New Aire stove mods

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pofarm

New Member
Nov 3, 2014
6
Carthage, MO
I have an older New Aire wood stove. It is double wall with a blower. The fire box is just that, a steel box. There are no baffles or fire brick liner in it at all. I called the manufacturer, who is local, and was told that they didn't line their stoves. The 6 inch flue exits the rear of the stove. I am planning on modifying it with a baffle shelf at the top, right under the flue and adding a secondary combustion system under the shelf. I plan to make the shelf out of a steel frame with either light weight fire brick, ceramic fiber panel, or castable refractory cement. I also plan to line the sides with 1 1/2" light weight fire brick. The shelf will be the full width of the fire box and run from the rear wall to about 3" to 4" back from the front wall.

Now for the questions.
1. I looked at a top flue stove that had a baffle over the flue opening, above the shelf. Should I also add some kind of baffle over the flue opening? If so, how should I make it? I'm thinking just a steel plate with stand offs, similar to the stove I looked at, but I'm not sure it is needed, or advisable, on the rear exit. The shelf and flue baffle would be removable for ease of cleaning.

2. The floor of the box is steel plate with a 2" air space between it and the outer skin of the stove. The wood grate is welded to the floor. Should I line the floor with fire brick also? If so, I'm looking at 1/2" thick brick there because of space limitations.

3. I would like to add an air wash system to help keep the door glass clear. My thoughts here are to add a length of square tubing above the doors with holes or slots along the bottom of the tubing and air intakes drilled through the front above the doors with a means of controlling the intake air. I'm still working on a way of controlling the air, but I'm thinking rotary like the primary intakes in the doors. Any thoughts on this? Good idea...bad idea?

This is a fairly large stove and is in the same room as the return air for the central system. I use the central blower to distribute the warm air throughout the house. I can't build a very big fire or it will run you out of the house. Because of this I fight creosote build up in the fire box and flue. I'm hoping these mods will help with the creosote problem.
Any thoughts on any of this will be much appreciated.
 
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