Lopi Endeavor: Air control crazy loud. Fix?

Hello Hearth.com friends,

My first post here after being a long time lurker.

My wife and I upgraded our wood stove from an All-Nighter Mid-Moe to a Lopi Endeavor and we couldn't be happier with our decision - so much cleaner (literally no smoke coming out of the chimney with conscientious burning techniques), uses SO much less wood, is pleasant to look at (glass door), this list goes on… except for the bloody squealing air control.

I've done a search of the forum about this issue which didn't offer much of a fix vs a band-aid (and in our case, didn't work). I've contacted my dealer and re-visited the showroom and learned that pretty much all Lopi's have this annoying feature.

It may be all in my head, but the noise seems to be getting worse.

Has anyone using a Lopi discovered a cure for this issue? I have half a mind to drill out the rivets that hold the air-control rod plate in, take apart the air control assembly and see what the offending noise is spawn from.

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Jags said:

Is the squeal during movement/adjustment or is it from air whistling in during normal operation?

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During movement of the air control. Thoughts?

sixman said:

I also have the Endeavor and had the same problem. It is welding slag in the bottom of the stove and the damper is grinding on it. You have to remove the rivets on the damper cover, slide it out and wipe out the slag (metal debris in ball shape). She will be quiet as a mouse after that. I used to wake up the entire house adjusting the air. Not anymore.

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So, you DID drill out the rivets and clean out the area the air control slider is located? What was that job like? I had a hunch that the noise was from debris left over from welding it together or some kind of burr left of the stamped steal slider.

Finally, while drilling out the rivets is an easy enough job, do you think doing so would somehow void warrantee?

Thanks again for your comments!

isipwater said:

Yes, my Endeavor does it some but it doesn't seem to bother me that much. I hope you can get that under control soon. Good luck.

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I guess I could live with it, but I'm not sure I want to. I hope I can get this under control soon too. Thank you.

Jags said:

Sounds like sixman already battled and won this problem. I would start there.

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I think you might be right!

I don't want to void warrantee though. Do you, or anyone listening, have any thoughts on how drilling out the rivets would impact warrantee?

Thank you in advance!

sixman said:

They are just small pop rivets that you can drill out and use a small hand held pop rivet gun from Home Depot or Lowes. I already had the stuff to fix mine so I didn't bother the dealer. You will be amazed at how quiet it is when you are done but be sure and get it all cause it only takes one piece to make noise.

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I'm sold! I'm on it!

Thank you fellow members for reading and your replies! My first post here her been a good experience and I look forward to contributing in the future… and, I'm quite positive I'll be tossing out a question here and there too!

Grateful!

sixman said:

They are just small pop rivets that you can drill out and use a small hand held pop rivet gun from Home Depot or Lowes. I already had the stuff to fix mine so I didn't bother the dealer. You will be amazed at how quiet it is when you are done but be sure and get it all cause it only takes one piece to make noise.

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Wanted to check in before I begin doing this little project. Is there any thing that I should be aware of before drilling out the rivets and pulling out the air control? The dealer seems to think there is some kind of spring loaded contraption inside that air control assembly. And, this makes me take pause before jumping in, not knowing what any spring configuration might look like before is comes (or springs) apart.

My sense from feeling how the air control slides inside the assembly is that it is simply a piece of sheet metal welded to the end of a steel rod which slides inside a box. The fact that if I apply downward or upward pressure on the air control slider rod whilst adjusting the noise changes leads me to believe this.

Thoughts before I jump in? I want to make sure I know what I'm up against so I'm prepared as the stove is our only source of heat. Hate to mess that up for a few days!

Thanks in advance!

webby3650 said:

I've not had an endeavor apart. The Liberty I would think is similar. There is a big plate on the bottom that has the hamdle attached to it, the springs are attached to it also. Then there are 2 plates that lay on top of the springs. One plate controls primary air and the other is for secondary air. Take it out slowly and you will see how it goes without trouble. It's a simple design.

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Thank you for your reply! So, as long as I go slow, nothing should go fubr then?

webby3650 said:

The springs aren't really arent under much of a load. Nothing will go flying apart.

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And if they do come apart, it is easy enough to see how they go back together? I'm hoping…

Huge thanks to you btw!

I'll repot back on how it goes…

Okay, all done! That was a PITA to say the least! Whisper quiet now.

I whipped out what I could with a dry cloth but there is an area toward the end of the "air tunnel", if you will, that is blocked off except for a very tight tolerance slot for the air control assembly plate. Couldn't get in there with a cloth at all so I had to use compressed air. I figure I pushed what ever the offending noise was to the very end of the air tunnel. With fingers crossed, the stuff that caused the noise doesn't creep back toward the front of the air tunnel.

I need to report that there weren't any springs or additional metal plate. There was just one entire assembly that came out. I looked and looked, knocked around in there, got a coat hanger to fish inside the area - nothing, no springs. There wasn't any indication that there was any spring attachments on the assembly I took out. I'm wondering if Lopi changed the design slightly… Or, is my Endeavor's air control missing some pieces?

Re-revited it all back together with steel rivets, sanded the cap plate and rivet heads, and painted the area so it looks better than new.

Thank you all for the help!