Older Mt. Vernon firepot rot

I thought this was very interesting. I bought this stove to flip (I looked at it a few weeks ago) and never saw anything like this firepot.

This stove with the rotted pot was sold like this to the person I bought the stove from. It was sealed up around the outer edge of the pot with some type of stove cement or grout. Going over the stove I also noticed the the gasket is missing on the clean-out cover and they also didn't put insulated terminal connectors on the wiring going to the snapdisk, choosing instead to place electrical tape on it.

Has anyone seen a rotted pot like this before? In the 11 years or so of burning I've never seen or read of one of these thick cast Quad pots rotting out like this. I wondered if this stove was burning straight corn of something at some point.

I typically wouldn't ever throw a company under the bus but the stove was sold by Seasonal Emporium in East Stroudsburg, PA. If you get a chance, Google them and look at some of the reviews.....crazy. BTW, they are still in business and constantly advertise stove repair on CL.

+++PELLET STOVE TECHNICIANS

 

yikes!!!! burning road salt cause its cheaper than maeder bros.

 

Steve, only time I've seen cast degrade like that (here) was due to sitting in a wet environment for years, absolutely neglected.

The stove shop sold them the stove w/ that burn pot, in that condition? Crazy.

 

Yes...he paid $2100 for that stove...when I first went to see it it was mostly sealed with that grout around the pot but it was all cracked. I picked at it when I was there and it was just falling apart.

I have a pot from a stove that I bought for parts.

 

WOW Can't believe someone actually bought this from that company. Facebook crowd has tough words for that place.

 

That "grout" looks like Rutland high temp. stove cement - remember that well from the wood stove days: sets like black concrete, always took a sharp chisel to remove it here.

Burn pot aside - the rest of the stove looks amazingly good, from the pics.

Cool that you have a spare burn pot on-hand to get it done.

 

If that stove was sold like that from an actual business they should be jailed. Absolute savage repair job.

 

This is what the pot should look like:

 

This is the one where they siliconed the exhaust blower mount plate to the housing...I didn't get a pic of that yet....that'll be a treat to get off.

 

Soaking that silicone liberally w/ some WD-40, & some indirect heat (Heat Gun, Hair Dryer) may help to soften it up.

 

Edit: There's another product, called "SolvoPlast Adhesive Remover", used in Hospitals to remove bandage adhesive, that may also work in tight spaces - typically available from a Pharmacy or medical supply store.

 

These stoves are hard to get at the exhaust blower, they are in the middle rear of the stove and hard to get at....lol

 

Anatomically speaking - the SolvoPlast may be the better choice, then.

 

It just shows the amount of shady workmanship out there, beware

 

Do any of you guys that burn some corn get a residue like this in your hopper? I have a suspicion this was burning all corn which is why the pot eroded like it did....but I could also be totally wrong.

 

I'ld say someone at some time was burning some seed corn. That coating is hard on stoves. And a lot of moisture helped along the way. I have burned corn in my Santa Fe for over 10 years, and everything looks like new yet. kap

 

Kap...have you ever seen a pot rotted like this before? The interior of the stove, from what I've seen of it so far, looks fine.

 

I've seem em bad, but not that bad. Lots of folks burn seed corn cause they can usually get it for free, but there is a price to pay as you seen. kap