Door gasket fell off.

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Hogwildz

Minister of Fire
Welp, just went to put more wood in, and the f'in door gasket completely falls off. I just replaced this thing a couple weeks ago.
Cement still on door surface, cement still on gasket surface, but separated in between. I have no clue. Anyone ever have this problem. Luckily I am down to coals, pulled the splits I added back out and tosses out in the yard. finagled the gasket in place for now. Done burning till I get yet another gasket, and going to try a different cement this time.
I was a lil worried that the cement was a tad runny, shook the crap out of it, but was still runny, almost liquidy. Off to the hardware store tomorrow.
If anyone has had this problem, lemme know and what you thought caused it?

Door was cleaned of all old gasket cement down to the metal, then cleaned with alcohol & let to dry thoroughly.
Let gasket set unfired for about 7 hrs (6 was recommended to me). The cement appears brittle and crumbles.
 
Use Red RTV silicone, I have done that a few times (thats what Quad uses at the factory) and it works great. I just get a small bead around, put the gasket in and shut the door. Wait a while for it to cure and its stuck on pretty good.
 
I have always used furnace cement for mine. An interesting note is that England's Stove Works uses hi-temp RTV for the door gaskets and mine is holding like a champ. It kinda makes sense that it doesn't burn off since the door dissipates the heat and the airwash is constantly washing over the door too. And the stuff oozes into the fiberglass gasket for a good bond.

The tubes of crap that come with gasket kits are exactly that. Crap.

Edit: And since I don't believe there is such a thing as "hi-temp" vs. "non-high temp" 100% silicone my next one is going to be installed with the regular stuff. Ain't paying nine bucks more for red or black dye in it. I pulled the Material Safety Data Sheets for both of them and they are the same damned thing. Household rated at 450 degrees and the high priced spread rated at 500. Same MIL spec on both of them though.
 
Hog, it's a PE; shouldn't it be able to go to the hardware store by itself and buy its own gasket? :p
 
I had read on the woodheat site that regular silicone is ok.
I did notice the gasket sent to me is lighter and round. The one I pulled off the Summit is heavier, appears to graphite impregnated, much denser and tighter and flat tape like gasket. I will head down the hardware store tomorrow and see if they have the Rutland grapho-glas one. It looks exactly like what I pulled out. I thing I'll try the 3/4" one instead of the 5/8". The original barely had a knife edge mark in some parts of it, while the other areas had a nice edge showing where the seal was being made.
Heres a couple photos showing the old vs. new. The old one is flat as opposed to round. I have seen them called tape gaskets. Rutlands is pre adhesived, just pull off the paper tape and stick on. Tempting to try.
http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/A48205.htm
 

Attachments

  • P1010003.JPG
    P1010003.JPG
    51.9 KB · Views: 617
  • P1010001.JPG
    P1010001.JPG
    60.2 KB · Views: 613
Oops, that link was for window gasket, have to look for door gasket.
 
Looks like PE uses hi-density gasket like ESW does hog. Hard stuff to find. The regular gasket is the soft fluffy stuff and it is what most stove stores carry. Last year when Lowes was shucking stove stuff like a dog with flees I noticed that they had the Imperial 5/8" high density and were getting rid of it for three bucks a pop. I bought the last three kits they had.
 
I think your right. The original is very heavy, dense & tightly wound. The one I got from Tom is light and no offense to him, but seams very flimsy.
Its definitely a tape gasket (flatter & wider). Is the stuff you saw & bought at lows round or tape?

I know the local Ace hardware carriers Rutland gasket. I am going to see if they have the dense grapho glass stuff.
 
Round. All door gaskets are. They flatten after compression. My old stove had the ridge like the PE stoves but still needed a round gasket to seal right.

Every Rutland gasket I have ever seen was low density.
 
BrotherBart said:
Round. All door gaskets are. They flatten after compression. My old stove had the ridge like the PE stoves but still needed a round gasket to seal right.

Every Rutland gasket I have ever seen was low density.
Im telling ya bro, this is a tape gasket. Ain't no way it got perfectly flat all the way around. And there is only the knife edge on one side, nothing to compress it like that perfectly flat. I am going to call PE tomorrow and ask them. I hope to do this only 1 more time this year ;)

The rutland grapho tape gasket is 3.65 lbs. The white stuff I got is not even a pound I bet for the entire length.
http://www.rutland.com/maintenance_html/95A6_etc.html
 

Attachments

  • P1010005.JPG
    P1010005.JPG
    46.3 KB · Views: 580
  • P1010003.JPG
    P1010003.JPG
    77.6 KB · Views: 596
2 more photos.
 

Attachments

  • P1010002.JPG
    P1010002.JPG
    76 KB · Views: 567
  • P1010002.JPG
    P1010002.JPG
    76 KB · Views: 532
Even Imperial has tape gasket, mine looks just like this. Ah hell I'll let PE tell me whats what.
What really sucks, is I was enjoying the fire and really getting into it. Damnit all to hell!!!!!!!!! LOL
 

Attachments

  • GA0161-300.jpg
    GA0161-300.jpg
    5.8 KB · Views: 529
Hog, curious why you had to replace the gasket so soon? I thought your stove was only a year old, but maybe I am in in error and too lazy to look it up.
 
