The Tire Stove

The Tire Stove TIRES/WHEELS Burning Burning old rubber tires for fuel without spewing dirty black smoke and toxic elements into the atmosphere is a problem many inventors have tried to solve Jim and Denny Feneis of St Cloud Minn say they ve got the problem licked with their first-of-its-kind tire stove It burns clean --- no black smoke ù and odorless in turning old car truck and tractor tires into free heat There is tremendous btu value in old tires says Jim Feneis who runs a paint tire and fuel service center in partnership with his father Dennis Until now there s been no good way to get rid of old tires and through the years we ve accumulated thousands of them here at our place of business Millions more are stacked up in piles and dumpsites across the country We think we ve hit on an idea that can be used to turn this vast untapped source of energy into free fuel for heating homes businesses barns drying crops and a lot more For the past two winters Jim and Denny Feneis have used their tire stove fueled with old tires taken from their mountain of worthless tires to heat their large paint shop in which they paint reconditioned industrial equipment We figure the tire stove cut our fuel bill 83% says Jim noting that our 2 500 sq ft paint shop is an especially expensive building to heat because the air must be continually exchanged to exhaust toxic paint fumes Without the tire stove and the free heat it provides we d have to shut down our painting operation in winter Heating that shop is like trying to heat your house when it s below zero the wind is blowing and you ve got all the windows open Oil and gas have become too expensive to make it feasible to heat the large paint shop during the winter Thanks to our tire stove we ve been able to keep it open and have reduced our heating bill to virtually nothing in the process The original Feneis tire stove was 5 ft square by 4 ft high Its firebox made of 1/4 by 1/2 in plate steel held six tires A newer improved model is twice as large and burns 10 to 12 car or truck tires at once Here according to Jim is how it works: We throw the tires æas is into the firebox and start them burning with kindling or whatever is at hand Then we close the door and limit the amount of oxygen so the tires will smolder creating thick black smoke inside the firebox We actually burn the smoke given off by the smoldering tires The smoke rises out of the firebox to the upper corner of the furnace where it filters through holes into the combustion chamber A conventional oil furnace injector shoots a continuous oil flame into the chamber igniting the smoke Natural gas would work just as well to ignite the smoke The burning smoke flows upward into an 80-ft long series of 8-in heat exchanger pipes that wind back and forth in front of the ventilators bringing in cold air from the outside The air is warmed as it passes between the pipes ù which often are red hot ù and directed into the paint shop Warm air fouled by paint fumes is exhausted at the other end of the building If you hold a match in the smoke of a cigarette the smoke will burn up and disappear That s essentially what this furnace does to black tire smoke The smoke burns up in the heat exchanger pipes which are made from old ammonia cylinders They re similar to a set of acetylene gas cylinders 8 in in dia and are made from heavy steel that can withstand the heat of the burning tire smoke Jim explains He and his father installed their tire stove in a small brick addition to the paint shop in such a way that it can be stoked from the outside One tire heats their shop for about an hour so they stoke the stove morning and night with a full load of 10 to 12 tires Jim notes that what little smoke comes out of the stack is as clear as that given off by a highly efficient wood burner Local fire officials have inspected the Feneis tire stove and apparently feel that it is completely safe as long as one load of rubber tire fuel is allowed to burn down most of the way before another load is added That s because when the firebox door is opened to add tires oxygen fuels the fire causing it to flare up into a roaring fire explains Jim This is one of the problems that needs to be solved before the tire stove can be produced commercially along with having more controls and determining the optimum amount of oil or gas we need to burn to ignite the black smoke he told FARM SHOW Jim and his father have spent about $5 000 in developing their tire stove over the past 2 years As this Issue of FARM SHOW went to press Jim had temporarily dismantled the stove to make some improvements but planned to have it back together and fire up again soon He has no literature on the tire stove but would be willing to visit with interested FARM SHOW readers by appointment For more information contact FARM SHOW Followup Jim Feneis Esoc Companies 621 Lincoln Avenue S E St Cloud Minn 56301 ph 6120252-9711 or 252-6983

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.