Replaced gasket on stove door now I really have to force it closed?!

[PA. Woodsman]

I finally broke down and took advantage of warm weather today to replace the door gasket on the old Dovre Aurora, I had changed it years before and did it the same way as before, left the door on, did it right there like last time, pushed it in with some firm pressure but not too much, it is a very thick gasket but that's what the stove calls for and I had a big section of it downstairs so it has to be the right one from before, adjusted the door so it would be as loose as it could thinking I'd start loose then tighten it up but it was a helluva war getting it to the point where I could even get it closed and it is WAY too tight now, no way I can use it like this! I have no idea what happened, we didn't have this issue before, the stove has two hex bolts on the right side that you loosen and move the hinge plate to where you want it to position the door, I have it as loose as it can be yet it still is so super tight. I fought with this thing for hours, trying and trying again, got it as loose as I can see it to be and forced it closed, maybe from staying closed overnight it will compress somewhat but I am not happy leaving it that tight under that pressure.

If you see something that I am missing please chime in, the latch on the left side also is as loose as it can be, I don't know what else to do, but it can't be like this. I know this is the correct size gasket, I don't want to put another thinner one on but what the heck do I do to get this door closed?????

And with the language that I used I am NOT getting any Christmas gifts tonight or for the next 10 years.....

Thank you

 

[PA. Woodsman]

It appears that stove gasket comes in different densities, so perhaps this piece of gasket that I had laying around downstairs that was given to me by the stove shop where my stove came from is too thick? The other piece that we used from them years ago was tight but still closed, but this is not even close to closing. Tomorrow I'll get on this and figure it out, hopefully one of the local stove shops knows what I am dealing with and has the correct density in 3/4" gasket. Dovre went out of business years ago and the guy who owned the business I got this from died 3 years ago, so I'll really have to do my homework on this matter.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I ended up using 3/4" soft gasket, I tried a piece of the medium at the door hinge and it still closed way too tight, so I figured that the softest one would be the one I need. It closes, but it is still tighter than it was last time and that I would prefer, and I don't understand why this is? I have the door hinge on the right side and the latch on the left side adjusted as loose as they can be, yet it is still so tight that I now push the door close right above the latch as I am closing it so it takes the strain off of the latch, it pushes in a bit more and I can close the latch without it "grinding" on the bushing. I'm sure that as it flattens it will become easier, the hinge side is getting flatter already but this is strange. I know the door was never right even from the factory years ago, seems a bit "warped", and the guy at the local stove shop knew of them years ago as they used to sell them and he told me that the doors were always a bit "wonky", but added "they were a great stove". So I guess I'll just continue pushing the door tight with a gloved left hand while closing down the latch with my right hand until it compresses, but I just can't understand why I even have to do that, maybe the gasket I put on years ago was a different brand or material, but I would've thought the "soft" one would've been just right?

It's on and it works, I'll just have to operate this way until it compresses I guess.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Well it's been a year now since I put this gasket on and it really has not compressed much at all. I noticed it is a bit easier to close than it had been but when doing so it still is really tight so I have gone back to pushing on the door with my left gloved hand while closing it with the right hand to take the strain off the bushing and latch, not ideal but I guess that's what I have to do. I would've thought by now it would be closing more normal but I guess that'll be a long time down the road yet? I do have extra bushings in case this one gets too ground down, it seems okay yet but I'm keeping a close eye on it.

And it was the "soft" gasket so I thought it would be compressed by now, very strange....

 

[Del_]

Can you remove it and maybe tease a little of the material off of the gasket?

Is it only tight on the latch side?

It would be a shame to damage the door latching mechanism.

 

[calamari]

We have a "Sweet Home" wood burner that is 30+ years old and I had to finally replace the door gasket. When I put the new gasket in the channel it seemed too tight too but has conformed to its new circumstances wiyh use pretty quickly. If it was me and you weren't needing it for heat at the moment, I'd remove the gasket and look to see if there is any buildup of crud in the gasket channel and maybe even wire brush it out no matter how OK it looks. Making the channel deeper has the same effect as making the gasket smaller but you have to be careful not to remove too much.
Did you throw the old gasket away w/o measuring it as a starting point? I realize it's been out for a year but gasket like that can have other uses or so I tell myself as I put it in my used tin foil drawer.

