Yet another firebox insulation tweak (or: Zircar stikes again)

Maybe my mom was right - I can't seem to leave well enough alone. My dislike of cast iron liners inside a firebox, and preference for high-temp ceramic materials, has been expressed often enough here, so I won't repeat it. The Nestor Martin X33 which I enjoy daily in the basement has all ceramic lining (mostly Skamol) except for one cast iron piece at the bottom rear of the firebox. I happened to notice yesterday that this piece is just wedged in place behind the side panels. So I took everything apart and removed it to examine it better. It's a 16"x9-1/4" piece of cast iron weighing about 17 lbs, and a half inch thick.

Well, it just so happens that the Zircar RS-1200 refractory sheet that I bought last year for the Jotul F602 experiments is the same thickness, and I just happen to have a 16"x16" piece of it left over. What a coincidence. So I cut it to the right size (it weighs 5 lbs vs the iron's 17 lbs), drilled the holes for the side panel support brackets, and put it in. Perfect fit. Didn't have a chance to fire it up yesterday but I'll burn it today and report back. No temp measurements this time, just observations - I'm not expecting anything major.

Been very busy and couldn't post for a few days. There is no question that the stove burns hotter with the RS1200 backplate. There is more heat coming out the glass. The firebox is even cleaner at the end of a burn than it was. There is more flame in the back of the firebox, no doubt because it's hotter back there. As a consequence, I can load bigger pieces and get longer burns, and the fire is more stable and controllable at lower burn rates. It certainly made more of a difference than I expected. It's definitely a keeper.

Highly insulated fireboxes are a good thing, in every respect.

Did you watch that cartoon show when you were a young'un? Tooter the Turtle and Mr. Wizard? Tooter would find his way into trouble and Mr Wizard would come and rescue him with the incantation: "Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome, time for this one to come home."