Running a Fireplace Insert with a Catalytic Convertor -|- How-To
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- Опубліковано 2 гру 2024
- I am putting together some how-to videos and notes for our renters and as the folks that we sold our last home to also struggled with getting the insert to run properly without pouring smoke into the house, I thought that I would make a public video so that the information was out there as a ready-reference.
Our particular model is a BlazeKing Ashford 25, but most on these types of inserts and stoves are similar - the damper or air flow lever is sometimes in a different spot and can be a lever or a pull shaft. Same principle of operation though.
Please refer to your owners manual before using a new stove in a home that you rent or buy for the most accurate and up to date information.
Excellent description on how this stove works. I purchased this fireplace last year. It is intimidating when you are first learning. Thank you for video!
@@Geids really happy that I helped! it’s a great little insert.
Awesome video. Are you able to mount a tv above the Insert? Thanks
Love the info on this video and I’ve followed it to the T but smoke is coming the house. It’s coming in through the crack between the wall peace and the horizontal box in front. Could it be installed wrong?
Since you have a closed loop in the firebox, a simple way to heat the whole home, assuming you have attic access is to install a small insulated duct from the fireplace room, through the attic to the other end of the house. A small inline duct fan will circulate the air for pennies end-to-end of the home and really improve the effectiveness of the stove.
I had something similar in a house years ago. That was a single story ranch. And it worked great. My current home is a bi-level mid-century, and I also have duel Heat pumps on each level with head units in each bedroom. The fans in them are super efficient and when I have the fireplace on I almost never turned the internal fan on in the fireplace, because it is a little energy inefficient. Instead, I’ll turn the fans on low in all the units on and open the doors and the heat circulates all over the house levels. Works great. I stayed in an A-frame once that had an 8 inch tube/duct that ran to the very top of the peak to almost floor level that had a fan that drew the hot air in the peak down. It made it super comfortable and fix the issue of the main area being comfortable and the sleeping loft being hotter than the fifth level of hell. The fan on the duct seem to have been a large DC computer fan, so I’m sure that it was just sipping pennies a day as well
That is increíble my friendwho do fire shimny work.
Nice video. I'm considering a new insert including this model. How often do you run the fan, and how much difference does it make for heating the house? One reason I am considering this is to have heat if power goes out, and wondering how it heats without a fan. Thanks in advance!
@@marek3041 very seldom. Within temperatures last year got below 30. I turned it on, but on low. And it flooded my entire upstairs full of warm air goodness. I do have a passive fan sitting on top of it that when it gets hot it just turns on just to keep air moving but I mean it doesn’t you know push it 30 feet or anything. Insert gets plenty hot and like I said the video it’s not something that you start a big fire in and pack full for a romantic evening in front of. It gets hot enough to run out of the room. if you do want to have a romantic fire, then just build a small one in it. That type of insert though really is meant to heat a lot of space.
Can you get any time around 24hrs burn time? How is the low burn setting is different from what you explained in the video
Hey Matt I just got a blaze king ashford same one as you. I am having trouble getting it going for any more than 2 hours on 50% damper open. Once I bring the damper to 50% the flame almost goes out. I only put down the damper when it’s at least 25% into the red. I am also having trouble heating the room with this only gets the room to about 75 degrees when the glass is at 750 This is my first cat stove and struggling to learn it.
@@Vespertilionidae that is not my experience at all. What kind of wood are you using? Are you burning pine or fir? You really do just want hardwood in there. Are you turning on the fan prematurely and cooling the heat exchanger? With a 750° face then that should run you out of that room? I would have your installer come over and see what’s going on. It could be that you are having your heat escape up through your flu somehow. As long as you have a really good coal base and then everything‘s on fire when you shut that damper down, it should keep heating and burning. Now, you might not have any open flame in the box, but as long as the heat chamber doesn’t fill with smoke, you’re fine. It’s going to continue to burn and heat.
@ thank you so much for your response it’s greatly appreciated!! I am burning strictly hardwoods mostly ash which is why I am so surprised! I do have cathedral ceiling so perhaps my heat is getting trapped in the top half of the room? I am turning my fan on only after the gauge is well into the red I’m really not sure what to make of this. I had a regular stove before this and I could barely be in the room when I had it running granted that was before the cathedral ceilings.
@ that may be it. It may all just be going up into your peak. Get a laser thermometer and see what your temperature is up the wall in front of the fireplace on the ceiling and at the ridge. My family had an A-frame cabin when I was growing up and we had to install an 8 inch duct on the backside of the fireplace that went almost to the ceiling and then a fan on the bottom of it that went to the floor and would pull the heat out of the top of the A-frame, or you couldn’t sleep in the loft, no matter how cold it was outside.
In the beginning you left the door cracked. When did you close it up?
@@wcsalaun after 20-30 minutes into the initial burn after lighting. At 6:07 in the video. When the wood is completely lit and coals in bottom. Really hot bottom.
Love my catalytic converter burns so nice saves me on a lot of wood I used both kind of stoves wood catalytic saves me so much money on wood I used probably half the wood than a stove without
Same. I know people complain about government oversight, blah blah blah, but it’s more efficient. It burns less wood and heats bejesus out of my house.
@@MattofManyTrades so true
Hi, so debating between this and a reburner regency 2450. I don’t want to burn us out of the family room where insert would be. Would also like to enjoy a nice looking fire. Are you saying it not practical to be in same room as unit when it’s running properly? Would a reburner be better suited for my needs?
@@daviddelahanty5088 not if a small room…. This is more of a heater that an ambiance thing.
@@MattofManyTrades thanks that points me to a non cat then. Appreciate it.
why in the world do you need a catalytic converter on a wood stove? It's a wood stove.
The country where you get an inversion later in the air stagnates in winter, the only way that you can legally buy a woodfired heat source (stove insert, regular wood stove, pellet stove, etc..) is to have one with the catalytic converter, installed to reborn the particulates in the hot instead of venting. Most cities have passed similar ordinances from New York to Chicago to Dallas to Portland. if you live in an urban area, you can’t use grandpa’s potbelly stove that was in the cabin for 55 years.
It makes it a little more complicated to light, but my home growing up was heated solely on wood heat so I have some experience and I will say that stoves and inserts with the catalytic converter I have longer burn times and I use less wood in them so they are more efficient and a better use of . I don’t like how much more expensive they are, and I think that the expense is directly reflective of the fact that they mandated by law, but the return of investment in comparison is only for five additional years and a good woodstove will last you for your lifetime. With the newer models, you may after 10 years have to replace the catalytic brick, but on mine it costs $250 is fairly easy to get to and I bought an extra with the stove and it’s on the top shelf of the pantry just in case I need it in a decade or so.
@@MattofManyTrades You must be in Canada. Wow. Even got the wood stoves. Ridiculous.
@@chrisragan9766 Nope. Oregon. Same rules in Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, and even Dallas. Any major urban area.
catalytic converter burns the wood gases and smoke, you get more BTUs from your wood.
It catalyses reactions. If you burn wood a lot of energy goes into wood pyrolysis and most of this energy you get back by burning wood gas (this is the visible flames not the coals) but some wood gas still leaves with smoke. In the wood gas there are some harmful chemicals like organic aromatics that are carconigen but it's not the biggest reason for using a catalytic converter. The biggest reason is just cost saving, while it is an investment you just get so much more heat from the log of wood. You burn nearly everything and you even lose the smoke or smell from the chimney so that's the biggest advantage.