Wood stove not closing tightly even with new gasket

[Arlington]

I moved to a house a year ago with a Lopi Answer-95. The door wasn't closing completely, so I moved the washers to the outside of the latch as prescribed in the manual and replaced the gasket. That worked well enough for a short while, but now it's loose again. Here are some pictures:


It looks like the gaskets on the front and back of the glass are too thick, which is causing the metal bezel on the inside of the glass to be pushed out too far into the firebox, moving the latch in as well. Should I just take it apart and replace these gaskets with smaller ones? Do I have this diagnosis right?

 

[begreen]

Is the latch receiver on the stove body loose or has it moved?

 

[Arlington]

There is no latch receiver on the stove body. The latch engages with the sheet metal of the body directly. Is that not usual?

 

[Arlington]

Here is the inside of the firebox where the latch catches on the body of the stove. Does that look correct or is there supposed to be something there?



Here’s a better shot of the offset inner metal bezel I was talking about. I have a piece of wood flush to that bezel and you can see the door frame is recessed relative to it. The latch is right below the wood in the picture. Since the latch sits on that bezel, my logic is that the bezel being set too far into the firebox is causing the latch to be too far into the firebox, resulting in the loose door. I just don’t know enough about glass seals to tell whether the ones I have are too thick, causing this problem.

 

[kennyp2339]

Are there spacers on the hinge side that can be flipped? What stove is this?

 

[Arlington]

Hi Kenny. It’s a Lopi Answer-95. I have the spacers taken out (moved to the back side of the latch) already, so the latch is as tight as it gets. See the third picture of my original post.

 

[moresnow]

Are you using factory OEM window and door gaskets? Highly recommended. Have you by chance placed a level on the stove face where the door sealing surface is? Can't hurt to eliminate warping as well.

 

[Arlington]

I installed a new door gasket from my local Ace Hardware last year, so that’s not OEM. It is the size specified by the manual, though. I have not replaced the window gasket, so I don’t know what that is.

I checked the door for warp with a level. It’s nice and straight all across.

I was able to answer my own question about the glass gasket thickness. It is not too thick. The offset between the front and back of the door frame is set by metal standoffs, as shown below. Even without the glass installed at all, the spacing doesn’t change.


It seems like the issue really is the latch.

 

[Arlington]

I may have spoken too soon. That photo is of the hinge side of the door. On the latch side, it does not sit flush. The hole that the handle goes through is not seating properly. It’s probably easier to see with more pictures.


I think that it could seat properly with a bit of strategic sanding. I might have time for that this evening or tomorrow.

 

[Mech e]

I think I would reassemble the door without the glass and do a fit check. If that tightens up the door against the stove, I would rebuild the door assembly using OEM seal material. Clean parts up and sand a bit as needed when rebuilding.

 

[begreen]

Good sleuthing. I didn't suspect the glass gasket. It normally would sit inside of the door opening on the stove body. As a test, can you add a third washer on the outside to see if that pulls the latch in tighter to the stove door? How worn is the latch door cam?

 

[Arlington]

I got back to this today and managed to fix it. The handle holes (I’m not sure what the right terms are) needed to be sanded quite a bit to fit correctly. This is how far off they were before:


See the gap on top, but not on bottom? There should be a uniform gap all around. Looks like a defect from the factory. I corrected that and now the stove seals perfectly. I took the opportunity to clean the glass and polish the brass as well.

 

[Mech e]

Looks great, good job!

 

[begreen]

Good work and repair.