Jotul Rangeley Gasket Info!

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Pallet Pete

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We had been having occasional issues with our stove getting to much air even with tight gaskets and today a Jotul rep came to our house and looked over the setup. All is good he said so he called the factory and talked to a gentleman who said jotul has had some moister problems with there gasket cement retaining moisture in there stoves. This apparently means that the stove does not get a air tight seal when it is burning full blast because the fire is pulling so much air. We put the new gasket in with different cement and walla problem solved. Jotul has proven to have awesome service and quality for us and we are so grateful to them for that. they sent a actual jotul rep to our house and had them look it over all the way from GrandRapids Mi an hour and a half away. That's customer service! Once again thanks jotul !

Pete
 
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Prob why ours was back puffing under the top.It's sold now.Oh well.I did have to tighten the door latch 3 times because the gasket kept flattening out.Just the usual stuff there.
 
I think I can relate to your issue....been there, done that.
 
Prob why ours was back puffing under the top.It's sold now.Oh well.I did have to tighten the door latch 3 times because the gasket kept flattening out.Just the usual stuff there.


I have my doubts that that is why you were suffering from back puffing.
 
We had been having occasional issues with our stove getting to much air even with tight gaskets and today a Jotul rep came to our house and looked over the setup. All is good he said so he called the factory and talked to a gentleman who said jotul has had some moister problems with there gasket cement retaining moisture in there stoves. This apparently means that the stove does not get a air tight seal when it is burning full blast because the fire is pulling so much air. We put the new gasket in with different cement and walla problem solved. Jotul has proven to have awesome service and quality for us and we are so grateful to them for that. they sent a actual jotul rep to our house and had them look it over all the way from GrandRapids Mi an hour and a half away. That's customer service! Once again thanks jotul !

Pete


It's one of the issues you will have when dealing with a top loading stove. If the gasket does not sit perfectly level you can end up with gaps in the seal due to the fact that the seal is relying only on the weight of the top loading door.
 
We have had zero issues with ours so far. Not even a door tightening.
 
It's one of the issues you will have when dealing with a top loading stove. If the gasket does not sit perfectly level you can end up with gaps in the seal due to the fact that the seal is relying only on the weight of the top loading door.

The gaskets that where causing the problems where the front door and ash door gaskets. We did not replace the top door gasket. This is apparently a known issue fom the factory. You should not have any issue with a top load door excpecially with the Rangely door. That door weighs a ton !
 
We have had zero issues with ours so far. Not even a door tightening.


That's good to hear masterMech ! Our stove was a display model but never burned sounds like it may be one of the first models. Maybe they addressed the issue in later models then. I can say we have been extreamly happy with it overall. The stove is a real beauty to burn and watch burn.

Pete
 
The bigger problem is when one of these stoves gets into the hands of a novice burner. You guys with long experience can recognize a problem exists with the stove, and call the dealer or manufacturer to have it addressed. Someone with less experience may not recongize there is any problem, or if they do, might figure it's operator error. I wonder how many people have bought this stove as their first, have this problem, and haven't called their dealer or manufacturer to have it addressed.

Seems to me stove manufacturers should be doing something to assure they do not have such problems. That may mean building a fire in each stove before it ships, although I have to imagine a clever engineer could devise another test to identify such problems.
 
The gaskets that where causing the problems where the front door and ash door gaskets. We did not replace the top door gasket. This is apparently a known issue fom the factory. You should not have any issue with a top load door excpecially with the Rangely door. That door weighs a ton !


The top lid on the Defiant is a big heavy bastard. If you don't seat the gasket correctly the top lid will not seal properly. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts the Jotul is the same way.
 
Don't really need to build a fire, I got a large pack of smoke bombs the last time I was down to SC, for some reason they view them as fireworks here in MD (thats a whole different topic) but anyway, when I do a new stove install I will usually use 2-3 smoke bombs to test for leaks and draft. Comes in handy for finding those annoying leaks.
 
Mine didn't leak under the griddle but under the stovetop.
 
The top lid on the Defiant is a big heavy bastard. If you don't seat the gasket correctly the top lid will not seal properly. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts the Jotul is the same way.


That is very possible the jotul top load is a big heavy bastard as well. I checked that today and it is fine thank goodness! Those two gaskets look like areal b-&$,? to replace on the stove. I use an incense stick to find leaks normally they work very well any leaks and the smoke goes straight into the leaking spot. There also great for routine checking of door tightness usually once a month I check. Thanks BrowningBar for the prodding it makes a lot of sense when I think about it.

