Morso baffle question

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shellyC

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Nov 7, 2008
8
Western MA
I have a Morso 1125 which I've had for umpteen years and which works fine. In the past, I've removed the baffle on occasion to clean it. For some reason, I can't seem to get it into place this time. It isn't warped or anything; it's just that I've seemed to have lost the knack. Might anyone out there have some hints as how to get it back into place? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Usually the trick is to have the front curved edge up high while getting the back into the slots and then drop the front -- all done. You don't by any chance have the baffle upside down, that is, with the rolled edge down instead of up?
 
Thanks for the tip. I thought that was what I was doing but I'll give it another try using your advice tomorrow morning. My shoulders are aching from spending an hour this afternoon trying to get the darn thing into place. And yes, I did have the curled edge pointing up.
 
Hi again Wrigley:
Followed your advice this morning and the baffle fell into place beautifully. It helped to set up a portable light inside the firebox to see what I was doing, and when I did, the job was a snap. Thanks again.
On another note, I've been burning wood for close to 30 years in the stove, but this year decided to switch to biobricks...hauling cords of wood to the back of the house where the entryway to the stove is located and stacking them has become wearisome. Have you ever used anything like biobricks and, if so, do you have any hints regarding their startup and use in the Morso?
Shelly
 
Hello Shelly,

Glad hearing the baffle went back in w/o further problems. Sorry, but I've only burned wood, so no experience with BioBricks in the Morso. But as a general startup tip -- I use a propane plumber's torch. It ignites the wood very fast and is quite inexpensive: an entire fireseason uses up about 2 bottles of gas, which can be had for about $5-6 at most any hardware store.

Ed
 
Shelly, there is a lot of energy in BioBricks. Try to follow the manufacturer's directions closely. Start with a teepee of 3-4 bricks using a firestarter like SuperCedars. Once the bricks are fully aflame the idea is to create a tight brick wall around them, about 2-3 bricks high. Start with 2 bricks high until you get used to the product. This will use up somewhere around 12-16 bricks. You want the brick wall to be fairly tight and alternate the courses so that there are no air gaps between the brick layers. The objective is to have a slow controlled burn through the mass of bricks.

Let the fire spread on it's own through the bricks. You'll have to experiment with the amount of air that you feed the fire, but it will be similar to wood. That is, provide a lot of air for say the first 15 minutes, then reduce it as more bricks catch on fire, but don't reduce it so much that they just smolder. Once they are fully involved you can reduce the air to where you normally would for a good wood fire that is at the same stage of burn.

Please post back how this works for you. It's going to be a bit more of a challenge because you can't see the fire to judge how it's burning. But they should work ok. It helps to have a stove-top thermometer to track their burning. Here's a wiki entry about my experience burning them:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/BioBricks/

and some links to other folks' experiences with similar products:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/23130/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/16217/
 
BeGreen:
Thanks for the tips on burning Biobricks and for the links. Everything was really helpful. It's still pretty balmy here in the Northeast, so I won't be stoking up the stove for a while. When I do and get some experience with the bricks, I'll send along feedback.
Shelly
 
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