Help with damper control

[woodflamer]

Hi all,

I have a Lopi, Freedom bay insert and the air control is
hard to push in and out.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to adjust this
so it operates more easily.
Thank you for any help.

 

[webbie]

Hi all,

I have a Lopi, Freedom bay insert and the air control is
hard to push in and out.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to adjust this
so it operates more easily.
Thank you for any help.

The usual first - spray or place some graphite lube onto the shaft or anywhere near the control you can get and work the thing back and forth a couple hundred times...it may rub off the paint or welding splatter that is making it difficult.

If that doesn't work, take a flashlight and study the mechanism. It used to be a simple rectangular plate riding on two small angle rails. If this is so, it might be possible to persuade these angles to drop a little (the track they form may be too tight).....therefore freeing up the air valve.

 

[woodflamer]

Thanks Craig, I will give those a try!

 

[Robbie]

Woodflamer, the graphite will smooth it up. But you may want to remove the damper in order to clean it before you spray.

The reason I know is because my Avalon mission (same company as Lopi) stoves damper was extremely tight when I got it. I used it all winter with it being tight because I was afraid if I messed with it before spring I might not get to use it in case I needed a part.

After winter season I called Travis Industries and they said this was a simple thing, and that brick dust etc. is what causes these dampers to get tight and seem sticky, but they need to be cleaned off before they are lubed. The lube will work by spraying into this area but the brick dust will just stay and it needs to be wiped off of metal parts. The brick dust is caused from transporting stoves and vibration.

Here is the deal, remove the damper, it should be very easy to do, take off the front lower part of your stove, should be a couple screws, probably the part that your blower is mounted on from what I could see in your stoves manual. Your damper could be held in position with one screw like mine was. Slide complete damper out, should be two metal plates against each other held in position by spring pressure. This sounds tough but it is very simple, no springs to fly anywhere on mine, even though mine is a different model I would bet Travis Industries uses the same basic damper on most of their stoves.

Once you get complete damper out, you will notice it should have a couple plates, just clean these plates with a damp rag, then clean inside slot where damper slides in to, using a stick or something to reach in, then wipe very dry, or use a hair dryer to dry, then spray graphite on all parts that slide.


Put it back in the way it came out, try and see if its smoother, mine was instantly smoother. So smooth it only takes one finger to push and pull. If your damper is not like mine, then there should be something similar you can easily take apart and clean and oil. Craig Issod (Webmaster) is the expert in this field, I only wanted to tell you my problem and how I corrected it.


Hope this helps.

Robbie

 

[begreen]

Great post Robbie. This is what makes a great forum. Sounds like this would be a good Wiki item - Fixing sticky Travis dampers. It also seems like something the installer should check and fix when putting in the stove. Maybe a few will pickup on this thread.

 

[Robbie]

My dealer has been great, the installer was also great. For some reason my sticky damper just got overlooked. I think it was because I was not familiar with the way dampers should be, so I did not really notice just how tight it was until later on in the season.

Mine started out tight, then just got tighter as the season went on and the brick dust etc. continued to cause more friction. Thanks to the person at Travis Industries, he talked me through the stage fright of messing with my stove, though after I examined the parts involved I think my 7 yr. old grandson could have taken the damper out.


I was just concerned initially because of the weight of my stove and hoped nothing major would be involved. The good thing so far that I've found is apparently Travis Industries made these to be easily serviced, tuned or fixed.

So far...................

Robbie

 

[begreen]

I was just concerned initially because of the weight of my stove and hoped nothing major would be involved. The good thing so far that I've found is apparently Travis Industries made these to be easily serviced, tuned or fixed.

All great attributes. Our Quad was built the same way, everything was easy to access for cleaning or replacement. Human nature says that if it's easy to service, then it will get regular maintenance. If hard to service or access, one will usually put it off until it has to be serviced due to a failure of some sort.

 

[woodflamer]

Robbie,

Thank you for the great post.
I got the damper control taken out, cleaned and lubed, It works great.
It was very easy to do like you said.
Thanks again for the help!!

 

[Robbie]

That is great news !

Hope it works great for you from now on, by the way, you sure have a beautiful stove, I'm sure it will keep you warm and happy.

I'm sure you saw this, but I though I would post it just in case, a PDF file to your stoves owners manual,

(broken link removed to http://www.lopistoves.com/product.asp?dept_id=5&sku=37)

(broken link removed to http://www.lopistoves.com/manual.asp?sku=37&title=Title_WFI_FreedomBay&image=freedombayinsert_sm#)



Robbie

 

[Cris]

I can see all the springs and the angle metal when I look in there with a flashlight. Nothing seems to be hung up ! It's hapened before and yesterday it was working smoothly ! Now, with a good hot fire going, it doesn't want to budge Help Cris

 

[Robbie]

What kind of stove ?

You will need to figure out how it comes out and wipe it down, dry it and put some graphite on it.

Look at your owners manuel or search google for a break down............of course put the fire out before messing with it unless you have it under control and don't mind the heat.

Robbie