Couple of questions about the Astoria Bay

[mtrel]

Has anyone replaced the glass gaskets in an Astoria Bay? I'm wondering how hard it is. It looks like it would be hard to hold everything in place while the clips are all tightened down. I've been trying to find out why one side of my glass has been getting black since the stove was new in 2005 and I suspect an air leak there.

Also, my Astoria Bay has a tray in the firebox that catches the ash and blocks the door for the ash pan and the clean out doors. This kind of defeats the purpose of having an ash pan at all. What is the purpose of this tray and is it optional?

 

[imacman]

I owned an Astoria Bay, so I'll try to help.

The easiest way to remove the glass & replace the gasket would be to remove the whole door and lay it flat on some soft blankets.

As for the suspected air leak, after you replace the gasket and re-install the door, try the "dollar bill" test. Take a dollar bill and shut & latch the door on it all around the edge of the door gasket....it should fairly hard to pull out. if it slips out easily, then you probably have an air leak. The owners manual explains how to correct this.

The ash pan is mainly for catching the ash while you clean the firebox, not while it's running. The ash drawer isn't sealed, so it can't be open to the firebox. The slide out tray is not optional...it's on all Astoria bay stoves. It pulls out to expose the cleanout holes while the door is open.

Here's a couple pics of mine: One is of the door, so you can see what mine looked like after about a week of burning. The other is the burnpot, again after about 1 week of 24/7 burning. I cleaned the stove, but could have gone longer....guilt got to me....LOL.

 

[smwilliamson]

Has anyone replaced the glass gaskets in an Astoria Bay? I'm wondering how hard it is. It looks like it would be hard to hold everything in place while the clips are all tightened down. I've been trying to find out why one side of my glass has been getting black since the stove was new in 2005 and I suspect an air leak there.

Also, my Astoria Bay has a tray in the firebox that catches the ash and blocks the door for the ash pan and the clean out doors. This kind of defeats the purpose of having an ash pan at all. What is the purpose of this tray and is it optional?

I'd like to see a pic of your dirty glass. The glass gasket usually only needs to be repalced if you are replacing the glass. Are you talking about the door gasket??

 

[mtrel]

Thanks for your responses.

As far as the gasket is concerned I was probably a little hard on it the first few years before I found out it's not supposed to be sprayed with Windex. If you look at the picture above, my left and center panes would look just like that after a week. The glass pane on the right, near the hinges would have a thick black creosote type substance on it. I've done the dollar bill test a few times and it always passed. I've also adjusted the door hinges a few times since new and it never makes a difference. Another thing I noticed is that along the edge of the part that gets gunked up the paint on the outside of the door is flaking off.

As far as the ash tray is concerned, I'm not talking about the sliding ash door. I actually have a tray, or container in my stove. You lift it out of the firebox and can dump the ashes out of it. It's over the ash pan doors and surrounds the fire pot.

I'll take some pictures tonight and post later.

 

[imacman]

....As far as the ash tray is concerned, I'm not talking about the sliding ash door. I actually have a tray, or container in my stove. You lift it out of the firebox and can dump the ashes out of it. It's over the ash pan doors and surrounds the fire pot.

I'll take some pictures tonight and post later.

Must be something new....nothing in the firebox of my '05 astoria like that except the firepot. The slide under the firepot pulled forward to open the ash doors......just brushed the ashes into those openings, which went directly into the ash drawer.

 

[imacman]

....As far as the ash tray is concerned, I'm not talking about the sliding ash door. I actually have a tray, or container in my stove. You lift it out of the firebox and can dump the ashes out of it. It's over the ash pan doors and surrounds the fire pot.

I'll take some pictures tonight and post later.

Must be something new....nothing in the firebox of my '05 astoria like that except the firepot. The slide under the firepot pulled forward to open the ash doors......just brushed the ashes into those openings, which went directly into the ash drawer.