I was inspecting my stove yesterday to get ready for the upcoming season. I noticed the top plate in the main combustion chamber badly distorted and burned/rusted through. There is easily a 3 inch hole in it. My initial thought was overfiring. I don't believe this is the case. The rest of the stove parts all look fine, including the air tubes that hold this plate in place. The owner's manual does not specify an actual temp for the stove or flue. I've monitored flue temp with an infrared thermometer, but I don't know how accurate that is on double wall pipe. I just ordered a condar flue thermometer the other day, but don't have it yet. I have never had much creosote buildup, though high temps would probably burn that up. Any ideas?
Burned up stove
- Thread starter bjorn773
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Everybody will have an opinion but mine is that what you are looking at happens eventually to any carbon steel baffle. I don't know which Century model you have but all of the ones I have looked at have a carbon steel baffle made like a box with ceramic fiber blanket material inside it and firebrick on top of the back half. Up there by that baffle the secondary burn gets really hot and warps the plate steel baffle over time. Overfiring would speed up the warpage and deterioration. Your baffle looks just the one in my old pre-EPA stove would after a few years of burning hot with its secondary burn being across the underside of the baffle.
On my old stove I could just take the baffle out and the boys at the local iron works would make me a copy for fifty bucks and I was back running. With yours if it is the box with fiber design you would have to get a new one from Century. The one for the large Century that is sold at the big box stores is $95 from CFM Customer Care but they do not show a replacement for the small stove that these stores sell.
The CFM parts are available here:
http://www.cfmcustomercare.com/content/purchase-parts/catalog.cfm
On my old stove I could just take the baffle out and the boys at the local iron works would make me a copy for fifty bucks and I was back running. With yours if it is the box with fiber design you would have to get a new one from Century. The one for the large Century that is sold at the big box stores is $95 from CFM Customer Care but they do not show a replacement for the small stove that these stores sell.
The CFM parts are available here:
http://www.cfmcustomercare.com/content/purchase-parts/catalog.cfm
Thanks BrotherBart! That is exactly the design I have. It is the larger of the models sold at the box stores. The stove is covered by a 5 year warranty, so I am going to see if they will cover the baffle. I was not aware of the brick above it since it is still in the stove. I figure if they don't cover it, I can weld one up myself. My brother works for a steel pipe manufacturer and can get me steel plate for scrap prices. It appears to be a simple box design with fiber in the middle like you said. Thanks for the info and link!
Any way you could fit a piece of 409 stainless in there as a "sacrifice piece" in the future??? Say betwwen the tubes and the backing plate???
Looks like that piece has taken quite the 'flame erosion' though...Wow!
Looks like that piece has taken quite the 'flame erosion' though...Wow!
keyman512us said:
My old baffle would warp like crazy. Before I found the guys at the iron works I used to have to take it out on the concrete driveway apron and drive the Suburban over it to flatten it back out.
I was wondering if a slab of soapstone would withstand the heat. It may be too heavy for those tubes to support though. I'm gonna call Century tomorrow. The warranty states CFM "does not cover any removable firebox components such as brick retainers or stainless steel air tubes." It doesn't mention the baffle which is removable. We'll see how well they stand behind their product.
Well, I finally received word back today on my baffle warranty claim- DENIED DUE TO OVERFIRING. Oh well, I guess it was worth a try. I am having trouble with the idea of forking out another $120 to them after the denied warranty, so I'll weld one up and perhaps make it beefier in hopes of a longer life.
Hi Bjorn,
sorry about the denial of claim. I just want to mention that an infrared thermomenter will do nothing for a double wall pipe. The whole reason double wall is invented is to have a lower temp outside on a stovepipe. If anything, you want to read the stope top temp. But a magnetic thermometer will do just as good of a job for a lot less money. But since you have the infrared therm anyway, you might as well use it.
Be more careful next time.
Carpniels
sorry about the denial of claim. I just want to mention that an infrared thermomenter will do nothing for a double wall pipe. The whole reason double wall is invented is to have a lower temp outside on a stovepipe. If anything, you want to read the stope top temp. But a magnetic thermometer will do just as good of a job for a lot less money. But since you have the infrared therm anyway, you might as well use it.
Be more careful next time.
Carpniels
I would say with that stove not to let the flue temp go above 450F using the condar probe thermometer. Probably between 250F and 350F on a regular basis. Good luck.
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