In other words, it depends on the quality of the combustible (wood) being used as well as wood burning techniques. Here are a few helpful suggestions that we highly recommend to owners of EPA certified woodstoves and fireplaces.

You can use a sheet of paper to verify whether or not the door gasket needs to be replaced. While the unit is not is use, place a sheet of paper in the opening and lock the door closed. You can then try to remove the sheet of paper by pulling on it. If the paper is easy to remove this means that the door gasket needs to be replaced. This test must be done on each side of the door.

Before choosing whether or not to change the door gasket, please consult the owner’s manual to see if any type of adjustment could resolve the issue in order to obtain a better seal. Some units are equipped with an adjustment mechanism at the latch or hinges.

It is very important to replace the gasket with one that is the required size for your unit. You can find this information in your owner’s manual. If you are unable to obtain this information, please bring a piece of the gasket or the entire door to your nearest specialized retailer as they will be able to determine which size is best suited for your unit.

Neatly clean the cement and glue residue from previous installations to obtain a perfect adhesion. You have many choices available to you, such as, cement, glue or similar substances like silicone, which is suitable in high temperatures. Ensure to add enough adhesive to obtain a complete and uniform adhesion of the door gasket. Obviously, if your door gasket needs to be changed, so does the seal of the window. Your specialized retailer will generally stock all shapes and sizes of seals needed for modern wood stoves and fireplaces.

Please note that certain units equipped with ashtrays also have a seal that requires to be changed at time.

Refractory bricks located inside the unit are used to protect steal or cast walls of high performance fireplaces. Some modern units use lighter bricks that are less dense to obtain better performance. It is very important that you replace damaged bricks with the same quality of bricks to ensure that you maintain the same performance level that your unit was designed for.

In high performance units, a baffle is located in the upper portion and is needed to restrict evacuation and to create double combustion of gases. Some baffles are made of metallic tubes and refractory panels while others are made of steal or stainless steel plates and equipped with refractory wool on top. These components must be in good condition as they are responsible for the clean combustion of your unit. Verify that they are not twisted, bent or otherwise damaged by heat and that they are put back in place after each chimney sweep.

Pay particular attention to any other components of your unit during your routine inspection. A faulty use or overheating of the unit may result in damage which can potentially alter the performance of your unit.

These suggestions are generalized and are intended to bring awareness to normal needs required to maintain the performance levels designed for you wood stoves and fireplaces.

We wish to thank woodheat.org for this source of inspiration and the photo used in the creation of this article.