masonry stove afterburner

Based on what I did with the sidewinder prototype and the RMH using all ceramic air feeds I did before, I built an afterburner for my friend's masonry stove. He was complaining that his masonry stove was smoking too much; so I suggested that I try to make an insert that would utilize the secondary air feed and burn tunnel characteristics. His stove is one of those tall ones they make over here-- still by hand.  It has a tall burn chamber so it allowed me to put this contraption in. He burned it yesterday and it appears to work. I suppose we should see how it does over the season and I would like to replace the steel with a pizza stone, but I figure those interested could put this into a masonry stove while they build it using a replaceable stone, or at least access to clean it out.
 I have a tube getting air from the same space as the main fire. That air goes to a space right above the fire and above it is fire brick-- thin. This feeds to a venturi that the initial fire has to go through which is ~70% of the cross sectional area of the chimney. Right after the venturi it opens up the the full CSA and then opens further when it has to dog leg to get to the exit port. This is all done within duraboard. Seems to work well. We shall see how it does on wood, But it is all subjective to how cold the winter will be. Either way, I am happy it actually functions, the fire drafts, the smoke is less or non-existent and my friend is happy.

Jason

Jason, very interesting, but what is this please?....CSA
That heater looks a lot smaller than heaters I have seen, do they actually work well?
Do they have a name,'mini masonary"

I am not sure why my last two threads I have not been able to load the pictures in the correct order , but for clarification the first blurry picture shows the contraption held up into the chamber with four pieces of angle iron as legs. If all works out after the winter we will try to sort out some sort of fire brick/refractory solution to this. Metal does heat the air quickly though, but it burns out so I will find another long lasting solution.

Jason

John C Daley wrote:Jason, very interesting, but what is this please?....CSA
That heater looks a lot smaller than heaters I have seen, do they actually work well?
Do they have a name,'mini masonary"

It is just a masonry heater for a smaller sized house over here. I guess you could say it is a tall bell for a masonry stove. The castles over here have larger taller versions of this, but still similar in proportions. Tall and thin. They seem to work well. My friend's was just done a bit wonky so it smoked more than usual so I thought I would try this insert. I really think any masonry stove could be built with an afterburner going right into the first bell. It seems like it could be done with a single air channel for ease of cleaning. But this is just based off of the last three things I've used this on. It just seems like it could be done. A removable plate for collecting heat and replaceability combined with some porting. I suppose if the port came from the side then it could just be a solid fire brick affair with even less maintenance. I see so many designs in my head right now. I look forward to seeing anyone else's take on this.
Jason

Well, maybe not quite as thin, looking at the picture. That might be why his didn't work like in the castles.

Very cool modification, Jason. Will it require smaller wood to burn?

Also, does your friend's masonry stove have enough external chimney? Sometimes an additional 3ft/1m above the roof line does wonders for draft and smoke problems.

Those tiled stoves are beautiful. It would be a privilege to have one in one's home.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Very cool modification, Jason. Will it require smaller wood to burn?

Also, does your friend's masonry stove have enough external chimney? Sometimes an additional 3ft/1m above the roof line does wonders for draft and smoke problems.

The stove is on the ground floor and it has two floors and a 12:12 gable roof. The chimney extends around That above the ridge. It appears to work better now with this insert. The burn chamber is the same size because the afterburner is above the fire so the wood can be the same size. The opening is an inch narrower because of the air tube that comes from the afterburner to the bottom of the chamber, but that doesn't seem to effect the loading much.

Jason