Hello, new member with a question

[Tango papa]

Hello, I am a new member with a question that I have to ask as a sanity check. By way of background, many years ago, I used to design field erected (300,000 lb/hr) wood fired steam generators, and we used a lot of refractory cement and what in the day was called fibrefrax rope for gasketing access and observation doors, etc. Fast forward to today, we bought a house in Ontario Canada that is primarily wood heated. Something new to me, although on the farm my wife grew up with wood heat / oil boiler backup.

Two weeks into the house, we have the living room ready to occupy so we enjoyed a nice woodstove fire last night in our vintage Meridian woodstove. It was beautiful and it was down close to freezing outside. We had been living in the basement family room with a fireplace with heatilator for heat, and unseasoned wood, so this was a step up. One of the things the seller of the house was supposed to do was get the woodstove certified before sale and we noticed they put in a new door gasket. This morning my wife messaged me that the gasket is melting and dropping out of the door in globs. It survived a brief firing last night, but today it melts! Have you heard of this before?

 

[begreen]

A stove door gasket should never melt. Suspect the previous homeowner may have done a cheap hack job. Is it the gasket that is melting or the glue they used?

Insist on a professional stove and chimney certification.

And welcome aboard!

 

[Tango papa]

A stove door gasket should never melt. Suspect the previous homeowner may have done a cheap hack job. Is it the gasket that is melting or the glue they used?

Insist on a professional stove and chimney certification.

And welcome aboard!

Thanks! My wife is at home reporting over the phone and she says "the gasket is half gone". I thought maybe just glue as well... the stove was certified by a qualified person, what we call in ONtario WETT certified. Maybe WETT is a broadly known term, I dont know. Before we moved in, I gave it a cursory look, and thought, hey, they put in a new gasket. It looked like refractory rope -- silver grey in colour as I recall. We are calling the WETT inspector to get him involved.

Thanks again,
T

 

[begreen]

Stove door gasket material is fiberglass. The melting point should be far north of any firebox temp.

 

[Tango papa]

OK. It was just so bizarre a development that I just had to do a sanity check. I can't believe someone would just stick something random in there. What if the melting material had landed on someone's foot opening the door?!?!?!?!

Anyway, we'll fix it. Getting the guck out of the recess for the gasket should be a delight, but I will use the opportunity to get some brasso on it. It is solid brass.

I look forward to membership here and learning about using wood for my primary fuel. I already got a lot of great info on Meridian stoves before we even bought the house, from a poster here.

 

[begreen]

I can't imagine what they used, nylon rope? It's a shame to trash the Meridian like that. You may need a propane torch to soften the material if it goes hard when cool. When it's all polished up, post a picture of that unusual heater.

 

[Tango papa]

You know, you could be right, maybe it wasn't grey it might have been white. Like ordinary rope. I just remember seeing it and it looked right, but I havent seen this stuff in 30 years and back then they probably still used asbestos! These are the kind of people that took all kinds of things from the house that they shouldnt have when they moved out (except about 5 pieces of firewood, when it should have been a face cord), but doing this is beyond stupid, it is dangerous. Here is a photo. Not the best, one from my wife's camera, but I will post more once I fix the door. It is in pristine shape, although now I am starting to wonder if they used proper cement to patch the inside of the firebox. Well, if it pops off I can redo it. It isnt worth getting an ulcer over and legal channels will cost far more than the fix.

 

[T-roy_]

Cool looking stove! How old is it?..... Looks submarine-ish.

 

[Tango papa]

They were made in the 80's I think. The house is from '87 or so. I'm still trying to figure out if the basic design concept makes sense. The way the combustion air comes in through two jets, you get lots of swirl to help with the time-temperature-turbulence triangle that you need for good complete combustion. There is an inner spheroidal firebox lined with refractory cement, then an air space, then an outer casing also lined with refrectory, and the whole thing is covered in 1" sq ceramic tiles, like mosaic tiles. So it takes a while to heat up all that cement, but then you have a big heat sink for later. The room air is drawn in through ports in the bottom, heat up as it passes through the annulus between the inner and outer bodies, and comes out hot through a gap between the flue pipe and the top. The outside gets warm, but you can hold your hand on it without burning. Huge radiant heat from the big front window. The emergency wood supply that I got to see me through to the end of the heating season is quite wet and this stove has no problem burning it. If you search, someone here has posted the original manual and info somewhere.

 

[Rearscreen]

Oh yes seems like nylon. Hardware store rolls mixed up and someone thought it was gasket material? Oh what a nightmare. We humans...

 

[Tango papa]

Oh yes seems like nylon. Hardware store rolls mixed up and someone thought it was gasket material? Oh what a nightmare. We humans...

Possible. I have a hard time believing that someone foolish enough to think you could just glue in sash cord would make it to the store and back on their own. Here are a couple of photos. It was maybe 1/4" diameter, and on the woodstove side there is a flat surface, in the door a curved groove. It is going to be tough now to figure out the right size with no original to go by.

 

[T-roy_]

Sure looks like nylon rope...

 

[T-roy_]

Spools mixed up at the hardware store? I could see that.

 

[Lake Girl]

I can't imagine what they used, nylon rope? It's a shame to trash the Meridian like that. You may need a propane torch to soften the material if it goes hard when cool. When it's all polished up, post a picture of that unusual heater.

Another option might be one of the heat guns they use for stripping paint ... sounds like nylon rope

 

[Lake Girl]

Any chance you can pop the pins on the door and carry it with you to the hardware/stove shop?

 

[Tango papa]

The door seems to lift off easily. The groove is 1/4" wide and looks half round so I figure I will try 1/4" material. Mostly what happened was the part glued to the door charred first. Makes me think leakage of air cooled the sealing surface. I think a lot of the melting my wife saw might have been glue. Because it all charred, I think I can chip it out. Thanks for the responses.

 

[Lake Girl]

Wondering if a dremel might be of assistance in cleaning the channel...

 

[Tango papa]

Wondering if a dremel might be of assistance in cleaning the channel...

I have one if I can find it (just moved in two weeks ago -- who knows where half my tools are?).

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I have one if I can find it (just moved in two weeks ago -- who knows where half my tools are?).

I haven't seen them...

 

[Tango papa]

Rhetorical question, but thanks. Your house is one less place to check anyway.

 

[Lake Girl]

I'd loan you mine but you're a little far away

 

[firebox]

OK. It was just so bizarre a development that I just had to do a sanity check. I can't believe someone would just stick something random in there. What if the melting material had landed on someone's foot opening the door?!?!?!?!

Anyway, we'll fix it. Getting the guck out of the recess for the gasket should be a delight, but I will use the opportunity to get some brasso on it. It is solid brass.

I look forward to membership here and learning about using wood for my primary fuel. I already got a lot of great info on Meridian stoves before we even bought the house, from a poster here.

If the material is melting at high heat, just start a fire let it get hot and use a scrapper the size if the seal channel to scrape it out. should be rather simple.