Hi all,
5 years ago you all helped me to refurbish my chimney and choose and install an insert style wood stove for my first home. Thanks a ton!
Fast forward to today. I performed my annual chimney cleaning (only a handful of soot!). All looked good on the outside of the house. My baffle had a slight crack last year (in the portion that you can see without removing it). I used it all last year with no issues. The crack has gotten worse and I am going to try to get PE to fix / replace it...we will see. I figured if they say no, that I would weld it up at work even though it is a little warped. I figured I would look up how much a new one costs, didn't find anything. What I did find was a bunch of PE Pacific owners with cracked fire boxes. That got me worried. My stove was mfg'd in late 2006, same as most of the cracked stoves.
I inspected the stove this evening and found cracks in the upper 2 welds on either side of the door. Both welds are cracked on the inside and the hinge side weld is cracked through to the exterior of the stove, about 0.50" long at this point. I think I need to thoroughly clean and inspect the stove to look for more cracks. Where else have other people seen cracks in this stove, where else should I look? Do I need to pull the stove out?
I plan on contacting my dealer tomorrow to discuss the situation. Unfortunately, I suspect this process is going to take weeks or months to resolve. I usually start burning by 11/1. My biggest concern is the crack from the outside to inside. When is it unsafe to use the stove? I usually burn the stove between 500 and 700F as measured on the exterior of the door frame with a stick on thermometer. I feels this is well within the reasonable working range for this stove.
I would love to hear how others made out with PE. I hate to think that a $2000 stove only lasted 5 years......
5 years ago you all helped me to refurbish my chimney and choose and install an insert style wood stove for my first home. Thanks a ton!
Fast forward to today. I performed my annual chimney cleaning (only a handful of soot!). All looked good on the outside of the house. My baffle had a slight crack last year (in the portion that you can see without removing it). I used it all last year with no issues. The crack has gotten worse and I am going to try to get PE to fix / replace it...we will see. I figured if they say no, that I would weld it up at work even though it is a little warped. I figured I would look up how much a new one costs, didn't find anything. What I did find was a bunch of PE Pacific owners with cracked fire boxes. That got me worried. My stove was mfg'd in late 2006, same as most of the cracked stoves.
I inspected the stove this evening and found cracks in the upper 2 welds on either side of the door. Both welds are cracked on the inside and the hinge side weld is cracked through to the exterior of the stove, about 0.50" long at this point. I think I need to thoroughly clean and inspect the stove to look for more cracks. Where else have other people seen cracks in this stove, where else should I look? Do I need to pull the stove out?
I plan on contacting my dealer tomorrow to discuss the situation. Unfortunately, I suspect this process is going to take weeks or months to resolve. I usually start burning by 11/1. My biggest concern is the crack from the outside to inside. When is it unsafe to use the stove? I usually burn the stove between 500 and 700F as measured on the exterior of the door frame with a stick on thermometer. I feels this is well within the reasonable working range for this stove.
I would love to hear how others made out with PE. I hate to think that a $2000 stove only lasted 5 years......