How to repair wood burning stove?

[koliva]

Hi everybody,

I am here to get some advices from you guys about my wood burning stove.

Actually, I have just move my current house and I found that there is an old wood burning stove in the garage. Although I have central heating I would like to use it for fun, maybe once in a month or so. I have inspected the stove and saw that there are two crack on the sides. You can see the light through the cracks. Can I use some heat proof products like silicones? What would you suggest me to do?

Have a great day.

 

[geardoc]

Get someone to weld it and check it over good.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum koliva.

Whatever you do, please do not forget what you have. A box that will be loaded with lots of fire! Don't take chances. If it already has 2 cracks in the stove you can choose to try welding it or, this is just my opinion, junk it and buy yourself a good stove; one that you won't be afraid will burn your house down.

Not only is the stove a big consideration but you also have to take into consideration the chimney. It will need a separate chimney. Then there is the consideration for fuel. If you indeed want to burn some wood, you need to get your fuel sooner than the stove! The reason I say this is because wood is not like gas or oil where you just order some and get it delivered and then can burn it immediately. If you try that with wood, you can be in very deep trouble. Regardless of what a wood seller says, very, very, very few have good dry wood to sell you. Simply put, wood needs time to dry properly so it will burn properly. If not, you will not get much heat from the wood, you will have problems getting it to burn and you will load up your chimney with creosote which can easily start a raging fire inside the chimney. This is how lots of houses get burned down.

Have I mentioned that this can be dangerous? Especially to new wood burners. On the other hand, it can be very satisfying and can also save you lots of money. You just have to do it right.

Hopefully this gives you a little information to get you started in the right direction. Good luck.

 

[koliva]

Thank you so much. I will junk it then.

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm in the "junk it" camp . . . well . . . maybe recycle it.

While it could be repaired . . . welding with a steel stove would probably be OK . . . welding a cast iron stove could be more of a challenge . . . I'm with Dennis . . . this isn't a used plant stand that you're bringing into your living room to see if it will work despite two broken legs . . . this is a box full of fire . . . and fire can burn your home.

More to the point . . . I would be asking myself as to what caused the stove to have two cracks in the first place . . . and I would guess that the answer would be abuse in the past caused the stove to reach this point . . . or it simply was not made well . . . and in both cases I wouldn't want to risk any injury or potential fire by bringing it back inside the home.

As Dennis mentioned . . . you also have to consider the state of the chimney.

That said . . . heating with wood can be fantastic -- great heat, useful for power outages, nice ambiance . . . but if you go down this route you may want to do a little more research into the different sized stoves, types of stoves, how to hook up a stove, etc.

 

[koliva]

Hi again,

Welding is not a case in my situation because I am a foreigner here and ,although I have already searched, I have no idea where to find a welder for my stove. On the other hand, I don't want to put a lot of effort for it. I asked in this forum because I though that there could be a way to seal those cracks in an easy way as we are sealing the window glasses.
I will probably use it once in a week or even a month but of course security comes first. There are two seperate holes for different chimneys in the room. I don't know the state of the chimneys but they were working good for natural gas stoves. Is there any difference? Most probably, previous owner was using the wood burning stove and change it with natural gas stoves. Then he put the old stove in the garage.
I will try to take some pictures of it and post them here.

Thank you all for your helps.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sorry that you can't find a welder but in this case it might be good that you can't. Repairing a stove and a window....well, there is just no comparison.

On the chimney, please, please, understand there is a huge difference between a gas stove and a wood stove venting into that chimney.


Please, we are happy, well, extremely happy you came to this forum. You will also make a lot of folks very happy to know that you will take this idea no further! Please. It is for your best health. If you desire to burn wood, then have someone that is qualified inspect that chimney and go by his suggestion. Hire someone who is licensed and not just someone who has burned wood. Then get yourself a good wood burner and you will not be sorry.

Good luck.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hi again,

Welding is not a case in my situation because I am a foreigner here and ,although I have already searched, I have no idea where to find a welder for my stove. On the other hand, I don't want to put a lot of effort for it. I asked in this forum because I though that there could be a way to seal those cracks in an easy way as we are sealing the window glasses.
I will probably use it once in a week or even a month but of course security comes first. There are two seperate holes for different chimneys in the room. I don't know the state of the chimneys but they were working good for natural gas stoves. Is there any difference? Most probably, previous owner was using the wood burning stove and change it with natural gas stoves. Then he put the old stove in the garage.
I will try to take some pictures of it and post them here.

Thank you all for your helps.

Without seeing the chimney first hand or with pics . . . the inside of the chimney I should say . . . we cannot say that it would or would not be OK for a woodstove.

I think it's a good call to not try to repair the woodstove . . . if you want a stove down the road for the heat or ambiance we can most definitely help you pick out one based on the house size and what you're looking to use the stove for (i.e. 24/7 heat, occasional heat/ambiance, emergency use, etc.)