Wood stove door handle seized - then snapped off!

[dpm5005]

Hello all - and apologies in advance as I am new to the forum and relatively new to wood stoves. I have a Country Flame Ovation 2100 freestanding wood stove. With a combination of a mild winter and welcoming our first child - we only burned a handful of fires in the stove last year. Went to fire her up and the door handle was completely seized and stuck closed. I tried getting some penetrating oil to the threads but not sure it’s getting to the internal latch or past the gasket. I also tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to stay some oil inside though the ash door. I let the penetrating oil sit overnight and attached a cheater pipe to the handle this morning. And - the handle snapped right off! Can’t remove door from hinge side while it’s closed. I’m so frustrated that I’m almost ready to break the glass to access the latch from the inside. Ideas or more sensible alternatives?

Thanks. Pics below.

 

[barnaclebob]

Whats preventing the hinge pins from being removed? Can you get a chisel or flathead screwdriver under the heads? Can you hit them from below?

That looks like rust from water damage, any idea how that happened? It was probably what caused the seizure.

Looks like replacement glass is about $200 and a replacement door including glass and latch is $400.

 

[dpm5005]

Can you pop the pins on the other side?

Thanks. Hopefully I articulate this coherently: The upper part of the hinges contain the pins and they are a permanent part of the upper half, so the entire door has to slip into the bottom half of the hinge - both pins at once. As far as I know, the door has to be open to do that.

 

[bholler]

Thanks. Hopefully I articulate this coherently: The upper part of the hinges contain the pins and they are a permanent part of the upper half, so the entire door has to slip into the bottom half of the hinge - both pins at once. As far as I know, the door has to be open to do that.

Your options are pretty much drill it out or break the glass at this point

 

[EbS-P]

Drill it tap (use correct right or left hand thread so you can bottom a bold out and use it to try and open the door) insert highest grade bolt you can find and try to open latch with an impact driver.

Before drilling I would hit the broken piece as hard as I dared with a punch and hammer?

I don’t know the stove but there is not chance to get to the latch from the smoke outlet?