Fireplace/woodstove gasket

[MossRoad]

Our door gasket went loose about 3 years after we got our stove. I did that same thing, and bought new gasket material, a tube of the gasket cement, removed the door, scraped off the old gasket and glue, installed the new one, waited 24 hours, then put the door back on. All good. The new one has lasted about 10 years with no signs of wear. Strange.

 

[deezler]

Our door gasket went loose about 3 years after we got our stove.

Do I recall that you have a Napoleon stove also? My Napoleon 1450 stove also felt a bit weak on the gasket after just 3 years of use. We had gotten a few CO alarms so I decided to do the door gasket - but it might have been fine. The real culprit was installation of a solar panel array on my roof (tilted up in the air) that caused pressure down my chimney when the winds were out of the south. 3 more feet of chimney extension cured it, but also good to have a new tighter door seal on the stove.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Strange, The two stoves we use to heat our home pull air IN through leaky door seals. The burn rate increases, but I never see/smell wood smoke.

Thats means you have a lot of pull through you chimney, if you had a chimney damper and closed it then you would've smell it... or if the atmospheric pressure is low then you could've smell it as well...

 

[cqaigy2]

Agree, a good strong draft should prevent smoke from entering the room. A stack blockage could do that or not hot enough stack. That said, some of the newer stoves don't have much "head room" due to the added baffling for EPA ratings so the "top" of the burn area is practically the top of the door. Doesn't leave much room for the smoke to pool up in the top of the stove.

I agree the design of the burn box might have something to do with the smoke accumulating down around the door and gasket area. My stove, the baffles take up part of the top of the burn box and there is a gap toward the front, on top, where the smoke exit up the chimney.

I believe the gap in front is to help clear the smoke from the door, and the baffles bring the burn area down so it's level with the top of the door opening. I normally burn pretty hot, and the baffle area is heated by the fire and expels hot air into the "smoke" area at the top and ignites the smoke/gases and you don't see anything coming out the chimney other than shimmer from the hot exhaust.

Normally i don't smell any smoke unless i open the stove to feed it. I've learned to shut the air intake off, crack the door a bit, let it clear then add wood, and that's helped. I've had the stove for about 7 years, and didn't notice smoke until the door gasket was starting to fail, i've replaced it and it's much better. Also noticed i was having kind of a problem damping down the fire when it was burning pretty hot, which made me think the fire was pulling air from around the door.

 

[MossRoad]

Do I recall that you have a Napoleon stove also? My Napoleon 1450 stove also felt a bit weak on the gasket after just 3 years of use. We had gotten a few CO alarms so I decided to do the door gasket - but it might have been fine. The real culprit was installation of a solar panel array on my roof (tilted up in the air) that caused pressure down my chimney when the winds were out of the south. 3 more feet of chimney extension cured it, but also good to have a new tighter door seal on the stove.

Yep. Same stove.

 

[MossRoad]

Napoleon 1400P, to be exact....
Brought back some memories. 14 years ago. Sheesh. Time flies.

We Have a New Wood Burning Stove

Well, I have always wanted one. We have a large supply of wood available. I enjoy cutting, splitting and stacking wood. So we bought a Napoleon 1400P from a local company and had it installed in our basement with a class A chimney run up through the floor, ceiling and roof. It took the...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[goeduck]

Normally i don't smell any smoke unless i open the stove to feed it. I've learned to shut the air intake off, crack the door a bit, let it clear then add wood, and that's helped. I've had the stove for about 7 years, and didn't notice smoke until the door gasket was starting to fail, i've replaced it and it's much better. Also noticed i was having kind of a problem damping down the fire when it was burning pretty hot, which made me think the fire was pulling air from around the door.

Similar here. I bypass the baffle area (opens burn box directly to the stack at the back) and crack the door open before reloading. This "redirects" the smoke to the back of the stove, away from the door. The baffling takes the smoke to the front of the stove, within 2" of the door.

As far as a stack shut off damper, I don't have one.

 

[m1garand762]

Rope gasket and gasket glue are cheap. I replace my door gasket on my hearthstone’s every year it’s about 10 bucks a door

 

[ning]

We have a great draft typically.

However the stove has a catalyst which acts as a partial damper - it likely needs replacement as well so that it flows fully.

If the stove is hot, catalyst engaged, all is well. When the fire burns low, there's less pull, and with the leaky gasket it allowed backflow.

 

[Oaktree]

Similar here. I bypass the baffle area (opens burn box directly to the stack at the back) and crack the door open before reloading. This "redirects" the smoke to the back of the stove, away from the door. The baffling takes the smoke to the front of the stove, within 2" of the door.

As far as a stack shut off damper, I don't have one.

You bring up a good point on stoves with baffles/afterburners. At least in mine it needs to be cleaned out every year. Didn't do that for the first few years I had it, and it got plugged with soot and barely passed any smoke. Kind of a PITA to get at on mine (Harmon Oakwood)...had to rig up a flexible tube extension and fish it thru the outlet to get the top, and remove a couple of the firebricks to get at the bottom.

I don't have a damper in the stack either, just the internal bypass that you mentioned.