Some questions on replacing door gasket on Osburn 2200

[bag of hammers]

I have a small spot on one of the side panels of glass (near the door handle) that gets a bit dirtier than the rest of the door - started to show up consistently towards the latter part of the past burning season - after a couple days of fires a small round-ish discoloring would appear. The existing gasket ends butt together at this spot, and look like they're starting to frey just a bit, so I figured maybe an air leak, and a door gasket replacement was added to my list of things to do this summer. I found a kit on line which includes @ 8' of 7/8" rope, and silicone.

- is silicone the way to go, as opposed to cement? that's what I'm hearing, but never changed a gasket before (my old Drolet still has the original - after many years of weekend burning)
- the price on line for the Osburn part / kit is @ $48 - this seems really steep but maybe the heavier rope is more pricey?
- the gasket in the kit is black - is this a different material than the standard door gasket material that's sold by the foot?
- do I really need to take the door off? The bay door on the 2200 looks like a bear to remove and handle - never done it but will the gasket swap be a lot smoother if I do?
- can I run another season (weekend burning) and just wipe the glass there every couple days? seems kinda weird this gasket only lasted @ 3 years weekends-only burning - maybe I'm jumping the gun?

I tried the dollar bill test on this door, best I could near the handle. There's no really obvious gap to let a bill slide through, but I keep thinking maybe some small leakage where the ends meet still causing the issue.

As usual thanks for any advice....

 

[pen]

Did you get this kit from Osburn? http://www.stove-parts-unlimited.com/Osburn-7-8-x-8-Rope-Gasket-Kit-p/oa11390.htm

If so, I would not hesitate to use the adhesive that came with it.

pen

 

[BrotherBart]

To add. That price for door gasket is nuts. Stove shops sell it by the foot and if it costs more than eight bucks for enough I would be surprised. And silicone is what most manufacturers use now for door gaskets. Works fine. The black gasket has graphite in it to keep it from sticking to the paint on the front of the stove. If that stove has burned for a season, that is a non-event. White gasket will do fine and won't stick to anything.

But yeah take the door off and lay it flat for the job. Lift it up and wiggle it and the pins will work out of the hinges just fine.

 

[bag of hammers]

Pen - yeah that's the same kit I was looking at - the price I posted was from another site, listed in CDN $ - probably in the same ballpark once converted to USD. I didn't buy it yet since I thought the cost was pretty high.

BB - thanks for the add'l sanity check on the black gasket - and I'll try to do this with the door off.

Any special silicone needed? Might have some old RTV from the vehicle-tinkering days, probably too old though..?

Thanks guys...

 

[pen]

Any special silicone needed? Might have some old RTV from the vehicle-tinkering days, probably too old though..?

Thanks guys...

Yes, it needs to be specific for the installation of stove door gaskets

pen

 

[bag of hammers]

Looks like the NuFlex Red silicone that comes with the kit (650 deg F) retails separately at myfireplaceproductscom for almost $24 CDN ( I don't see it listed separately on the Mountain View website so not sure if they sell silicone or how much).

Very pricey compared to Rutland or Imperial brands of high temp silicone. Could NuFlex be that much better quality, or just a way to hose guys like me who don't know much about it...?

 

[BrotherBart]

Silicone is pretty much shot after a year or so on the shelf. I know. I had to toss six tubes that I didn't get around to using soon enough.

 

[bag of hammers]

Silicone is pretty much shot after a year or so on the shelf. I know. I had to toss six tubes that I didn't get around to using soon enough.

Ouch. That makes me think I need to get my act together to finish off a small tile project on my list. I'm hoping to use up some leftover silicone that I special ordered (grout match) for the bathroom last year. I guess the clock is ticking....

 

[BrotherBart]

Should be a stale date on the tubes.

 

[bag of hammers]

ok i got the gasket - the 2200 uses a heavy / thick 7/8" rope. I'll probably use a heavy utility knife to cut it - is there a way to keep the gasket from fraying on the end where I cut it to fit? This part I worry about a bit since this seems to be the current trouble spot on the old gasket (where the ends butt together).

