Broken brick - can I wait to replace?

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Nate Finch

Nate Finch

New Member
Aug 25, 2010
49
Harvard, MA
I have a broken brick in the back of my stove, a 4" square chunk fell right out. Is it critical that I replace it right away, or is it no big deal to have a piece of one of the bricks missing for a while? My guess is that the bricks are just there to release the heat slowly over time, not as an actual heat barrier or anything.... am I right?

Thanks!
 
It's not going to burn your house down or otherwise permanently damage your stove to have a piece of a brick missing, especially with the gap in the back where the stove tends to be a little cooler. Sounds like it's about half a brick. Did you inadvertently toss it out with the ash? But that's a big piece. If you can find it, just tuck it back into place and go on with life. A cracked brick isn't any big deal. Some of the bricks in the back of my stove are cracked into 3 pieces. If it really bugs you, find a local brick yard and pick up a replacement there. That's a lot cheaper than getting one from the manufacturer.

You're right about why the bricks are there. They are there to isolate the fire so it can operate at much higher temperatures. The heat won't hurt the steel.
 
Cracked is fine. I wouldn't want to have one missing for a longevity issue. A few fires won't hurt, but you will have a localized hot spot. I'm not sure what that would do over time. You might want to hit a concrete yard and pick one up for less than $2.50 each last time I checked. Last time I went I bought a few extra. They are handy for the strangest things and when you need one they are nice to have.

Matt
 
I have had several and have used furnace cement to kinda "glue" them back together. They have held up in the vertical position for two years now. The bricks the dealer sells for the Quadra Fire stoves are way more expensive than $2.50 each.
 
Nate, where in Sam Hill have you been? Long time no see.

At this time of the year, it should not be a major problem but if this happened during mid winter or earlier I would replace it right then. You should not have big fires now. Just replace the brick when you do the spring cleaning. Best to really check those other bricks really good too. Replace if needed.

I hope you have lots of robins there now. I haven't seen any but have talked to lots of folks who have.
 
Thanks guys. I actually bought a replacement brick back when we first got the house, just 'cause it was obvious the one in there wasn't going to last, but it turned out to be the wrong size..... and I never got around to fixing it / buying a new one. sounds like I can just do it once we hit a warm streak for a few days.

Hiya Dennis, thanks for the warm welcome back. Yeah, we're burning a lot less now... finally that cold streak broke. For a while there we were shoving wood in the stove just about as fast as I could bring it in.

The stove's been doing great.... we were pretty good about estimating the amount of wood we'd need. Got 6 cords for the winter, and have about 1.5 or a little less left. Should do us and then some. Used about 150 gallons of oil (only used it when we'd be away all day or if we had guests - the kitchen & dining room are on the opposite side of the house, and so don't get that warm, luckily we have 9 zones in the house, so can pick and choose pretty well).

Been awfully busy... wife is pregnant with our first kid (due in August), work's been going crazy, and been having a hell of a time keeping up with the snow. We have a big driveway and had the brilliant idea to snowblow it rather than get a plow service (it would probably cost up $125 a snowstorm.... and we'd still need to snowblow a path to the wood pile and a path to the back door).

No robins here yet that I've seen. Saw a beautiful woodpecker today, and definitely some of the spring birds are coming back. With the glaciers slowly receding, some of our bulbs are poking up out of the dirt. Can't wait for spring!
 
If you still have the pieces you can use furnace cement to fix the brick.
 
......Or you could switch places with one of the bricks on the floor of the stove, if any are the same size. A broken brick on the floor of the stove won't hurt anything, the ashes will fill the crack.
 
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