EKO door gasket flip

[taxidermist]

Well after 3 days of getting gassed out of my shop I had to flip my silicone door gasket. It lasted almost 2 seasons I ran out of adjustment on my hinges and the fumes were leaking out of the upper part of the door. The silicone was all dried out and cracked. I hope it fixed it for now. I will know tomorrow when I fire it up if it worked.


Rob

 

[mr.fixit]

One thing I noticed with the original door gasket is after a period of time the opening lip really forms a deep channel in the gasket.
I had the hinges adjusted in all the way but it seemed like the handle side wasn't sealing tight even with the handle almost straight down.
So what I did was take some of the slack out of the handle spindle(on the outside of the door)with some uninsulated 12 gauge copper wire.
I just wrapped 1 loop around the spindle between the handle and washer and twisted it tight.
After a few days of use the copper flattens down a little and forms somewhat of a thrust washer and allows the door to close tighter.
Not to high tech but it worked.BTW I also have the new silicone gasket here but haven't used it yet.

 

[Fred61]

I'm beginning to believe that many EKO operators may be causing many of their own gasket failures. We close the door and crank on the handle till we feel good about the seal. I don't know the pitch of the latch but I do know we have a tremendous mechanical advantage. I think we are compressing the gasket far beyond what is needed to make a good smoke seal and every time we do it, we are creating a permanent set in the gasket that needs to be tightened more and more each time "till the point of failure. I am on my first gasket in my third year of burning with no leaks yet but I can see the day coming. When I eyeball the door and check alignment with the square structure of the boiler, I can see that in order to make a leak proof seal, the door is about 1/4 to 3/8 inches farther in on the latch side.

 

[barnartist]

I literally logged on today just to find this topic.

This is my 5th season with the same door gasket. I bought the new silicone gasket but have not installed it. The job seems to scare me a little, it looks so thick.

I was thinking there was a thread on here one time about flipping the original gasket over. Also tips on cleaning, I have let mine leak for a while so I have quite a creasote build up.

How important is the glue? I don't have any and the stores dont seem to be restocking.

 

[taxidermist]

I'm beginning to believe that many EKO operators may be causing many of their own gasket failures. We close the door and crank on the handle till we feel good about the seal. I don't know the pitch of the latch but I do know we have a tremendous mechanical advantage. I think we are compressing the gasket far beyond what is needed to make a good smoke seal and every time we do it, we are creating a permanent set in the gasket that needs to be tightened more and more each time "till the point of failure. I am on my first gasket in my third year of burning with no leaks yet but I can see the day coming. When I eyeball the door and check alignment with the square structure of the boiler, I can see that in order to make a leak proof seal, the door is about 1/4 to 3/8 inches farther in on the latch side.

Fred,

Mine has nothing to do with the handle side of the door. All my problems have always been on the hinge side of the door.

 

[taxidermist]

I literally logged on today just to find this topic.

This is my 5th season with the same door gasket. I bought the new silicone gasket but have not installed it. The job seems to scare me a little, it looks so thick.

I was thinking there was a thread on here one time about flipping the original gasket over. Also tips on cleaning, I have let mine leak for a while so I have quite a creasote build up.

How important is the glue? I don't have any and the stores dont seem to be restocking.

putting in the new gasket is very easy. As far as the glue goes if you want to use some rutland silicone after you install the gasket you can but you dont need to.

Rob

 

[taxidermist]

Well I am @ work until 07:00 and the wife called to let me know that smoke was coming out of the door. Great!! I might have a little room to tighten them up but not sure. Anyone find a source for use to skip the middle man on new gaskets?

Rob

 

[Duetech]

I built my own gasket using hi temp silicone and the old gasket as a filler. Started by cleaning the old gasket and resetting it in the groove. I used rutland cement to glue the rope gasket to the door but I could have used the rutland hi temp silicone. I filled the remainder of the door groove with the hi temp silicone and squared it off using a putty knife. Then I laid strips of aluminum foil on the silicone then let the silicone "set" for a little while and did a "soft set" installation of the door (where the handle was gently allowed to come in contact with the latch and the foil covered seal was only slightly depressed all the way around by the boiler lip). The boiler portion was coated with white lithium grease to prevent sticking. Once the silicone was cured I did a slight adjustment (1/2 turn of the hinge lock nut) to ensure a good seal. Later I determined I did not need the aluminum foil step but it didn't hurt (just let the silicone cure completely). Creosote ended up pulling th aluminum foil off of the silicone but that was usually from negelct and the bullheadedness of finding out how well the seal would work. It would have lasted longer than the two years I got out of it if I had kept the boiler side cleaned and greased the seal well greased. The silicone seemed impervious to the lithium grease.

As mentioned above it seems we have a tendency to over tighten the door. Once the silicone seal I made was in place I barely had to put pressure on the door handle to get a good seal. Keeping the seal well grease was key however as creosote will stick to just about anything. A can of spray litium grease with a tube (like you get with wd40) was a real pal.

