Fixing a Whitfield Fire Door Glass with broken glass brackets & bolt heads that snapped off!!

[Don2222]

Hello
Smoke was pouring out the top left corner of the fire door glass!
New Whitfield fire doors are not available so without this fix the stove is junk! How does this look?
This is a Whitfield Plus fire door with the one piece curved glass. It just needed a door and glass gasket replace because smoke was coming out of the top left side of the door glass! The top bracket was missing and the side brackets were rotted and 3 bolt heads broke off when trying to remove them! Integrated Heath Products (IHP the company that still supports Whitfield stoves and has their documentation archive) said these brackets are no longer available.
The part numbers are:
Side Clips - 12005100
Bottom Clip - 12100224.
Luckily the bottom clip is in very good shape. This is important to maintain the Air Wash feature. If not it still could be repaired.
These older Whitfield stoves have hard cast iron fire doors and a cheap tap & drill set just broke when I tried to work on it.
Also since the holes are not deep and bottom tap made of black cobalt is recommended to fix threads down to the bottom. This makes the bolts get nice and tight. Also a ratchet type tap holder works better.
The old bolts were steel 8/32” bolts with flanged hex heads which are very hard to find. Therefore 8/32” stainless steel bolts with hex heads and stainless steel washers and the new style glass hold down clips like the Harman Fire Door clips work very well!
There was a rough spot in on the top left under the glass that had to be ground down with an angle grinder and flap pad so the glass would sit in flat.
Flat self stick tap gasket is recommended for the glass on the top and both sides. The bottom of the fire door glass must not have a gasket so the air wash will work properly.
Clear high temp silicone looks the best on the graphite impregnated door gasket which is 1/2" in diameter.
Note: The best way to drill out the broken bolts is to:
1. Grind what's left of the bolt flat
2. Using a center punch make a mark in the center for the broken bolt
4. Drill out the bolt using a drill press if possible to get a nice straight cut using a titanium or carbide bit.

Pic01-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor01-BeforeFix1-LeftSide.jpg
Pic02-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor02-BeforeFix2RightSide.jpg
Pic03-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor03-WireWheelingOldSiliconeOut.jpg
Pic04-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor04-GrindingBumpsInCastIron.jpg
Pic05-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor05-ReplacingGlassBracketsWithNewHarmanGlassClips.jpg
Pic06-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor06-RatchetTapWithTitanium&CobaltTapsBottomTapOnRight.jpg
Pic07-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor07-Carbide1-8DrillBit.jpg
Pic08-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor08-32StainlessSteelBolts&Washers1-2Long.jpg
Pic09-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor09-FireDoorPaintedFlatBlack&TappedWithSSbolts&Washers.jpg
Pic10-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor10-CloseUpRightSideTappedWithSSbolts&Washers.jpg
Pic11-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor11-GlassGasketOn3Sides.jpg
Pic12-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor12-GlassGasket&InnerBottomAirWashSlottedBracket.jpg
Pic13-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor13-GlassGasket&OuterBottomAirWashBracket.jpg
Pic14-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor14-Door&GlassGasketWithHarmanClips.jpg
Pic15-WhitfieldFireDoorRepair\WhitfieldFireDoor15-WhitfieldAdvPlusWithFire.jpg

 

[Washed-Up]

Love it Don! Well done sir!

 

[SidecarFlip]

I'm glad mine has a flat glass...... I take it you replaced the door gasket as well Don... Good job no matter what.

 

[ABusWrench]

As usual, Great job Don!

 

[Don2222]

I'm glad mine has a flat glass...... I take it you replaced the door gasket as well Don... Good job no matter what.

Luckily the glass was in good shape. I have replaced this special 1 piece curved glass in the past about 2-3 years ago. The OEM retail price then was $495.00

 

[SidecarFlip]

Cracked my original glass some years back by accidently slamming the door. It was 79 bucks and I thought that was high. Yours is in outer space.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Speaking of glass. I dismantled the door for my Facebook Marketplace stove and even tough I soaked the retaining screws with P Blaster 3 days ago and applied heat, I still managed to break off 3. Took my whizzy wheel and ground them flush with the steel retainer strips, removed the strips, soaked and heated the stubs. Got one out that was it so I ground them flush with the door frame, center punched them, drilled them out and retapped the holes and installed new screws, this time with Never Seize on the threads. Have to spritz it with HT black yet. Quit for dinner. Door is heavy. It's coming. I need to diagnose why the previous owner defeated the proof of fire switch. Not getting that at all.

 

[Don2222]

Speaking of glass. I dismantled the door for my Facebook Marketplace stove and even tough I soaked the retaining screws with P Blaster 3 days ago and applied heat, I still managed to break off 3. Took my whizzy wheel and ground them flush with the steel retainer strips, removed the strips, soaked and heated the stubs. Got one out that was it so I ground them flush with the door frame, center punched them, drilled them out and retapped the holes and installed new screws, this time with Never Seize on the threads. Have to spritz it with HT black yet. Quit for dinner. Door is heavy. It's coming. I need to diagnose why the previous owner defeated the proof of fire switch. Not getting that at all.

Good job!
What kind of stove is it?
Any pics?

 

[Miles01]

What is the Niagara cutter used the part number

 

[rsh678]

This may be a stupid question but does the glass gasket wrap around the edges of the glass on a Whitfield Advantage II-TC with 3 separate pieces of glass or does it just sit on the outside edges of the glass? In all the videos I am looking at it looks like it does not wrap around but mine was wrapped around when I removed it ...

 

[Washed-Up]

It has to sit around the most obvious edge that needs to be sealed, be it the frame or the inside frame where the glass sits…you may have to look and envision where there might be air coming in

 

[Don2222]

This may be a stupid question but does the glass gasket wrap around the edges of the glass on a Whitfield Advantage II-TC with 3 separate pieces of glass or does it just sit on the outside edges of the glass? In all the videos I am looking at it looks like it does not wrap around but mine was wrapped around when I removed it ...

Hello
If the AirWash Bracket is on the top of the inside Door Glass then the glass should have no gasket on the Top Panes of the Window Glass as shown in the attached pic. If the AirWash Bracket is on the Bottom of the Glass Panes then there should be no gasket on the bottom of each pane.