Small Cracks in Stove Body

[WarmGuy]

I have a regency WarmHearth, which was presumably installed in this house when it was built in 1996.

Today, while cleaning it out, I noticed small cracks as shown in the attached photos. Can't tell if they go all the way through, because there's something behind the metal there.

Anything I should do? Prognosis?

Thanks,

 

[Gibbonboy]

Wow. I wouldn't burn that in my house, I'd be afraid it'd either give way when I wasn't watching, or leak enough air to cause it to run away and be overfired even worse.

 

[webbie]

Stress cracks - because this is the joint between the firebox (hot) and the air intakes and convection area (cold).

I would not use the stove as-is...either repair or replace it.

If it were mine, I would have those cracks ground deep into the steel in a "v" fashion so they were larger, then welded and then ground flat. That should provide a repair which is almost as good as original. ]

You may want to look up the old warranty on that - it would surely be pro-rated, but they might cover a small %% of the repair.

 

[jtp10181]

I was thinking warranty also, but he is not the original owner so they would probably not cover anything.

 

[elkimmeg]

Do not use the stove. Note the gasket appears to be quite worn. The black soot marks around that door are a clear indication of air leakage,
which probably led to thermo shock and cracked the metal. Air leakage also leads to over firing and heating beyond acceptable ranges further acerbating the problems.

 

[webbie]

I'm not a big fan of those giant gaskets which seal against a flat front - a better system is then a knife-edge is welded around so the gasket can pinch into something.

The door latch might have an adjustment to tighten it up against the stove face more - or, replace the gasket and then adjust latch.

But get welded correctly first. Some warranties do cover the unit(s) as opposed to just the original owner. However, my guess is that with some shopping around you can find a welder to come and do that job for less than $200 - not too bad. A bit of stove paint after, and a new gasket and you are probably good to go.

 

[WarmGuy]

Thanks for that info. I didn't think it was that serious. I have a chimney sweep scheduled to come and inspect it.

 

[WarmGuy]

The chimney sweep evaluated it, welded it, and gave it a clean bill of health.

He said there was no leakage around the seal (the seal is below the area with the soot), and gave my cleaning job a thumbs up, too.

All for $75.

 

[TMonter]

Awesome. Hopefully you don't see any more problems in that area this season.

 

[BrotherBart]

The chimney sweep evaluated it, welded it, and gave it a clean bill of health.

He said there was no leakage around the seal (the seal is below the area with the soot), and gave my cleaning job a thumbs up, too.

All for $75.

Looking good. Glad it was repairable. The soot will show up on any of the flat front stoves. It collects inside the area around the gasket. It gets there from the air wash over the glass moving stuff around. No air leaks involved. In fact you can tell when you have an air leak on one because it will remove the soot at that spot.

 

[Jags]

Warmguy - keep an eye on that general area during your burning season. Stress cracks have a way of showing back up. It cracked once, it can happen again. It does look like a good, solid repair though. Just keep an eye on it.