Installation, break in done, BUT ...

[jeffee]

Thanks to the members here, and the whole forum, the break in of my Jotul f118 cb went very well, *except*, the door gasket came off in a couple of places. I'm very bummed about it, as it snowed last night and is supposed to be cold for the next few days. I was hoping to be up and running a few weeks ago, but one thing after another has been holding it up. Finally everything is done with the installation, and the stove worked very nicely for the break in fires. I guess the cement wasn't properly cured or something -- maybe being stored in the cold ? Who knows why the cement failed, but I was going to try to fix it with some cement but the gasket sort of broke up as I was trying to get the clumps of old cement off of it. That happened Saturday night, and the dealer is closed Sunday and Mondays, and I don't even know if they have the gasket for this stove in stock. I was sooo close .... I'm trying to be patient. Thanks again to Craig and everyone here at the forum, and also to everybody who replied to my earlier newbie queries!!

 

[babalu87]

Many hardware stores and big box stores carry the gasket material, it usually looks like a coil of rope in the package.

 

[jeffee]

I think it's supposed to be 8.7 mm, or 11/32". Seems like an odd size (?) Do you think I could use 3/8"? I've read here that it's important to get the correct gasket. Also, does one just cut the correct length with scissors? The Jotul manual says "door gasket: size: LC 360 mm length: 8.7 x 850 mm" The gasket on the stove looks like 8.7 x 850 mm, I'm not sure what the LC 360 mm means.

Thanks for your help

 

[Gooserider]

I think it's supposed to be 8.7 mm, or 11/32". Seems like an odd size (?) Do you think I could use 3/8"? I've read here that it's important to get the correct gasket. Also, does one just cut the correct length with scissors? The Jotul manual says "door gasket: size: LC 360 mm length: 8.7 x 850 mm" The gasket on the stove looks like 8.7 x 850 mm, I'm not sure what the LC 360 mm means.

Thanks for your help

As long as you are reasonably close the gasket size isn't completely critical. You will probably find that 8.7mm works out to be the same as one of the standard English measure sizes The installation is messy, but not difficult.

1. Remove old gasket, clean out old gasket cement - this can be a pain, some have found a wire brush works, some use a dremel or equivalent, others chip away at it with a screwdriver... do whatever it takes. Make a note of where the manufacturer put the joint where the two gasket ends butted together.

2. Without stretching, and without any glue, dry fit the new gasket into the groove, all the way around, cut it to length with about an inch extra. Use a sharp pair of scissors or a utility knife, try to get the end as clean and square as you can.

3, Put a bead of refractory cement in the groove. I found the tube of cement was terrible at this, it worked much better to use a tub and gob it in with your fingers... Keep the bead side as uniform as you can, and don't over fill the groove.

4. Starting from where the joint should be start working the gasket into the groove all the way around. Avoid stretching or "scrunching" the gasket as you go. Try to work it into the cement a bit, but keep it even and level as well, avoid high and low spots. When you get to the end, very carefully measure and cut the extra bit off, so that there's about 1/16" of excess so that the two ends will but snugly together and even mix in with each other a bit. Make the joint as even as possible.

5. Close the door on the gasket so as to hold it in place for a few hours while it dries.

Gooserider

 

[Corie]

Be sure to get the right density though. While the size isn't super critical, putting HD gasket where LD gasket belongs will make a BIG difference.

 

[jeffee]

Thankyou very much for the help! I got a tube of hi-temp stove & gasket cement; Is refractory cement a better product to use?

 

[Gooserider]

Thankyou very much for the help! I got a tube of hi-temp stove & gasket cement; Is refractory cement a better product to use?

"hi-temp stove & gasket cement" IS refractory cement - its just a marketting thing to name the product for that application so that people will by the fancier package that says it works for their app rather than the generic named product.

AFAIK The stuff in the tubes sold by folks like Rutland is essentially the same as whats in the tubs. However my experience is that the stuff in the tubes tends to separate and be very hard to remix to make it uniform. As a result it becomes next to impossible to dispense - sometimes you squeeze the tube and get liquid, othertimes you squeeze and nothing comes out until you really squeeze and get a blob of nearly solid material followed by a blast of semi-liquid - it makes a ketchup bottle look neat by comparison.

With the tub, it is easy to mix the material up, and get a uniform consistency, it's just a bit messy to smear it on with your fingers... (However it washes off fairly easily as long as you don't let it harden to much...)

Gooserider

 

[Corie]

Thankyou very much for the help! I got a tube of hi-temp stove & gasket cement; Is refractory cement a better product to use?

"hi-temp stove & gasket cement" IS refractory cement - its just a marketting thing to name the product for that application so that people will by the fancier package that says it works for their app rather than the generic named product.

AFAIK The stuff in the tubes sold by folks like Rutland is essentially the same as whats in the tubs. However my experience is that the stuff in the tubes tends to separate and be very hard to remix to make it uniform. As a result it becomes next to impossible to dispense - sometimes you squeeze the tube and get liquid, othertimes you squeeze and nothing comes out until you really squeeze and get a blob of nearly solid material followed by a blast of semi-liquid - it makes a ketchup bottle look neat by comparison.

