just saw a heat reclaimer for sale fits 6"pipe,how do they work?will one work on a fisher teddy bear that puts out lots of pipe heat? lastly what kind of performance should i expect/btus reclaimed?
heat reclaimer, good idea?
- Thread starter stone hands
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Welcome to the forum stone hands.
There is at least one guy on this forum that likes them. If you do a search you'll find many threads about them. However, in the end, most of us do not like them. The main reason is that a certain amount of heat is required to send the smoke and gasses up the chimney (heat rises). If you rob some of that heat you many times end up with a big creosote problem. That is something you do not want. Also, they require electricity which adds to the cost and they don't work very well when power goes out.
Personally I've seen several of them and every one I saw, the house smelled of creosote! Perhaps they work or did work better in the older stoves but certainly not in the newer stoves. The new ones are just so much more efficient.
In short, I would not advise anyone to buy one of those things. Stick with heating with the stove and not the stove pipe.
There is at least one guy on this forum that likes them. If you do a search you'll find many threads about them. However, in the end, most of us do not like them. The main reason is that a certain amount of heat is required to send the smoke and gasses up the chimney (heat rises). If you rob some of that heat you many times end up with a big creosote problem. That is something you do not want. Also, they require electricity which adds to the cost and they don't work very well when power goes out.
Personally I've seen several of them and every one I saw, the house smelled of creosote! Perhaps they work or did work better in the older stoves but certainly not in the newer stoves. The new ones are just so much more efficient.
In short, I would not advise anyone to buy one of those things. Stick with heating with the stove and not the stove pipe.
in an older tech type stove like a fisher its not as bad though i'd advise you to keep a close eye on your flue temps (above the reclaimer) until you are satisfied you will keep enough heat in the stack to hold down creosote formation. personally im not real high on them.
I'm pretty sure my Century directed most of the heat out the front of the box and didn't let it up the stack. With my Secondaries going strong I know there was a lot of heat in the firebox. I'll admit I added more firebrick above the box and stuffed kaowool into any cracks between the bricks I could find. All of the smoke was forced over the secondaries. My stove top would stay around 450 and my stack was cooler. If I worked the stove hard it would get hotter, but then I just wasted wood. Where did the heat go?
I can tell you that I didn't have much creostote in my external masonry chimney. What I did get, was in the singlewall above the stove. I have 2 feet vertical followed by just over 2 feet to the wall where it hits a thimble and passes out to the chimney. I imagine that the gasses cooled quite a bit in those 4 feet plus elbow. If I installed a heat reclaimer would it have clogged with creosote? I dunno. Would the cooler flue gasses screw with my draft? Quite possibly. My chimney was a little shorter than I would have liked it.
Matt
I can tell you that I didn't have much creostote in my external masonry chimney. What I did get, was in the singlewall above the stove. I have 2 feet vertical followed by just over 2 feet to the wall where it hits a thimble and passes out to the chimney. I imagine that the gasses cooled quite a bit in those 4 feet plus elbow. If I installed a heat reclaimer would it have clogged with creosote? I dunno. Would the cooler flue gasses screw with my draft? Quite possibly. My chimney was a little shorter than I would have liked it.
Matt
Ghettontheball said:
Because it will effect the draft by cooling the little heat there is in the pipe to make the stove burn properly. Give it up already Pooker, we are all getting tired of your Magic Heat hard on.
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