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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Heat reclaimers
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Miramichi
Member
# Posted: 10 Dec 2014 11:16pm
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I just picked up a Miracle Heat reclaimer for the woodstove. Anyone out there has had experience with one? I won't be installing it until the spring, just curious if it was worth the investment.

MtnDon
Member
# Posted: 11 Dec 2014 09:35am
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I don't have one, but theory says they should work. There are two "but's" in my mind though. 1. Most small cabins don't need the extra heat; most small cabins get too warm when heated with most wood stoves. 2. Use of a reclaimer will cool down the chimney gasses. Too much cooling can slow down those gasses to the point the chimnet may not draw as well. Plus the cooled gasses may make creosote formation more of a problem. There is always a trade off.

old243
Member
# Posted: 12 Dec 2014 09:10am
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I would think you should be extra careful with the quality of the wood you intend to burn. Fully dried and preferably hardwood, so as to reduce the creosote problem. You should be able to operate your stove, extra hot for a while each day , to help burn out the creosote. We let our stove get going , extra hot every morning. We have no reclaimer, lots of dry wood and rarely have to clean our chimney. When we do it is just a fine grey ash. Good luck old243

Turbogeno
Member
# Posted: 13 Dec 2014 05:11am
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I've used a Miracle Heat for years on my backup wood stove in the basement at home. It works very well but that stove doesn't have any secondary burn feature so a lot of heat goes up the chimney. It also has an internal snap switch which will turn the unit on when it's hot enough and off if the temps drop below a set point. Do watch the draft though. If you do let it get to hot without the fan running you'll fry the snap switch (easy fix) and possibly melt wires. Therefore don't use the stove in a power outage situation. It does have a built in cleaning rod to get the build up off the tubes.

Thanks, Geno

Miramichi
Member
# Posted: 13 Dec 2014 11:28am
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Thanks for the great replies. I find my cabin difficult to heat so I thought I'd give this a try. My log cabin is 18x22 and unless your within 10-15 feet of the stove (woodchief), your not overly warm. I might also try a box fan above the stove close to the ceiling just to push more air to the back of the cabin.

Don_P
Member
# Posted: 13 Dec 2014 07:42pm
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Do you go up for just a couple of days when it is cold and try to warm up a large mass of frozen logs... or are you there for long enough that warming the mass is not the problem? Another biggie is infiltration, the greater the difference in indoor and outdoor temperature, the stronger drafts get.

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