To Retrofit Cat or not

[chunkyal]

I have been furiously reading the forums since I discovered this site a few weeks ago and would like to thank all of you for being so generous with your knowledge, opinions and experiences.

I have a Elmira Fireview 900 that I inherited with the house. It has a 6" single wall connector of about 14' to make a total of about 22' of chimney. On cold days it has excellent draft (600 F with the damper fully closed).

Initially I was planning to just put in a flue damper (for better regulation and longer burn times) but I'm wondering if a retrofit Cat (like: (broken link removed)) would be decent option. I know some people have had poor experiences with these but I have plenty of draft ( which will improve when I move the stove 16" to eliminate the two 90's) and the stove is a little small for the area and burns spruce most of the time (ie it usually runs hot). I'm thinking I should get a probe thermometer to see that I can get the ignition temp easily where the cat would be.

Also I was planning to replace the connector with an insulated one - would this negate some of the benefit of the cat? Has anyone had positive experiences with this type of add-on? Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[hookspacken]

I am by no means a wood stove expert, but my main reservation with a cat element in my stove pipe is the high localized temps that a cat sees. My cat can operate at 1250 + at times. I know I wouldnt want that kind of temp in my stove connector pipe. I beleive that is why modern cat stoves install the catalyst in a refractory housing, to protect the rest of the stove material from the extreme heat. Just my 2 cents.

 

[BrotherBart]

I have never had one of the things but they have been around since the 1980's and I have never heard one positive word about them. There may be people that use them effectively but I sure never have seen or heard of any of them.

Cat stoves have a chamber for the cat that dissipates the high heat produced into the body of the stove. In a stove pipe I can't see that heat going anywhere but up to the sky.

 

[chunkyal]

So maybe a cat then a reclaimer?(then insulated pipe to keep the little heat that's left) Anyone here tried this combo?

 

[humpin iron]

no to the add-on cat and a bigger no to the heat reclaimer. The cat needs to be in a hi heat environment that's why they are built into stoves. The reclaimer takes too much heat from the pipe.