Final Dover Stove posting

As you can see from the above graphic, Dover Stoves have been the search phrase which brought the majority of visitors to my blog.


Because of that I need to make a final Dover stove posting.  It concerns the smoke which is emitted from the stove.  Both from round the top plates, and around the sides.


Being a cast iron stove whose parts are produced separately and which are then screwed together in order to construct the stove, these joints are not sealed.  And it is through these "gaps" that smoke may be released when the fire is lit, or even whilst it is burning.


I found the following "putty" at Dassiesfontein.

I have included both the English...

... and Afrikaans instructions, as well as the contact details for the company which manufactures it.

As we were slowly being asphyxiated by the smoke, we decided to try it out - but before we could do that, we first had to clean off all the rust which had been caused by a leaking chimney.  Fine wire wool and sandpaper took off the worst of the rust.

You can see the gaps in the stove plates in the above picture.

Oh, my poor oven - it does look a mess, doesn't it.  But it soon cleaned up and even the inside side wall joints were sealed.  In fact, I sealed every joint that I could find LOL

Both RMan and I tackled the oven...

RMan then set about applying the putty.

You don't have to be too careful when you're applying it - for as the oven heats up the "putty" sets, and the excess just peels off.

Here she is - all ready to go.  And, what a difference the "putty" made.  Smoke was a thing of the past...


...until we noticed that the ruddy inside chimney had now "come apart" and that was leaking smoke into the room.


So, I have made a decision.  As we have to get this chimney properly installed, I am going to remove the Dover from inside our house, and in it's place I am going to get a Nordica stove installed.  It is a proper enameled wood-burning stove, with a glass see-through fire pit door and see-through oven door - which even has an attached thermometer.


Having lived in this house at temperatures of maximum 13 - 14oC for the past month, our comfort and health take precedence - and a proper stove is what is going to provide that for our benefit.  I need to know that when the weather is cold I can created smokeless warmth, with no risk to our health, and without having to open all the doors in order to allow the smoke to dissipate and fresh air to come in.  And I won't have to wear my down jacket inside in order to be warm anymore... :)


The Dover stove will still be used - outside, next to RMan's barbecue.  I am going to make a pizza oven out of it - for those long, hot summer evenings when the last thing I want is a wood-burning stove heating up the inside our our house.


I'll post a pic of the new oven when it arrives... :)