New to me 2004 Quadrafire 3100 ACT refinished

[Chilly Willy]

I was getting ready to order online a new stove, but at the last minute, Craigslist to the rescue. I drove 90 minutes to see this one, and I'm glad I did (so far). $100 + about $40 in new fire bricks, and $40 for 2 cans of Stove Bright paint (I think that paint is worth the price).

 

[Sailrmike]

Nice work!

 

[begreen]

I could see that stove would clean up nicely. It looks great.

 

[Chilly Willy]

Update: Stove is installed (pdrofessionally) and have several weeks of fires under my belt. I ended up replacing the rope gasket on the glass door, and it went smoothly. Now I'm wondering if I did something wrong. I clean the glass every several days, usually when I clean out ashes. The glass cleans up well but the first or second fire will produce soot spots as shown in the pic. ( I dont burn big fires because the stove is pretty big for the space and it gets warm in here! ) Guessing the soot is a result of maybe low spots in the gasket? Hoping one of you has an explanation and fix suggestion. Thanks!

 

[moresnow]

By chance are there window fasteners above the dark spots?

 

[Chilly Willy]

Here is a pic of the inside of the door. There is one recessed phillips screw.

 

[moresnow]

My thought was that perhaps a fastener had been torqued a bit tight which distorted the glass/seal surface. Tough to say. Hopefully other users will chime in with there experience with this model.

 

[begreen]

Was the glass gasket also replaced when the door gasket was?

 

[Chilly Willy]

Negative, only the door gasket was replaced.
I have two (guesses) ideas. 1) door gasket has a low spot where the soot is (but seems counterintuitive) or 2) plugged airwash tube holes. Although I wire brushed and vacuumed those afterburn tubes above the firebox, I have not looked since I did the cleanup of interior/exterior. Still at a loss. I basically need to clean the glass every other day.

 

[begreen]

The tubes are for secondary combustion, not airwash. They almost never plug up because air is blowing out of them. Examine both the door and the glass gaskets carefully in the sooty area. The other issue might be that the wood is being loaded too close to the glass. It should be about 1.5-2" away. Another thing to check would be to see if there is an air deflector in front of the baffle at the top of the stove. If there is and it is cracked or warped it might be allowing smoke to wash up against the glass.