Hi! I have a 1991 erin waterford.

[Erin Waterford 91]

Does anyone know what gauge metal I should use for a rear heat shield. I acquired this one without it. I need to make one in order to get closer clearance to the back wall. The back dimension is about 21" x 21" the bolt holes for the shield are about 4" from the corners. This whole process has been quite an ordeal, not to mention costly! I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks

 

[begreen]

It really should be a factory heat shield in order to meet tested UL clearances, but that could be hard to get. What distance are you trying to get it down to? I'm wondering if putting a proper wall shield up behind the stove for clearance reduction would be an option.

 

[Erin Waterford 91]

I actually did a little research last night. I downloaded the manual. The original shield that was on there was made up of two thin pieces of sheet metals that had a 1" spacer in between them. I'm a utility worker by trade so I'm out and about all day. I stopped by a steel manufacture today and told them what I was looking for. We gauged some steel plates and came up with the notion of two 12 gauge sheets which is a little less than 1/4 of an inch thick. I'm thinking of using L brackets. On the four corners. As to your question, I'm going to put up manufactured stone veneer on dura rock. the back of the stove (including) the heat shield will set 14 inches away. I'm also going to put a small fan (cleverly concealed) blowing towards the bottom of the stove to circulate the heat into the room. FYI, I feel like I'm going in a million different directions trying to get all this together. Not to mention there's a 100 sq feet of stone in the garage(which I'm catching a tremendous amount of grief over it). So what's your thoughts on the steel?

 

[fossil]

There is a reason the original manufacturer's rear heat shield was of the configuration you saw in the manual...the two sheets with a space between form vertical channels for air to be drawn in through the bottom then move up and out the top, thus carrying a good deal of heat away from the back of the stove by natural convection. It's not the thickness of the sheet metal that makes the shield effective, it's the configuration. You won't buy yourself anything by making some sort of 1/4" thick sandwich of metal and hanging it on the back of the stove. I'm guessing something like 22 ga. would be more than sufficient if you copy the original design as faithfully as you can. Rick

 

[Erin Waterford 91]

There is a reason the original manufacturer's rear heat shield was of the configuration you saw in the manual...the two sheets with a space between form vertical channels for air to be drawn in through the bottom then move up and out the top, thus carrying a good deal of heat away from the back of the stove by natural convection. It's not the thickness of the sheet metal that makes the shield effective, it's the configuration. You won't buy yourself anything by making some sort of 1/4" thick sandwich of metal and hanging it on the back of the stove. I'm guessing something like 22 ga. would be more than sufficient if you copy the original design as faithfully as you can. Rick

Fossil, thank you. I was wondering about that as well. I could see on the prints that it was ( winged out ) on the sides. I was wondering if I could go to a metal shop and just have them put in a brake and bend it to form, that looks like the one on the manual blueprint? The guys at the steel shop thought anything less than 12 gauge would get to hot?

 

[fossil]

It's supposed to get hot...that's what makes it work as a natural convection heat exchanger. So long as there is no restriction to the free flow of air in the bottom, up through, and out the top, it's doing its job. Thicker metal does absolutely nothing to make it work any better. The whole key to it is the constant flow of air up through it, carrying the stove's heat up and away into the room...this will keep the thin steel shield from becoming "too hot".

If you're going to make your own, make it as exactly the same as what's in the manual as you possibly can.

 

[Erin Waterford 91]

It's supposed to get hot...that's what makes it work as a natural convection heat exchanger. So long as there is no restriction to the free flow of air in the bottom, up through, and out the top, it's doing its job. Thicker metal does absolutely nothing to make it work any better. The whole key to it is the constant flow of air up through it, carrying the stove's heat up and away into the room...this will keep the thin steel shield from becoming "too hot".

If you're going to make your own, make it as exactly the same as what's in the manual as you possibly can.

Okay, that sounds good to me. I might be over thinking this all just a little bit....

 

[begreen]

I second the notion of using 24 or 22 ga steel (not galvanized). Additional thickness would have little if any benefit other than adding a lot of mass.