Saturday 11 October 2014

Solid fuel stove maintenance

After 6 years Roger decided our stove could do with a bit of TLC. Although there weren't any actual cracks the glass in the door was badly crazed and looked a mess and the rope seal was quite squashed which meant the door wasn't sealing as tight as it used to.


He disassembled everything and gave the inside of the door a good cleaning with a wire brush to get rid of any bits of rope or rust.


He then fitted the replacement gasket which goes between the glass and the cast iron door surround


Small metal clips hold the glass in place and are supplied with the new glass. Unfortunately one of the clips supplied was the wrong type but luckily he'd kept the old ones "just in case".


He then glued in new rope around the door seal and around the ash pan door but forgot to photos.


While he was at it, he also replaced the fire bricks which were quite brittle and crumbled as he was taking them out.


So far this Autumn we haven't really needed to light the fire, basically it hasn't been cold enough yet and we've been managing by running the central heating for just an hour in the evening. Once he'd done the refurbishment though, we needed to light a small fire to cure the glue which holds the rope seals and also to dry out any moisture from the fire bricks. A large fire straight away would probably have cracked the fire bricks.



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