My new Napoleon 1100CP finally arrived today from Zoobler via Estes freight. It was a liftgate truck, which was good because the pallet still partly disintegrated in the 5 feet the guy moved it on the pallet jack to my driveway apron. There I removed all the brick and cast-iron top and side panels and the door, and used a hand truck to wheel the (much lighter) steel chassis up the driveway. Then after inspecting everything I reassembled it for some outdoor break-in fires. The first one is shown.
Firebox-wise this stove is smaller than my Ultima (1.75 cf vs. 2), but it seems to have a lot more thermal mass. Somewhat less firebrick mass, perhaps, but all the cast iron more than makes up for it. I was impressed how much heat was coming off just from kindling, and most of the cast iron wasn't even that warm yet; I think this may give the Ultima a run for it's money.
One problem I ran into right away was the latch. (See pic of inside of door.) It's supposed to go behind the front steel plate, but on mine the gap between the gasket and the latch is too small. When you try to close the door, the latch just hits the plate. If I push really hard I can get it back there, but it seems clear that either the latch is bent, or something is misaligned. I tried both loosening and tightening the bolt, and spinning the lock washer to different positions, but no luck. Can any other Napoleon owners post a similar pic of their latch so I can see how it is supposed to look?
The firebrick is sort of odd, in that there are three different kinds (not counting the baffles). The bulk is standard reddish-orange firebrick. There are some custom shapes that are cast out of the same grayish refractory material my Ultima's panels are made from. Both of these types are fairly heavy. But then there's a third type, much lighter in weight, which was a conglomerate that looks sort of like a cross between styrofoam and cinderblock. See the pic, the broken brick is of this type. It seems to be used interchangeably with the custom cast bricks. Anyone know what this material is and why it was used? The parts list makes no distinction between the types.
Firebox-wise this stove is smaller than my Ultima (1.75 cf vs. 2), but it seems to have a lot more thermal mass. Somewhat less firebrick mass, perhaps, but all the cast iron more than makes up for it. I was impressed how much heat was coming off just from kindling, and most of the cast iron wasn't even that warm yet; I think this may give the Ultima a run for it's money.
One problem I ran into right away was the latch. (See pic of inside of door.) It's supposed to go behind the front steel plate, but on mine the gap between the gasket and the latch is too small. When you try to close the door, the latch just hits the plate. If I push really hard I can get it back there, but it seems clear that either the latch is bent, or something is misaligned. I tried both loosening and tightening the bolt, and spinning the lock washer to different positions, but no luck. Can any other Napoleon owners post a similar pic of their latch so I can see how it is supposed to look?
The firebrick is sort of odd, in that there are three different kinds (not counting the baffles). The bulk is standard reddish-orange firebrick. There are some custom shapes that are cast out of the same grayish refractory material my Ultima's panels are made from. Both of these types are fairly heavy. But then there's a third type, much lighter in weight, which was a conglomerate that looks sort of like a cross between styrofoam and cinderblock. See the pic, the broken brick is of this type. It seems to be used interchangeably with the custom cast bricks. Anyone know what this material is and why it was used? The parts list makes no distinction between the types.
