Castile mod? possibly

[Countryboymo]

I purchased my stove used and as always I had to learn how the stove is supposed to be set up and what had or had not been tinkered with and then start tinkering myself. I realized from looking at a new stove on the floor that each side had a rope gasket next to the wall so somewhat seal the back plate and mine only had one on the left side causing ash to pile up on the right side back plate as it was being sucked through bypassing the exchange tubes. I replaced both sides and started thinking about the path behind the plate in the middle. I stuffed one from the bottom on the left side of the middle plate and run it up and laid it across the top of the fill tube. I did it thinking that the exhaust couldn't just go down the behind the plates and shoot straight across and out the flue and would force more heat to stay up around the tubes. The thermometer I had only had marks to 200 but the needle can travel well beyond that. I noticed a large difference in exhange tube heat on the gauge and it seems to be quite a bit hotter. I burned over 10 bags last year with the extra gasket in place and noticed no measurable difference in accumulation of ash behind the plates either way.

Has anyone else tried this?

 

[BradH70]

I have a Castile but this will be my first season with it. I want to get more comfortable with its operation before I do any mods. I will keep this one in mind though. There are a lot of threads that talk bout different ways to improve the performance of the Quads.

 

[Countryboymo]

I really enjoy mine. It will burn almost any pellet I have thrown at it just some much much better than others. I do think I am going to do the room blower mod this winter though. I wasn't trying to 'mod' mine when I did the center gasket, I thought it was supposed to be that way from the factory.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Any chance of getting a picture of what you are talking about, countryboymo? You know I LOVE MODS ON THE QUADS!

 

[smalltown]

Any chance of getting a picture of what you are talking about, countryboymo? You know I LOVE MODS ON THE QUADS!

I would also like to see a picture. I was thinking why not put rope gasket on either side of the middle rear plate to seal the area between the plates?

 

[Countryboymo]

I had it ran down to the bottom and then up the right side if the feed chute just far enough to cover the gap on the right side. The top end bends over to the right over top of the screw that holds the middle plate. I have ran it both ways with these pellets and seem to pull hotter tube temps with the gasket.

I would like to pull the rope out and run it for an hour and record the exhaust temps and then install it and do the same and compare. It amazed me that I didn't notice a difference in ash behind the plates since it can't just draw air straight across the back of the stove.

This picture was taken after running with no added rope gasket like factory for two bags and just vacuuming.

When I purchased the stove the whole area behind the middle plate was almost full of ash so the airflow through there was slim and none anyway. The gasket that I used is only 5/8" and it isn't packed in to seal all flow just to slow things down.

 

[Countryboymo]

I would like opinions on this. It does not seem to affect my stove on anything except it seems to throw hotter air and the exhaust felt a touch cooler. The flame height and activity level looked the same. I just wonder if it might create a hot spot at the rear of the stove but that is where the limit switches are and that area was blocked with ash for who knows how long before I purchased the stove anyway.