Coalpail.com Forum

I retrofitted a Hitzer 30-95 thermostat and air intake to my stove. The intake door usually works OK, but sometimes sticks so the bottom remains open, enough to keep the stove temperature way higher than it should be. The door appears to be binding at the hinge. There doesn't appear to be anything adjustable in the hinge, other than it can be rotated ever so slightly left or right.

I did not get the door magnet, and I have not had the tink-tink-tink noise, but now I'm wondering whether the magnet would help pull it shut. The hinge is installed so its tab points up. Is that correct, or should it point down toward the floor?

Any suggestions how to fix this?

The tab goes up.
I had the same thing happen on my stove. About 1/16 to 1/8 inch? I doesn't happen any more though. It happened when it was new. I also noticed the door would hang to one side when it was stuck open. I got in the habit of checking the door once it was up to heat after a shakedown. If the door was off to the side I'd just have to touch it and it would return to center and close up.
I don't know if you NEED the magnet but your door is probably not "tinking" because it's not closing. (?)

Yes, that's just what is happening. Open 1/8 inch or more. Woke up this morning and the stove was 650 degrees and the house 81. It does not appear to be hanging to one side or the other, just binding where it rides on the hinge. If yours got better with age, maybe I need to just work it open and closed a few hundred times by hand to polish the contact surfaces. I think mine is not tinking because I'm allowing a minimal amount of air in through the regular spin draft, so that probably relieves the suction on the door.

The wider part of the hinge, that extends beyond the ends of the door slot, bends upwards on mine, though it looks like it could be installed to bend downwards. How is it on your stove?

The tab on my hinge also faces up. I looked closely at the operation of the hinge tab and draft door. I can't even make mine bind up so it won't close. If the tab is bent up a little too much I can see where the top of the slot in the door could bind on the tab. Try bending the tab down about 1/8". Be carful not to put any twist in the tab as you bend it down though. Also make sure the tab is running exactly paralell with the opining of the heavy steal intake port. I think you had mentioned in an earlier post that your chain is not going straight down to the door. That might exacerbate any other minor clearnce problem you have. If all else fails, remove the door and hinge tab and smooth all the edges and corners with emry cloth or fine sandpaper.

P.S. The magnet sould not have a strong enough pull on the door to affect its closing. Any magnetic attraction that strong would prevent the door from opening nearly as quickly as it should. I adjusted my magnet out too far and it held the door closed too long. It should not actually enven touch the door, but only provide enough attraction to keep it from oscilating open and closed when the bottom of the door is near the intake port.

Thanks for the suggestions GRinRI and Grizzly. I called Hitzer today and they said:

(1) Make sure I didn't bend the hinge when installing the door. Since you have to lift the door and maneuver your hand inside to put the nut on the screw, it is easy to bend the hinge because the door provides a lot of leverage. I checked mine and that's not the problem.

(2) Sometimes the hinge can sit slightly too far back, toward the stove body. Then the top of the door can contact the edge of the heavy steel intake tube and get hung up. That DID appear to be my problem. Hitzer's solution is to ream out the bolt hole in the hinge, making it slightly larger, so the hinge can sit a little more forward away from the stove body. I didn't have to go quite that far. The hole in the hinge and/or the intake tube already was very slightly oversize compared to the bolt. I put the tip of a screwdriver between stove body and hinge and twisted to force the hinge forward. Just a tiny fraction of an inch, but I think it has fixed the problem. I can't get it to stick open like I could before.

Like I said, this was a retrofit of Hitzer parts to my Harman stove. It's quite a contrast that Harman won't even talk to a stove owner, but Hitzer instantly put me in touch with someone who knew all about the various generations of hinges and intake doors and the occasional problems associated with them.

rberg,
Glad you got it solved. When our Hitzer was delivered from the dealer a short time ago I didn't notice till we lit it the air intake door and hinge was really bent, it was a small wood fire so was not a big deal. We straightened everything out reinstalled and it still required a little tweaking to get it closing OK. I didn't understand the magnet and almost called Hitzer, but got some quick replies from the folks on the site here. Maybe you should market your retrofit.