Mt vernon non ae outside of stove getting hot

[Shu2]

I bought this about a year ago and still tinkering on it. It was in really bad shape and thought I might of screwed up buying it. Right before christmas and wife wasn't happy but after a month working on it and getting it up and running shes happy. Pictures kinda say it all. My question is why is the exhaust side outside of stove really hot? I have but gasket material in between baffles keeping the heat in stove instead of losing through exhaust

 

[Ssyko]

Your going to get some heat loss. It’s an inherent characteristic of all pellet stoves, none of them are 100% efficient. What baffles did you insulate? The side pnls are actually meat to radiate heat also. The exhaust side will be higher because of the path heat takes to exit the stove. Looks like a winner and running good. Congrats on getting out of the dog house,

 

[Shu2]

Your going to get some heat loss. It’s an inherent characteristic of all pellet stoves, none of them are 100% efficient. What baffles did you insulate? The side pnls are actually meat to radiate heat also. The exhaust side will be higher because of the path heat takes to exit the stove. Looks like a winner and running good. Congrats on getting out of the dog house,

Yes getting off the bad list was good. As it was a rust bucket when I got it I made the back baffle out of 3/8 steel. So I'm guessing all the baffles aren't as tight as they should be so I just put gasket material into each corner and top. I'll show you with pictures. I also had to block off clean out to get a great burn.

 

[Ssyko]

Ok so some terminology is confusing me a bit. what are you calling a baffle? did you replace the entire back wall of the fire box? have you checked and cleaned the combustion & convection motors? weak motors will not move a lot of air.

 

[Shu2]

Yes the back baffle I made. 4 baffles 2 sides 1 top and the back. Yes i rebuilt both motors and clean entire unit monthly and weekly cleaning of fire pot. It works great was just wondering if the exhaust side gets hot normally

 

[Ssyko]

are they removable? I'm sorry Shu2 i'm trying to wrap my head around what i think you have done. I'm guessing you rebuilt the entire firebox (all new walls welded in)? or the removable panels to facilitate cleaning?

 

[Shu2]

No worries. So this is 2004 stove. Yes all baffles are removable. I made the rear baffle. The rear baffle was broke in half when I got it. This spring I'm going to dismantle as much as I can and rebuild from ground up. It's a great stove and we love the quadra fire. Have a Castile insert upstairs

 

[Ssyko]

Ok got it. That vintage of stoves were actually designed to radiate heat along with the convection blower. So with the insulation between the actual fire box and your modded baffles it will be sending a bit more of your btu’s out the chimney instead of into the room. I really don’t know much more about that model.

 

[Shu2]

Thank you very much for the input. I will probably purchase the rear baffle but as of now it works.

 

[kappel15]

Most have gasket material around drop chute. Explain clean out or can you post pic? kap

 

[Shu2]

The 2 pull outs to clean ash out of fire box. I dont have anything around the drop chute. It was in bad shape so I really dont know what's missing. I also built ash pan tray and was wondering if that would effect air flow. It's high in front low in back. Look at 2nd set of pics of fire box for clean outs I blocked off

 

[kappel15]

Blocking off clean out plates would not hurt anything. And combustion air is drawn thru ashpan area and up thru pot

 

[Shu2]

With the clean outs not blocked my flame is crazy high. So this spring when I gut the whole stove I will be able to make sure fire box doesn't have any other holes.

 

[kappel15]

Wonder if they are bent or something ? If air flow is coming thru them, the flame would be high and lazy as not enough air coming thru pot

 

[Shu2]

Yes they where very rusty. Have to make new ones maybe. Works great just blocked off

 

[RobuWeasel]

Yes getting off the bad list was good. As it was a rust bucket when I got it I made the back baffle out of 3/8 steel. So I'm guessing all the baffles aren't as tight as they should be so I just put gasket material into each corner and top. I'll show you with pictures. I also had to block off clean out to get a great burn.

How difficult was it to make the baffle? I've got the Mt Vernon original and I'm noticing that the part just below the pellet feed has rotted off. Replacement part is $150-170, but I'm thinking I should be able to just bend one?