just bought a drolet baltic II, have a question about the bypass damper

[stangman86gt]

First post here! I did do a search for this question, but couldn't find the answer(maybe googlefu not working today).

So, i was just looking inside and it doesn't look like the bypass damper closes all the way. Half inch gap or so at the back of the bypasses. Is this normal? I'm going to assume yes since both sides look the same, but I don't want to lose efficiency over something simple like this hehe.

I've tried to find pictures of people's fireboxes to see if they close all the way on theirs, but there's no pictures that i can really see them.

thanks for the help

*edit* more information. I just bought this so i haven't had a fire in it yet to see if it does affect the burn time...figured it would be easier to fix it if it was clean

 

[begreen]

Good question. If you don't get a response here it sounds like it's worth a call to Drolet support tomorrow.

 

[klxrelic]

I can't remember, but will try to check tomorrow when the fire is out. I have the Austral II... Basically same stove.

 

[klxrelic]

The top baffle board is able to move around a bit.... You could jitter it around to see if they close better. I seem to remember mine being a bit hard to shut at first...

 

[stangman86gt]

thanks relic. I was able to move the baffle a little forward and now i can't get my whole finger back in there, just the tip of it.

 

[klxrelic]

Yeah, and I forgot to look at mine before I lit the fire. Sounds like you might have it solved any ways.

 

[stangman86gt]

yep fire's been humming along for the last 3 hours sitting at 450F. Of course the house is still cold in the other rooms, because i have a window open and the fan going in the room with the stove. Can't wait till its done curing hehe.

thanks for the reply relic

 

[klxrelic]

No, problem. Only modification I did with mine was to add a draught position indicator.

Bascally I put a long bolt onto the ear of an old hard drive magnet, stuck it to the underside of the ash shelf and markec the position of fullopen/close on the rod. plus a few dots for quarter, half, and three quarter.

Heres the hard drive magnet and bolt attached:




Here is my indicator view when installed:



Not the best pic angle...you can just see the bolt at the full open mark

 

[stangman86gt]

wow that's awesome. I was literally just telling myself i wish there was some indicator on this thing to see how far i have it pushed in

 

[klxrelic]

If you don't have a magnet to use, maybe you could epoxy a bolt to the underside. Or drill a hole in the little ledge. Epoxy would better tho... Would look better.

Good luck with the new stove... I am very pleased with mine.

 

[Mark Richards]

Hi, I am planning to go with the Baltic II for next year's heating season. Are the burns easily controllable and on a full load, how many hours of +400 degree stove top temps do you average. Thanks. Oh and how well does a 20" log fit in N/S