Adding catalytic convertor opinions

[centennial60]

So.. all this talk about epa stoves and furnaces and their ability to burn clean has me wondering if I could improve the performance and emissions of my furnace. I am running a Yukon super jack and I am fairly pleased with it. It will throw a large amount of heat with good burn times heating my old drafty farm house. But achieving a clean burn takes a certain size load and a moderately hot fire. I have thought about adding secondary burn tubes but I don't really want to go hacking my stove. An alternative would be to use a catalyst. Looking online I see you can buy just about any size of catalyst. The way the SJ is made is it has a large secondary heat exchanged that pulls heat off the exhaust after it leaves the firebox. So my question is what do you guys think of installing a catalyst between the firebox and the secondary heat exchanger? It already has a manually operated bypass so the cat and the secondary exchanger could be bypassed when starting fires. What do ya think would it work? Or am I crazy?

 

[mellow]

I would ask Yukon before attempting to retrofit something like a cat in your furnace, they might be able to tell you if it will work or not.

Yukon Eagle Sales & Service
800-358-0060

 

[Fyrebug]

I am no Cat expert but I dont think it's as simple as adding the catalyst.

All cat stoves have a bypass to start the unit. Once up to temp you get the cat active. Plus you have to find a way to choke the air intake otherwise it will probably not work. Plus you'll probably pooch your catalyst on your first attempt.

I talked to the guys at Blaze King and its not a simple as it looks. Many MFG have tried to add catalyst to their current fire box and it just doesnt work. You have to do a complete re-design from the ground .

 

[centennial60]

The ability to bypass the cat for loading is doable and i think choking the air down wouldn't be a problem. But i think you are right frybug. It's not as easy as just adding a catalyst. After reading more on cats it sounds like they require a lot of maintenance. And might just be a headache even if it did work.

 

[brenndatomu]

My previous furnace was the Yukon Big Jack, they have the same firebox as the SJ. I installed a viewing port on the door so I could see what was going on. I found that if I left the ashes build up A TON, like 6-10 inches worth, that brought the fire up closer to the baffle plate and I could get some real nice secondary flames after I brought it up to temp. After experimenting, I came to the conclusion that it used a lot less wood if I did not use the combustion blower, rather just operate it like a stove. I'd load, open up the air door on the side of the blower, bring it up to 4-500 degrees ( magnetic flue thermometer stuck to the left of the door towards the top) then cut the air back to where I wanted it for the day (night) It would have a real nice slow rolling secondary flame under the baffle plate that way, and it (secondary flame) would continue for a couple hours as long as I had good dry wood. Bonus to all those ashes, it held coals GREAT!

Running it 1/2 full of ashes left a lot less room for wood, but it didn't seem to matter, still did the same job with less wood.

 

[centennial60]

It would be nice to have a viewing window. I am running mine similar to what you did your bj. But i installed a timer switch to control the draft blower. So at night I load the furnace with wood, let it get burning good and cut the air back to about 3/8" open on the blower flap. Then I set the timer to run the draft blower for an hour or so after that it clicks off and the fire just idles the rest of the night. Seems to work good. Still have a decent amount of coals in the am even burning this junk basswood.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yeah, it (window) was pretty easy to install, if you have access to a welder. Took me about 2 hrs. total, $20 bucks worth of material.
I actually thought about doing the timer thing. My idea was to let the thermostat do it's thing, but, put a timer on the blower so it can only run so many minutes straight, then so many minutes off, repeat, anytime the thermostat was calling for more heat. I have some timers in a couple motor control centers at work that can be set to work this way. PM me if you want the details of any of this.

 

[dozerdean]

convertor

I am no Cat expert but I dont think it's as simple as adding the catalyst.

All cat stoves have a bypass to start the unit. Once up to temp you get the cat active. Plus you have to find a way to choke the air intake otherwise it will probably not work. Plus you'll probably pooch your catalyst on your first attempt.

I talked to the guys at Blaze King and its not a simple as it looks. Many MFG have tried to add catalyst to their current fire box and it just doesnt work. You have to do a complete re-design from the ground .

There is a company that makes one built in the stove pipe. Works like a stove damper.I have a Hotblast 1557 M furnace do you think that would work my stove? Thanks for any input.

 

[centennial60]

Brenndatomu, for now the timer system is working well for me. I'm still using the thermostat too and set it at around 66 degrees so that If the house cools enough it will feed air to what's left of the load.


Dozerdean, I saw those inline cats on the internet also my thinking is they might clean up the smoke but any addition BTUs are just going to be lost up the stack.

 

[dozerdean]

catalytic convertor

Brenndatomu, for now the timer system is working well for me. I'm still using the thermostat too and set it at around 66 degrees so that If the house cools enough it will feed air to what's left of the load.


Dozerdean, I saw those inline cats on the internet also my thinking is they might clean up the smoke but any addition BTUs are just going to be lost up the stack.

Wonder if I could get longer burn times. Use less wood.Whats your thougt on this? P.S. Merry Christmas!!