Odd noise: Is the stove cracked?

[ebytown]

We have a two-year-old Jotul Castine, which has just started making a loud, intermittent noise. The noise is much louder than the normal "ticks" of expansion and contraction. The closest comparison I can think of is the sound of a small stone hitting a windshield. The sound happens every 30 to 90 seconds when the air supply has just been turned down, and it seems to come from the back "neck" of the stove. However, it could also be coming from a stainless connector that links the 6" stove outlet to a 7" chimney liner. A couple of times recently we have inadvertently run the stove hotter than the maximum reading on our top-surface-mounted thermometer. The top temp. is 800 F and we don't know how high the stove really got, but it was not glowing red and we caught it fairly quickly and damped it down. However, we are wondering if we have cracked it. Nothing is visible from the outside. If anyone has any theories that would explain the noise we're hearing, I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
Gail

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

metal can be loud when expanding and contracting, sometimes incredibly loud.. and in theroy, at least in my mind, if the stove was cracked, that would be a relief point and wouldnt make any noise.

 

[Roospike]

MountainStoveGuy is correct about the metal.

I would look over the stove with a flashlight and check things out and if nothing else just to make you feel better. Also when looking things over look for any warped parts and or open seams.

I have had this kinda of issue with stoves and 9 times out of 10 i would take the stove pipe off the stove , readjust it and put it back on and the noise goes away. Expanding and contracting metal does funny things sometimes.