It takes two hands to operate my stove door

I have the Madison 02 model. In order to open and close the door I have to use two hands, one to push the spring knob for the damper out of the way and the other to operate the latch. My stove spills smoke, so it makes it harder to quickly shut the door between adding splits; basically I can't and have to let the room fill with smoke setting the alarm off. I tried flatting the spring knob but it just distorted and is now scrap. I don't want to use pliers to operate the level and chew it up. Evidently this is just a problem with my stove. Either the hinges were place too high or the hole in the stove for the lever was put in the wrong place. I mentioned the problem with the door hitting the spring knob to ESW when I first got the stove; well, they sent new knobs but they were the same size; so it is not that the wrong size knobs were used. In fact, look at the photos and you can see how close the lever rod is to the door, there is really no knob that is not going to hit. Maybe I should have returned the stove to Lowe's; if they would accept a return, and got the whole stove replace through Lowe's. If the hole is too low, I guess it could be drilled higher up and some plug put in the lower hole and painted black would not look bad. Any ideas on fixing this problem? In the first photo, the door is ajar and is hitting on the second to third ring of the spring knob. Look how close the rod is the door in the second photo. I think it was drilled/punched to low and is why I have this problem.

Now for certain people, let me stress that I really like my stove and I am overall really happy with it. However, dealing with this knob issue, and I dealt with it all last burning season, takes some of the joy out of my stove and I can not easily shut the door in a hurry; I have to make sure I have a glove on to move that knob out of the way and I can't shut the door if I don't have the glove on or I risk getting burned by the hot door.

 

I would attach a second rod with a hose clamp and attach spring to that rod. Just make sure you check clearance for AAS and door ECT.

 

I think they make a coupling with set screws if I can find one. Will that solve the problem; moving the knob further out? The spring knob would still be in the same plane. I thought about trying to add an offset but not sure how it would affect the AAS feature.

 

Yes, that looks like a manufacturing defect to me too.

Returning the stove for another one would solve the problem but it would be a tremendous amount of work, which I assume would fall on you, unless you purchased installation from Lowes with the stove.

Your thought of drilling a new hole higher, moving the operating rod and plugging the original hole (a button headed bolt and nut would close the hole and not look bad at all IMO) is a great way to go assuming it will work. I do not know what the inside looks like so cannot comment on whether or not the rod can actually be moved up but if it can, and you are able to drill a hole in steel (it can be done with an electric hand drill) then that is probably the best way to fix this problem permanently.

The other poster's comment about attaching an additional, short operating rod to the one on the stove should work fine also and be easier to do. I would use more than one clamp, in fact I would use as many as would fit so the connection is solid and long- lasting. Of course you will see the clamps but they are not atrociously large, and you can paint them black so they blend in better. In the end, I do not think it would be unsightly, should work and be fairly easy to do. You can get a length of steel rod from Lowes or Home Depot; you will have to cut it but that can be done with a hacksaw easily enough. File off the burrs and paint it black, attach a spring to it and you will end up with a very operational fix for little money I think.

You could also use a shaft coupler (like this: McMaster-Carr) to connect the end of that operating rod to another rod, and bend the second rod upward so it is away from the door. Again, a pretty easy fix although it will leave the operating rod sticking further out of the stove. If that is not a problem on your installation, it is probably the easiest way to go and will be permanent.

A very crude way to deal with this would be to use vice- grips and attach them every time you want to open the door. As I said, it is crude and will absolutely mar that operating rod quite a lot, plus it is going to be a pain to attach and remove the vice- grips all the time.

Best of luck with this issue.

Brian

Edited to add: the link did not copy properly. Go to the page that the link I pasted will take you to and then look for 'Set Screw shaft Couplings'.

 

Send those two photos to ESW...that's pretty clear evidence that something was built wrong.

 

Are the hinges adjustable?

 

Kimberly, take a look at this video. At about the 28 second mark, note where the rod and spring are above the door. At the 1:07 mark, it shows very clearly that the spring handle clears the top of the door, by quite a lot. Perhaps they sent a spring that's too large. There are two on the 30.....one for the door handle and one for the air control rod. They're different sizes.
Looks to me like it's slightly higher than yours.
concretegrazer , looks like they can only be adjusted in or out, not up and down.

 

And that video gives some pretty clear shots of the door hinges...do your hinges look exactly the same Kimberly ? Maybe a couple pics of the hinge and latch area...

 

Sure looks that way.



& a shot of what the rod clearance should be.

 

This is a pic of the 01, but is probably similar. Looks like the hole should be higher on yours.
Manual states the hinge can be adjusted in or out, and how. I checked.

 

Just eyeballin it, the damper rod in the video appears to be about the same distance below the top...
But the door seems to be much higher on hers...wonder if they could have bolted the wrong hinge brackets on?

 

Yeah, could be the hinge attachments got welded to the stove body a bit high.

 

Did you find a parts list for the stove papadave ?

 

It's in the manual....I'll go get it again

 

Oops, this is the 01 model, but might be similar........
Replacement parts list on page 26.
http://www.heatredefined.com/assets/images/general/15-SSW01.pdf

 

Manual

 

Thanks HD

 

Something sure isn't right, shouldn't be like that.
Looks like the hinges just bolt on

 

I would contact ESW w/ pics, and a link to this thread. Making things right is a good business practice. Even if you settle for a cheap fix, it should be on their dime. They probably have the best reputation among the makers of very inexpensive stoves, at least on the forums, and serving customers well should help keep that rep intact. (Lowe's could also help, but looks to me like ESW is at fault here for a defective stove.)

 

I wonder if the hinges on CoreyB s are the same dimensions