Crack in my firebox Summer's Heat 55-SHP10

I think you need to send this pic and the info about the stove model and serial # to Mike H. He would be the best person to determine if this is a problem, and whether or not a repair can/should be done. Either send it by PM, or email him.

The warping and cracking is an indication of overfire.

Do you use a High setting all time? The placement of the crack does not seem to effect performance. But the way the impingment plate sits, is pretty important (way I understand it) as this directs the exhaust gases so they dont go straight out. So they may slightly effect it (slightly).

When was the last time the exhaust passage was cleaned all the way to the combustion blower (passage behind impingement plate)? This area can be tricky and needs some long and thin brushes. The leafblower trick is what I would recommend to clean the stove and remove all the hidden fly ash. Also when was the last time the vent was fully cleaned? And finally, have you changed the bottom 3 button settings any? Are they still factory settings?

Good hiding place. Cops will never look for it in there!

The crack can be welded but I would echo what Dexter said the deformation says there's been a lot of heat present at one time or another. If you have never run the stove above 5 then you may have some serious blockage problems.

skydmark1 said:

I will have to try the leaf blower trick to get this thing blown out and cleaned to see if that helps. Also hoping to have my burn pot gasket soon so I can replace that, I think the fire may be getting too much air with the old gasket. It doesn't appear that the crack is detrimental to the operation of the stove but still concerned me a bit.

Click to expand...

That crack can spread (I'm not saying it will, just that under certain condition it can).

I suggest that you add the stove make and model to the tread title so Mike Holton of England Stove Works will be able to see it and comment.

It sure looks like it was overfired! If you're going to weld crack, drill a small hole at the end of the crack first to eliminate the 'stress riser'. The other warped part would be the real worry. Definitely talk to England SW.

Clean the stove really well, use the leaf blower as described.

Go in there with a drill 3/16 and drill a hole right at the end of the crack to stop it from going farther.

Just be sure that when you drill, that it does not go though into someplace that it should not.

The crack is due to heat and structural stress in the area.

Snowy

"Crack In My Fire Box"
Boy, if there was ever a thread header that I wanted to pun.....
Well anyways..... it has always been my understanding that stoves will typically not overfire because there is a built in heat sensor to shut it down if it gets too hot. (Am I wrong) But, in some cases I have heard that the heat exchanger can warp or crack if the feed rate is up high and the convection fan is too low. In essence, the stove creates a lot of heat but the convection fan is not on high enough to blow that heat out of the stove. As far as a safety issue?....That is a question best left answered by the experts. Please, whatever you do, do not let us read about you in the paper. Play it safe and consult a pro. But I do agree with you, you should get more than 4 years out of your stove. Good luck!

Normally the stove should see the over fire and shut things down but if the area where the temperature sensor/snap disc is gets insulated by ash it is possible for it not to see the condition until way past the point of damage, the same thing can also happen if the sensor or snap disc is defective.

That stove needs to be gone over really well before being fired up again.

Another idea is the stove is really dirty and air takes path of least resistance all the heat is concentrated on this one spot.

Ooo. I've got that stove and that pic looks scary. It looks like that top shelf is warped too, maybe its the pic though. You've clearly got some problems there.

I'd not run it until you get it sorted out. If you can't get an oil delivery then 10-15 gallons of diesel should get you through a few days. It's better than killing the stove imo.

dont know how i missed this one for so long...

what i see is the back firewall crack next to the brace. the most likely cause for this is that the heat exchanger area was loaded up and the exhaust path was concentrated in the area that was affected. looking at the firewall note that there is a rusty colored red line along the path that was affected and the shelf below was warped downward on that same line. the crack can be welded (mig) using a small stop hole at the end of the crack then weld the seam , it is possible to tap the wall to flatten out any warpage somewhat before welding and it should if welded well stay relatively flat. the location of the crack is not one which would cause smoke spillage from the unit so its not a safety issue in that respect however, if its not fixed soon its going to continue to crack and eventually be beyond repair.

once repaired we'll need to be more diligent with ash removal from this area to prevent it from breaking again and also to get overall better performance from the unit


EDIT: in retrospect and a friendly note from a pro, i would recommend having the unit checked out by a service entity for any other potential damage.gonna need to get it welded anyway might as well check it all out. i should note i have seen this type of cracking before usually due to the reason i discussed above so im not gonna beat a dead horse about it and in pretty much every case i can recall off top of my head there wouldnt be any other areas of the stove hull that would be compremised but prudence begs that it gets a good looking over just in case.

ok, need to clean out this area more frequently than that , however you dont have to leaf blower it every time. what i use with my shop vac is a home made adapter usimng a "cone shaped" adapter and a short length of an old garden hose. this allows me to actually vacuum out this area with relative ease. i would do this every few weeks. this area is what we refer to as the "heat exchanger" area of the unit , we scrub heat out of the exhaust on its way out and transfer it to the blower chamber that surrounds it. thus geting more heat into the room and less leaving out the pipe. keeping this area free of ash not only protects the stove from overheating but at the same time provides more heat into the room through better transfer. ash acts as an insulator and thus we lose this heat, also as we have seen too much ash concentrates all that heat in a small channel which can damage the steel in that channel.

skydmark1 said:

installed new burn bot gasket and cleaned out the burn pot area really well. Did not realize there were holes on the sides near the bottom of the burn pot inside for air, they were full of ash. Cleaned that out too. Fire looks better now, but still burns down to no flame then starts back up again from time to time.....what the heck! What's causing this? I will say I replaced the top auger motor with a Gleason Avery unit last year, which I heard has a slightly faster RPM than the stock MK auger motor. Do I need to adjust my feed rate because of this?

Click to expand...

Are you sure you are using the default settings for the lower three buttons and at what heat range are you running it at?

When you did the auger work did you realign the augers?

Is there anything stuck in the transition area between the upper and lower auger?

If there was ash in those holes where the air comes in did you also clean the rest of the air intake?

skydmark1 said:

installed new burn bot gasket and cleaned out the burn pot area really well. Did not realize there were holes on the sides near the bottom of the burn pot inside for air, they were full of ash. Cleaned that out too. Fire looks better now, but still burns down to no flame then starts back up again from time to time.....what the heck! What's causing this? I will say I replaced the top auger motor with a Gleason Avery unit last year, which I heard has a slightly faster RPM than the stock MK auger motor. Do I need to adjust my feed rate because of this?

Click to expand...

My Fathers 25-PDV will do that on the #1 heat setting. Just not enough fuel to keep a continous fire. On 2 and above, No problems.

Like Smokey said, What heat setting are you running? You said you never go above 5.

If when the baffle plate is removed you stick your hand (fingers) down the left side (keeping fingers under the angle) you will feel the hole where you want the adapter hose to go. I'm sure you will here the shop vac chugging the first time as it chokes on the ash. After that once a week is fine, while your in there take a paint brush and clean the whole thing, with the shop vac running there isn't that much dust.

if its dropping to coals and relighting its one of just a few things, either the LFF is too low and we arent getting big enough "doses" of fuel per cycle, or the "door ajar" switch is dropping. look for a litttle hole just to the outside of your burn pot on the back wall. i'll try to find a picture to post of it, anyway , location of the hole is about a half inch outside the right outer wall of the pot and about 3/4 of an inch lower thann the top edge of the pot on the back wall, note ITS OUTSIDE OF THE POT to the right not inside of the pot. locate this hole and ream it out with a toothpick or sewing needle, dont use coat hanger its tooo thick. see if the stove starts feeding consistantly after clearing this port.

EDIT picture shold show approximately where it is but its hard to get right on it due to camera angle. hope this helps