Need some repair advice

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SeanKSmith

New Member
Nov 17, 2019
6
Ontario
right forum area to start a discussion on repair? I have a 3 year old Regency 5400 duel catalytic wood stove that appears to have a manufacturer defect. on the back of the fire box, just above the brick (about 2 inches) there is a failed horizontal butt weld seam, its seems that there was no penetration on one of the plates because the bottom plate looks like a factory edge or perfectly straight surface and the upper plate shows the weld which has separated with roughly a 1/16 inch gap. I plan on rewedding the two plates with my mig and thought I would first start a discussion as to possible direction. My thought was to obviously prep the two surfaces by grinding and beveling weld area, I was also thinking that preheating the stove prior to welding would be a good idea, of course forcing me to weld from the outside back of the stove itself as apposed to welding from the inside. seeing as how this is simply just two plates that have separated horizontally and not a physically cracked plate, would this be enough to effect the repair? or should I laminate/weld a two inch strip over top of the separated plates after first welding them together? I welcome any thoughts or suggestions, thanks!
 
right forum area to start a discussion on repair? I have a 3 year old Regency 5400 duel catalytic wood stove that appears to have a manufacturer defect. on the back of the fire box, just above the brick (about 2 inches) there is a failed horizontal butt weld seam, its seems that there was no penetration on one of the plates because the bottom plate looks like a factory edge or perfectly straight surface and the upper plate shows the weld which has separated with roughly a 1/16 inch gap. I plan on rewedding the two plates with my mig and thought I would first start a discussion as to possible direction. My thought was to obviously prep the two surfaces by grinding and beveling weld area, I was also thinking that preheating the stove prior to welding would be a good idea, of course forcing me to weld from the outside back of the stove itself as apposed to welding from the inside. seeing as how this is simply just two plates that have separated horizontally and not a physically cracked plate, would this be enough to effect the repair? or should I laminate/weld a two inch strip over top of the separated plates after first welding them together? I welcome any thoughts or suggestions, thanks!
Why not just have the stove replaced under warranty? Once you weld it it will void the warranty if they can tell you did it.
 
Why not just have the stove replaced under warranty? Once you weld it it will void the warranty if they can tell you did it.
the company I purchased it from went out of business and Regency wont do jack for me, they expect me to ship the stove to the nearest depot over 500 Km away, would cost way too much, then they told me to send it to the nearest retailer where it can be fixed, problem is that they wont do it for free and say that because i didn't purchase the stove from them they do not have to honor any warranty. I have been getting thwarted at every attempt with Regency, not putting any more effort in dealing with them, been over 6 months arguing to no avail! so I will fix it myself
 
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ABMax24 what are your thoughts? MIG OK, or stick weld instead?
 
That’s a real bummer. I’m afraid we will see more and more of this self-destruction on these new hybrids...
 
That’s a real bummer. I’m afraid we will see more and more of this self-destruction on these new hybrids...
Yes it is. Hope this is not a trend. Seems to be a matter of design. Woodstock Hybrids seem to stand up fairly well so far.
 
Yes it is. Hope this is not a trend. Seems to be a matter of design. Woodstock Hybrids seem to stand up fairly well so far.
Fairly well. For the cost of those things I’d expect it to be really well. I think they keep the failures on the low down on this site, for the most part.
 
Fairly well. For the cost of those things I’d expect it to be really well. I think they keep the failures on the low down on this site, for the most part.
We don't see many failures here because there aren't many. I know you had a bad experience with a hybrid in the past but overall regencies pro lines have held up well as well as Woodstock's hybrids. Many people had absolutely horrible experiences with early cat stoves. Does that mean all cat stoves are bad? I don't think so
 
We don't see many failures here because there aren't many. I know you had a bad experience with a hybrid in the past but overall regencies pro lines have held up well as well as Woodstock's hybrids. Many people had absolutely horrible experiences with early cat stoves. Does that mean all cat stoves are bad? I don't think so
It’s not just me, I just happen to frequent this forum. Woodstock hybrid cats sure don’t seem to last very long according what I see on other sites.
 
It’s not just me, I just happen to frequent this forum. Woodstock hybrid cats sure don’t seem to last very long according what I see on other sites.
And what exactly do you think we are doing to hide these failures? I have yet to have an issue with any of the regency hybrids we have sold. I am going to wait to sell any of their new ones untill we have some user feedback though.
 
