Old Blaze King Stove - Add Baffle?

I have a pre-EPA blaze king that has been dutifully heating this old shack for 4 years now. When I bought the house the stove was installed in the basement and was sharing a flue with the propane boiler and propane water heater. I've since relocated it to a dedicated flue.

After getting past a few gremlins with the new class A chimney and double wall stove pipe I've got a pretty good routine down now.

The only problem I have now is that the flue temps get really hot when I get a "clean burn" going. I don't have a probe thermometer, but the double wall stovepipe gets noticeably hot. I think this is because when the fire gets rocking all the heat/flames goe directly out the vent at the top.

There are 2 heat exchange tubes that run North and South inside the stove. The blower sends air through these tubes and blows hot air out the front. I'm wondering if it would be a good/bad idea to lay a section of plate steel across these tubes to act as a baffle and give some of the smoke a chance to burn off and deflect some of the heat before exiting the stove?

I'm planning on using a chunk of 3/8 mild steel with some angle iron supports along the long sides (to help with sagging). It should leave at least as much open area as the flue outlet does currently. Any thoughts?

I'm hoping to be able to run the stove hotter, especially early in the burn cycle...and if it burns off some smoke and gives me some additional efficiency then that's a bonus.

 

A pic of the inside of the stove would be nice.

 

Thanks Dave. I'm not sure if I could get pictures that would tell much of anything (hard to get perspective without a cut-away view). Here's a drawing from the manual.



Here's a not-to-scale sketch:



In the sketch, the little triangular box on the bottom is where the air comes in from the thermostat assembly.

I would lay the plate steel across the two heat exchangers flush with the back and and leaving some space in the front. I can't go all the way to the front because there are some support members there. If you look at the drawing from the manual, the second full arrow (from right to left) is about the furthest I could come forward. I would leave ~4" on each side of the heat exchangers between the side of the stove.

I'm thinking that the air would come in from the bottom center, make some fire, then the hot gasses would be forced to go to the sides and front before exiting the flue collar...as opposed to straight up and out.

 

The air comes in bottom, back, center. See the triangle on the sketch...

 

There's a bimetal thermostat coil that actuates a damper on the intake. You can adjust your heat level by turning a knob, and then it regulates itself from there. Pretty slick setup. Once you get the fire "dialed in" you can pretty much forget about it for 12-16 hours until it's time to reload again.

 

I'd really like to keep it above the heat exchangers to not cut into my capacity.

 

I just remembered I have some scrap pieces of 3/8 by 2" angle. I think I'll cut that to length and set 3 or 4 on top of the heat exchangers and see what happens. If I get positive results I will do something a little more permanent.

Weather is warming up so I probably won't have a fire and be able to test it out for at least a week.

 

After taking a closer look last night I don't think going above the exchangers is going to work (not enough room due to some support rails for the stove top). The good news is there is already a bit of a lip on the east and west sides of the stove, pretty high up, that could hold a baffle plate. Need to go to the scrap yard and see what they gots....

 

Any luck with this yet Lukem ? This is the first time I looked at this thread. That's an interesting set up with the air feeding the back of the fire box. You might want to experiment with a few different positions on your baffle if possible. My old stove had a baffle at the back of the stove and air fed in from the front, for the longest most efficient burn I would load the firebox so the air had to travel under the wood through the coals and hit the back of the firebox where it would draw upward but the baffle would make it roll forward again before it went up the flue. So with your set up you may need to have something up front which may not be possible depending on your door. Maybe try a short one at the back and a short one up frt if you can. Anything that slows the air or redirects it back down a little will likely help.

 

I haven't had time to mess with it .

Been running around like a one armed paper hanger lately.

The flue collar sits toward the back of the stove so I'm not sure how much control i'll really get routing smoke through the firebox.

Still thinking on it.

 

I know this is an older post but I found it after jacking another post. I think I have the same kind of setup in my all nighter other than being front draw. It looks like the baffle would sit right on the pipes. Might have to use flat stock and piece it t

 

I'd be concerned about modifying a stove that was well engineered to begin with. It may be worth talking with Blaze King.

Any idea what year the stove is from?

My princess has tubes similar to your stove, I have NO idea what they do since they don't exit out the front. All the stuff up in the top collects creosote, that's for sure!