Pete
 
I bought me some of those incense sticks quite some time ago but like i said,I don't have the stove anymore but good to know.
 
Great info Pete! Thank you for posting this. I definitely need to replace my gaskets. For the past week my stove has been running like the door was cracked open (i.e., very poorly). Today I had a dickens of a time getting a fire going. I had a hard time keeping a Super Cedar lit without backpuffing, to give you an idea of how bad it's gotten in such a short time. Just for every bodies info, could you please post the size and length of the gaskets needed for the door and ash door as well as the type / brand of cement you used? I think most of us are going to need the info sooner than later if there are a bunch of "defective" ones out there. Great post!Thanks again!
 
The bigger problem is when one of these stoves gets into the hands of a novice burner. You guys with long experience can recognize a problem exists with the stove, and call the dealer or manufacturer to have it addressed. Someone with less experience may not recongize there is any problem, or if they do, might figure it's operator error. I wonder how many people have bought this stove as their first, have this problem, and haven't called their dealer or manufacturer to have it addressed.

Seems to me stove manufacturers should be doing something to assure they do not have such problems. That may mean building a fire in each stove before it ships, although I have to imagine a clever engineer could devise another test to identify such problems.[/quote]

I really like the idea of a validation test for air tightness, and it should be pretty easy to do. A common way to check for leaks in an industrial space is to fill the cavity with a gas like helium, then use a sniffer probe to detect the PPM that is coming out of each crack. Everything leaks to a certain extent, so you'd have to set realistic limits for a stove. A more user friendly way might be to seal the known air inlets, and pull a vaccuum on the flue. Stoves probabably leak a lot more than we'd like, even when they are assembled properly, but you could at least weed out the ones that have a blatant issue right away like a bad gasket.
 
I was contacted a few weeks ago about the issue by my stove dealer and asked to give feedback to jotul I said yes I would be happy to. The jotul factory rep gave me a call a few hours later and we talked about the issue. It appears that they have fixed the problem and wanted to know how are stove was doing. I said just fine and we love it! Well they are sending us a wintergrill accessory for free as a way to apologize. They are awesome!

Pete
 
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Great info Pete! Thank you for posting this. I definitely need to replace my gaskets. For the past week my stove has been running like the door was cracked open (i.e., very poorly). Today I had a dickens of a time getting a fire going. I had a hard time keeping a Super Cedar lit without backpuffing, to give you an idea of how bad it's gotten in such a short time. Just for every bodies info, could you please post the size and length of the gaskets needed for the door and ash door as well as the type / brand of cement you used? I think most of us are going to need the info sooner than later if there are a bunch of "defective" ones out there. Great post!Thanks again!

Scott, that does not sound like a gasket problem at all. That sounds like a bad downdraft in the chimney. To fix this many folks have to preheat the flue. There are several ways to do this including burning paper. You might even have to put the paper right up by or in the flue opening. Some folks have also had good luck with a hair drier. Running that while aiming at the flue should do the trick but might take a bit longer. Or even a torch would work. If you have a horizontal run out the back vs the top exit, then placing a 1/4 or 1/2 super cedar there may also do the trick.
 
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Great info Pete! Thank you for posting this. I definitely need to replace my gaskets. For the past week my stove has been running like the door was cracked open (i.e., very poorly). Today I had a dickens of a time getting a fire going. I had a hard time keeping a Super Cedar lit without backpuffing, to give you an idea of how bad it's gotten in such a short time. Just for every bodies info, could you please post the size and length of the gaskets needed for the door and ash door as well as the type / brand of cement you used? I think most of us are going to need the info sooner than later if there are a bunch of "defective" ones out there. Great post!Thanks again!

Scott that does sound like a back puff/downdraft issue You may need to look into a new chimney cap like this. onehttp://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimney/Wind-Resistant-Chimney-Caps

The way they work is breaking up the wind that usually goes down the chimney and allowing it to flow in a straight line over the chimney allowing proper draft. We also use on and it works extremely well.

Pete
 
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The burning out of control was our issue and the gaskets fixed that nicely. We used tight woven gaskets for it.

Front door was 1/2" if I remember right and the ash door was 3/8" gasket. I used rutland cement http://www.rutland.com/productinfo/stove-gasket-adhesive.html I find this style of door cement to be easy to use with much less mess than the caulk style. I have not messed with the top load door because we don't use it much except to cook on.

Pete
 
Just going to add that mine has been trouble free from day 1.
 
Just going to add that mine has been trouble free from day 1.

This was a factory issue but I don't think it affected every stove either or there would be a lot more complaints. glad yours worked well !

Pete
 
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