 

[stoveguy13]

Just make sure you make a clean cut on it ,i like to put the ends at the bottom of the center of the door seems to hold up best in that spot.

 

[cygnus]

I had a leak or two when my 2200 was newer. I pulled the cotter pin by the lock, removed that roller and gave the handle a full turn CCW before putting it all back together. That was enough to tighten the door a bit more and stop the leaks. I think it's just a needed adjustment as the gasket settles in.

 

[bag of hammers]

I had a leak or two when my 2200 was newer. I pulled the cotter pin by the lock, removed that roller and gave the handle a full turn CCW before putting it all back together. That was enough to tighten the door a bit more and stop the leaks. I think it's just a needed adjustment as the gasket settles in.

Cygnus - Did you have to remove the coil on the end of the handle? Seems like that part wants to hit the side glass if I try to rotate the handle.

 

[bag of hammers]

This is interesting. I took the old gasket out yesterday, noticing the worst spot where the old gasket was frayed lines up exactly with a sharp edge and a bit of a burr on part of the upper firebox (upper lip at the top of the box). Looks as if there is almost no clearance there for the gasket as the door is opened and closed. I suspect one time a couple threads from the gasket might have caught on that burr and lifted the gasket out a tiny bit. Then the burr and the sharp edge continued to do some damage over time.

I filed down the burr and the edge so even if the gasket touches there now it should glide right over that spot. New gasket will go in next weekend (I didn't install this weekend as I didn't want my wife and son dealing with silicone curing smell).

 

[FyreBug]

Hi Bag of Hammer, I took your last post and forwarded to our quality control to see if this would cause some issues.

Just FYI the OA 11390 gasket kit retails for $37. If you bought it online it could be why they charged more for shipping.

We use a tighter braid on Osburn. Usually less expensive gaskets found at box store have a much looser braid which may impact combustion with extra air leaking in the firebox.

I've had the Osburn 1800 for 3 years now and not needed to replace the gasket yet.

 

[bag of hammers]

Thanks FyreBug - FWIW if this is the worst I have to deal with on the 2200 then I'm a happy camper. Just posting this here as it might be a worthwhile 5-second sanity check for any 1800 / 2200 owners reading this. I wonder - the way the gasket "flattens" toward the inside on the latch side after a couple years, if it just got to a point where it grazed the burr once and that did it.

Originally I suspected the butt ends as the problem, but as you might guess from the location of the frayed spot in my (crappy) pics the butt ends would have actually been somewhere on the hinge side- that part and the rest of the gasket was still in pretty decent shape. I think I could have run it for another season of weekend fires easily if not for the frayed part - but I was getting a bit of black on the latch side glass every fire, towards the end of the season last year, so I assumed a tiny air leak there.

I've seen the Osburn gasket kits in the stores that carry SBI products here, but nobody had the heavy 7/8" rope kit in stock. One shop was going to pull one off of a stove door for me, but I still needed to buy the high heat silicone. So I just went online.

Anyway, the burr was an easy fix (5 minutes with a file). And I got fast email support from SBI with answers as usual on the best replacement technique, etc. Just a bit of Murphy's law - the stove is a tank (but with a burr)

Cold mornings but afternoon temps close to 70 deg F here right now so I have another weekend to get 'er done. Got the green light from my neighbors to scrounge on their property this year. I see a lot of gopher-wood fires in my future - going to feel good to fire that puppy up and warm us up for "free"...

 

[Heatsource]

To add. That price for door gasket is nuts. Stove shops sell it by the foot and if it costs more than eight bucks for enough I would be surprised

7/8 is 1.96 per foot wholesale from our supplier, so the kit price isn't too far out of line, imo

 

[bag of hammers]

Kit includes the high temp silicone too - IIRC it's a bit pricey too....? Anyway I'm kinda over the sticker shock but I hope I don't screw it up and end up with a spendy do -over.

