replace the door seal on the pellet stove

With the end of the winter season or at the beginning of it, it is important to dedicate oneself to the maintenance of the pellet stove and every 2/3 years also provide for the replacement of the door gasket to keep the stove’s efficiency high.

In fact, cleaning the smoke chamber and flue alone is not sufficient to consider the extraordinary maintenance complete. Therefore it is essential to know how to change the door seal of the pellet stove and to know the risks incurred by not changing it.

Content index

• Risks
• Replace the gasket
  • What is needed
  • Method
• Verify
• Safety

Risks

If the door does not adhere perfectly to the wall of the stove, the insulation of the combustion chamber is missing and therefore gas would escape into the home environment.

Even if minimal, the dangerousness of the leak should not be underestimated: the combustion gases are composed of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which are highly harmful to humans and animals.

For this reason, if you do not have the right tools at home, it is advisable to seek the help of a maintenance technician who knows the stove and can carry out the replacement in the best possible way.

Replace the gasket

Changing the gasket of the pellet stove is an operation that requires little time and a lot of precision, especially if you want to avoid unpleasant accidents and above all to prevent the stove from dispersing small dust inside the apartment.

What you need to replace the gasket of the pellet stove

• medium-slotted screwdriver;
• high temperature silicone;
• new fireproof rope for pellet stove;
• steel wool;
• wide flat brush;
• rag and vacuum cleaner.

Method

Open the door and take a screwdriver with which to pry the cut of the gasket to lift the end. Having grasped the rope, pull it gradually until it is completely removed from its seat.

After that it is a good idea to remove any residual silicone with the help of coarse steel wool and then brush or vacuum up any leftovers and clean with a rag so that the new silicone can adhere perfectly to the surface.

If the replacement gaskets are of the non-elastic type, before throwing away the used one, it is possible to obtain the size of the new one and cut the necessary length. While if the gasket is of the elastic type, the measurement must be taken during installation using the door itself as a measurement, as it must be slightly stretched. In this case it can be cut after installation.

Once everything has been cleaned and the gasket prepared, it is possible to position the silicone around the entire perimeter of the door, without exceeding the product. The gasket can then be laid: it is advisable to start from the middle of the upper side of the door, in this way the joint, between the beginning and the end of the gasket, does not create encumbrance either on the hinges or on the closing side.

Once positioned around the entire perimeter, the gasket will position itself correctly when closing the door, it is not necessary to press it. Finally, the silicone is allowed to dry for at least 2 hours with the door closed.

Verify

If you are not sure if you need to replace the fireproof gasket or if you have correctly replaced it, you can do some tests to check its operation and understand when to change the gasket of the pellet stove .

Safety

Finally, it is very important to assess whether the spare part has been installed correctly: to carry out a quick test, simply try to bring a small flame (like that of a small lighter) close to the stove. If the flame is not sucked inside, it means that the gasket has been changed properly.