use on anything will get plugged; you just have to maintain it. So, you need to figure out what time cycle it gets full on. I'd say try looking at it every 10 days for a while and when you see it is too plugged, clean/change.
As far as a cheap filter, you can get some of those metal dish scrubbing pads might make good disposable filters.