Wood stove heat exchangers- Magic Heat

[Ign]

I searched this forum but didn't see any thread titles that seemed on topic (in the first page of results) for "exchanger" or "magic."

Anyway I've always used a Magic Heat w my double barrel stove. After about 11 years my first one just died . Mine runs A LOT. I mean a lot. If I'm in the shop in the winter I leave the stove door cracked & use the Magic Heat as an alarm that I need to add wood. IOW I keep it running non-stop.

Yesterday was cold & ****** and I had to work in the shop. The difference without the MH was significant -- like taking a couple hours to get the shop to a temp that would require 40 minutes with the fan working.

I chose to buy another Magic Heat as my first one lasted so long and they're made in U.S. The now-more-common Miracle Heat has very mixed reviews and complaints of not coming on soon enough thermostatically. That said, I've never touched or used a Miracle Heat.

I found one on Amazon in Warehouse deals for about $170 - about $20 under retail. I don't know why it was in Warehouse Deals - seemed perfect.

Here's my new Magic Heat this morning; first fire and it's losing its pretty silver faceplate to heat

 

[ForceFed70]

Neat! Do they make a variant that includes a eco-type fan and doesn't require 120V power?

 

[James-W]

I am pretty sure I saw one of those things a few years ago at someone's workshop. Not sure if it was the same brand, but is sure looked a lot like that one. Worked really well as I recall.

 

[cre73]

I'm glad you have had good luck with yours. This is about the first good experience with them that I have heard. Usually you hear about them cooling the flu temperatures and causing creasote build up.

 

[brianh]

I have one in the house its 20 years old by now I hated the crappy fan so replaced it with a much quieter more efficient one.

It does cool the stack temp, I clean out the triple wall pipe every 6 weeks or so.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... I've got a unit like that, but slightly different,....

It No doubt helps pull more heat outa the exhausted gases, 'n blows it 'round the room much better,....

 

[Ign]

I dunno how I'd heat my 40x50x14 otherwise. So much heat is lost up the pipe. This basically turns your stove into a forced air furnace.

I used to have a TERRIBLE setup with two 90's in my pipe going out the wall. Just this year I ran STRAIGHT up out the ceiling. Anyway with my old setup of two 90's I'd clean 3-4 times per season. But who knows how much of that was Magic Heat and how much was my 5 to 6' HORIZONTAL going out the wall.

Either way I'm sold on the heat exchangers. I don't use one in the house only 'cause it'd be TOO much. As it is I can barely regulate our All Nighter in our 750 sq ft upstairs. Quite often in January it's 6 degrees outside and we're cracking windows 'cause it's 88 in the house.

 

[BLUE72CAMARO]

My dad has an older version of the magic heat on a small wood burner in his shop and no doubt they make a world of difference if your using a small stove without a circulating blower of any kind. It does drop the flu temp considerably though and causes cresote build up but luckily we dont burn any wood that is really bad about building it up.

 

[aka Larry]

I've almost pulled the trigger on one of these twice, but I too was worried about the creosote build up. I have two 90's in my stack, and no problems with the draft at all right now. It was much easier to go through the wall, which is why I did it that way. Mine is now 4 years old and I haven't cleaned the stack at all, but it currently needs to be replaced as I noticed it leaking from the horizontal run inside during a recent storm.

Pics of mine:

 

[Warrenator]

Thanks for the testimonial, I will see if I can't put one in the new shop. As far as the creosote buildup goes, I reckon a modern EPA stove that reburns the gasses (like a Quadrafire or Englander stove) will have way less buildup of creosote than an old smoke dragon stove.

I have so many fallen trees to clean up (new to me property, a little neglected) that I honestly don't know what to do with all this firewood, so I'm stacking it and burning it for heat. My casual calculations tell me 1 cord of wood has the same heat as 300 gallons of propane. So not only being green by heating with a renewable resource, cleaning up the property, but saving cash too.

 

[homebuilt burner]

We had one in the house I grew up in. It worked very good and for a long time.

 

[Ign]

Thanks for the testimonial, I will see if I can't put one in the new shop. As far as the creosote buildup goes, I reckon a modern EPA stove that reburns the gasses (like a Quadrafire or Englander stove) will have way less buildup of creosote than an old smoke dragon stove.

I have so many fallen trees to clean up (new to me property, a little neglected) that I honestly don't know what to do with all this firewood, so I'm stacking it and burning it for heat. My casual calculations tell me 1 cord of wood has the same heat as 300 gallons of propane. So not only being green by heating with a renewable resource, cleaning up the property, but saving cash too.

I'm the same way....35 acres of beetle kill. So much wood we could never use it all, but I get to reduce fire danger and use a natural resource other than NG/LP

2 nights ago the pump for our hot water baseboard died in the house. Thank god for a simple wood stove that has no moving parts & requires no hook-ups or electricity of any kind.

THAT SAID, you shouldn't use Magic Heats if the power goes out - they're supposed to be able to kick on to cool themselves. They have a switch but the switch is constant on or thermostat on. There is no hard "off"

Not a problem for me 'cause as a metalworker/machinist if the power's out I'm dead in the water in the shop

Or Plan B is stupid simple: have a straight piece of pipe the length of the MH w proper crimps or flairs; it would take two minutes to swap.

 

[joes169]

Thanks for the testimonial, I will see if I can't put one in the new shop. As far as the creosote buildup goes, I reckon a modern EPA stove that reburns the gasses (like a Quadrafire or Englander stove) will have way less buildup of creosote than an old smoke dragon stove.

In an EPA stove/furnace with secondary air, I doubt these would offer much help, as the flue temps are WAY lower than a double barrel stove. Plus, I'm sure that they'd cut the draft down far enough that the fire rate would suffer tremendously. There's probably hundreds of threads about these things at hearth dot com.........

 

[Denwood]

I was going to say the same. A secondary combustion stove (we have an airtight fireplace) is miles more efficient than the old wood stove. At operating temps, there is no smoke coming from the chimney. Outside air is used for combustion, while flue gases are cooler and cleaner. Given a choice, a modern air tight is what you want. Our fireplace is 60000 BTU and has no issues keeping 1800 ft toasty at -30C.

The chimney fire from our old wood stove + magic heat was a truly scary event. The house was nearly lost. The chimney above the magic heat was glowing red..the only salvation was the double walled chimney heading through the second story and roof.

 

[walrus]

I would never use a magic heat on an airtight wood stove. Chimney fire waiting to happen.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I would never use a magic heat on an airtight wood stove. Chimney fire waiting to happen.

Same reason I've never bought one. Might be alright on barrel stoves.