Century FW 3000 questions

[JimBear]

Question #1
Ideas on what caused this crack in my vermiculite baffle?? It is pretty much right down the center running front/back. I just noticed it tonight. Is it just from heating/cooling process? Did I somehow hit it with a chunk of wood?


Question #2
There are 2 types of blowers offered for this model of stove; an ultra quiet 100cfm & a 100 cfm crossflow blower. What’s the difference? I am not seeing much of a description in the manual. I didn’t get a blower & am currently using an 18” box fan behind the stove. It’s a bit of redneck engineering but seems to work. I am thinking that based on stove design the manufacturer blower will be more efficient but not sure if it’s worth the $125 for the optional blowers.



Question #3
Setting a large pot of water on the stovetop to serve as a humidifier shouldn’t affect anything should it?

Question #4
My stove seems to like to run @ about 700 surface temp when loaded up with dry hardwoods, temps taken using my IR gun. I have a flue prob on the way. It seems a bit high but haven’t noticed any discoloring of the paint or any odors of burning paint. Dollar bill test done on the door suggests the door closes tightly. The cracked baffle could of affected tonight temps but I know it wasn’t cracked a couple days ago because I was showing my nephews how the secondary’s worked

 

[moresnow]

Not a clue on how your baffle was cracked. I will comment on the stove mounted blower. Chances are good you will find that it works very well. I had a small Century I added a variable speed blower fan to. Almost always ran it on low settings. Worked well.
Instead of your current fan setup I would set a fan in a colder part of the house pointed towards the stove/stove room. I use a small 10" model on the floor moving cool dense air towards hot light air to displace the warm stove room air. With the stove mounted fan I only run the extra floor fan when it gets down in the low teens or less. Worth a try. Somewhat more appealing look as well! I would not be blowing on my stove pipe. Potentially cooling the exhaust and possibly encouraging creo buildup. Couple ideas to consider. I'll PM a link to the stove fan I have used a few times.

 

[ColdNorCal]

Question #1
Ideas on what caused this crack in my vermiculite baffle?? It is pretty much right down the center running front/back. I just noticed it tonight. Is it just from heating/cooling process? Did I somehow hit it with a chunk of wood?
View attachment 254007 View attachment 254008

Question #2
There are 2 types of blowers offered for this model of stove; an ultra quiet 100cfm & a 100 cfm crossflow blower. What’s the difference? I am not seeing much of a description in the manual. I didn’t get a blower & am currently using an 18” box fan behind the stove. It’s a bit of redneck engineering but seems to work. I am thinking that based on stove design the manufacturer blower will be more efficient but not sure if it’s worth the $125 for the optional blowers.

View attachment 254009 View attachment 254010

Question #3
Setting a large pot of water on the stovetop to serve as a humidifier shouldn’t affect anything should it?

Question #4
My stove seems to like to run @ about 700 surface temp when loaded up with dry hardwoods, temps taken using my IR gun. I have a flue prob on the way. It seems a bit high but haven’t noticed any discoloring of the paint or any odors of burning paint. Dollar bill test done on the door suggests the door closes tightly. The cracked baffle could of affected tonight temps but I know it wasn’t cracked a couple days ago because I was showing my nephews how the secondary’s worked

On 2nd season with FW3000. Have removed the air tubes and baffle 3 or 4 times now. And am not always gentle when loading wood and have hit the baffle numerous times and the baffle looks great.

My stove came with a blower, dont know which model it is. I do know that the stove does not heat the house as well or as fast without it. From what I have read, this is a ymmv. It is a bit loud on high speed. Similar wood stove fans are only $30 on Amazon. Im a bit of a diy'er and would get one of those and make it fit. And if the fan goes out in the future it could be replaced for cheap.

Pot on top should not matter.

700 degrees stove top temps are something we hit often. Even 750+ according to the thermometer. We even pegged the thermometer to the right one time for what seemed like an eternity and the tubes remained straight, the baffle looks perfect as do the welds, paint.... The 700-750+ temps are not sustained but do remain at those levels 20-30 minutes at times and often. I spoke with Century/SBI support about this and they said it is nothing to be concerned with.

Call SBI Century and ask about your baffle. They have been very helpful to us as this is our first stove and we had a lot of questions.

 

[JimBear]

Instead of your current fan setup I would set a fan in a colder part of the house pointed towards the stove/stove room.

So far I haven’t had much problem with heat distribution in the house, I only use the fan to try to cool down the stove when it is running in the 750 - 800 stove top temp range. I also thought about the cooling of the flue pipe & creosote but since I am using dw coming off the stove & only running the fan @ high temps I didn’t consider it a problem but I have been wrong before & will be ordering a blower & baffle. Thank you for the reply & link.

 

[ColdNorCal]

So far I haven’t had much problem with heat distribution in the house, I only use the fan to try to cool down the stove when it is running in the 750 - 800 stove top temp range. I also thought about the cooling of the flue pipe & creosote but since I am using dw coming off the stove & only running the fan @ high temps I didn’t consider it a problem but I have been wrong before & will be ordering a blower & baffle. Thank you for the reply & link.

The FW3000 fan is mounted centered in the rear of stove. When blowing , it blows almost all of the air from the rear of the stove directly onto the flue pipe. This air is very warm, but not nearly as hot as the actual flue pipe. Im guessing it is cooling the flue pipe a little bit as it distributes the flue pipes hotter air into the room.

 

[JimBear]

700 degrees stove top temps are something we hit often. Even 750+ according to the thermometer. We even pegged the thermometer to the right one time for what seemed like an eternity and the tubes remained straight, the baffle looks perfect as do the welds, paint.... The 700-750+ temps are not sustained but do remain at those levels 20-30 minutes at times and often. I spoke with Century/SBI support about this and they said it is nothing to be concerned with.

Call SBI Century and ask about your baffle. They have been very helpful to us as this is our first stove and we had a lot of questions.

I called SBI Century a couple weeks ago about my stovetop temps & the fellow I spoke with said get a flue probe shoot for 300-550 @ 18” above the stove. He also said 700+stovetop shouldn’t be a problem for a short time but wasn’t specific on length of “short time”. Given your experiences with those temps I feel better now. I had mine all cleaned out last week to look things over, the welds all looked good, I had one firebrick that had about a 1” piece broken off a corner , the flue & chimney looked good, there was no creosote build up to speak of. This is my first year burning so I am being a bit paranoid & overly cautious, all the reading & discussing helps but actually running the stove/experience is were the real learning takes place. Thanks