Last Spring I somehow noticed the casting had warped on my PH, greatly limiting the primary air. The piece below my finger had warped toward the window, and was touching it in the center. I bought the replacement part from Woodstock but tried and eventually gave up replacing it. Instead, I ground it down with an angle grinder (not recommended in the kitchen, in hindsight). The gap should be the thickness of the steel inner box (3/16”, give or take). I used an allen wrench as my feeler gauge. This is one of the older PH (first year (2012?)), and has seen about 70 cord of wood through it.
That's a bummer. I would guess that limiting the primary air is a real problem, although maybe less so at your place given the size of the house and the draft it must have with the tall chimney. Did your fix solve the problem, at least for now?
I thought it was all good, with stream of sparks going into the firebox. Then my daughter said what’s this back dust on the table?
The stove used to be so easy to start from just a couple of coals, but I realized it wasn’t so easy anymore. Eventually I tracked it down to this. Yes, it has made it breath much more freely, even in this milder weather.
