Sunday, 18 September 2011 20:52

Review: Napoleon 1402 Wood Burning Insert - Custom Steel Baffles

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We have been using our Napoleon 1402 wood-burning insert in our home for over 1 year and 7 cords of wood.  The stove is able to heat our entire home (~1800 square feet) down to about 30 degrees (F); below this, and the propane needs to kick in to help out.  The stove typically runs at between 300 and 500 degrees (F), and we leave the blowers on high at all times.

Overall, very happy with the stove.  We had it cleaned and the flue liner did not have any "bad" creosote in it, meaning that the insert kept burning at a high temperature and stayed fairly clean.  About once a week, I open up the damper and let it get nice and hot for an hour or so... just as a maintenance thing.  Here is a photo of inside the firebox, after removing the baffles.  You'll also see that some of the bricks were cracked, probably from trying to cram logs in that were a little too large (16" firewood is what you want with this particular stove).

inside-stove

Our main complaint, however, is the "ceramic" baffles that line the top of the firebox.  They feel like styrofoam, and they tend to disintegrate on contact when you're loading wood into the stove.  After less than 1 year, our baffles looked like this:

before-and-after

Our solution to this issue, as I don't find it acceptable to replace these baffles every 6 months, was to have a steel fabricator build some for us out of 3/8" thick stainless steel:

steel-baffle-custom

With the stainless steel, the fires seem to burn just as long, it stays plenty hot, and I don't have to worry about the steel wearing down as I load wood into it all winter long.

 

Last modified on Monday, 30 November 2015 18:06
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