Gasket Issue with England 30????

[Appleby]

So on the advice of the Englander Rep here I did the paper test to the gasket of my newly installed and burning Englander 30. I could pull the dollar out all the way around with gasket resistance but on the top I could push the dollar up and down with the door closed and latched. There was some ever so slight resistance but I could feed the dollar in and out of the gasket area. Is this normal????? If not how do I fix it? Stove is brand new.

Also, has anyone even done any at home adjustments to the "Zipper"/3rd stage air hole in the front of the stove. Is it allowed?? I really feel like I have little to no control over the stove. That pea sized hole is just tearing through wood, unless it is the gasket. Literally tears a hole in the wood with a vigourous fire from front to back in no time. I have buried it with coals for a while and that settles the fire down quite a bit but it rips through the coal pretty fast and then starts on the wood big time. I would love to be able to baffle it or something. Any suggestions?

 

[Hunter819]

I would check to see if the latch is allowing the door to close fully. When I installed my 13, I had to cut the firebrick next to where the latch grabs the inside of the firebox. I wasn't able to really control the air at first either. In my case, the firebrick wasn't cut properly and was stopping my latch from fully holding the door shut. I looked at my manual, the page that shows the brick sizes and layout. I found that the brick next to the latch was to have like a 1" x 3" notch cut into it. I'm not exactly sure what the size is but I ended up removing the brick and cutting about 1" extra to allow clearance for the latch and be closer to what the manual says the brick should be. After that, my stove worked like a charm.

 

[Appleby]

I'll check that but I am 99% that there are no clearance issues with the latch. I'm going to use the match smoke trick tonight to see if air is being pulled into that area of the gasket.

 

[BotetourtSteve]

Per recommendation of webmaster, I used a lighter to check my stove for leaks - can use for longer periods than constantly lighting and blowing out matches. It worked like a champ (unfortunately) and I saw quickly that the flame was drawn into about a 1" spot between panels on my cast stove. Should be an easy fix though so I'm not too worried, and it is not affecting the way the stove operates. Don't burn your thumb like I did, though - been a few years since I needed to keep a lighter burning for extended periods :coolsmirk: , so I was out of practice.

 

[SlyFerret]

Also, has anyone even done any at home adjustments to the "Zipper"/3rd stage air hole in the front of the stove. Is it allowed?? I really feel like I have little to no control over the stove.

Don't modify your stove.

What sort of temps are you seeing on the stove top? What sort of expectations do you have as far as control? What temps do you think you should be able to maintain?

I picked up a little Rutland magnetic stove top thermometer at Home Depot ($4.50 on clearance), and an infrared thermometer at Harbor Freight ($39.99).

The Rutland is good for just keeping an eye on things. It's accuracy isn't real great, but it's consistent, and I am learning how to run the stove using it as a guide (sort of like the tachometer in a car). I use the infrared unit to get accurate temps and get a feel for what the Rutland is showing me.

-SF

 

[Appleby]

I'm more looking to control burn times. I do torch through a mound of Apple in no time at all. I get about 3 hours max for a load of wood with the air control closed. I'm not overly concerned about any of this but and just sifting my way through new stove ownership.

 

[SlyFerret]

How big a load are you putting into the firebox? Are you cramming it full or only putting in a few splits at a time?

That sounds about right to me. I'm burning cherry right now and 3 hours between loads seems to work well for me. It will burn down to coals in about 2 hours, but if I reload at 2 hours, I end up getting WAY too much heat.

To get longer burns that that, you'll probably need to load it up with some oak (larger splits) or another hardwood that will burn for long time. For an overnight, pack the firebox full with oak and you should have coals in the morning to relight with (only done that so far once, as I only had a little bit of oak to use).

Something I've had to get used to is that your stove will go through a few stages. Just because the bright flames and secondary are gone doesn't mean its done burning. I have to fight the urge to reload right away once the light show ends.

The first stage is ignition, where you're lighting it and getting it ramped up.

Next, when my 30 gets over 350 and things are charred, the secondary kicks on and that's when I close down the air. I close it down to where the tip of the spring handle on the air control is just about even with the front edge of the ash lip. My stove cruises around 500 stove top, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, but it's pretty consistent. When the secondary kicks in, it's pretty impressive. There is A LOT of fire inside that firebox.

From what I've learned, after the wood has gasified (when you see visible fire), it will continue to burn like charcoal. At this stage, there is still quite a bit of heat energy to be released from the wood. The coals burn very hot and with very little smoke and very little visible flame. This is still part of the burn cycle.

So far, it still sounds to me like your stove is operating just as it should be.

-SF

 

[Appleby]

I tend to agree and what your saying makes me feel good. I am going to do the smoke test around the gasket tonight and then call it done and just have fun burning!

 

[SlyFerret]

My first batch of wood wasn't seasoned, so I struggled with that quite a bit. I was worried something was wrong with my system or my fire building skills, but in the end it turned out to be the wood, 100%.

I was going crazy worrying that it wasn't going to work right after all the time, money, and energy I put into it.

-SF