Another little trick to tighten things up is to get a much smaller gasket...or some ceramic paper or thin ceramic blanket material, pull the gasket out, put the thin stuff behind to act as a shim of sorts...but since yours is already cemented in, that may not work out the best. Some units have a deep groove that the gasket material gets stuffed into, no need for glue/cement...if your are careful you can get it out and reinstall it...
I'd really suspect the ash pan is leaking with the temps you're seeing. Door gasket issues will usually show secondaries igniting near them on a fully choked hot stove and soot formations on the glass areas as the stove cools down
One would think it inhibits air flow but its unlikely the entire area of inflow is blocked. Have you tried checking around any of the stove seams with a smoke source? Need to shut off all fans in the room gently test around all areas of the stove
What's the setup here? Does it have the typical iron plug in the firebox floor that can be caught with a shovel if you are digging ash directly out of the firebox? If so it is pretty easy to hit those and get ashes under it...making a possible leak.
Yes it has a plug in the bottom of the firebox. I scoop ashes out directly so that is a possibility. I rolled up and cemented a piece of the old door gasket thinking that will make a good plug underneath the ash plug. That should make it airtight right?
Hmm...depends how soft the gasket is and if its flat enough for the weight of the plug to seal the gaps...
Check the ash box door for drafts while your smoking around. If it’s going in you’ve found another issue. Did you try the dollar bill on the ash door?
I rolled it up tight with some cement and stuck it up from underneath the stove. Here is a pic from the floor of the ash clean out on the bottom of the stove with the plug I made. It is not replacing the ash plug it is about a 1/2" below it. I just thought it may block any air if the plug is off a bit.
I have an ash drawer. However it is not installed because the slide it goes on got bent a bit when the previous owner moved it so it wont fit in. I could make it fit I just didn't figure I needed it so I haven't straightened it out.
Yeah, that's prolly not leaking...could wrap some aluminum foil around the bottom of that plug as one more line of defense...could maybe tie some wire around there to encourage it to co-operate/stay in place/seal too...
I was getting ready to grab some tin foil then I remembered I had some foil tape left from my liner insulation.... I can't imagine that thing will be leaking anytime soon.
I have been suspecting Maybe there is a leak because the ash pan is not in there , I Looked in the manual and it didn't say much about it at all
Marvin.. Had the same kinda problem when I first lit the T5. Ash door leaked so cleaned it out then sealed it with high heat caulking then realized with the help of raybonz here on the board The bottom draft wasn't closing near where we thought it should so grabbed the Dremel and notched it out a touch which worked great.
What about the ash clean out for the flue? I put the cap on the bottom of the liner but the door in the wall does not seal tight. I stuffed some rockwool in there just to make myself feel better. Maybe I'm grasping at straws here. I thought I had it figured out with the ash dump plugged and taped off in the bottom of the stove. It seemed to be very well controlled when I loaded for the night. I had it shut down to about 20% and thought that would be cruise control for the night. Came down to check it after about 15 minutes and it had gone nuclear. I'm lost at this point. The only thing I can think of now is replacing the door gasket when it gets here. Not sure if that will do it or not. Tomorrow I will get something to do a leak check around the whole stove.
