# Intensifire update?



## mellow (Feb 19, 2021)

Calling @Obadiah and @Kiwi Firemaster 

Any updates on the Intensifire ?

Last post from Obadiah: 





						Intensifier tech coming for old stoves
					

Thanks Jason for your efforts to clean up stoves. It would be interesting to see this technology replace the guts of the notorious VC downdraft stoves. If it is simpler and more reliable it could bring back these classic American beauties with new life. There ya go Begreen, there are thousands...




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For those of you that don't know about the Intensifire, its a retrofit device that will turn an old smoke dragon into a clean burner, but never really took off in the states, curious to see if it has gained use in other countries.






						IntensiFire
					

Finally got around to uploading the video of the Treemont burning clean at the Wood Stove Decathlon, Jason's device makes a heck of a difference.  Do excuse the holes Jason drilled, it was for testing and should not be done at home.   Chimney Output:   Treemont with IntensiFire:




					www.hearth.com


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## begreen (Feb 19, 2021)

Thanks for asking. It had potential and I thought it has evolved down under, but haven't heard anything in a while.


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## SpaceBus (Feb 19, 2021)

What exactly is it? I looked on the website but no real info on how the device works. From the little bit I can see it looks like a rocket stove inside of the woodstove firebox and flue?


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## mellow (Feb 19, 2021)

SpaceBus said:


> What exactly is it? I looked on the website but no real info on how the device works. From the little bit I can see it looks like a rocket stove inside of the woodstove firebox and flue?



Best thing to do would be read the threads I linked to.


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## bholler (Feb 19, 2021)

SpaceBus said:


> What exactly is it? I looked on the website but no real info on how the device works. From the little bit I can see it looks like a rocket stove inside of the woodstove firebox and flue?


I asked the same thing of kiwi fire master I believe his name is Jason.  His response was it is to complicated for me to understand after that I lost interest


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## mellow (Feb 19, 2021)

bholler said:


> I asked the same thing of kiwi fire master I believe his name is Jason.  His response was it is to complicated for me to understand after that I lost interest



Wow,  still sticking with that?  What was this post about then?






						Intensifier tech coming for old stoves
					

Another response of a similar nature provse my point about endless messages and going around in circles. If you were truly a professional then you would have approached this in a professional manner, ie: via private correspondence and subject to a suitable non disclosure agreement.   The...




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bholler said:


> Thanks for the update sounds like allot of work still to be done but it also sounds promising. I Agree that the liability of modifying ul listed appliances is probably not worth the risk. And changing a bilders box fireplace is just scary.
> 
> And by the way jason and i talked in private messages and we cleared everything up. And yes he really seems like a very genuine and nice guy. We just got off on the wrong foot


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## bholler (Feb 19, 2021)

mellow said:


> Wow,  still sticking with that?  What was this post about then?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That post was made to smooth things over at the request of others.


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## SpaceBus (Feb 19, 2021)

mellow said:


> Best thing to do would be read the threads I linked to.


Still not a ton of info on how it works, but enough to figure out that it will probably never happen. At least not in a litigious society like ours. This device would call for  modification of a stove, and generally speaking insurance companies don't like that. For some this won't be an issue I supposed, but in the event something happens the blame would probably be placed on the device/stove. Reading through the threads a lot of adjustment/tuning is involved, another thing that folks don't like to deal with on their heat source. The price is a bit steep and a tall chimney is a requirement with converting the stove into a downdraft gasser.


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## mellow (Feb 19, 2021)

Well, he adapted it to an old Treemont in less than a day for the Stove Challenge.

A little background on that:

Jason is from New Zealand and had to run around DC to try and find parts to retrofit his device to the old treemont, not a small task.  Bylers stove shop up in Dover, DE gave me that stove as they were about to send it to the scrap yard. I fixed up the Treemont for him since he was flying over to the states with only his device.  We had to stuff that stove in the back of a station wagon that he was able to beg someone to drive the 2 hours to my house to get the stove.  He had to convert it from 8" to 6" for the chimney to work and also weld up a plate over the ash grates on the floor of that stove before he could even begin to work on installing his device.  Ohh yea, he also had to get the stove to the competition in the middle of DC.

What he did in the amount of time he had was short of amazing to take a smoke dragon to ultra efficient burner.

I was hoping that Obadiah would have been able to help him more with sales in the USA but I guess that never came to fruition.  I am curious how it is doing in other parts of the world.

You guys ask about how it works but it is clearly shown in those threads from Obadiah. 





It turns the old smoke dragon into a downdraft stove which is not my favorite but it beats just having a smoke dragon belching out smoke.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Feb 20, 2021)

mellow said:


> Well, he adapted it to an old Treemont in less than a day for the Stove Challenge.
> 
> A little background on that:
> 
> ...


Thanks for the update, Mellow.  I've been wondering what became of this.

I thought that there was some work being done to design this tech to be integrated  into new stoves?

If it's just downdraft tech, VC seemed to have done a nice job taking that path to fruition back in the 80's.  

Still, I admire someone who tries to invent something like this, even if it doesn't work out.


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## john26 (Feb 22, 2021)

mellow said:


> It turns the old smoke dragon into a downdraft stove which is not my favorite but it beats just having a smoke dragon belching out smoke.





bigbacon said:


> I'm starting to think I'll just deal with the upstairs first and worry about basement later.


