Magic Heat Reclaimer

[buildingmaint]

My friend installed one of these on his wood stove .It is a heat exchange fan with 10 tubes that installs into the flue of a wood stove. Man does this thing throw the heat. You can feel the heat it produces from about 30 feet away. Has anyone installed one of these in their stoves? And if not ,why?From the amount of heat he gets off of his it seems well worth it.

 

[Michael6268]

If its like the kind I know of, the reason no one uses them is because by cooling off the flue gases you are creating a lot of creosote and that is a "chimney fire waiting to happen".

 

[Shane]

In an older non-epa rated stove they work ok. You still get more creosote accumulation. In a new EPA rated stove they're not a good idea. Basically any heat that is escaping up the flue in the newer stoves is on purpose to keep the flue gasses from cooling and creating excessive creosote build up.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

cool! a chimney air conditioner! AKA chimney fire waiting to happen.

 

[restorer]

Same effect putting a 10" variable speed fan behind your stove near the top.Doesn't cool the flue. Doesn't become a creosote maker, but will kick the heat out.

 

[elkimmeg]

the reclaimer extracts heat from you connector pipe that in turns reduces draft and draft temps reducing draft reduces stove preformance Reduction of draft means the smoke stays longer in the pipe and its cresote particulates react to cooler conditions caused by the heat extraction of the exchanger add up all the things going on and you just added a cersote factory

Let me ask you produce a UL and certified testing lab seal and approvals all applainces must be labled and listed And please not the UL tag on the electrical cord/

 

[buildingmaint]

My friend who I was referring to ,decided to check out his flue pipe and chimney after I told him what all of you reported.He reported to me that he had no acclimation of any sort. He has a medium sized stove about ten years old. He burns it hot with good seasoned wood.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

good to hear. He is lucky, he definalty is not running a modern epa stove. He has enough heat in that chimney to not condense into creosote. Modern stoves dont loose enough heat in the first place, and these devices reek havioc with chimneys.

 

[Todd]

I tried one years ago on a 1995 non cat Energy King. It was really putting out the heat and I even connected ducting to the front and ran it up to my furnace duct. I was heating the whole house nicely for about a month til I woke one morning to find a puddle of black sticky goo on my hearth. Creasote was dripping from my pipe connection. Quite the mess, never could get the stain completely off. I took it off, cleaned chimney and never saw the black goo again.

Like others have said I think it's more for the older stoves than run high stack temps. New EPA stoves have lower stack temps and need every bit to keep the draft going.

 

[fredtheturd]

What's to keep me from putting this on my gas furnace/gas water heater flues? Those things get piping hot when there's a fire burning. Any ideas?

 

[North of 60]

Same as the above. Your appliance's are not condensing type units. If you removed the heat that the appliance was design to put up the stack then it will condense and the by-product will be acid which will run back down your flue and eat holes in it. Leaking carbon monoxide will be your result. Also your draft may be affected and above normal exchanger temps will result which will also damage your appliance. Again allowing products of combustion into your home. Appliances have efficiency ratings and a specific design for a reason.