Madison Door Gasket

Yes, I have read through the thread. Mike replied about his CS department being able to handle it on a couple of slow days that were coming up, but that was two weeks ago.

He also stated to continue through PM's (PMS?).

No K, I was not or am not chastising you. There is nothing that would change by doing that. The point I'm making (that you missed) is to pursue this privately either through pm; e-mail; phone calls; warranty registration; or whatever. Social media is not the place for it.
Again, this is a warranty issue with the company, not a support group for what you think should be done to improve the stoves design. That would be taken up with the company, not a forum, right?

None of us can do anything besides making suggestions which will either be disregarded by you or end up mucking up your warranty.

 

The reason the glass is likely smoked up is because your fire(s) are to cool or your damping it down too soon. Do not damp the stove all the way down. This will result in a wood that is just smouldering leaving you with smokey glass and a build up of creosote in your chimney. Until your used to all the characteristics and learn the idiosyncrasies of the stove, avoid using the automatic function. These stoves do not take into consideration the outside air temperature nor your altitude. What may work for someone else may not work for your stove.

As for needing more draft, you don't. Your chimney is high enough, and really if you pay attention to the 2-10-3 chimney rule you would have been fine with your initial installation. There are some who would have you believing a 25 foot chimney above your roof is the way it should be done. The 2-10-3 rule is what is necessary and it does work. My chimney is one foot above that height. So basically you wasted time and money on the additional section when it wasn't necessary.

I had seen a chimney yesterday that only extended maybe a foot above the roof. Judging from the heated air ripples, I have no doubt there was a fire in their wood burning stove. There was obviously no problem with having a draft even at that height. They also had a tin roof.

The two 45 degree elbows that has been suggested might give additional draft only because it doesn't cause as much turbulence as the heated air and smoke go up the chimney. But I doubt there is much improvement over such a short run such as yours.

First, what you need to do is let your fire get hot, like stove top temperature of 450 to 500 degrees hot before you even consider damping it down to cruise mode. Some wood does take longer to ignite, and I have noticed when outside temperatures are above 50 degrees, the fire also starts slowly.

What I do is leave the damper in cruise mode which is maybe open about an 8th of an inch. Then start my fire as usual keeping the door open until the wood catches fire. Then I'll close the door over to where it just latches. After the majority of the wood catches fire, I'll start watching the stove top temperature and start closing the door a little more once it reaches about 250 degrees. At this point the door is cracked maybe a quarter of an inch. Once the stove top reaches about 400 degrees I'll close the door to about a 16th of an inch. The temperature will rise to 500 degrees shortly. By this time you should also notice the secondaries have kicked in. Let it burn this way for a few more minutes and then close the door slowly. Once the door is fully closed the fire will turn into an inferno for a little bit, but will settle down. I have seen temperatures on my stove go as high as 625 degrees before the fire settles down into cruise mode. That is basically what I do, your actual experience may vary.

As for your glass issue, I would just fabricate some tabs myself or stick a 8, 10, or 16 penny nail between the bottom tab base, the seal and the glass raising the seal and glass up the height necessary for the upper tabs to make good contact. The head would need to be cut off from the nail. One thing I did notice about the door on the Madison vs the doors on the NC13 and NC30 is the tabs are not present. There is a longish steel plate on the 4 sides retaining the glass and seal. I would wonder if you couldn't get a piece of steel a half inch wide, 8th inch thick and 36 inches long from the hardware store and make something similar without having it show while viewing the fire through the glass. Look at the door of the NC13 below to kind of see what I'm talking about.

Or if your so inclined, order those from the stove company, that is if the measurements are the same. Center to center of the screws on the top and bottom are: nine and a half inches, and the sides are five inches. Just something to consider.

The reason your fires were hot enough before vs now it the air leak you had at the top of the glass. This means you will need to allow for more air to get the same type of hotter burning fire as in keeping the damper open a bit more. If you are getting smoke puff backs as you call them, just close the door over to where the door just latches until the fire gets going. If it does that when your adding wood, perhaps open the door slowly so the air pressure equalizes and doesn't disrupt the air flow through the stove to the chimney.

As a word of caution if you haven't discovered it already: this site may be a wealth of information, but there are tons more misinformation here as well. I'm not saying mine should be taken as gospel either, but I do try to keep most of my posts as accurate and informative as possible. None of this "I heard it from ***** who heard it from ***** who heard it from a rocket scientist who read it someplace so it must be gospel.

 

Somewhere along the way Kimberly started monitoring her flue temps did she not?
It's kinda hard to keep up with what is going on.

