Arch Baffles

[Amber Gold]

I've got a Grimm 2.5x8 raised flue which has a baffle in the middle of the flue pan. I was wondering how effective the baffles really are. Should I not use the baffle and just fill in the entire back section of the arch or should I bring the vermiculite back down for the baffle? If it matters the arch will be forced draft.

Thanks

[brookledge]

As far as the arch goes with a raised flue you want to bring your brick right up to the top of the arch rails and then slope down to allow the gasses to go out the stack. You can use vermiculite to fill under your brick but you can't just leave it cause it will blow around
Keith

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Keith. From other posts I've seen I know about bringing right up to the top and then back down at the end, just wasn't sure about the baffle. There's a sloped, sheet metal baffle plate built into the arch. It looks like the intent is to bring the vermiculite up to the pan and then drop it back down until the baffle and bringing it back up the baffle to the bottom of the pan and then dropping the level back down to exit the arch. I thought I heard/read somewhere that by dropping the vermiculite level under the middle of the flue pan it creates a secondary burn chamber to get increased combustion of flue gases. I wasn't sure if this was true and if I should take advantage of it or just ignore it.

Thanks

[chipa]

I used vermiculite and covered it with ceramic blanket.

[tuckermtn]

Josh- do you have one baffle or two? mine has two (same arch I would guess) and I up untill recently used the front baffle as my ramp out of the firebox- then filled the space between the two baffles with vermiculite and put cermanic blanket over the top of the vermic. Since then I have built a new ramp up out of the firebox to bring the ramp closer to the front of the flu pan...

[Amber Gold]

The front baffle I just considered the top of the ramp. I'll be bringing this forward a bit. There is an additional baffle in the middle of the pan. Same as yours. Isn't the down ramp supposed to start 12 inches before the end of the pan? The top of the second baffle is 20 inches before the end of the pan. I'll post some pics in my photobucket site around noon.