 

[esshup]

Does the gasket set in a channel or is it just glued to the flat part of the stove? If set in a channel, did you get all traces of the glue out of there before installing the new one? maybe use too much glue? If it slides in a channel, maybe not enough was forced into the channel? I honestly have no idea, just grasping at straws here.

 

[calamari]

I'm not sure that it's glued and not just held in place by the door being shut. The channel on my stove is deep enough that when you get the rope in the groove it's held pretty well and once closed a few times it's really held.
If glue is required to hold the gasket in, I didn't use any and haven't had any problems as a result.
Ash and creosote can seem to get behind the rope over the years and if it isn't removed prior to replacement can cause fitment problems at least on my stove.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Thanks for the replies.

It is tight everywhere, the tightest of course being at the hinge side where the door closes. This is the part that I "tested" various gaskets, I bought a foot section of the different densities, put them in that hinge area and closed the door to see how tight it would close, and this "soft" one was the one that seemed the best out of the three that I tried, soft, medium and hard.

I don't have the old gasket anymore, I threw it out as it was shot. I replaced this one the way I have done all before it, tore the old one out, wire brushed the track that it is supposed to fit in and even used a small dremel to grind it out at places. This gasket seemed to be too fat even though it was the recommended 3/4", I checked out the size online and also with a local dealer that used to sell Dovre stoves years ago and he said yes that is the correct size, but it seemed too large. I questioned about putting in a smaller sized gasket but he said he thought it wouldn't seal properly and only lead to other issues, so I went with the 3/4" soft, didn't use too much glue, did a really good job on it, and figured and was told that with time this one will compress. It is doing that but at a VERY slow rate.

I did see and feel a "thinner" 3/4" one at Home Depot that came in a kit, but opted for this one from the stove shop. I really don't feel like taking this one off and going through putting another one on, it might be a mistake, but I don't know how else to flatten this one quicker.

Del, I don't know how I would "tease" some of it off, if you could explain that to me I would appreciate it. It might be an option.

Thank you

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I also should add that this one doesn't just "lay" in the groove like some gaskets do on some stoves, you press as much of it into the groove as you can but there has ALWAYS been extra thickness to it, even the original one from 1993 was extra thick and stuck out from the groove, and so did all of the other ones that I put on over the years, but this one just seems like it is very resistant to being compressed, when you feel it and squeeze it in your hand it is soft, but on the stove it is very resistant which is strange?!

I wish it WAS a stove where it just set flush in the track, that would make things a lot easier!!

 

[Del_]

Del, I don't know how I would "tease" some of it off, if you could explain that to me I would appreciate it. It might be an option.

Thank you

Sharp pointed scissors.

I've 'revived' door gaskets that don't fit tight with an awl or ice pick by loosening up the fibers in old compressed gaskets.

Are you familiar with the old dollar bill technique where you close a door and see how difficult it is to pull a material through the fitment?

 

[calamari]

I was surprised to learn that the gasket is made out of fiberglass and not rock wool of some sort. Whatever it is as long as using it isn't dangerous and it lasts for a long time I'm OK with it.
I was also surprised that glue seems to be used and even required. My seal isn't glued and hasn't seemed to leak after I replaced it. It was also proud of the doors face by enough that the compression resulted in different gasket thickness after installation and a few uses. They're dark but here are pictures of my stove's door from the front and looking down on it showing how the gasket is compressed into a taper. I've included a couple links, that I hope is OK to do, that discuss the subject further. I'm sure there's nothing new in them but some times a review of the info can be helpful. I'm leaning toward too much glue has made the gasket so rigid it can't compress correctly.
As you can see from the first picture of my door it's not round anymore and I'm sure the OP's gasket is too. I can't imagine how a gasket that's small enough to fit in the channel and be above the door enough to allow for sealing compression doesn't work right. It's either too large to begin with or too stiff by being compressed already through glue and/or forcing too large a gasket into the channel. I didn't look for it but I wonder if there's a gasket calculator that gives the ratio between door channel dimensions and gasket diameter to get the proper fit.
I'm betting on the glue.

https://fireplaceuniverse.com/wood-stove-gaskets-guide/

https://www.**********/talk/threads/door-gasket-issues.104891/

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I stopped at Home Depot to look and more importantly "feel" the 3/4" Rutland gasket that they sold in a kit last year and they didn't have anything like that anymore, said it is now all online! I think that one was soft too but I wanted to feel it again.

