adding refractory brick to pellet stove

[26miler]

Hi - I'm new to the forum.

I have an Englander stove that I purchased from Lowe's about 3 years ago. It's an okay machine, but for my next go around I'll consider purchasing something else.

My main problems are twofold. 1. My unit doesn't have an ash pan. 2. I don't really think of my unit as being that efficient. It's constructed from plate steel and as such doesn't really retain heat. ...I feel like there's a lot of heat that is just going straight up the exhaust vent.

An idea occured to me to put refractory brick in the ancillary left and right chambers where the pellet dust will migrate. Outside of a dust rentention place, I can't think of what else these chambers do.

Anyway, before I go out and do something like this, I just wanted to see if anybody else has experimented with this idea on their pellet stove. Is there a danger to doing something like this? Would it actually work in terms of retaining more heat?

All feedback is welcome! Thanks much. -dennis

 

[slls]

A pellet stove gets the major heat from the heat exchanger. A well designed stove, the size heat exchanger with air flow and stove BTU sizing. Except for looks, I don't think the brick has any heat value.
The better designed stoves cost, mine by luck, gives a good heat value to pellet usage, I am usually not that lucky.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Hi - I'm new to the forum.

I have an Englander stove that I purchased from Lowe's about 3 years ago. It's an okay machine, but for my next go around I'll consider purchasing something else.

My main problems are twofold. 1. My unit doesn't have an ash pan. 2. I don't really think of my unit as being that efficient. It's constructed from plate steel and as such doesn't really retain heat. ...I feel like there's a lot of heat that is just going straight up the exhaust vent.

An idea occured to me to put refractory brick in the ancillary left and right chambers where the pellet dust will migrate. Outside of a dust rentention place, I can't think of what else these chambers do.

Anyway, before I go out and do something like this, I just wanted to see if anybody else has experimented with this idea on their pellet stove. Is there a danger to doing something like this? Would it actually work in terms of retaining more heat?

All feedback is welcome! Thanks much. -dennis

firebox sizes , volume and configurations are designed to match the functional components of the stove , adding things which will by taking up large spaces reduce the chamber size and can affect how the stove burns, i do not know that you would benefit or suffer in performance by adding somthing like that. whatever you do , do not make it perminant you may need to yank it back out after trying to get back to origional specs.

 

[MCPO]

Hi - I'm new to the forum.

I have an Englander stove that I purchased from Lowe's about 3 years ago. It's an okay machine, but for my next go around I'll consider purchasing something else.

My main problems are twofold. 1. My unit doesn't have an ash pan. 2. I don't really think of my unit as being that efficient. It's constructed from plate steel and as such doesn't really retain heat. ...I feel like there's a lot of heat that is just going straight up the exhaust vent.

An idea occured to me to put refractory brick in the ancillary left and right chambers where the pellet dust will migrate. Outside of a dust rentention place, I can't think of what else these chambers do.

Anyway, before I go out and do something like this, I just wanted to see if anybody else has experimented with this idea on their pellet stove. Is there a danger to doing something like this? Would it actually work in terms of retaining more heat?

All feedback is welcome! Thanks much. -dennis

To retain heat in a pellet stove is to defeat it`s purpose. That purpose is to extract the heat off the heat exchanger by forced air flow and distribute it into the room. While the heat exchanger is indeed part of the stove mass it is designed to absorb as much heat from the fire as possible .
IMO, it would neither hurt or help but it would surely reduce the ash collecting capacity of your stove which is already minimal.