 

[bag of hammers]

Just make sure you make a clean cut on it ,i like to put the ends at the bottom of the center of the door seems to hold up best in that spot.

stoveguy, what do you cut the gasket with - utility knife, or scissors..?

We use a tighter braid on Osburn. Usually less expensive gaskets found at box store have a much looser braid which may impact combustion with extra air leaking in the firebox.

FyreBug - do I need to use rubbing alcohol or anything like that to scrub out the channel before the new silicone / gasket goes in? I scraped out all the old red silicone really well, but I didn't wipe down the metal channel with anything. Not sure if this will impact the stickiness of the high temp silicone. Osburn recommends approx. 1/8" bead to seat the new gasket - this is a pretty heavy rope (I believe this is also what you use in the 1800?) so I wanna make sure it's a good bond.

 

[stoveguy13]

↑
Just make sure you make a clean cut on it ,i like to put the ends at the bottom of the center of the door seems to hold up best in that spot.
stoveguy, what do you cut the gasket with - utility knife, or scissors..? Either will work fine i like a sharp pair of scissors.

↑

We use a tighter braid on Osburn. Usually less expensive gaskets found at box store have a much looser braid which may impact combustion with extra air leaking in the firebox.
FyreBug - do I need to use rubbing alcohol or anything like that to scrub out the channel before the new silicone / gasket goes in? I scraped out all the old red silicone really well, but I didn't wipe down the metal channel with anything. Not sure if this will impact the stickiness of the high temp silicone. Osburn recommends approx. 1/8" bead to seat the new gasket - this is a pretty heavy rope (I believe this is also what you use in the 1800?) so I wanna make sure it's a good bond.
you do not need to do any more then you have already done. be liberal with the silicone and let it set up for apx 24 hrs for a good bond​

 

[cygnus]

Cygnus - Did you have to remove the coil on the end of the handle? Seems like that part wants to hit the side glass if I try to rotate the handle.

Hi Hammers. I see your point. I didn't remember that part but, I must have because that sucker isn't spinning any where with the coil on.

 

[FyreBug]

BTW these thick gaskets make a wonderful replacement gasket for your Green Egg. Lasts much longer than the GE gasket.

 

[bag of hammers]

Thanks everyone for chiming in. I got the new gasket in on Friday night. Osburn tech support had told me (as a couple folks here did too) that taking the door off would make it a bit easier, but they also said that either way should be not too difficult with this particular stove / gasket kit. Sure enough, the gasket sticks in the channel extremely well with even a small amount of the silicone. I would probably have been ok if I left the door on. But since there were only a couple small screws holding the top trim piece (which I had to remove to clear the hinges on the door) I decided to take the trim off, lift the door off, lay it flat. The door was extremely easy to lift off the hinges - also a good opportunity to squeeze a bit of graphite powder up inside the hinge sockets which I did.

The only place I had some worry was cutting the rope to a nice clean end. I used sharp heavy scissors which cut through the material pretty easily, but as soon as I made a cut the end seemed to "mushroom" out a bit. Maybe this is normal for such a thick gasket? I had enough rope to make a few test cuts, just to sanity check, using scissors, heavy utility knife. Same thing each time, so I just did the best I could. I glued the gasket in all around, then cut it just long enough so I could butt the 2 ends together kinda snug, put the door back on, latched it and let it cure. The latch was tight at first, but after curing for a day it felt just snug enough and didn't seem like it would need an adjustment.

I lit a test fire yesterday - 1st fire of the season - it felt really good. I took the super cedars for a test drive too. A couple of flat pieces of maple E/W on the bottom, a couple medium maple splits N/S on top of that with a 1/4 super cedar and a few small pieces of pine and maple tossed in between, then a few small maple splits on top. Sort of a "middle-out" start I guess. I lit it and closed the door. Sure enough, within 5 or 10 minutes it was rolling along beautifully. I thought since it was a milder day I'd have a bunch of smoke in the firebox while things heated up and got going, but that wasn't the case at all. It started up real clean. I think I'm gonna like using these things.

Sorry to ramble on - just wanted to say thanks for the help...