Could bad rope gasket cause bad draft?

I know this is a stupid question, but I didn't know how to word it properly. To be somewhat quick about it, my coal has been burning fine for the last 2 months and within the last week, it just seems to burn and not get that blazing hot that it has in the last few months. I have had to adjust my barometric damper so it almost stays closed all the time and I normally had it on a setting of 2 and now it is above 6. I also closed both screws on the firebox door all the way. It is colder now and there should be more draft and not less and the coal just doesn't seem to want to burn as hot or for as long as it did a few weeks ago.

I took apart the bottom 2 pieces of my stove pipe and vacuumed out the boiler and the pipe below my barometric damper because I though it may be getting clogged up??? and it really didn't help. There was a decent amount of ash in there, but it was certainly not plugged and I vacuumed all of it out, boiler, stove pipe, and all. From the ground I looked up at the top of my chimney (27 feet in the air) which has a protector cap on top and little fence to prevent birds from getting in etc. and I see no snow packed around it etc., it looks fine to be honest. I know I am getting draft because when I took the bottom 2 pieces off this morning, i could hear and feel the draft through the remaining pipe that is connected to the chimney liner. I can feel some draft at the ash pan door when I open it and put my hand down there, but not sure how much I have and if the gasket could be taking away from it?

So, could I be getting a draft leak around the firebox door and not pulling as much as I need from the ash pan door like it should?

By the way, Harman Trident SF-260 is my boiler. 7" Stainless flue liner in my chimney and 7" stove pipe from the boiler to the liner with 7" field control barometric damper about half way between stove and flue liner (stove pipe and damper brand new this year)

Thanks in advance.

How old is the stainless liner?

Just got it 3 years ago with a lifetime warranty. Had old terra cotta lining the chimney and it was all destroyed. That's how and why I got new liner put in. This is one thing I am fairly sure isn't the problem.

Hmmm... I take it you have no manometer?
Is the coal any different?
Notice more fines than usual?
Are you shaking it down thoroughly?
Have you tried cracking open a window in the boiler room to see if it runs any different?

Sorry for all the questions

jaimz23 wrote:So, could I be getting a draft leak around the firebox door and not pulling as much as I need from the ash pan door like it should?

Seems like a small amount of air leaking around the load door would actually help pull draft since it would be more heated air mass going up the chimney than before. The load door open, would have the effect you describe...

Lightning wrote:Hmmm... I take it you have no manometer?
Is the coal any different?
Notice more fines than usual?
Are you shaking it down thoroughly?
Have you tried cracking open a window in the boiler room to see if it runs any different?

No worries on the questions, they help. lol

I have a manometer, just not installed yet...lol didn't get the brake cable to install it correctly.
Coal is the same as last years, Paul Chervy coal from Plymouth P.A. and like I said, it ran wonderfully right up until about a week ago. No more fines than usual.
I shake it thoroughly as I can lol, have noticed a bit more ash in the firebox this year than last. And about once a month, I let it go out and give the fire box a good cleaning because it gets clogged up with ash.
The boiler is in my stacked stone, dirt floor basement and there is definitely some draftiness in the basement already. No more than I have noticed in the past though.

jaimz23 wrote:Just got it 3 years ago with a lifetime warranty. Had old terra cotta lining the chimney and it was all destroyed. That's how and why I got new liner put in. This is one thing I am fairly sure isn't the problem.

Quite honestly, a destroyed terra cotta lining is better than a lifetime warrantied 3 year old liner when use with coal.

Read this... It's happened!!! And only two seasons in...

jaimz23 wrote:I have a manometer, just not installed yet...lol didn't get the brake cable to install it correctly.

My first line of troubleshooting would be to get that manometer installed to monitor the draft. Your issue seems to me that its a draft problem which could have many reasons.. A partially clogged chimney OR somewhere there could be a breech in it OR pin holes caused from corrosion. Sulfuric acid and metal DO NOT get along very well Or maybe ash is clogging the grates choking the fire?

Is the manometer supposed to be "hooked up" all the time? Is it supposed to be in the pipe 24/7 or just when you want to measure? I have to get some brake line because I know that my stove pipe gets really hot and from what I've read, it can melt the tubing that comes with it.

Mine is hooked up 24/7. I have about 1-1/2 feet of copper tubing, followed by the manometers plastic tubing. It's never warm at the juncture of the copper and plastic.

lsayre wrote:Mine is hooked up 24/7. I have about 1-1/2 feet of copper tubing, followed by the manometers plastic tubing. It's never warm at the juncture of the copper and plastic.

What size copper tubing and how to you make the connection to the stove pipe with the copper and how are you connecting the copper and plastic tubing together?

Thanks

1/4 inch copper tubing. As I recall, the black plastic fitting that goes between the copper fitting and the plastic tubing came with the manometer. The connection looks like this:

Jaimz23,Isayer's setup is a good one,the other option is to use 1/4 clear tubing with a plastic ferrule/insert on a standard compression fitting to the 1/4" copper tube(I can't post a pic right now but it makes for a clean look) that's what I did for my hookup,but I think my fittings on my manometer has bigger barbed fittings then my old Mark II 25,Hell for sometime I had the stock tube from my old one stuffed inside the copper with silicone to seal it up it was not very pretty but it worked.Take care and have a Happy New Year .Keepaeyeonit

This will work but Isayer's idea is better with the stock tube but for a clear tube I like thishope this helps .

Mine is simpler and alot more elegant
I used 16 inches of 3/16 brake line. The rubber tubing will fit up over it, then crimped a small square of folded tin for a stop so the brake line gets in the pipe a couple inches. I drilled a small hole for it to get into the pipe....

Another quick question....Why will the front 4" or so of coal not burn in my stove?? I can't seem to figure it out. No matter what burns in my stove, the front won't burn. I do know that there is a little metal lip in the front of my stove right before the shaker grates start that the front fire bricks sit on, but it is only like 1 inch or less. A bunch of coal will not burn in the front of my stove.

Could this possibly be related to the fact that I think I have a bad firebox door rope gasket? I took a couple pinches of ashes and sprinkled them by the firebox door and can see a bit of ash getting sucked in near the top corners of the firebox door. (Not a lot, but enough to notice)

Does that makes sense?