 

[Duetech]

As a side note.. Before the silicon seals were available for the EKO I had to replace my upper door gasket (several times). At first I took the original gasket out and cleaned it with a propane torch and reset it and used it then ordered a new one. The new one arrived but I used the old one until it began to malfunction. The new one was installed but the price on the new one made me wonder if I could get more life out of the old one and now experience showed I needed to have a spare on hand. Cleaning them with a torch is rough on them and they begin to show their age when they are cleaned by hand. When the boiler was up and running I placed the old seal in the secondary combustion chamber for a few minutes and let the gasification process clean the gasket without agitating the gasket to "get all the creosote out". It worked BUT... I shared this approach and someone left their old gasket in the secondary chamber too long and melted it. So if you choose to clean your gasket in the secondary chamber remember they can be ruined if not carefully attended. By the time I needed to clean the second gasket (the new one) I started using Hi-temp silicone mentioned above. So I have a not too badly used and cleaned door gasket that has been setting around for over two years now and the original is still in the door with silicone on it. Theoretically as long as there are tubes of hi-temp silicone around I will never need to buy another replacement gasket for the upper door.

 

[taxidermist]

Well I did as cave said to do and so far so good I took the door off last night after my fire burned out. I then pulled out the gasket and ran a bead of silicone in the gasket groove. I then pushed the old gasket into the groove, I filled the rest of the groove with silicone and smoothed everything with a small putty knife. I let the silicone set up over night and today I installed the door after turning out the hinges. I adjusted the hinges with a tape measure and also a small level to make sure the top and bottom were adjusted the same amount. Now only time will tell! and like cave said" as long as they make silicone I will always have a new gasket" or something like that.


Rob

 

[Fred61]

Well I did as cave said to do and so far so good I took the door off last night after my fire burned out. I then pulled out the gasket and ran a bead of silicone in the gasket groove. I then pushed the old gasket into the groove, I filled the rest of the groove with silicone and smoothed everything with a small putty knife. I let the silicone set up over night and today I installed the door after turning out the hinges. I adjusted the hinges with a tape measure and also a small level to make sure the top and bottom were adjusted the same amount. Now only time will tell! and like cave said" as long as they make silicone I will always have a new gasket" or something like that.


Rob

The reason I have hesitated to go the silicone route is my memory of all the bad luck I had with the Wood Gun door gaskets. They came from the factory with that configuration. That is: fiber gasket in the slot with silicone rubber troweled on the surface. Those gaskets had to be scraped and re-touched 3 or 4 times during the heating season. The excessive heat would turn the silicone into shredded rubber crumbs and start leaking. That may not happen with the EKO because the door gasket has more protection from the intense heat because the door extends into the opening protecting the gasket. With the Wood Gun, the gaskets were on the same plane as the door refractory and were subjected to the entire blast of heat. I used waxed paper as a spacer between the troweled silicone rubber and the door jamb. Didn't care if it was a little difficult to remove. I would always check it after the first fire and it would be gone.

 

[taxidermist]

I did mine on the bench and did not put it back on the boiler for 12 hrs so no foil or wax paper for me.

 

[Fred61]

My intention was to allow it to form to the stop in order to have an even pressure on the gasket as it is torqued up.

 

[Duetech]

Hope the gasket works long and well taxidermist. I might add that white lithium grease is a real plus to keeping the creosote from sticking to the silicone and it also makes cleaning the creosote off the shelf lip of the door opening easier to clean too. Of course if your boiler don't idle like mine you may not have the problems I have had with creosote. A spray can of the lithium is a real friend though (just avoid directing the fumes from the can into the upper chamber as they will ignite) :bug:

 

[rkusek]

I just installed my silicone from Zenon last month. Seems to work very well. Looks like I should be able to pull it out and flip it over when the time comes.

 

[taxidermist]

I just installed my silicone from Zenon last month. Seems to work very well. Looks like I should be able to pull it out and flip it over when the time comes.

Well huskers you would think so but it leaks....so thats why I did what I did.

Rob

 

[rkusek]

Sounds like I should get a tube of hi-temp silicone and spray can of lithium before next winter. I thought about buying 2 from Zenon but the were so expensive, glad I didn't. I'm guessing that is the bright red silicone, 600* I think?

 

[taxidermist]

Sounds like I should get a tube of hi-temp silicone and spray can of lithium before next winter. I thought about buying 2 from Zenon but the were so expensive, glad I didn't. I'm guessing that is the bright red silicone, 600* I think?

I just used black 600* from tractor supply.

Rob

 

[Duetech]

+1 "I just used black 600* from tractor supply."

My first experience with silicone was through Dow-Corning and trying to repair a Corningware pyrex baking dish. Was supposed to withstand 450*f or so. Ij just didn't hold pyrex together very well. Made some great looking fishing lures though.