What happens when ash gets piled up around the exhaust gas outlet?


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## mellow (Feb 22, 2021)

john26 said:


> What happens when ash gets piled up around the exhaust gas outlet?



Visit Jason's website and shoot him an email asking that.  Tell him to come on here and update us on how its going if you email him.


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## begreen (Feb 25, 2021)

I think the design has evolved quite a bit. Not sure why the delay, but they may be concerned about protecting intellectual property.


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## bholler (Feb 25, 2021)

begreen said:


> I think the design has evolved quite a bit. Not sure why the delay, but they may be concerned about protecting intellectual property.


That is what I got from private conversation with Jason.  He is clearly very intelligent and passionate.  He is very concerned with protecting his work.  I hope he gets it to market and it works out well.  But he could use some work on talking to industry pros though if he is going to personally represent his product.


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## mellow (Feb 25, 2021)

Jason is NOT a sales guy   Just a passionate inventor who wants to make a difference.


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## bholler (Feb 25, 2021)

mellow said:


> Jason is NOT a sales guy   Just a passionate inventor who wants to make a difference.


Yes I understand that.  But it is pretty simply to just tell people I am sorry but I can't disclose much about how it functions at this point due to intellectual property issues.  Telling a very well educated industry pro with lots of experience there is no way you could understand it is not a good way to get a relatively tight knit industry behind your product.


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## john26 (Feb 25, 2021)

My understanding of the Intensifier is it turns the stove its installed in into a down draft stove.  I would think a strong draft would be needed and would work similar to an old VC.   The Intensifier itself  from what I can see from the limited pics available appears to be two  pieces of stainless pipe with an air gap allowing preheated air drawn in for secondary burn  setting on a ceramic spacer that allows the gas exhaust to be drawn in and mixed with preheated oxygen to achieve secondary burn.  Then be drawn  through  the flu.  Finning tuning would be in the gaps of the ceramic spacer and amount of preheated oxygen to be induced into the secondary burn chamber.  We all know the secondary combustion produces lots of heat this is the whole principal behind the modern epa tube stove.   When secondary fire is drawn through a combustion chamber I believe it intensifies the fire and the temperature.  After modifying my Lopi  to try to reduce draft the exhaust gasses and secondary fire is drawn through the gaps in the firebrick above causing them glow around the edges.    This to me seem similar to how a high efficiency wood furnace or wood boiler operates.  I would like to see what the draft is on a flu with the Intensifier installed.  I notice the kent on his website with the glowing flu, I am not sure I would want this in my living room.
I did find this during my Intensifier search








						IntensiFire
					

The IntensiFire patent ( https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d0/6b/5b/9c134eaf8d7db0/US20140196637A1.pdf ) describes the secondary combustion zone (5), a flue (11) that extends down into the firebox and an annulus (16). According to the patent, the airflow in the annulus is downward (17)....




					docs.google.com
				





			https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d0/6b/5b/9c134eaf8d7db0/US20140196637A1.pdf


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Feb 25, 2021)

Unfortunately, I don't believe that there is a large enough market for our passionate, intrepid, inventive, non-sales person to hit the jackpot with this, under the best of circumstances.  Which makes it a little sad that he is so worried about the theft of his intellectual property.   The end of the story will be the invention being relegated to the closet of imaginative solutions to a problem that has been rendered mostly irrelevant by other technology.


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## john26 (Feb 25, 2021)

It would be hard for me to spend $500 to retro fit a $150 smoke dragon when I can pick up a decent used phase 1 or 2 stove for $500 or a new  stove such as a drolet or englander around $1k or less.  I wonder how the efficiency of Fisher style stove with an intensifier  would compare to a phase1 , 2,or 3 epa tube stove?   From what I seen it looks like it only fits top outlet stoves but the patent does mention rear vent like a Jotul but I don't see it working  at all for a VC or any other down draft stove .  I think the US market would be small  due to limitations of stoves it would fit.  On top of that most be people that burn wood and truly care enough to spend $500  to improve efficiency or reduce emissions already have an epa stove, with the exception of a few collectors or vintage stove enthusiast who probably have adjust burning practices  to do so.


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## mellow (Mar 1, 2021)

It was working on a 15ft (maybe less) 6" chimney at the competition.


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## john26 (Mar 1, 2021)

mellow said:


> It was working on a 15ft (maybe less) 6" chimney at the competition.


was the chimney glowing red?


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## bholler (Mar 2, 2021)

mellow said:


> It was working on a 15ft (maybe less) 6" chimney at the competition.


That is the standard test height do it makes sense


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## mellow (Mar 2, 2021)

john26 said:


> was the chimney glowing red?



Nah, Jason said that picture that on his website was a long exposure picture, the pipe was not really glowing like that but he thought it was cool, most of us did not agree with that.


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## mellow (Mar 2, 2021)

See this thread for video of it running:






						IntensiFire
					

Finally got around to uploading the video of the Treemont burning clean at the Wood Stove Decathlon, Jason's device makes a heck of a difference.  Do excuse the holes Jason drilled, it was for testing and should not be done at home.   Chimney Output:   Treemont with IntensiFire:




					www.hearth.com


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