Did a cleaning tonight and fired the stove back up. Just checking around everything to make sure everything looked good during re-firing, and caught a glimpse of the fire inside fire box, thru a top corner weld. I thought, what the hell did I just see. So I looked again around top, front, left corner of the decorative trim on stove and there it was, 2 small pin holes thru a welded corner joint. Now the question comes, what would be the best way to seal/fix these up. These holes are roughly 1/16th to 3/32" in diameter. I'm surprised I haven't had some kind of a vacuum error fault, or something. I have smelled some smoke from time to time during longer re-firing cycles, when pellets would start to smoke, right before igniting. But I thought maybe I was getting some leaking around the baffle cleaning rod, where it goes thru front of unit and attaches to the scraper, for cleaning off of baffle tubes on inside top of the fire box. I don't won't to pull the unit out now to fix. Hell, it has been like that since new, and I'm on the 2nd burn season with it. As anal as I am, I'm surprised it took me this long to see it. I don't think it would be a good idea anyhow, to weld it up with all the electrical circuit boards & electronics in it. Wonder what would work best to patch those holes, high temperature silicone or maybe JB Weld. JB Weld sounds like the most logical thing to use. I have never used it before. I guess the high temperature wouldn't hurt the JB Weld, would it. I heard of people using it before to fix like engine blocks, and stuff like that. Guess it won't hurt on a weld of a stove. I would guess there is no chance of a chemical toxin from using it, from when it gets hot, would there. So I would like to get some of your thoughts on the best way to tackle this fix without welding, and taking the chance of damaging/frying electrical components in the stove. Thanks!
As long as your ground path isn't through the electrical it should be fine. Without seeing a picture though I won't say just weld it up. I would think JB would hold up if it stays under 300° right there.
If you can get to the inside of the corner and wire brush it, you could try a small bead of this stuff. It might stay in place. Won't burn anyway... Envirograf High Temperature Silicone 1200 Degrees - £11.89 :
Took some pictures. There is 2 holes. On the dark pictures, you can see the glow from the fire inside the fire box.
I hit that area with my heat gun, it was 170 degrees right there in that area, on the outside of the stove. I am running the stove on the lowest heat setting right now, but I am burning good pellets, Hamers.
There are plenty of high temp silicones or epoxy sealers that will work fine. You don't get an error code because these stoves are not air tight... the combustion fans keep the combustion gasses moving out of the stove. You have air leaks at your door glass (air wash), clean out rod and other places. Good luck.
I would use a furnace cement. Rated for higher temps(2000ºF) and cures hard as a rock. Should out last a silicon sealer as well. Many stoves have this in their fireboxes around the cute area.
Would be my choice also. Id try to press/work it right into those holes so it wont come out after hardening.
YUP Furnace cement would be me choice as well. Clean the holes well with a small wire and a thin cloth dipped in brake kleen (stinks bad) first Might consider using a small carbide bur in your Dumore grinder and brighten the inner surfaces of those holes and maybe open them a touch to allow the cement to ooze through into the inside easier. Mush the cement into the holes with a putty knife then let harden. Mask the area off with tape to keep from messing up the paint. There is also a 2300 F ceramic putty that is sort of like a high temp JB WELD Two part, mix and apply. (Area needs to be bright clean metal to stick) Or just smear some regular 500 F silicone on it and call it good. Likely this area never gets that hot. Pin holes in stoves is not all that uncommon and sadly this stuff gets missed in the QC process.
I have used jb weld on my pellet/corn stove and it seems to work for a while but in my case it cracked after extended use. It could get you through until you can fix it right.
I'd use a dab of black high temp RTV on my finger and smear it into the holes from the outside and be done with it.
