Oslo door gasket

[clr8ter]

So about 2 years ago, I replaced the side door gasket. Since then, the stove has a tendency to burn down the wood more on that side. There is also some (not much) crusty creosote-looking stuff on the plate bolted to the door. Could this be a sign of an air leak?
In general, we are loving the stove, we bought it used, and are on our 3rd season with it. It does seem to be somewhat inconsistent, though. Sometimes it burns great, sometimes not. Same wood. Sometimes it has a lot of coals left in the morning, but like this morning, almost nothing. And I was up later with it, and stoked it before bed. And I'm still unsure of how much the lever is supposed to control the fire. Seems like it wants to burn the hottest set 1/2 way, or slightly below that.

 

[firefighterjake]

So about 2 years ago, I replaced the side door gasket. Since then, the stove has a tendency to burn down the wood more on that side. There is also some (not much) crusty creosote-looking stuff on the plate bolted to the door. Could this be a sign of an air leak? Possibly . . . have you done the dollar bill test? I will say I get a bit of the build up there as well. I suspect it's natural to get a bit of the gunk and funk.
In general, we are loving the stove, we bought it used, and are on our 3rd season with it. It does seem to be somewhat inconsistent, though. Sometimes it burns great, sometimes not. Same wood. Same wood? Or similar wood? There can be a difference sometimes -- you may have some wood that is primo in terms of moisture and/or BTU content and stacked right next to it is some wood that may be a little less seasoned. I notice some differences . . . but I also notice a difference in terms of outside temps (seems like the stove burns a lot more wood a lot quicker when it is in the single digits compared to when it is in the low 30s for example), amount of air I am giving it, etc. Sometimes it has a lot of coals left in the morning, but like this morning, almost nothing. Again, may depend on the air setting, temps, type of wood, wood load, amount of ash in the firebox, etc. And I was up later with it, and stoked it before bed. And I'm still unsure of how much the lever is supposed to control the fire. Seems like it wants to burn the hottest set 1/2 way, or slightly below that. It really depends on how much draft you have and how well seasoned the wood is . . . I suspect most folks can turn down the air to about quarter of the way shut . . . oftentimes with my set up I can go to all the way shut or just a bit open . . . but not always . . . again, depends on the wood and draft. By "hottest" what temp are we talking about? You should see a difference in the way the fire looks, secondaries look, etc. by moving the air control from all the way open to nearly shut . . . or even halfway shut.

 

[clr8ter]

Well, I ask all this because there seems to be very little difference in the conditions. We're talking wood out of the same pile here. It doesn't seem that the outside temp matters all the time. Meaning when it's really cold, it still may or may not burn. Yes, the fire changes (usually) when I turn it down, but if it's ruining good, not very quickly. By hot, I mean 550-600 deg F. When it's this hot, an change on the air intake tends not to slow it down, seems like you kinda have to wait for the fuel to be used up.