What's this steel baffle on my Englander 30?

[Enplater]

What is the purpose of this steel plate? As mentioned before it's and Englander 30. Maybe it's a heat shield to not superheat the front top of the stove or something, mine is also sagging a little.

 

[BrotherBart]

That is where the air wash down the glass comes from.

 

[Enplater]

I thought the primary air came out of the steel that's angled down in front of the part I'm pointing at. I can stick my fingers between it and the stove top.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah you are right. I didn't look close enough at the pic. That is a heat shield since the heat and flame roll up and over the front of the baffle right there.

 

[Enplater]

That's what I thought, thanks for the info BB

 

[Highbeam]

I’ve melted both the front part of it that directs the air wash over the glass and also the part of it that your photo shows that runs towards the flue. The back part actually melted/buckled up towards the top of the stove.

Englander screwed up with too thin of material for that whole thing. Other stoves use much thicker material to prevent this. No big deal though, stove still puts out mucho heat! Burned mine today.

 

[Enplater]

No more burning for me though I should have on Saturday, it was chilly. I noticed this part while doing my yearly cleaning with a wire brush and shop vac. Not really sure what I'm doing, nobody taught me but I take the 2 front tubes out, remove the baffles and bricks. I wire brush everywhere I can get to (get the wire brush from the dollar store) then shop vac it up. It's not really that dirty, I saw inside an old Alpiner the other day and the whole inside was coated in shiny creosote.

 

[Highbeam]

You only need to remove the front tube to get the baffles out. The nc30 burns hot and remarkably clean so the chances of firebox creosote are very low if you’re using reasonably dry wood.