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Going to move this into the hearth room for more exposure. They use it in a fireplace but I can't find in their guide where it wouldn't apply to a modern stove as well........ so off to the other room.
BTW, I'm skeptical. But, I always am. With proper burning habits and appliance, this is basically a non-issue.
What concerns me is that the majority of smoke comes early in the burn and can deposit as creosote before the chimney has had a chance to heat up. At this point, I'd be surprised if the firebox were hot enough to "activate" this thing to help at this stage. That of course would be assuming it helps at all.
An actual catalyst needs X temperature to work. Assuming this releases one, I'd imagine the same to be true.
Also, if it were that simple, wouldn't it be easy enough to have a stove designed around using this stuff and just have it injected or dripped in? Seems like that would be cheaper than having a cat and more likely for many poor burners to continue using. Can't tell you how many folks I know w/ a cat stove that run the damn thing w/ the cat bypassed constantly since they screwed it up w/ poor wood and poor practices.
Can't tell you how many folks I know w/ a cat stove that run the damn thing w/ the cat bypassed constantly since they screwed it up w/ poor wood and poor practices.
As great as CATs are that is their one shortcoming. Without proper use and maintenance they are useless. I too know people with CAT stoves that just use them in bypass which means they technically have a pre EPA stove.
Pen , Good point that with out the heat in the proper range it may be worthless in the beginning of the burn cycle when most creosote is created. Points to the fact that a good top down startup is the best way to reduce emissions when starting from a cold start.
Makes you wonder tho if there is another cheap chemical if thrown in the fire interacts with the smoke to lower its re-ignition point temp. Maybe that beer can option.
At one time I used to look up old patents on peoples ideas to improve emissions. Some of the ideas are put to use in like stack scrubbers for coal electric generation plants.
Like one idea they put a high voltage electrical field in a stove as the smoke passed thru this field of like 3000 volts potential the smoke particles would become unstable and re-ignite much easier at a lower temp thus an easier secondary burn and cleaner exhaust of the stove.