Warning!!!!!

[Doorman]

Just to be pedantic.

Is it the baffle plate or smoke hood that needs to be removed

Morso 1400 range of stoves have a baffle plate which is a piece of sheet steel which sits on top of the side firebricks, it can also have a semi-hemispherical smoke hood attached to the underside of the top plate where the stove pipe fixes. Acording to the manual it is this smoke hood that should not be fitted. To quote from the manual " The smoke hood must not be fitted if the stove is installed on a boat where the flue height is likely to be less than 4.5m.

The Morso installation guide for the 1400 range can be found on their web site http://morso.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/72144600-1410-1440-DS-EN_UK.pdf

Page 5 of the installation manual gives a good cut-away drawing.

On our boat I found that the smoke hood was fitted, I've now removed it, but when I first checked it, I found mill scale from the flue chimney as well as soot, the amount of crud resting inside the smoke hood was worrying.

 

If I could manage to sort out my drawing program I'd post a couple of drawings to illustrate where the problem lies in our particular case with the back boiler. It is difficult to reach these areas and ensure that the 'crud' as you say doesn't linger and cause further problems.

 

Mike

[MtB]

That's right but if your stove has a deflector plate its pointless sweeping the flue unless its removed.

 

Coasty's stove has a deflector plate factory-welded into position!

 

A Villager 'Heron', IIRC

 

MtB

[matty40s]

Coasty's stove has a deflector plate factory-welded into position!

 

A Villager 'Heron', IIRC

 

MtB

but doesn't coasty also have a bespoke manufactured baffle cleaning tool???

[RickH]

That's right but if your stove has a deflector plate its pointless sweeping the flue unless its removed.

My stove has a plate right under the chimney that I'm pretty sure can't be removed , When I cleaned down the chimney I had to hit the plate gently with a hammer to shake the soot out . Have you come across something like this before ?

[bizzard]

These deflector plates are there to divert the hot smoke forward across the fire and over and around and up the flue to after burn it and the restricted gap at the front top of the plate speeds up the flow of smoke helping to eject it.

In a steam loco boiler its called the brick arch which again deflects the hot smoke backwards around and over the arch and is sucked into the boilers fire tubes by the vacuum created at the front smoke box. This is done to burn off as much of the volatiles as possible which would otherwise just be ejected at the engines chimney as waste ''black volatile smoke'' and get as much possible heat from the coal as possible.

If you have a fixed unmovable deflector plate which sometimes have a narrow gap at the lower back end. I'd poke a flattish stick down the chimney from the top and dabble and stir it about to loosen up the soot and then by tapping the plate soot should fall out. If this fails or has no gap at the back of the plate perhaps a powerful vacuum cleaner with extended pick up pipe pass down from the top would suck the soot out.

If a stove with this plate is always burnt fiercely then this after burn effect would burn all the volatile properties out of the soot and make it an inert harmless dust but of course you can't burn your stove like that all the time and you'd want to turn it down to idle overnight this is when most of this volatile soot is generated and not burnt off.

Edited April 6, 2013 by bizzard

[sueb]

We have a tool that is a piece of metal 1" x 2" approx that is attached to a long thin handle. This makes a useful rake for the fire and drainage channels. Bought from a shop selling fires as was our metal sweeps brush

[Pykebird]

Morso actually recommend that the baffle plate is not used on short flue installations such as boats.

Glad you mentioned this Matty, took mine off to get a rather large log in fire and gave up trying to get it back in, worse than a jigsaw puzzle!.So I can cross that job off your list!!

[Grace and Favour]

It's tempting to say Dawinism in action however it's probably more to do with the blitz of information that swamps up to check blooming everything before use. You quickly scan the 10,000 instructions and checks needed before turning on the hoover, or glaze over when hearing that you need to blah blah before and during use - or read "warning may contain peanuts" on the peanuts packet. In amongst all this modern propensity for overkill, the real important safety stuff gets missed.

 

I suggest that 'Darwinism in action' is normally the result of a lack of common sense.

 

I agree that a surfeit of instruction manuals causes (even my) eyes to glaze over, but they are no substitute for common sense and logic

[comfortably numb]

On the boat we've just bought I found a packet of something that you put in the fire and it's supposed to clear the soot from the chimney.

 

I can't remember what it was called. The fire didn't seem to be drawing so I just chucked it on, and it seemed to improve things. Has anybody come accross these and if so do they work? I wished I'd have taken more notice of what it was now.

[sassan]

Sweeping a boat chimney (or at least, mine) is so much easier than a house chimney that I can't understand how anyone would leave it so long.

 

You can even go from the top down which means you can keep the door closed and therefore not spend half a day covering everything in the room with sheets and cleaning up.

 

 

The difference in effort required is phenomenal. I might sweep the chimney next time my dad visits, to rub it in.

[ditchcrawler]

When I was a kid we used this stuff

 

Witch Soot powder? It came in a sachet and was sprinkled on a lit open fire, which then burnt with amazing multicoloured flames. Purples, reds, blues, greens... The purpose of it was to stop excess soot gathering in the chimney, to stop chimney fires.

 

Similar items are available at Amazon

[PiRSqwared]

On the boat we've just bought I found a packet of something that you put in the fire and it's supposed to clear the soot from the chimney.

 

I can't remember what it was called. The fire didn't seem to be drawing so I just chucked it on, and it seemed to improve things. Has anybody come accross these and if so do they work? I wished I'd have taken more notice of what it was now.

Was it called "Sorceror"? If so it recommends you sweep the chimney before or after using it Edited April 10, 2013 by PiRSqwared

[Jerra]

You can even go from the top down

Have only ever swept domestic chimneys from the top down. Seal the fire place, sweep,unseal a little and use a strong vac. No mess at all - properly done.