checking for air leaks

[Garyvol]

Is this the typical method for checking for leaks in the door gaskets and corners of my cast iron wood stove
while it's in an airtight fire mode.
Strike a wood match, then blow it out and while the match stick smokes slowly pass it along the door gaskets looking for
smoke suction into the stove.
Any other methods to use.
thank you
-gary

 

[Molson]

Hey Gary, I've heard the method of using a dollar bill and closing it in the door gasket (coldish stove, don't want to burn money) and trying to pull it out. If it doesn't come, or has a lot of resistance, you have a good seal. Do this in as many places on the door gasket as you can. As for the corners, I would thing the match trick would work, or an insense stick.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If not a dollar bill, then simply use paper.

Something else that most folks don't think of is from time to time, during the night, shut off all lights when you have a good fire going. Now go all around the stove and stove pipe and look for cracks. If you see red, you have problems that need to be taken care of! I did this once in a friend's home and they could hardly believe what they were seeing....and neither could I. Simple task, can show much, especially on the pipe.

Heck, I went into one place where they had their stove in the garage and the heat was piped into the house. I could actually see flame during the day! The next day they had a new stove....

 

[downeast]

Foolproof Downeast method for air leaks.
1. Get to Montreal Int'l Airpost --helpful if you can speak Francais.
2. Book a round trip to Havana, Cuba--legal from Canada.
3. Tour a cigar factory where the cigars are hand-rolled by Cuban ladies (not that kind silly).
4. Purchase said product ( large Winston Churchill size) by the box.
5. Upon returning to Montral, sneak said box through Homeland Security @ Customs.
6. Upon arriving home, light cigar and your wood stove.
7. After the cigar is at least 1/2 finished and you have had the beverage of choice, hold the hot tip of
the cigar so that the smoke is clearly seen.
8. Watch for the cigar smoke being sucked into any seam or door leaks. Better option to inhale then exhale smoke over the stove.

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[downeast]

Sorry Gary, this poster was thinking he was a comic. Not giving up the day job.

Here are some things that we've done successfully over the years with many, many stoves.
1. Use a smoking incense stick ( used to mask ganja odor) or a fat cigar around a hot stove. The smoke will be pulled into any larger cracks.
2. Dealers and manufacturers have a smoke pellet lit inside a cold stove with the flue closed off. In a cold room the smoke will
seep out of any leaks.
3. A drop light inside a cold stove in a dark room---the light should show the larger cracks.
4. Suggestion from hearthnet: blow air into a cold stove with a compressor: ash will blow out of obvious leaks.
5. Contact dealers or manufacturer for problems that they may have had and solved.
6. Many cast iron stoves are bolted together: check that they are snug. Our Jotul Oslo ash pan ass'y is bolted to the base of the stove. The bolts were loose--advice from Jotul.
7. The old dollar bill does test the gaskets in openings. Gaskets, particularly in door openings, are an easy replacement.

Steel stoves have few problems with leaks except with simple gaskets. Morso is the only cast iron maker I know of, to use gaskets between the cast plates rather than furnace cement. Nice design.
Good hunting.

 

[BotetourtSteve]

OK, I just dropped 2 1/2 grand on a stove that I am going to be scared to death will leak since it is cast iron. And I already had glimpsed a whisp of smoke at a seam during one of the initial start-up fires which had me nervous anyway (it may have been paint burn off, or not - haven't seen, smelled anything since). :bug: Seriously, can I expect leak issues with a cast stove? Is it that common, and is maintenance to fix those leaks part of the deal? No wonder the stove shop had so much furnace cement for sale...