Quaker No. 14- tracking down leaks

Hi everyone,

I have recently unhooked my trusty Chubby that I have used for the past three winters and hooked up a new stove. It is a Quaker no. 14 with an indirect back pipe. Super good looking stove!

First time I fired up the Quaker yesterday I had air leaks around the foot rests, clinker door, and ash door. With the primary air all the way shut the stove idled at around 400-500 (depending on the thermometer I used). Hotter than the hinges of hell in the house!

So yesterday I used Rutland high temp silicone to seal up the clinker door, ash door and where the footrests enter the base. I also ran a bead of stove cement around the seams of the base of the stove (under grate).

So my second firing last night seemed more controllable ish. With the back pipe on, and the damper on the stove pipe closed I had it idling at 250-350 during the evening. Seemed ok. However at around 2am I got out of bed to have a look and it had run up to around 400 again.

I have good draft, not fantastic but good enough. at around 400 the draft reads at .05 or so. never had problems getting the chubby to do the deed for me on this chimney.

So it looks like I have some more air leaks to track down. I got this stove un restored but in pretty good condition. I did not brake it down before installing. I did however make a replacement plate for where the draw grate pulls out of the stove. It is a lot tighter than the original was but still as a little play in it. I think this is where I’ll attempt to seal better next.

Can someone give me any pointers where I should be looking for leaks on this type of stove? How low should this thing be able to go? I was able to get the chubby down to where it was 200ish and I could rest my hand on the stove just about. I would appreciate any advice!

Link to pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/ITlhr

Looks like the rutland silicone degraded on the clinker door last night. Can you use the wax paper trick using stove cement?

I would consider hooking the Chubby up in it's place and breaking Quaker down so you can inspect all the parts. There are joints you can't see with the naked eye on the exterior and cementing the inside joints give you twice the piece of mind. There could be a crack that doesn't show until under load.
If not try the dollar bill test in the doors. try smaller pieces of coal to slow it down, you can through some ash on the fire as well but these attempts are usually temporary.

Mike.

Mike, I might have to do that if I can't get things squared away soon. I don't really want to disassemble the Quaker because the firebricks are original and won't survive disassembly. Wheel see as they say in Detroit.

The safest thing is a full disassembly of the stove. Clean, inspect for cracks, and re assemble with oatly furnace cement. Sadly its not a one weekend job and heating season is here. Your better off running the chubby and taking your time with the rebuild.

Do you have a pic of the fire pot you may have a suspended fire pot base heater there. If you do you have one of the most efficient coal heaters out there. It will be worth your time and effort to get her right, you will blow coal savings out of the water compared to the chubby. Others with more knowledge of suspended pot stoves will chime in..........

Zappa66,

Nice looking stove you got there. It sure looks like a base burner to me. If the fire pot has some kind of grate around the top edge of it then it is indeed a base burner. When the rear damper is closed if forces the flue gases down along the outside of the fire pot (inside the stove), through the bottom of the stove and up the rear pipe. If it is then you surely will be please once you work out the kinks. If it's running hot then you have a leak under the grate somewhere. Check the play along the protruding handle for the dump grate. There is usually wear here. I needed to fabricated a new slide for my G109. The old one was cast iron and worn quite a bit. I made a new one from heavy steel. You may also need to tighten up the ash and clinker doors. You can tweak the pins to get a tight fit. I ran a bead of high temp silicone on my lower doors. On a cool stove of course, haha. I applied lip balm to the base and silicone to the doors. Closed it gently and let it cure for 24 hours. Trimmed the excess. Tighter than a clams ass at high tide now! I can get my stove down to about 130 on idle. The clinker door gets hot but I haven't had any issues with the silicone breaking down yet. Lastly, check around the top of the base where the barrel meets the base. Be sure this is sealed up good. Any leaks in these area's I mentioned will cause excessive primary air leakage creating a strong fire. My suggestion would be a complete breakdown and rebuild. This will ensure a properly sealed stove. I know it sucks, but well worth it.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

Tom

Here are some photos that may help you out.

