Looking for Heat Exchanger/Reclaimer for Furnace Stack

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

In an age of rising taxes, rising fuel oil prices and rising electric costs, I am looking for ways to stop the waste heat from exiting my chimney.

I have a Wickes W62 oil fired boiler with a 7" stack. I'm looking for either or both of the following:

A heat exchanger with a forced-air fan that can extract some of the waste heat and heat the basement. A flu damper that shuts off flow to the chimney when the furnace is off. Preferably one with active spring-loaded damper that wants to be in the open position or with a failure mode that causes it to be open, also with some delay, alowing it to close, say 10 seconds after the furnace has shut off.

I have insulated all the hot water pipes in the furnace room leading to the rest of the house, thus reducing the temperature in the furnace area. This area shares space with a workshop, so I need some heat. I remember a product on the market some time back that consisted of a stainless steel box with some hollow tubes in it--the box mounted in the stack pipe and had a thermostaticly-controlled fan to force the warm air out of the tubes. I spent some time searching Google last night but could not find a manufacturer of anything similar.

Does anyone remember this product and who sells it?

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

sites at:

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[donald girod]

A flue damper on an oil furnace is probably not a retrofit item. I have seen the things you put in the flue pipe with tubes, etc. at Northern Tool and Equipment, but they don't seem to be in the catalog I have. You might try looking at their web page.

My father heated our basement years ago by running the smoke pipe into a 30 gal. drum with a baffle in it to slow the gas down and let it heat the drum. It was very effective. But you don't want the temperature in your chimney to drop too low or you will get lots of condensation, acid, and gunk.

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

[mainiacs]

We check all "Forward this to everyone you know..." messages at

so we aren't forwarding urban legends and hoaxes.

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

This is indeed the product I am looking for. However, when I click on details for the product there is an application error and something about the item number not being published. I'm going to peruse their main page and see if they have a contact address. Also I can search on the product name on Google. Thanks for the lead.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

sites at:

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[CBhvac]

That might be that in the day and age of the new code, those have been deemed illegal in most areas.

Just as information.

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

Hmmm, that seems to run counter to the general push to be more environmentally and energy-friendly. Illegal in most of the USA perhaps? If not all the USA, why would they bother advertising it on a web site? The price of $115 looked good. I was going to order one, when the site shot back some kind of server error.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

sites at:

-

[HeatMan]

I'm just jumping in where CBHVAC has already started.

One of the problems I see with the contraption on the website is that it cools the flue/chimney down. You say good, I say bad. If the flue cools down enough, it could cause the water vapor in the flue gases (especially if this is on a gas appliance) to condense. The water that condenses will have a high pH and that could cause even an aluminum flue pipe to corrode away.

If it's used on a wood burner, I think it would be a little better, but that chimney better be inspected and cleaned 2-3 times a year.

[Stormin Mormon]

I remebmer the product. I had a buddy some years ago who had one on his wood burning stove. Perhaps you can get something like this at a fireplace shop?