With the tub, it is easy to mix the material up, and get a uniform consistency, it's just a bit messy to smear it on with your fingers... (However it washes off fairly easily as long as you don't let it harden to much...)

Gooserider

Isn't that the truth Goose

Like I've mentioned previously, I've started using the tub of Rutland Cement inside a grout bag for door gaskets and resealing seams.

 

[Hogwildz]

Do yourself a favor, use high temp silicone set it and forget it.
I did not put the seam where factory seam was (lower edge center). I put the joint in the lower hinge side corner, butting the lower horizontal edge into the vertical side of the gasket. Worked nice. The gasket cement sucked. fell off after a couple fires. High temp silicone holding well. Had to go with the next size gasket, silicone cleaned off fairly easy with a wire wheel and new larger gasket & silicone working far better then the factory crap. If in doubt, go next size larger on gasket. Better too large than too small. I have a real nice knife edge in mine now, and plenty of room to adjust in the future.
I know the silicone way must have door closed after you get all together and let set for 24 hrs.
Working like a champ.

 

[Gooserider]

Do yourself a favor, use high temp silicone set it and forget it.
I did not put the seam where factory seam was (lower edge center). I put the joint in the lower hinge side corner, butting the lower horizontal edge into the vertical side of the gasket. Worked nice. The gasket cement sucked. fell off after a couple fires. High temp silicone holding well. Had to go with the next size gasket, silicone cleaned off fairly easy with a wire wheel and new larger gasket & silicone working far better then the factory crap. If in doubt, go next size larger on gasket. Better too large than too small. I have a real nice knife edge in mine now, and plenty of room to adjust in the future.
I know the silicone way must have door closed after you get all together and let set for 24 hrs.
Working like a champ.

The thing that concerns me about the high temp silicone approach is how well it is going to hold up to the heat - especially an over-fire. IIRC the stuff is only good to 6-700*, after which it starts breaking down with lots of stink and smoke at best, and flames at worst... How hot do the door edges where the gaskets are get? For instance I know that the griddle center on my Encore regularly gets up to 750-800 degrees because that's where my thermometer is. What is the temp at the edge of that same griddle where the gasket is? I've seen posts talking about using one of those IR thermometers on the doors or fronts of other stoves, and again getting readings higher than the silicone is rated for... This doesn't give me the warm fuzzies about reccomending it in places where the OEM used furnace cement...

Corie might be able to correct me on this, but I sort of suspect that silicone would be easier and cheaper from a manufacturing standpoint, so if the manufacturer is using refractory where they could have used silicone, I'm figuring they may know something we don't...

Gooserider

 

[Corie]

Do yourself a favor, use high temp silicone set it and forget it.
I did not put the seam where factory seam was (lower edge center). I put the joint in the lower hinge side corner, butting the lower horizontal edge into the vertical side of the gasket. Worked nice. The gasket cement sucked. fell off after a couple fires. High temp silicone holding well. Had to go with the next size gasket, silicone cleaned off fairly easy with a wire wheel and new larger gasket & silicone working far better then the factory crap. If in doubt, go next size larger on gasket. Better too large than too small. I have a real nice knife edge in mine now, and plenty of room to adjust in the future.
I know the silicone way must have door closed after you get all together and let set for 24 hrs.
Working like a champ.

The thing that concerns me about the high temp silicone approach is how well it is going to hold up to the heat - especially an over-fire. IIRC the stuff is only good to 6-700*, after which it starts breaking down with lots of stink and smoke at best, and flames at worst... How hot do the door edges where the gaskets are get? For instance I know that the griddle center on my Encore regularly gets up to 750-800 degrees because that's where my thermometer is. What is the temp at the edge of that same griddle where the gasket is? I've seen posts talking about using one of those IR thermometers on the doors or fronts of other stoves, and again getting readings higher than the silicone is rated for... This doesn't give me the warm fuzzies about reccomending it in places where the OEM used furnace cement...

Corie might be able to correct me on this, but I sort of suspect that silicone would be easier and cheaper from a manufacturing standpoint, so if the manufacturer is using refractory where they could have used silicone, I'm figuring they may know something we don't...

Gooserider

Well, every one of our pellet stoves leaves the factory with the gaskets held in with silicone. That includes the wood stoves. They've passed safety testing that way, and the temperatures the stoves reaches during certain aspects of safety testing are HIGH, to say the least. Eight hundred degrees for the duration of the test or higher.

If the stove was tested with refractory cement though, it would be in a person's best interest to use what the manufacturer uses. You never know what can happen, and you're always in better shape if you installed a replacement part directly as the manufacturer would want.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I think it's supposed to be 8.7 mm, or 11/32". Seems like an odd size (?) Do you think I could use 3/8"? I've read here that it's important to get the correct gasket. Also, does one just cut the correct length with scissors? The Jotul manual says "door gasket: size: LC 360 mm length: 8.7 x 850 mm" The gasket on the stove looks like 8.7 x 850 mm, I'm not sure what the LC 360 mm means.

Thanks for your help

3/8ths should work, i do not 1/32 will make a difference if its that much bigger, and yes aftermarket gaskets are usually longer than needed to cover most any stove you would trim with scissors. it is important to use the correct material , but that doesnt mean that it has to be the kit they provide, just that its made from the same stuff