The big Whit got the deep cleaning and leafer routine a bit ago as the weather is going to change in a day or so. The fire brick panels are just getting pretty sad looking. My guess is that they are the originals from the factory. Been shopping around and it looks like about $120 ought to gitterdone. Think I will order a new set today and then swap them at the next cleaning. The old girl works sooooo good after we "MUCK it and SUCK it"
Well, I did it.] Snooped about and found as set of ultra flame brick panels for the Whit and got them coming. They should be here in plenty of time to be ready for the next cleaning cycle. The old one has a really bad eaten out spot right behind the fire pot. Has anyone used the ones made from the heavy material with the herringbone pattern on them????
Like these. Brown ones in piccy I bought these. Gray ones Figured that if the factory ones made it since 92 then another set of similar will last until I'm at room temperature and could care less. Then the Kids can worry about it. Snowy
Actually ended up paying $114.95 (shipped) Copy on the piccy I will do a multi pic thing showing the removal and replace. Maybe even show one pic with the "First fire" too. These old whits are just great work horses. Not the prettiest girl at the ball, but they will gitterdone quite nicely. Been shopping for a spare Prodigy 2 to stick in the corner, but these little creatures seem to be scarce.
Hey hey hey. A box showed up at the post office today The new Fire brick panels for the big Whit arrived. Cooled the beast off and cleaned it ans swapped out the firebrick panels. Here are the pics Did a quicky clean as we had just cleaned it the other day. First is the dirty stove. Then the box of goodies The new panels Old stuff The panels installed The fire re-kindled and it's off to the rodeo. I have been talking about this since we got the big Whit back in 2010, but whats 5 years among friends /?? These should last as long as I will need to be warmer than room temperature.
Figured that since the old one was nearly burned through by the drop tube that it was time to freshen the old girl up some. If you look carefully at the fire pot you will notice the added plate in the front plus the round bar that sticks into the pot right below the drop tube. The little bar scatters the shell pieces across the fire and the tall plate out front keeps the shells from bouncing out and landing in fire box bottom with the ashes. Without these two mods the shells pile up in a little mound in the middle of the tray. You can't see it, but there is a stainless steel piece in the grate that has 1/8" holes in rows and rows to keep the shell pieces from falling through into the ash pan. Gotta love the mods. Ifen it don't work, ya make it work.
My Englander 10-cpm came from the factory with a "diffuser" .......actually was an piece of 3/8" angle about 3/4" long, welded to top-back edge of burn pot (upside down "V"). Had to fab a front plate myself to stop the "bouncing" pellets too. The diffuser was actually the major cause of that.
The Whits would feed the shells with no mods, but the stuff would pile up in a neat little heap right under the drop tube. So I added the "Spreader bar" in the center of the pot to scatter the stuff across the fire. That was great, until one day I noticed that there was a large amount of shells in front of the pot by the door. Hmmmmm, began watching and saw that the stuff was spraying out over the top of the pot and nearly a third of it was piling up outside the pot and being wasted. So added the "Splash shield" up front, and life is good. The little Whit has a little "NUB" made of steel and fastened into the pot right below the drop tube to do the same thing. No splash shield needed. WORK AROUND'S FIELD INSTALLED UPDATES YA KNOW
These things tend to fatigue and erode all over, so far better to just toss in a fresh set. That stove was built in 92 and has been run hard and put away wet far too many times before we got it. The beast had a huge amount of dirt, old pellets, cob webs and sundry other selections of debris in the cabinet, such that it's likely that it had never really been cleaned. Far too many people do not realize that these types of appliances require maintenance on a regular basis. I removed the original rear panel and replaced it with a nice piece of aluminum expanded metal. This allows far better air flow in and through the cabinet, and also makes it easy to take a quick peek with a flash light to see if cleaning is in order. Keeps the cat out too, AND THE GRAND KIDS
