OK! Here we go:
This past Fall we had the chimney cleaned as usual, but we had a new sweep do it as our regular guy stopped doing it. The new guy took off the top of the stove (the other sweep never did this) and found that the catalytic combuster was caked with ashes...not good. This had cause a part in there to warp out of shape. We bought a new combuster (about $80) and he insulated around the warped part to make the combuster air tight (a necessity). Well last Sunday night when my wife closed the damper in the stove....something broke. That Monday, after work, I took the top off the stove and found that the bolt that holds down the collar, that holds down the axle, that controls the damper (that lay in the house that Jack built!
) broke. When I tried to unbolt a holddown for the damper, that bolt broke too!. I called my neighbor who has a tap and die set and we went to work drilling out the bolts and tapping the holes.
Next I removed the combuster to look at it and after only a few months of use, it degraded considerably (they're supposed to last for years). The warped piece was even worse now and a part in there called the Air Distributor was so fragile I could probably crush it with one hand. The baffle under that was rusted badly, too. Looks like I was getting rain down the stainless steel flue pipe (we recently got a new cap, but the damage was already done, I guess).
There are at least 10 parts totalling 310 dollars that I estimate would need replacing, there may be more parts that are bad. There is also a good chance more bolts will break trying to remove these parts.
The labor would be to high to be worth it - time for a new stove, without a catalytic combuster. Time for a GOOD stove that will heat all night and all day, when we are at work, so it isn't less than 60 degrees in the house when we get home.
Well there's the story. Hope I didn't bore you all too much!
Mark