A PH rebuild

We have an early PH, and have put about 30 cord through it. At some point Woodstock redesigned the fireback, and they came and did a free replacement onsite, and wrote up detailed instructions with many color photos for those further away to use as a guide, which I’m working from on this rebuild.

The lower catalytic combustor plate has failed (I saw it was fatigued early last Fall, but went ahead and kept using it until warm weather arrived. It got worse. ). I am quite sure we overfired the stove a number of times, assisted by excessive draft from our 32ft chimney. While beta-testing the AS, Woodstock came and measured our draft (-0.21” w.c. at times), and they installed a flue damper. The flue damper was left in place when we put the PH back in place of the AS, and it makes a huge difference in the amount of control we have.

Here’s an ugly pic to get this started. I’ve just about finished the tear-down, but am headed to bed, so more pic tomorrow. For orientation, the stovetop is completely removed, and the catalytic combustor is, too. Note the crack and sag, and red oxidized casting in the center.

 

I bought an AS, last fall. Haven't installed it yet. Snow storm hit before I could get it put in. ( woodstock sent olympia liner, ect; but you can't call olympia). So my AS was stuck frozen under snow for 6 months. Have you had any issues with the AS you were beta testing flamestead? Probably not if you used it for one season, but thought I would ask. I'm not certain I want to install it with olympia pipe. May buy some Selkirk stuff due to availability, and customer service.

 

I’m useless on the pipe, but we were very happy with the AS. It had issues, which they addressed during its shakedown period. It is too small to work as our primary heater, so the PH went back onto her throne in the kitchen.

The AS represents a simpler design than either the PH or IS - I really like its simplicity. We bought a new AS from Woodstock after returning the beta stove, but now my wife is leaning toward an insert, so the new AS is currently acting as a table.

 

After the top is removed (held on by 4 threaded rods running from top to bottom), the bypass door is removed, and then the top half of the combustor housing.


There is an adjustment bolt in the center. The instructions indicate it might come hard, and they suggest a bolt cutter. They were right, but I didn’t need the cutter.

 

Please pardon the mess. I get a bit lax about cleaning the stove in the late Spring, and sometimes the stove gets shutdown too early before the cat lights off because we are hoping to keep the stove from getting very hot.

Bypass opening (door removed) is the gasketed rectangle in the foreground. You can see where a chunk of cast broke off (picture above) and came out still attached to the bolt I referred to.



Sorry for the poor lighting!

 

Here it is cleaned up a bit (love the Power Smith ash vac)


In the photo above you can look down through the bypass door into the firebox (note dirty glass and top of andiron). When the bypass is open, the smoke comes up through the opening and right out the flue.

When the bypass door is closed the smoke comes up and the back, under the warped and broken piece of casting, below. Then it has to turn and come back forward, through the cat (removed, along with the upper housing), and then another 180 to turn and go out the flue.

 

Undo a few more bolts, and we can do this...

 

We can begin to see how the air is ducted. The blue is showing the primary air duct coming around to the front air wash.

The green circle is where the secondary air is entering. This is the top covering; the secondary air flows beneath here, entering the top of the firebox through the many holes.

 

We can also see more issues (star-shaped crack in this casting by the head of the ratchet). We talked with Penny last weekend and she suggested we might want to complete the disassembly before buying the replacement parts. I was aware of this until reaching this point.

 

More heat damage to the casting. Also was not aware of this before tearing into it.

 

Now to the rear of the stove to remove the damper plate. The colors below correspond to the airway colors used earlier (blue is primary, green is secondary ). There is a symmetric/mirror copy of primary air further to the right of the secondary inlet.

 

Then the fireback lifts up and out, leaving us looking into the firebox and also out through the secondary air inlet at the heat shield that is leaning against the back of the fireplace.

 

That was all last night’s work. Today my wife picked up the parts. Note the detailed notes they put together for me (she went off to work for a few hours while they did this). Some of the gaskets are temporarily taped in place so I can see where they go.

 

Whoa!

 

Thanks a bunch!

 

Wow now I understand why people who get these stoves are thankful its expertly brought into the house. All that metal is heavy duty and still you have overfire issues. Thanks for the pics, what a neat thing to see the dynamics of the stove!

 

that just doesnt seem right to have that much damage in 30 cord

 

Yeah that’s true but if you looked at a metal firepit that was subject to really hot temps and subject to exposure. It would look the same as this. His draft is huge and with runaways that have been happening, you’re left wondering if the alloy was made correctly for this...
I’m being hypothetical here but temps look like they got pretty high in some places.

 

Then something is wrong

 

Absolutely. Hopefully his kit gets things ironed out. Excuse the pun.