Englander 28-3500 Crack

Hey all, have a 1 year old 28-3500 with a small 2" crack in the weld below the door flange (right side). A welder indeed verified and said the weld was too shallow there and he will grind the entire bottom and re-weld. He said it would be better than new. I am in contact with Englander and they seem to be willing to pay for the fix, although final approval has not been given. I know cracks in that area have happened on a few other stoves from fellow members before. I plan to add fire brick to that spot on either side once the repair is made. Thanks to this forum I heat with dry (<22%) wood and the stove has never been over fired. Probe therm has hit 1000 once or twice but only for a minute and the face of the unit has never been over 650. Any thoughts about this or suggestions are welcome.

Highbeam said:

Is it that super fine hairline crack that is horizontal?

Click to expand...

Yep, it opens up a bit when the stove is hot. I just wanted it fixed so it doesn't get worse.

unfortunately I had to reduce the file size, but it's much more visible and pronounced in the original pic.

Thanks. Tech from Englander said over fire is front face above 900 and burn zone 400-700. That seemed a bit high to me which is why I keep it 350-550. But has got to 650 a couple times. Would love to know what others keep theirs at.

Two Condar dials on the face and a probe 20" above the stove. Infared to spot check. Use em all cause mine hot spots like crazy.

Most say they run them hot without issue which is what puzzled me about mine. Oh well. Englander approved the fix. Welder coming out tomorrow. $170 for the job. Should I wait a day to fire it up or is the weld good once finished? No experience with welding.

I have heard of a couple of those that cracked around the door flange. I don't believe it is a widespread problem though.
A welder who knows what he is doing should be able to repair that with no further problems.
I have heard that ESW stands behind their products pretty well. Hopefully, in your case, they do. I have had a really good experience with mine. Plenty of heat if I run it properly. Probably uses more wood than the secondary burn stoves but I think it is one of the more efficient old school burners. Lexybird, among others on here, helped me out a lot with advice when I was getting started with mine. Hope it goes well for you.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. ESW has been great and is making it right. They have been a great company to work with, highly recommend. I learned a tremendous amount from this forum when I got mine. We love ours and I agree it can be a decent burner when used properly. My only concern is that I tend to not be able to shut it down as much as I'd like and still keep the heat up. Once a full load is going I leave the bottom knob 1-2 cogs open (1/16" crack), and the top slide 1/2 to 3/4 closed. This typically gets me 4 hours of "good" heat and another 2-3 of "so, so" heat. (dry wood <22%, well educated from this forum) I mostly burn 1 year ash and cherry. Hoping to get a little more heat from some 2 year red oak when it gets frigid. I did install a stove pipe damper this year and will experiment with that to try and get more heat out of the unit. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks guys. Welder did a good job I think. New high temp paint. Ready to go. I do try and make sure its charred well before closing. Seems to catch from front to back though. Rarely get good flames in the back on start up. Would just love to get that 10-12 hr burn some get. How much do you shut your damper?

Thought I would show a couple pics of the fix. So far it's held great and looks good. I also added a couple cut fire bricks to shield the bottom door weld and corners. So far the stove has been twice as good as last year with the changes I've made this yr (dry wood and more efficient ducting). Thx for all the help.

Same here. Our hot spot is to the left of the door about where the handle is. Keep flue around 450-500 with probe therm and face about 350-400. Had the pipes a bit hot twice and warped the baffle slightly, but don't think the unit quite got to over fire. Other than the crack we have loved ours. How hot did you get it?

Englander told me the face would need to get above 700 to be overfired. Seems high to me, but not planning on testing it out. Almost everyone who owns one has warped the battle. That seems to happen at about 500. Never had any issues with the thermostat.