As ya might remember, at first I did not know the door needed to be adjusted, so when that was pointed out, I did that. Can only be adjusted so far. Checked this season before burning and the latch side was loose again. No more adjustment. So I decided to replace the gasket to afford adjustment again and hopefully a decent seal. It worked, and then tonights fire strted, up to temp, and went to put in load for the night and the entire gasket just fell the hell off. And as I pointed out, the knife edge made a nice crisp distinct indent in 3/4 of the gasket. but in on door latch side did not even leave a dent. I still think I should go with a 3/4" gasket, which would also allow more adjustment.
 
Hog what does PE say I mean a gasket should last more than a year more like 4 to 5 years
I use a liquid gasket cement From my experience it works better than Rurland
 
I am going to call them tomorrow and see what they say. I doubt they will warrant the gasket. I shoulda bitched at the beginning, but oh well.
The gasket is actually in great shape. It just is not deep enough to get a good seal ALL the way around the knife edge. I am almost certainly going to go with a 3/4" gasket this time around.
 
Hey Hog seen alot of PEs for sale on the craig list posts here. Any connections,/reasons??????? %-P
Sorry man just had to get my plug in. LOL Hope ya find the answere. Dont let Karl read this cause he will probably get :sick:
 
Bubba believe me. Screwing with a gasket and door adjustment is one hell of a lot easier than pulling a 455 pound stove back out and hauling it 150 miles to pick up the replacement and then reinstalling it.
 
I ain't pulling nuttin out, cept the cement off the door. The tape gaskets I been seeing are very thin, 1/4" so you may be right bro.
I still say mines a flat tape gasket but thicker. PE best have some answers.
If need be, I'll go 3/4" and nice thick bead of silicone ;)

I will say this, I been unhappy with this damn door seal issue since day one. They could of, first of all let folks know in the manual that door needs adjusting first thing.
Gasket could be about 1'8"-1/4" thincker to leave more room for adjustments down the road. I miss my fire already, I think I have early stages of withdraw.
 
I replaced my summit door gasket in september, i got the part number from the manual and my dealer ordered it in.

The gasket is bigger than 3/4 it is 7/8 i used the regular glue and all is fine.

Question is why dont they those knife door seal gasket on electric cook stoves, those seem to last as long as the appliance!
 
minesmoria said:
I replaced my summit door gasket in september, i got the part number from the manual and my dealer ordered it in.

The gasket is bigger than 3/4 it is 7/8 i used the regular glue and all is fine.

Question is why dont they those knife door seal gasket on electric cook stoves, those seem to last as long as the appliance!

Did it come round or flat?
 
Too late north. If you look back in the threads, I had a question about my door gasket as soon as the stove came in. Mine failed the dollar bill test on the hinge side of the door. It was still pretty tight, but you could slide the dollar bill out with a fair amount of effort. Anyway I have burnt a few fires in mine and I have full control authority over the flames with my air control. It's only gotten down to around 50 here so it might not be drafting as hard as it eventually will. It's supposed to hit 32 for a low in a few days. I'll report back then.

This brings me to my next question.

I can't close my air control all the way down without the stove wanting to smolder a bit more than I think it should. Actually I can make a roaring pine fire coal over. I don't have a thermometer yet. It seems they are impossible to find in these parts. Anyway, should I wait until it gets really cold and the draft improves to see if I still have this problem? My guess right now is the draft isn't strong enough for the EBT to control the fire because it's too warm outside. If I crack the air control open an inch or so it burns beautifully.

Another thing. What's with all the pictures people put up with their dog curled up next to the hearth. My border collie looks at the stove with absolute disdain. In fact, when I light it, he moves his normal napping place about 5 feet down the hall away from the stove. I guess I should have gotten a short haired stove friendly dog. I just hope he doesn't hike his leg on it to try and put the fire out.
 
Karl,your dog moves 5 ft. away because you're burning that stove in the hallway man. :lol: As for door gaskets,I've replaced both styles before and the graphite impregnated gasket is better quality.....may also be less prone to sticking to the body of the stove.Thanks for the tip on the silicone;I've never liked that runny 'cement' crap that comes with the gasket kits.
 
Karl, the minimum you can turn the air down may not be the minimum you should set it at. The air handle allows those with excellent draft to be able to turn their unit down to increase their burn time, and still have it burn properly. But, those with not-so-excellent draft or short chimneys turning it down to the lowest setting can cause the fire to smolder. In my case, I've learned the lowest I should set my unit is about 40% and then do a slight variation from there... good days I can turn it down just a tad more and bad days I need to have it up a little more. But, turning my unit down to its lowest air setting I get a 14 hour smoldering fire and no secondary burn, also very little heat. So, I think the "lowest" air setting is just for those with good draft. Those with short chimneys in particular usually won't get a good burn with it at the lowest setting (lots of smoke) but also you're right the colder it is outside the more you can turn it down and it will burn properly.
 
Just for the record, silicone will work fine to hold the gasket in place, if you want to go that route. All of our stoves leave here like that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.