Pleasant Hearth 1800 baffle issue

[BroRalph]

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you.
Our Pleasant Hearth PH1800WS baffle handle/assembly is acting oddly.

In the pic you can see that the rod is out a tad and the peg (?) is not in the slot. The baffle inside on the top is closed. When I push the rod inward so the peg is in the slot (as it should be) the baffle opens a little bit...but it shouldn't.
To rotate the handle/rod to the left to fully open the baffle it is very hard to turn...I can do it with a wrench.
Any ideas as to what is wrong?
Thank you.

 

[begreen]

Pushing it in locks the handle. Don't try to turn it in the locked position. The rod is pulled out to rotate it between open and closed, then pushed back in to lock it in position

 

[BroRalph]

Yes, but pulled out it is hard to turn. Sorry... that's what I meant. While pulled out it won't turn.

 

[begreen]

It sounds like it may be binding. Have you called Pleasant Hearth support about this? It sounds like a defect that should be covered under the warranty.

 

[BroRalph]

Not yet. It didn't used to do it. It just started doing it. I was wondering what could be causing the binding. Maybe soot or creosote?

 

[stephenselman]

I bought a WSL-1800 2 years ago and I've had this problem twice. Be super careful with turning that rod - the slide plate will absolutely break. I replaced the slide plate last year and I'm about to do it again after just a few fires this week. Not sure of the root cause... it worked smoothly for the first year (obviously should do better than that!). Here's something: inspect the ceiling baffles, especially the skinny parts center back. I learned after replacing the slide plate last year that both baffles cracked right at that point, which I didn't realize until I was replacing the slide plate. I strongly suspect that it was the busted baffles that caused the slide plate to get off track this year. I was so careful with it when it started getting tough to turn... broke it anyway. Super frustrating! Best of luck to you.

 

[Dan Nelson]

I bought a WSL-1800 2 years ago and I've had this problem twice. Be super careful with turning that rod - the slide plate will absolutely break. I replaced the slide plate last year and I'm about to do it again after just a few fires this week. Not sure of the root cause... it worked smoothly for the first year (obviously should do better than that!). Here's something: inspect the ceiling baffles, especially the skinny parts center back. I learned after replacing the slide plate last year that both baffles cracked right at that point, which I didn't realize until I was replacing the slide plate. I strongly suspect that it was the busted baffles that caused the slide plate to get off track this year. I was so careful with it when it started getting tough to turn... broke it anyway. Super frustrating! Best of luck to you.

I noticed some reviews on ACE, Home Depot, and Lowe’s that complain about the baffles. I had trouble myself (and I’ve done chimney sweeping for a living). The sliding baffle quit sliding and I broke a baffle as a result.
If you are having baffle trouble, it could be the same trouble I had: after a few seasons, the baffle was stuck. I broke a stable baffle trying to unstick it.
The solution (in my case anyway): the baffle rod has an extension that fits into the groove on the top of the sliding baffle. The baffle wasn’t sliding because that groove had about 1/8” of compacted ashes built up at the bottom of the groove. This was enough to pinch the baffle against the stable baffles when the baffle rod was at its lowest point. The baffle rod extension was riding on this build-up.
When replacing the broken baffle, I cleaned out that groove with a screwdriver and scraped away the build-up that was impeding travel.
Now it works like it did during its first season