This is the fire pot grate I mentioned. Not sure if you can tell but there is a gap between the actual fire pot and barrel. That is where the flue gas travels down and that is where this grate sits.
This is the internal check damper and rear pipe support. This arm allows for an internal damper to open allowing some primary air to bypass the fire pot and go directly into the rear pipe. This will help slow the fire down. It helps with dust control when messing around with the ash pan. Notice the rear pipe support is quite beefy. This is where the flue gas comes up from the base into the rear pipe. If this was just a stove with a rear stove and not a suspended pot style then this rear support would be flat, not bumped out allowing for gases. Hope that makes sense. Also, notice the small rear door. There is one on each side. This is to clean out the base chamber. Another sure sign that the stove is a base burner.
This is the damper in the rear pipe. This allows the stove to be burned in direct draft or base burner mode. When close this damper forces the flue gases down through the inner fire pot grate, along the outside of the fire pot into the base then back up the rear pipe. I believe a stove with just a rear pipe (not a bb) would have this damper in the rear pipe itself, not in the collar.
This is the slide for the dump grate. I'd bet money that this is worn.
Any questions...ask away! We're here to help

Tom

The Quaker is an indirect back pipe stove, not a base burner unfortunately.

Tom- I did have to make a new slide for the draw grate, the old one was quite worn. It is not totally tight because the draw grate handle widens a bit as you pull it out of the stove. When the grate is retracted into the stove it leaves a little gap around the handle. not sure if it could be made tighter while still allowing free movement. The ash door seals up nicely now that I siliconed it. I did the same with the clinker door but the silicone became brittle overnight. I used rutland 500 degree stuff available at H.D. is there a better product to use?

I did find a couple little leaks and sealed them up. Will report back after tonight, going to try another little fire.

looking at your last picture I'd say my draw grate slide is about as tight as yours.
https://imgur.com/gallery/VGAUC

zappa66 wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 06, 2017 1:23 pm

The Quaker is an indirect back pipe stove, not a base burner unfortunately.

Bummer...but still a good looking stove and I'm sure it'll perform quite well once tuned in.

zappa66 wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 06, 2017 1:23 pm

I used rutland 500 degree stuff available at H.D. is there a better product to use?

I used Imperial high temp sealant. Good to 600 degrees. I've run my stove just above 600 degrees without any ill affects to the silicone. Don't ask me how hot the clinker door gets...I just know it gets hot. Keep in mind this area is only hot until the bottom of the coal bed ashes up, then it cools down quite a bit.
I'm sure there are other products with higher tolerances out there. Such as this
If your certain the lower doors are your problem area then another option would be to file down the high spots to get a tighter fit.

tcalo- that second product is what I used. I might have to file, or build up furnace cement and file. I was surprised that the alleged 800 degree rutland degraded in one night.

In regards to being a bummer- yah, I know. I had my dad looking for a bb for me, he has a Kino that he quite likes. He snagged this one for me based of some craigslist photos thinking it was one. When he got there he decided to get it anyway. I'm fine with trying the back pipe. The main reason I wanted a cylinder stove was that I hate the grates on the chubby, too much work. The draw grate on his Kino had me sold. Besides judging from the two burns I have done with the Quaker so far have reassured me that it puts out WAY more heat than the chubby. I was wishing I had a little more juice last winter when it was below zero.

zappa66 wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 06, 2017 1:23 pm

The Quaker is an indirect back pipe stove, not a base burner unfortunately.

Tom- I did have to make a new slide for the draw grate, the old one was quite worn. It is not totally tight because the draw grate handle widens a bit as you pull it out of the stove. When the grate is retracted into the stove it leaves a little gap around the handle. not sure if it could be made tighter......................

...yup, you can file the draw gate handle so the sides are parallel to each other and make a new metal shield with a smaller opening.

Mike.

I've done the furnace cement door seal trick. It starts to pop off chunks after it gets fire hardened and heat cycled a few times.

When I got my base heater, rather than waste time with the cement, I used a feeler gauge to find the tight spots, then marked them on the doors with chalk and filed them done until all the edges were within just a few thousands of an inch gap. No mess and no cement to fall off after some heat cycling.

And you might find that a file doesn't always cut the door edges. Some heat-aged cast iron can be quite hard. You might need to use a grinder, or Dremel.

Paul

zappa66 wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 06, 2017 2:48 pm

The main reason I wanted a cylinder stove was that I hate the grates on the chubby, too much work.

I had a Chubby. Great little stove, solid as a tank and threw decent heat. I have to agree, not a fan of the grate system.

Mike- yup...didn't think of filing the grate to fit the plate that makes sense. Right now I used silicone to make a gasket around the parameter of the plate. Not a lot of faith that thats going to do the trick though. I'll think about a new plate.

Sunny boy- I'm looking at the gap on the clinker door, looks pretty even to me all the way around the door. The pins on my door are stuck, but it looks to me that the door would be pretty flush if i moved the holes on the stove ever so slightly inward toward the body. I'll look into that, thanks for the suggestion.

I really appreciate all the help folks, as you may have gathered I'm sort of feeling my way through all this.