And what exactly do you think we are doing to hide these failures? I have yet to have an issue with any of the regency hybrids we have sold. I am going to wait to sell any of their new ones untill we have some user feedback though.
What I meant was that the PH owners don’t report much here, they are concentrated on another site. Not that it’s being hidden, rather, just not talked about on here much.
 
What I meant was that the PH owners don’t report much here, they are concentrated on another site. Not that it’s being hidden, rather, just not talked about on here much.
Oh ok I misunderstood sorry.
 
I’m glad to hear the regency hybrids are holding up so well.
They seem to be so far. They did have an issue with the inserts early on but they addressed that. Since then not many problems.
 
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I have to admit that my stove works incredibly well! extremely efficient! just too bad that regency wont honor their warranty in a reasonable way!
 
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I have to admit that my stove works incredibly well! extremely efficient! just too bad that regency wont honer their warranty in a reasonable way!
Regency does if you have a dealer that will work with you. I have never had a problem getting them to honor a valid warranty claim. But no they will not work directly with the consumer
 
Welding the spot will be fine, welding laminate strip on top can't hurt either. Since the stove is steel plate not cast iron pre-heating would not be necessary, in my opinion, but would not hurt. Blast it for 15 minutes with a propane torch, moving it over a wide area before welding.
 
ABMax24 what are your thoughts? MIG OK, or stick weld instead?

7018 Stick is preferable for weld ductility in the right hands. That being said its easier for the average DIYer to complete the weld with MIG, particularly with an open root.

If welding from only one side is possible I'd take and bevel the joint right to the root. I'd then preheat at least 6" around the weld to 250f prior to welding, then proceed with a multi-pass approach, run in the root then fill passes and cap. Run smaller stringer welds instead of a larger pass, and keep the material temp below 500f but above 250f.

If you are able to weld from both sides though is better. Weld one side up, go to the other side and grind out the crack until you reach sound weld metal, then proceed to weld this back up. Ensuring that preheat is maintained the whole time while welding.

Personally I wouldn't put a patch over top, but that's me.
 
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This is what happens when do-gooders make things "better" and "greener". They sink tons of money into "design" and "certification" and take money out of the quality of the end products. I predict a nightmare of stories to come.
 
This is what happens when do-gooders make things "better" and "greener". They sink tons of money into "design" and "certification" and take money out of the quality of the end products. I predict a nightmare of stories to come.
Every time a new set of standards come along people predict all kinds of doom and gloom. And yes there usually are some misteps. But every step so far has lead to better stoves. How do you think your stove came about?
 
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This is what happens when do-gooders make things "better" and "greener". They sink tons of money into "design" and "certification" and take money out of the quality of the end products. I predict a nightmare of stories to come.
well... I think my case is a "one-off" kinda thing, manufacturing defect. the stove performs flawlessly and we like it much better than a lot of the other stoves we have owned in the past 30 years. One thing about this stove I think is impressive is the fact we dont have to clean our exterior insulated pipe, we have an exterior double walled stainless CCG that runs about 30 feet, every other month I open the clean out to remove the flaked off creosote and check the inside of the 30 foot run, its still like brand new or mirror finish! we have run about 6 bush cord through it in the past 3 years and not all of it has been under 16% moisture, it has on the other hand been all oak and maple and no softwood or crap. so... I would have to say that I am impressed with the performance of this stove! One thing I dont understand is that it boasts a "30 hour burn time", I can not seem to get anymore than a 16 - 18 hour burn even if i load it with large oak rounds on a good bed of coal then choke it, seems to not last more than 18 hours before I have to reload it again.
 
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Every time a new set of standards come along people predict all kinds of doom and gloom. And yes there usually are some misteps. But every step so far has lead to better stoves. How do you think your stove came about?

Secondary burn tubes were a good advancement for sure. I think it may go too far with the brainiacs trying to outdo each other. I guess we will see.
 
Secondary burn tubes were a good advancement for sure. I think it may go too far with the brainiacs trying to outdo each other. I guess we will see.
And when those burn tube stoves came out we got exactly the same predictions from people.