I then stopped at Stoves "n" Stuff where I bought this gasket last year and felt it and also looked at and felt the 5/8" one which would be the size smaller and talked to George the salesman, told him the issue, and he said "things change over the years, it's an old stove, the gasket companies change, etc." and he is correct, and I told him that I am experiencing the same type issues with my 1987 Ford Bronco, things are harder to get that fit correctly, we end up having to "adapt" to it and at times almost "rig" it so it works, and the same thing is going on here and he agreed. He said what I already knew, but I wanted to see if he had any ideas on how to speed up the compression part of it but he didn't know of anything. He said I could either try to put a 5/8" gasket on and see what happens, but that is a pain in the ass to do, I need the stove now, if it would work we'd be "hey, that worked, great!" or more likely I'd be ticked off saying "that didn't work, now I have to put back 3/4" like was on it!" and I don't feel like playing that game right now, maybe after the heating season is over I might do that, but I guess for now I'll just continue to close it with pressing on the door right above the latch so it compresses enough that I can close it without too much resistance; I doubt it is doing any harm like pulling the bushing and the bolt it is on forward and if it is I can easily replace them both, when I learned that Dovre was going out of business late 1990's I bought a bunch of the bushings so I have extra, but I doubt it is doing any harm to it, and the latch is solid, so I'll do that for the next few months and maybe by some miracle it will one day compress enough that I can close it normally.

It has to be the gasket and what it is made of, the last time that I did this I used gasket from the woodstove shop where I bought the stove years ago, put it on EXACTLY the same way as this one, didn't use too much glue so I'm sure it's not that, it's just that the companies where this gasket comes from has changed something on it and even the "soft" one is pretty thick now. Like I said I sampled three different thicknesses, tried them in the hinge area, and this soft one worked the best, but on the stove it is still very thick.

Very strange, but like he said "it's an old stove, things change...." and he is right. We just have to adapt to them the best that we can or buy something newer.

I appreciate the help and the replies, but I think those or my only options at this point.

 

[calamari]

Given that gluing it in is the norm I'm amazed that mine works so well w/o glue. The only reason for glue would be to keep it in place with the door open and banging the door enough to jar it loose. This one had the gasket w/o glue work fine for 30 years and now this new one is sealing well too. Like you said, after it cools off is the time to experiment, if you don't forget about it or get distracted like I would.
I have the same problem with parts for my 88 Chev K1500. Although you drive a F...Fo... I can't bring myself to even write the brand name, there are lots of parts still available. Start here and do some digging if you haven't seen these places before:

https://www.lmctruck.com/ford
https://www.lmctruck.com/ford-truck-bronco-1980-1996
https://www.ecklers.com/bronco

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Thanks for the links to Bronco sites, I appreciate it! I usually get stuff from Jeff's Bronco Graveyard as well as the local junkyard lol!

I also am AMAZED that your gasket stayed/stays in without any glue, simply amazing! It must be a pretty deep channel if it can hold it in place without being glued! Mine overflows the channel so a lot of it still sticks out so glue is needed.

Well, I made some discoveries after I posted the last post. I took a good look at things, I saw and reminded myself that the door is warped, it was NEVER straight right from the factory as I remember the upper left corner ALWAYS failing the dollar bill test like Del had mentioned. If I stand above the door and look down at it I can see the gasket is very tight by the door hinge where it closes first, it is really flattening out there like it always did in the past, the bottom is the same as it used to be not real tight, the top right and middle are very tight, but the upper left corner is loose, the gasket is still really thick there and it is because the door is and has been out of line and there's no way I can fix that. So that was one thing....

