Hearthstone Heritage - ash pan door question

Might be the gasket is just tight and will compress over time. Just a guess.

It should have a little resistance, but nothing like you describe. As above, I'd guess the gasket isn't seated properly. I think you should be able to adjust the latch (I'll try to take a look tonight). First take a good look all around the gasket - the door, and the hing area... maybe there's a something caught in there (ashes, splinter of wood, excess gasket material or gasket cement, etc.) which might be jamming the door a little bit.

Just took a quick look at the manual online, but there's no good picture of the latch ass'y. I can't remember what it looks like to adjust, because I never use the ash pan.

Is it possible someone installed the wrong size gasket?

The ash removal setup on my 2005 heritage is never used. I burned the first year trying to shake the ash grate and remove ash about four times a nail and hard ash locked it up and froze the shaker out so the ash door could not be closed. It needed total dissemble of the creates to straighted the stainless steel shaker fitting. I now dig out ash with a fire place shovel through the fount door leaving the ash door closed all the time.

How old is your stove. The latch system on mine has a spring washer in the assembly. A allen wrench will loosen the handle. it will then slide off the latch. Them pull the latch out. The door can be pulled by removing the hinge pins. There may be washers between the door and the stove on the pins. dont loose them. I would pull it apart make sure its clean no rust dirt or broken parts and reassemble it. Getting the door to latch tight is them trial and error. The assembly is not easy to readjust.

If the ash door seal is not tight air going up into the fire box past the grates will melt and warp them.

The door casting could be bad. The hinge holes could be off. There could be ash on the door gaskets. The shaker fitting could be out not letting the door close. The ash pan could be in the way. To me it sounds like the latch needs adjustment.

First check out everything else first, especially the shaker fitting it could be in the way and last thing set the reset the latch.

I was thinking about the shaker fitting too. I don't use my ash pan system but check from time to time to see if ash is somehow sifting down by accident. The door latch is kind of an odd ball on the ash pan with what feels like an over-center type cam latch. Mine shuts and latches with nearly zero resistance. To the point of me not being sure that it is sealing well. The other door latches are small but very effective. I always keep about a half inch of ashes on the fire box floor to be sure that there are no air leaks coming up and find the stove works better with the ashes.

Take the ash pan out and try shutting the door without it. Make sure that the shaker arm is pushed all the way in and maybe check the inside of the door for marks that correspond to the shaker arm. If so, vacuum out every bit of ash from the firebox and work the grate to be sure that it is not jammed and binding up.

My latch and door is easy to open and close. To the point that I worry it will fall open. I wish I could bolt it closed and remove that lower latch. I have threatened a time or two to cook a potatoe in there.

One more thought: It is fairly tempting to try and move this stove by lifting it from below the nice flat bottom of the ash pan with a jack or dolly. Supposedly this will crush and damage the ash pan and maybe dork up the hinges. Was your stove moved that way?

Highbeam said:

I have threatened a time or two to cook a potatoe in there.

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It would have to be one skinny 'tater... that pan is not very high.... french fries, maybe. I bet it gets nice and warm in there.... hmmm now you got the wheels turning here, Highbeam

Catskill said:

Harley said:

Highbeam said:

I have threatened a time or two to cook a potatoe in there.

Click to expand...

It would have to be one skinny 'tater... that pan is not very high.... french fries, maybe. I bet it gets nice and warm in there.... hmmm now you got the wheels turning here, Highbeam

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Perhaps a super market pizza would fit?

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Hijack

Ash pan mini pizza top down cooked, pizza bagels , ash pan garlic bread, ash pan flat bread,ash pan tin foil dinners

At the factory perhaps that gasket should be a medium or low density and was accidentally installed as high density. That will make all the difference in the world.

Sorry - got home later than expected, and out of habit stirred the coals and threw a few chunks in... then I remembered to look at the ash pan door, so the fire was going and I didn't want to keep that open too long.

But I didn't know that the ash pan door latch is quite a bit different than either the front or side door latches. From the (somewhat) quick look at it - doesn't seem to have any obvious/easy way to adjust. The catch seems to be made of some sort of poly material, and pulls the door shut by (the best way I can describe it) a little "cam lobe" on the door itself. Is it possible the latch somehow got rotated into the wrong positition at some point in its previous life?

Mine has to be pushed somewhat hard to be closed. Nothing like you describe tho. I did, however, have to take the latch apart last year because it was asembled wrong at the factory. Works fine now.
Dan.