Morso Squirrel Baffle - early failure

[aesmith]

Hi,

We have a Morso Squirrel 1410 in our living room, used almost every evening during the heating season.  In 2013 I replaced the baffle as it was cracked and a bit distorted. I've no idea how old it or the stove was at that time, a few other things needed to be done like door and glass seals.   However now I've found that the new baffle has failed already, so that's only four and a half years old.   Any ideas as to what could cause early failure?  I assume they should last longer than that, and in fact we didn't have this issue with the 1430 that we used in our last house.  Apart from the stove being a different variant, we're burning more logs nowadays mostly ash but some sycamore.  In the last place most of our firewood was bits of pallet and similar softwood joinery offcuts.   So I'm not sure if the baffle was just a poor example (bad luck) or it's something we're doing.

 

One thing I did notice is that people are offering welded steel baffles as a supposedly superior alternative to cast iron.

[richardwale]

I bet the stove manufacturer will tell you you're running the stove too hot, this can sometimes be the case but baffle plates are notoriously flimsy nowadays.

[Stephen Blair]

4.5 years is good I think.

[Macpherson]

Hi, I've had the 1410 for about 10 years with and had no trouble with the plate, burning mostly birch, ash and alder. Changed the glass once and I find that the rope on the door needs done about once a year.

 

It's likely your problem may be overheating as a friend of mine with the same squirrel has a wife that augments logs with coke when he's working away and he's gone through a load of plates and melted a few grates.

 

I seem to remember a warning on my original instructions not to burn superdry  wood, broken up furniture and the like, ......I'd imagine a bit of 1/4" steel plate with a bend in it would do the job fine... from memory it just lies on top of the bricks ?

 

Cheers  

 

 

[Stubby]

Could be you have a " hot spot " caused by an air leak . I distorteg one once because I had a side cheek of vermiculite board in back to front .  (It has a slope on the top ) . this was allowing a jet of air to come through enriching the flame in that area . When I sussed it I fitted the side cheek the right way round and made a new baffle plate from 3.5mm stainless .  The original was only 1.5 mm thick .

[mr kipling]

Hi we have a villager and replace the baffle yearly.

[spudulike]

Make sure you clear soot and debris off the baffle regularly as this can take them out. Just replaced our Stovax lower baffle after 14 years. The upper one went after 10 but managed to make one out of thick gauge steel plate.

All toasty now.

[bankhouse builder]

I have a hunter and usually replace mine every 3-4 years

 

[aesmith]

Just fitted the replacement, I didn't appreciate how far the old one had deteriorated!  From the inside it looked a bit as if it had been hit with an antitank gun or something, bulging up as well as split.  However once removed it started falling apart in my hands, bits breaking away around the split then breaking in half just from lying it down to take the photos.  The iron is all fractured almost like dry rot.

 

I don't think we've been running it too hot, but I did wonder if the use of larger bits of wood was a factor.  With our wood mostly split from larger stuff nowadays there's a temptation maybe to leave it too large, putting the fuel nearer the baffle.

 

 

Edited February 17, 2018 by aesmith

[htb]

Our panther does the same to the back baffle plate