The other thing is this door has TOO MANY adjustments on it, most stoves you just open and close them but this guy has a latch adjustment, a hinge adjustment with two hex bolts that you can loosen and adjust the hinge (right) side by moving the door in or out, but I also remembered there are also two adjustment screws in between those two hex bolts that are supposed to raise or lower the door. I did play around with them when I changed the gasket but did no further adjustments since, looked it up in the manual from 1993 and saw that they want you to loosen the two hex bolts and then tighten or loosen the adjustment screws. There was NO WAY that I was going to loosen those two hex bolts as that would've turned this into a major fiasco, they are VERY touchy, so I thought I would try loosening and tightening the adjustment screws without them and see what happened, and it DID move the door and seemed to try to line it up better! I tried all kinds of combinations, tightening and then loosening the upper one, open/close the door, do the same thing with the lower one, open/close the door, I did this for a good while and when I felt it was as good as it would get I tightened everything down and let it go, started a fire and it IS somewhat better, but it seems to be acting more like it used to so I must have it very close to how it was prior to me putting this gasket on a year ago.

I might try to put a newer bushing on to see if that makes any difference when I'm not using it, and that's about as good as it'll get I believe!

WAY too many adjustment choices, and I remember last year asking one of the stove shops if they sell a lot of stoves with adjustable doors and I recall one did say "no, they don't make them much anymore because it drove people NUTS!" I agree.....

 

[calamari]

The other thing is this door has TOO MANY adjustments on it, most stoves you just open and close them

This stove has a channel that I'd guess was 1/2 as deep as the uncompressed gasket was wide. so it wasn't deep enough to really support the gasket before it got compressed. It's a good stove as far as construction. It's not made anymore either. The stove has no adjustments for the door or much of anything else other than the damper and air control. Just fill it up and close the door. The handle runs down along an angled metal ramp that provides a clamping force of the door against the stove's face. It hasn't worn the ramp out yet but if it does, I'll just attach a strip of S.S. and it'll be good for another hundred years. I won't have to worry about it because I'm told I'll be staying in a place with very dry heat and a lot of it.

it drove people NUTS!" I agree.....

Sometimes having a lot of adjustments isn't a good thing for sure!

 

[lwmibc]

If the gasket is not glued in, maybe try taking it out and replacing it without the twist in it that seems apparent from the photos. I replace my door gasket about every 3 years or so in a Pacific Energy stove, and it seems evenly braided with no directional texture like yours seems to have--and it always needs replacing because it compresses and eventually loses 'good seal'. Maybe try reinserting it with the twist removed and see how it fits.

 

[dboyd351]

What is the point of this comment?

<quoted content respectfully deleted by moderator>

Do you get a kick out of making an azz of yourself every time you post or what?

 

[litefoot]

I finally broke down and took advantage of warm weather today to replace the door gasket on the old Dovre Aurora, I had changed it years before and did it the same way as before, left the door on, did it right there like last time, pushed it in with some firm pressure but not too much, it is a very thick gasket but that's what the stove calls for and I had a big section of it downstairs so it has to be the right one from before, adjusted the door so it would be as loose as it could thinking I'd start loose then tighten it up but it was a helluva war getting it to the point where I could even get it closed and it is WAY too tight now, no way I can use it like this! I have no idea what happened, we didn't have this issue before, the stove has two hex bolts on the right side that you loosen and move the hinge plate to where you want it to position the door, I have it as loose as it can be yet it still is so super tight. I fought with this thing for hours, trying and trying again, got it as loose as I can see it to be and forced it closed, maybe from staying closed overnight it will compress somewhat but I am not happy leaving it that tight under that pressure.

If you see something that I am missing please chime in, the latch on the left side also is as loose as it can be, I don't know what else to do, but it can't be like this. I know this is the correct size gasket, I don't want to put another thinner one on but what the heck do I do to get this door closed?????

And with the language that I used I am NOT getting any Christmas gifts tonight or for the next 10 years.....

Thank you

Most of time my new gaskets aren’t as tight as I would like, so I’d say be thankful for a good seal and give it more time to form/seal.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Most of time my new gaskets aren’t as tight as I would like, so I’d say be thankful for a good seal and give it more time to form/seal.

This is true! I just don't like the "grinding" tight closing of the latch and bushing but like I say if I push on the door as I am closing it that takes some of the strain off of it. Hopefully with time it'll lessen on it's own.