A CATALYTIC CONVERTER YOU CAN BUILD

Enlarge Image Image Gallery (LEFT) The creosote developed in the stovepipe without the catalytic converter is much denser and far more difficult to clean off than the material left in the stovepipe when the converter was used. (CENTER) The creosote left when using the converter is dry and flaky and often falls away of its own accord. The overall weight of the creosote in the catalytic mode was about 20% of that found in the conventional mode. (RIGHT) A sample package for retrofitting most stoves. The flame impingement baffle is not show Staff Photos

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Here's a new way to get more heat, and less creosote and pollution, from your woodstove . . .

Wood heating, for all the satisfaction it brings, involves a lot of hard work . . . and anything that could trim the burden of cutting, splitting, and hauling fuel — or reduce the frequency of chimney cleanings — would be more than welcome to just about any stove owner. Of course, most veteran woodburners take pains to see that the wood they cut gets well used . . . and as a consequence many such folks have toyed with devices that claim to either increase heat transfer efficiency or reduce creosote formation. Unfortunately, as many of those experimenters have found out, heat exchangers generally speed up the accumulation of creosote deposits . . . and most add-to-the-fire chemicals don't seem to help much in removing this messy (and dangerous) substance. (See "Testing Chemical Chimney Cleaners", on page 118 of MOTHER NO. 71, for more information on that subject.)

Of course, over the past few years woodstove manufacturers have devoted a great deal of research effort to improving the performance of their products . . . in the hope of increasing overall heating efficiency, reducing creosote deposits, and limiting the load of pollutants that woodburners release into the atmosphere. We've chronicled that research (in MOTHER NOS. 67, 72, and 77) and have waited anxiously for breakthroughs.

Well, we're glad to say that the latest secondary-combustion stoves do seem to fill the bill, and many of us have eyed them longingly . . . wishing that we could justify replacing our old metal boxes with state-ofthe-art (perhaps catalytic-converter-equipped) heaters. Unfortunately, as attractive as those alternatives are, their price tags are usually pretty danged formidable.

Consequently — after suffering through a heating season of wishful frustration — MOTHER's staff members began conducting some experiments of their own in April of 1982. The goal was to develop a catalytic converter package that could be added to any of the majority of existing woodstove types . . . so that efficient, clean burning could be made available to the wood-heating public at an affordable price.

And if you read about the stack temperature thermostat (which was featured on page 41 of issue 77), you already know that members of our staff had been — for some time — working on woodburning-related projects with independent researcher B.V. Alvarez. The catalyst project was once again headed by B.V. and was, in fact, in progress when we reported on the thermostat. Since that issue went to press, B.V. has accepted a position directing engineering at Buck Stove Corporation, and the final prototype was developed and tested in cooperation with that company. By the time you read this, Buck will be well on its way to introducing a retrofit package (patent pending), similar to the one shown here, for its line of products.

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