Hitzer 503 Late Night Gasket Problem

Hi all, I have been a member of the one match club all season and enjoyed the heat produced from my Hitzer 503. I now have backed off the stove and service it only once daily. Last night, after returning home from a family visit, I lifted the cast iron pot from the top of the stove--I fill it with water twice daily to improve humidity--and noticed a large white deposit on top of the hopper door. I quickly realized this was salt that evaporated out from water that spilled from the cast iron pot. No big deal I thought, I must have overfilled the pot slightly; however, when I lifted off the hopper door, the gasket partially stuck to the stove and tore. Parts of it were hanging out and it was not able to be repaired. A little worrisome regarding keeping the stove temperature down and containing CO gas.

Fortunately, I had a replacement gasket and also a tube of gasket cement. Unfortunately, the gasket cement had hardened in the tube. I stuck the new gasket in place without cement and repositioned the hopper door to make a seal for the night. Today, I got some new cement and repaired the gasket. By the way, I covered the open hopper door during repairs with a piece of sheet metal and some heavy bricks--did not seal completely, but good enough and CO meters still read zero.

Lessons learned: Do not overfill the cast iron pot. Watch out for salt deposits that can wick water out of the pot onto the top of the stove; the water can run down the cracks between the stove and the hopper door, leading essentially to an unfortunate steam treatment of the gasket and cement. Keep replacement gaskets for your stove handy and probably good idea to get fresh tube of gasket cement before each heating season.

I too have a pot on the stove ... I don't think one could overflow it w/o noticing a big old "HISSSSS" from the water hitting the stove top.....

If I see any salt build up on a gasket, I'll be ready though.

Good that you had an extra gasket around. I also have a spare, used piece of Robax glass in case the stove glass ever breaks--you never know. My insert is far enough into the fireplace that there's not a great amount of room to put a container of water on top of the stove. I have this humidifier that works well during burning season, and puts out 12 gal of water into the air daily:

http://www.amazon.com/Kenmore-12-gal-Humidifier/d ... roduct_top

Beeman & Ashcat nict too hear from you guys, you had spare parts so give yourself 10 points for that .I was thinking of getting a new piece of glass to replace the old pitted one and keeping the old one for a emergency spare as Ashcat did, I still haven't yet but I was also thinking of getting a whole door assembly so I could just remove the dirty one and change it out with the clean one too make the window cleaning easer. Keepaeyeonit

Keep,

Good thinking on the door assembly-- hot swapping the assembly would be a lot easier than doing the glass by itself. The 983 is holding up well over the years. Still happy with yours?

Ashcat, yes I'm real happy with it and since I repaired chimney it runs like a swiss watch. I have the baro in the flue so the stove runs at what ever temp I set it at no matter how hard the wind is blowing, It is a bit of a coal hog but I ran it everyday in Febuary 600* to 650* and was using 75 to 80#'s a day but heating a 2400sqft house to 75* when the avg outdoor temp was 13* I guess thats not too bad. I'm currently after a Glenwood #8 Baseheater for next season but until the #8 Is In our house the Hitzer Isn't going anywhere, I love the 983 but I'm getting tired of the fan noise and the only free standing stove that won't cause trouble with the wife is a antique stove. I took her to see Oldmanstyle's #8 and she loved the looks of it and gave me her blessing so I'm on the hunt. Take care and stay warm but with the 983 won't be a problem. Keepaeyeonit

Glad it's going strong for you,as it is for me. The Glenwood is a beautiful stove. Happy hunting!