Questions about Gasket?

I was not happy with how the chimney guys were replacing my gasket--never seemed to last long, came loose, frayed like crazy. Cement all over the frame. Seems every year the gasket was trash. So I decided I would attempt it myself, figured I couldn't do any worse.
Famous last words.
I found the correct size for the Alderlea T5 which is 5/16, No point getting it from PE, they do not sell to public, just dealers. Got a Rutland kit with cement tube,
Used a screwdriver, wire brush and wire wheel on drill to clean the channel. Wore down the screw driver, frayed the wheel, but could not get to bare metal, so just made it as smooth as possible. Guess there was 10 years of glue in there.
Followed all the other directions, moistened the channel and rope, gently pressed in without stretching, cured, etc.
It looked great! For about two days, thats when everything went to He--.
First some of the gasket came loose. No surprise; squeezing out that stuff took all I had, and I am sure I was a but skimpy in spots. Re-glued, re-cured. A few hours later, I built the heat back up, checked the gasket, and notices some flattened places. So I decided to pinch them up, like I have done in the past my first attempt resulted in the rope fraying apart in my fingers! WTH??
I do have some more gasket rope on order from Amazon, one is supposed to be high density, the other it 6/16, and some more cement.
Any body know what I did wrong? Directions said to let stand for an hour, then small fire about 500 degrees for another 2 hours. Measured with temp gun, it was between 470 and 500 most of the time.
I am terrible with pictures, but here are two.

 

Sounds like you did it right. Old glue and cheap gasket maybe?
I don’t touch gaskets after they’ve been fired. They get brittle in time, not sure how fast.
My factory door gasket from 2013 is still in great shape per the dollar bill test. Gaskets every year sound excessive.

 

I never had a gasket crumble that quickly. Usually takes a while, I was hoping for better performance. Guess I will have to try again next year, unless we get another warm spell, then I might give it another go with the new stuff.
OEM can be better, but Pacific Energy is a pain. I guess I could try to get some from the dealer up here, but I suspect they will just sell me the usual generic stuff and pass it off as genuine. They have done that in the past. There used to be a guy in Washington state that would sell me through the mail, but he retired a few years ago.

 

I think you are much better off using high temp silicone than gasket cement. Cement gets brittle and in turn if it soaks into the gasket it makes it brittle as well.

 

I may try that. I have used it in the past to tack up a loose portion with no problems. maybe I did put too much on and that happened, like you suggested.

 

When I bought the kit off of Buck to do mine it came with high temp silicone vs cement. I did it again with a Rutland gasket and bought my own silicone and actually it seems to be holding up better yet.

 

How tough is it to remove? Getting ten years worth of black cement off was a nightmare.

 

I used a wire wheel as well and it worked well. I think as you said in your original post just get most off and make it smooth is fine. The sealer I used was sil-bond 6500.

 

I’ve never known silicone to be difficult to remove. I’m surprised it holds up to stove temperatures. Good to know.

 

Lots of OEMs use black rtv silicone for the door gaskets. Ultra black at the auto parts store. On my last gasket job I used ultra copper for the slightly higher temperature range and it was the same price.

I’ve read not to use the blue gasket maker because for some reason it hardens up.

 

I hate that. The blower motor on the air handler at my brother's house went out. I called several local places trying to get one so that we could get it installed ASAP since it was winter. No one sold to end consumers. I called a motor rewinding place but the woman told me to rewind that small motor would be expensive and I would be better to buy a new one. I finally located one on the net but then it ended up getting shipped to the wrong address before it came back to me so it was a week before we could get the heat back on in his house. It would have been simple to replace the motor with one the same size except the mounting brackets were welded to the motor housing and I didn't have a way to weld them onto a new motor. The only solution was to go looking for an exact replacement.

 

Thanks, Dennis!! Glad to know he is a Pacific Energy dealer. My guys are, but they never have anything in stock but generic, and then they want to do the install. They also don’t know what I am talking about when I want the air supply gasket.
Saving his number now.

 

I seen in the first pic there that you have the Ash Dragon scooper...you like it?

 

LOVE that thing!! Keeps the mess down considerably. Don’t have to bring the bucket in and no ash clouds.