Hello all. I've been burning as my primary heat for about 8 years; just moved to Michigan and have started here. Got an Ashley 3200 and have to heat ~3k sq ft. So far down to 20F or so it's been doing fine, though it's a little slow to get the job done being in the basement. The flue is ~25ft; with 3 stacked liners or so (18", 12", 6"?) inside one of those wood chimney add-on things, rather than a masonry chimney. I had the Fresh Air Kit installed.
After a month or so of heating with that and knowing it's going to get colder I've been looking at increasing the heat production a bit. My first mod was an accidental find with "StoveCat" - somehow I found the "retofit catalytic converters" portion of the internet and I decided that <10% of the stove's cost thrown at a gadget wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever done. Not to advertise too much; but they don't have the downsides of a normal cat in that they don't need maintenance or fuss with smoke-chamber swapping. The biggest reason I got one is that with a long flue I was concerned about creosote from burning ~4-6 months; and really don't want to clean mid season.
Note: I did an initial creosote check when I installed the cat and the stove pipe/first 6+ feet of liner seem to be sooty but nothing resembling creosote. Didn't check the top of the chimney.
The results after a couple weeks are interesting:
Here are my questions:
After a month or so of heating with that and knowing it's going to get colder I've been looking at increasing the heat production a bit. My first mod was an accidental find with "StoveCat" - somehow I found the "retofit catalytic converters" portion of the internet and I decided that <10% of the stove's cost thrown at a gadget wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever done. Not to advertise too much; but they don't have the downsides of a normal cat in that they don't need maintenance or fuss with smoke-chamber swapping. The biggest reason I got one is that with a long flue I was concerned about creosote from burning ~4-6 months; and really don't want to clean mid season.
Note: I did an initial creosote check when I installed the cat and the stove pipe/first 6+ feet of liner seem to be sooty but nothing resembling creosote. Didn't check the top of the chimney.
The results after a couple weeks are interesting:
- The Cat seems to increase the draft substantially. When the stove is turned all the way down I still get stove-top temps for the first hour or so of a new pile of wood in the 900+ zone -> e.g. wasted heat is my understanding.
- Whether it's giving me extra heat or helping me build fires better; I've been keeping an extra degree or so at night and gaining an extra degree or so in the day; so despite the inefficiency of the overheat portion of the burn, it seems that my overall efficiency has gone up somewhat.
- Stove start up to get to no-smoke (so I can go do something else) seems faster; as it should since the cat should activate around 650 smoke temp regardless of if the stove's hot enough for secondary air (the StoveCat activates at 650, I can't speak to regular cats.)
Here are my questions:
- I'm considering the oft-discussed Magic Heat reclaimer; because the Cat + secondary burn gives me pretty high flue temps (initial temps are 650 to light the cat, and it burns at a similar rate down to 330 input temp.) My main concern, as it should be, would be creosote formation but I figure that between secondary burn + cat that not only are temps high enough but that there's basically no smoke left to cause issues. Any thoughts on that?
- I'm debating adding a flue-damper. With the primary/secondary air pulls on the stove all the way out, the stove still gets to that "overheat" zone of 700+; I think getting a damper would let me stay in the goldylocks zone of 650-700 for the initial couple hours by placing it above the cat and slowing things down. This is both a safety consideration as well as an efficiency consideration.
- I can't find any information on creosote formation regarding coals. I assume that creosote formation mostly occurs during the smokey parts of the burn and that by the time you're down to 3-400 degrees (stove top) and just coals that it doesn't matter if you have a heat-reclaimer at that point?
