access door to catalytic combuster fell off while fire was going

[hwarriorq]

I've had my Vermont woods casting encore stove since 2020. Last night, in the midst of loading 2 piece of wood while the fire was going and with a small to medium height ember bed, the access door to the catalytic combuster fell forward. It is only held in place by a stone lip in the bottom corners and a lip on top that the access door tucks under before resting on the bottom lips, so it isn't really held in place well, and I'm usually careful since it happened back in 2021. Unfortunately, the access door looks a little worse for wear from being in the embers till all the embers were cleaned out by the FD. Not sure if I need a new one. It fits back in, but I don't love that it can get knocked out by loading a piece of wood that gets caught under it. Here's a few pictures of the lower part of the door that looks slightly degraded. Just want to make sure it's still useable and won't damage the catalytic combuster system.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

It's not really a big deal at all. The ceramic will tend to degrade over time due to the heat. Just put a piece of gasket underneath it and your good

 

[toacadia]

I've had my Vermont woods casting encore stove since 2020. Last night, in the midst of loading 2 piece of wood while the fire was going and with a small to medium height ember bed, the access door to the catalytic combuster fell forward. It is only held in place by a stone lip in the bottom corners and a lip on top that the access door tucks under before resting on the bottom lips, so it isn't really held in place well, and I'm usually careful since it happened back in 2021. Unfortunately, the access door looks a little worse for wear from being in the embers till all the embers were cleaned out by the FD. Not sure if I need a new one. It fits back in, but I don't love that it can get knocked out by loading a piece of wood that gets caught under it. Here's a few pictures of the lower part of the door that looks slightly degraded. Just want to make sure it's still useable and won't damage the catalytic combuster system.

I got my VC 2040 in 2020 also, and this has happened to me three times. The first time, the access door broke when it fell and my stove was out of commission until a replacement arrived. The next couple of times, thankfully it didn't break but of course I had to let the fire go out and wait until it was cool enough to put the access door back in place. Since then I am super careful about trying not to let logs get pushed toward the bottom of the access door. I agree that the design on that model is bad if the access panel can fall out so easily.