Bricking raised Flue

[Maplewalnut]

Got some vermiculite and will fill the back of the arch with it before I lay some half brick over that. I am going to use brick instead of balnket because it seems a little more durable to take the pan off now and again for a a cleaninig.

Now my question, do you lay your brick(blanket) flush with the top of the arch rail or do you leave a little gap?

I know to slope it back down to the stack towards the back of the rig but not sure on how close you need to puch the heat

Thanks Mike

[Haynes Forest Products]

Do you fire with wood or oil? Now the money question does your rail extend into the arch or out and does the pan extend over the rail? The reason I ask is if the rail turns into the arch does it block some of the bottom of the flue pan if not run the brick or blanket up to the underside of the rail tight. if it turns out but and you have room (does not block ) the fluepan run it up even to the rail. Last thing is if the rail is blocking the outside edge of the pans you could be loosing some of the surface that is needed for good heat transfer. If your using oil I would use the blanket its quick easy and after 5 years mine is like new and works well and cleaning has no affect

[Maplewalnut]

Haynes
It is wood fired and the pans have very little resting on the rails. My concern with the blanket would be if it sticks to the underside of the pans. Maybe it doesn't but seems like if you run it up tight some may be in contact with he underside of the pans hence some 'sticking'????? If I dry set some brick over the vermiculite maybe a little scratching but no sticking??? Read alot of old posts and still not sure what the modern thinking is

[forester1]

I had rodents get up under the flues one summer and make nest material out of the blanket. I am replacing it with brick instead.

[RileySugarbush]

A big advantage of blanket is that it doesn't hold heat. When you shut down, the boil stops very quickly. That can save some time every evening: You don't need to flood as much or worry about boiling down and scorching your flues.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I had mice get into my arch made a few nests fired that baby during the first start up and cleaning and poof the ones that didnt get out left cool little skeletons that the kids thought were neat. I just pushed the nest holes back down and all was good. I dont have a problem with the blanket sticking to anything its not like cotton candy there is no glue to make it stick

[Pete33Vt]

With the rig I ran last year I had bricks on the slope area at the back of the fire box. These went all the way to the top of the slope that ended about 4-6 inches back from the front of the flue pan. Then went all the way to the top of the angle iron the flue pan sits onwith blanket so all the heat had to go up into the flue pan to get to the stack. then the blanket stayed at that level all the way to about 10-12" from the stack then dropped down to allow the gases to reach the stack base.It boiled great as long as I swept the underside of my flues each day.

[Amber Gold]

I have a drop flue and was wondering kind of the same thing. When I bought it it had the insulation blanket overlayed with split brick the full length of the arch. The rails are made of 2" angle iron, so with the insulation blanket and split brick the brick sticks out into the fire back say an inch, which I would think over both sides of the pans and the full-length of the rails is a fair amount of lost pan contact with the fire. I was wondering if when I reinstall the brick if I just install the insulation blanket and brick in the fire box area (it is a wood fired arch) up to were it flattens out under the flue pan and just leave insulation blanket covering the rest of the arch. I figured this way the fire box is protected by the brick, I'm maximizing the contact area of the fire to the pan, and I'm also making startup/shutdown's quicker by reducing the mass of the arch. Thoughts??

Thanks

[Russell Lampron]

Maplewalnut,

If you look at the underside of your flue pan you will see that the bottom of the flues stop about an inch from the bottom of the pan. I took mine off yesterday and had about a 1/2 inch of ash built up on top of the vermiculite that I have flush with the rails.

Josh,

I you should be okay with just the blanket under the flue pan. The brick is used to protect the insulation in the firebox area from getting damaged by the wood when firing.

[Maplewalnut]

Thanks All...I am going flush with the top and am going to start with blanket on top of the vermiculite. If it gets messy, I change the blanket to brick