Running a Harman Advance without the brick panel or baffles

[bbechtel16]

How bad of an idea would it be to run an Advance without the brick panel and/or heat exchanger baffles? Would it be more efficient? Would it melt? The exchanger might get dirty quicker but I would certainly clean it more often if I didn't have to shut down the stove and wait for it to cool to get to it. Thoughts?

 

[Don2222]

The brick panel makes a little difference, the purpose of brick panels is to reflect the heat back into the burn pot so the pellets burn more completely but if you remove the heat exchanger baffles you are short circuiting the path of the distribution air through the stove so it will not heat properly and be less efficient.
Some brick panels like the ones in Whitfield Pellet Stove perform both functions above and have a metal baffle in the top of the fire box.