Basement Woodstock Ideal Steel and insulation?

BDF, my wife just saw the post about inducer eliminating white powder dust.. Guess what I am installing in July..

took wife to lunch... no good deed goes unpunished. .

Thanks man.. so since you started it what brand where did you get it etc point me to a thread

 

Sorry- I did not mean to spend anyone else's money :-( Still, it really does work well.

This is a nice link showing what it is and how it mounts: Volko draft inducers... AD-1 Draft Inducer for wood stoves I did not purchase mine from that company though, I believe I used Amazon. They are easy to find.

A couple of caveats: for whatever reason, there is a gigantic hole that the fan shaft passes through. I assume this is to keep the inducer cool but it does make for a huge air leak into the chimney. I covered mine with about 10 layers of aluminum foil, folded over with a slit cut in from the side. Slide the foil pack over the shaft and push it up against the housing and it makes a very good seal. 2) you will have to seal the inducer to the stove pipe- they provide some gasket material but I found there were some large gaps on the top and bottom of the frame where it mounts to the smoke pipe- I used stove cement to make a decent seal. 3) the seams on the inducer fan shroud leak when the unit is new! You will have to caulk them up. I used a piece of electrical tape and of course it did not last but by the time it melted off, the seams sealed themselves with ash fines and it no longer leaks even without the tape. Lastly, I never let my flue temp. (inside the stove pipe, not on the surface) exceed 750F; the inducer has what look like Delrin stand- offs mounting it and I do not know if they will take, say, 1,000F or similar without melting. This device is specifically made to be used in wood stoves so I <guess> they are OK but you might want to keep the max. flue gas temp. down to some reasonable level. I never let mine get to 800F so that I am unlikely to start a chimney fire but I know some folks do let it get quite a bit higher.

All of that said, the unit is a little ugly (though not awful IMO), and it is rather noisy when it is running but in the end, it is the sure- fire, absolute fix for smoke and fly ash getting out of the stove. I also use it when taking the ash pan out of the stove and it keeps that operation a lot cleaner too. A chimney top unit would be better, and safer I think but they are outrageous in price, at least in my opinion, and require outside wiring, etc.

Brian