buildingmaint said:
This might be a dumb question ,but I'm going to ask it any ways. I 'm a pellet stove guy so I have no working knowledge of how wood stoves are constructed. .
Thats OK, all I know about pellets is what I pick up off the threads here...
I thought that the only things on a wood stove was a metal box with fire brick inside and a fan to blow the heat into the room..
The firebrick is optional, but that's not a bad description of an old Pre-EPA "airtight" stove, and even some of the older franklins and so forth.
Reading all of your posts to my last question about life expectancy of wood stoves it seems like there is more then I thought. .
In a modern EPA stove there are quite a bit more parts and technology involved in order to get the cleaner burns and high efficency numbers. Just what you'll find depends on the brand/model of stove, what it's made from, the particular technology the stove designer used, and so forth.
So what other parts are there to a wood stove?.
Depending on the stove, you will find ashpans, baffles of different materials and / or secondary burn tubes, special secondary burn chambers, different sizes and shapes of refractories, catalytic elements, dampers and air controls, and lots of other bits - none will have all these parts, all will have some.
What do you have to replace when you rebuild and why do you have to replace them ?.
Depends on the stove design and material. Plate steel stoves tend to be welded up boxes, and a rebuild will consist of removing the internal bits and replacing the things that need it. Cast Iron or Soapstone stoves are made up of a bunch of flat plates that are fastened together. the rebuild will involve taking all he plates apart, along with the internal bits, cleaning out the old refractory cement and or gaskets, and putting it back together with new, again replacing any bad parts. About the only 100% guaranteed to need replacing item is the catalytic element (if used) as they do wear out and loose effectiveness over time (how long depends on use habbits). On any stove you need to periodically replace door and other gaskets. How often a rebuild needs to be done, and how many parts need changing will mostly depend on burning habbits and the use/abuse the stove has gotten. However it's probably less overall work and expense than what I see being described as needed to keep your pellet stove going.
What does over firing a stove mean? when it is glowing red?How do you know if you are over firing?.
Overfiring means about what it sounds like - building a fire that is to hot for the stove's design, Generally it's caused by poor burning habbits, (woodstoves are fussier about technique than a pellet stove, but we don't worry that much about what brand of wood we are using - good technique can burn almost anything if it's dry.) failure to maintain gasket seals, or other such issues, occasionally by burning the wrong kind / amount of wood (see burning habbits and technique) When you overfire, you exceed the design specs of the parts and things start to distort, melt, burn up, crack, or otherwise react badly. A cheery red glow says you've REALLY gone over the limit, the exact point of overfiring depends somewhat on the stove, but all are before you hit the red glow point.
What are baffles used for in a wood stove?.
As mentioned earlier, baffles (which can be made from all sorts of stuff) slow the path of the smoke and / or combustion air through the stove and direct it so that it can be most effectively burned, and have it's energy extracted. By keeping the smoke inside the stove longer, you get lowered emissions and more heat.
Yes I expect some good nature ribbing about my lack of knowledge.
No problem - you don't ask, you don't learn...
Gooserider
