Napoleon 1900 advice needed

[mingo]

I am new here, so hi to all. I have a couple of questions I would like to ask you guys. I have used wood for over 20yrs now so I am up to speed with the do's and dont's. I purchased a used Napoleon 1900 in the summer of 2014 and this was my first winter with it. It has done great! Plenty of heat and very long burn time. I have read about some having trouble with baffles, mine does not have baffles in the top, it has firebrick. Q #1- Is the brick ok to leave in it or should I switch and put baffles in the top ? Q #2- I have heard alot about the manifold cracking in the 1900. How can you tell if the manifold cracks without taking it apart? Will there be any performance issue or would this be a EPA issue? I am not sure I understand the whole manifold setup. Any help on my questions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[begreen]

The firebricks on top are the baffle. Leave them alone. Firebrick is very durable. If you don't overfire the stove it should be trouble free. I have only seen a couple reports of manifold cracking. One sounded like the stove was overfired. Keep the stove top no higher than 700F and the manifold should be fine.

 

[mingo]

Thanks for the info. Do you know what change there would be if the manifold did crack? After the last fire has gone out for the winter I plan on removing the shield to check it out. The stove looks new on the outside, and the interior looks to be in very lightly used shape. I absolutely love this thing and intend to keep it as close to new condition as possible.

 

[begreen]

Hard to say, it might depend on where it cracked. Symptoms might be poor secondary burn or unbalanced burn, or an accelerated burn in the location of the crack.