Lapierre Mini Pro arch ???

[theraven06]

I recently purchased a used Lapierre Mini Pro and I have a few questions on the arch as I am setting it up. The arch is older than the pans and was repurposed for use with these pans, they fit will, but the arch was originally for a drop flu setup with natural draft.

1. There is no 'floor' to the arch beneath the fire box, it is open to the floor. I am boiling on a concrete floor, so I am not overly concerned about ash/embers however I have AUF set up and I am thinking that the open bottom will affect airflow. Should I seal this with a steel plate?

2. The arch was originally used on a drop flue setup, so the back section of the arch is about 6" below the rails. Should I raise this section up to force the flames/heat up and into the raised flues? If so, what is the best way to do this and what should the height difference be between the raised areas and the arch rails?

[Cjadamec]

There may have been an ash pan that was supposed to slide under the fire box area that you didn't get when you get the evaporator. I would think you would need to may something to close that area up before you start a fire in that thing. Hopefully somebody more familiar with that equipment will have some thoughts.

You definitely want to raise the back of the arch up closer to the pan. The simplest thing to do would just be to fill the space with fire brick. Or any other non combustible material. Don't do anything permanent just incase down the road you want to convert back to a drop flue pan.

[wnybassman]

I bricked up a pedestal for mine. I have an open bottom too, and you can see I put an ash door in the brick to clean out ashes. I only need to do that once during the season. Anyway, I have a squirrel cage blower on the back side and it doesn't seem to affect air flow in any way.

Between brick and blanket I brought my rear section of the arch up to roughly an inch of the rails.


19255

[Oldfrog]

Not sure I have the right thread. Just bought a 1 year old Lapierre mini pro and need instructions to brick the arch. Can’t find mini pro specific instructions anywhere on google. Does anyone have the instructions? Did find a thread where some commented that they did not use half bricks and went with full bricks for the whole job, and comments? Any help on bricking would be appreciated.