Holy Cow! My Whitfield has a major built-in air wall inside the exhaust flue. Why??

[arnash]

After removing my exhaust blower with the flue pipe attached, I looked into it and saw this;

The half-moon shape on the right is the forward visible area of the wall of the blower's housing. The half-moon on the left is the back of the flue, the unseen space between them is the exhaust path at the 90 degree elbow. So I wonder if the combustion blower flue pipes on other stoves also have such a "baffle" intruding into the path of the exhaust air. If so, why? If not, why does my Advantage I have it? Does it have no effect on the free movement of air out through the flue?

 

[Wachusett]

I have noticed something similar on my M55. The unit requires a 4" exhaust, but the exhaust opening in the blower housing
is maybe 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" = 8.75 sq.in.. 4" pipe = 12.5 sq. in.. I would assume it is sized for the blower speed, pressure, etc.
This is one of those ash catchers that needs cleaning.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I have an Advantage 2T and I dont believe it has anything like that in the outlet.

Most likely the baffle is there to stop sparks or to "Correct/modify" the airflow.

Possibly the airflow was too great and the baffle was added as a flow restrictor.

The exhaust fan is what pulls the air through the burn pot from the fresh air side, and if the flow is too fast, it would literally blow the fire out.

Most of the larger Whitfields have a "DAMPER ROD" the controls a sliding blade in the exhaust, where is this baffle from that point.

More Pix would help.

Snowy

 

[CJ-SR4ever]

I agree with Snowy. I also believe that is there to modify the airflow in the machine. Maybe to slow down the draft a little inside the combustion chamber and to force it out of the pipe a little faster. Definately has something to do with making the draft in the combustion chamber the right flow so you dont burn the pellets to quickly or to slow. My Montage has about 1/4 to maybe a 1/2 of the opening blocked with a rectangular opening.

 

[arnash]

The "baffle" isn't a piece added to the blower housing, it IS the blower housing which extends into the tubing of the flue pipe. But I know of something called the "venturi effect" which is an air flow effect deliberately used in things like blowers, turbines, and carburetors. the effect is one that increases air flow speed by reducing the size of the air-intake by concentrating the flow of air molecules into a much smaller space. I'll bet that reducing the flue size at that first 90% angle might produce a more stabilized air flow. The alternative is that 'way back when the engineers designed and built the first models (which mine is an example off) they didn't know or care that they were obstructing the air flow in a negative way. I'll lean toward the former rather than the latter, giving them the benefit of the doubt that they knew what they were doing. And since my combustion air flow is plenty strong, I have no reason to think that the "obstruction" is a problem. All's good. No problemo.