 

I will tell you what the dam solution is, I will make some new tabs for the stove. However, I think you are missing the point here, and I have already said this a few dam times. If the tabs are too short for me, they are probably too short for others. If I had a product; especially one that can burn down a house, on the market, I would welcome feedback on issues that might need to be addressed by me and I am sure ESW feels the same. Having the glass fall inward on the stove during the middle of the night would be an uncontrollable burn. Don't you think that would be a bad thing?

This is a new stove, I am the only one that I know of on the forum that has one of these stoves. You know nothing about this stove; so anything I point out is from me owning and using the stove. So don't tell me to shet or get off the pot.

 

This forum is full of people talking about issues with their stove, from wrapped baffles to other issues. Are you telling them to shet or get off the pot? That is what this forum is about, talking about our stoves, helping others. As far as I know, I am the only one with a Madison on this forum, so if others come on here with a Madison looking for info, they can learn from me.

 

Sorry for the outburst but that made me angry; I have been away for a few days and to see that did not sit well with me. I like my stove and anyone would have to fight me to take it away from me. I like the looks of it way better than the 30-NC if you care to know. There are a few issues; and I have been reading other forums on this as well, the stove needs more than the stated 15 feet; I don't know if ESW based that off the 30-NC or did actually tests; my guess is that they did not do actual tests with different chimney heights and straight up versus through the wall because that costs time and money. So I am saying the chimney needs to be higher and I will address that when I can, not this heating season but when I can. As for the glass, yes, I will make some longer tabs and replace the ones I have. However, I do think ESW needs to look at changing the length for their benefit in future production. That is why you ask for customer feedback and welcome knowing about issues; before they bite you in the arse with a million dollar lawsuit.

 

Thanks for your answer but no, this was a complaint of the stove on other forums that I have been reading. This is not the 30-NC, it is a fairly new stove that is not even listed on ESW website; unless recently added. This stove needs more chimney as others have pointed out on other forums, others that actually own the stove.

 

And I did, thank you. However, this was about updating the thread so that other Madison owners; if any join, as well as the forum community members would know of the results. However, you make a good point about the warranty; I should ask ESW first before I make my own tabs to replace the ones that are too short if this will void the warranty. I don't think it would, the door is warranty for two years I think but I think that is just if the cast iron door develop cracks or the hinges fail.

 

Yes, I did. I use that especially when starting cold; it helps me to know if I will have sufficient draft to shut the stove door. The flue temp tends to stay around 250F when I am operating the stove with a small load burning well. I took this the other day; sorry about the flue temp; my cheap camera refused to focus but hopefully it gives an idea. I think that flue reading is around 250-275F

 

Mmm, wonder if ESW went to the tabs to reduce cost for the stove or was it because of other reasons; like coefficients of expansion issues. While the addition of metal strips to hold the glass sounds like a good idea; more area of the glass held instead of the two small tabs; before I did this, I would want to talk with ESW first. I am sure I could find some suitable material at TSC or Lowe's.

 

Kimberly, I wonder if the long metal "brackets" from the 30 or 13 might work on your Madison, instead of using the little tabs?
The mounting slots in the brackets are elongated for adjustment.
Just a thought.

 

How much longer do the tabs need to be? It'll take no time to make new ones or do as stargazer mentioned and add a small nail or something under them to effectively make them longer.

You've notified ESW and they are aware of a potential problem. If it's common, they'll likely address it. It may just be that you got a lemon. Either way, this is a simple fix that you can do easily enough. Just get 'er done and cross it off of your to do list.

 

I have not contacted ESW about the tabs yet; I should talk with them about the tabs. I don't see how changing the tabs configuration would void the warranty of the door. I was going to look at the manual for the 30 and see how the door and glass retainer are constructed. The tabs on the Madison are about 3/4 of an inch wide; length I don't know and the stove is too hot at the moment. They fit into a slot in the door the same width and have a hole for the screw. I may be able to take the tabs and use my little table top drill press to elongate the hole; although I don't have a drill press clamp to hold the tab but sure I can come up with something.

 

The brackets are flat, 1" in width, and different lengths. Couple pics for you....

 

Thanks papadave ; here is how the Madison is done, there are four of these, two at the top of the door, two at the bottom. If you look, I rotated that tab slightly to try and catch the glass with a corner of the tab. Apologies on the poor focus, cheap camera.

 

My eyes, my eyes blurry picture.
Why dont you ask for a new door, sorry if this was brought up before.

 

So, that tab is just barely grabbing the glass?

 

Warm weather is just around the corner for Virginia, no?