I hired a sweep two weeks ago and after he finished, he gave me some good news. Although I burned six cords last year (a record for me), I had less creosote and ash build up than I did the year before. Looks like my flue collar invention that replaced the cat combustor on the Federal Airtight stove worked perfectly. It sometimes reached 1400 F before the smoke made it up the chimney:
Here's where it fits it, right below the secondary combustion chamber and directly above the firebox:
Nice old stove and accepts a 24" log:
Wood Doctor... I happen to have the same Federal as yours. I still have the original cat on it ( circa 1983 ) and it still works after all these years. However, it hasn't been used since I bought an OWB. I am however, interested in possibly adapting what you did to an OWB. The main problem I see is creosote build up from the long periods of smoldering. Is yours out of S.S. ? Even a flapper of
*** For safetys sake check your gaskets where the hot air is forced out the stove on the two sides. Mine was leaking a bit and naturally, you had to take the top of the stove off to redo these.. These stoves put out the heat and would hold a fire overnight.
