retrofitting old stove with a cat

[coulterk50]

I have a late 70s or 80s blaze king king stove and I am going to retrofit it with a cat. Any one done this with a blaze king?

 

[Wisneaky]

Interesting

 

[Fastdonzi]

Chris, The VP of Blaze King is on this site ( BKVP ) write him and see what he thinks

 

[blades]

There is a company putting out a product to do just what you are asking on any stove- more for additional heat than clean exhaust I do not know if it is on the market yet. With some fabrication work a cat could be added to the exhaust stream right at the stoves flue exit. Various parameters would have to be researched, draft rate, minimum light off temp ect. and operating temp range, by pass, and such. I did look at available cats after reading their story just as a curiosity endeavor/ feasability thought. Got too many projects now.

 

[Corey]

Could certainly be done. As mentioned, I believe there are aftermarket kits which go in the flue, and at least one other member on here has retrofitted a stove with a cat. It was a box which also fit in the flue - though one difference, the aftermarket job fit directly 'in line' with the flue and seems like it would send most heat right up the flue, too. The member retrofit was an offset box and he claimed the box threw out a good amount of additional heat. So it may depend if your goal is to just clean up the stove or to make usable additional heat.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/BioFuel/CatRetrofit/CatRetrofit.htm

You'd also likely need to 'tighten up' the stove. Seems like cats like a lot of low / smouldering wood consumption where they can burn off the smoke. With a drafty older stove you may not be able to cut off enough air to burn like that.

 

[coulterk50]

Could certainly be done. As mentioned, I believe there are aftermarket kits which go in the flue, and at least one other member on here has retrofitted a stove with a cat. It was a box which also fit in the flue - though one difference, the aftermarket job fit directly 'in line' with the flue and seems like it would send most heat right up the flue, too. The member retrofit was an offset box and he claimed the box threw out a good amount of additional heat. So it may depend if your goal is to just clean up the stove or to make usable additional heat.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/BioFuel/CatRetrofit/CatRetrofit.htm

You'd also likely need to 'tighten up' the stove. Seems like cats like a lot of low / smouldering wood consumption where they can burn off the smoke. With a drafty older stove you may not be able to cut off enough air to burn like that.

I have seen both the inline and the offset box. I was worried that the cat needed to be inside the stove for the best result. I put a new gasket in the door and can extinguish the fire by closing the damper. I thought about putting a flue damper immediately out of the stove, a tee above it, cutting an additional 8 inch flue in the front top of the stove, inserting a cat down in the stove through this flue and then attaching it to the tee.this would allow you to get everything hot and then bypass it through the cat. It might require some secondary preheated air at the cat for better combustion. It would look goofy. Leaning toward cutting the top of of stove off and building a bypass door with the cat facing forward and close to the way the new bks are built. I am going to do something along these lines, just wondered if someone could shorten the learning (pain) curve a little for me.

 

[coulterk50]

I have seen both the inline and the offset box. I was worried that the cat needed to be inside the stove for the best result. I put a new gasket in the door and can extinguish the fire by closing the damper. I thought about putting a flue damper immediately out of the stove, a tee above it, cutting an additional 8 inch flue in the front top of the stove, inserting a cat down in the stove through this flue and then attaching it to the tee.this would allow you to get everything hot and then bypass it through the cat. It might require some secondary preheated air at the cat for better combustion. It would look goofy. Leaning toward cutting the top of of stove off and building a bypass door with the cat facing forward and close to the way the new bks are built. I am going to do something along these lines, just wondered if someone could shorten the learning (pain) curve a little for me.

Must have been really bad ideas or to far out of the box