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Morso Squirrel - glass cracked :(


Sade

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Hi guys, not been on for ages, sorry.....so much going on with the house etc and had a week of problems with a gas leak next door....all sorted but it's put us back a bit.

 

My question is about our Morso Squirrel (with back boiler). We used it the first weekend that we stayed on the boat and the back boiler expansion tank over blew and ended up having to fill up again with water. We think there was an air lock and that caused some pressure which managed to crack the glass in the front of the stove. We didn't notice it until the next visit and have removed the glass and taken the door off. Now we have new glass and realise that we didn't need to top up the expansion tank because that's why we ended up with water all over the back cabin floor!

 

So now we have new glass, Dean has sheared the old screws off and ready to drill new holes for the screws and new rope etc but we obviously don't want the same thing to happen. I've seen a post on here about building the stove fire slowly so that the heat rises at a slow rate and stops any sudden overheating but I can't find that post. Is there a way of building a stove fire that needs to be built up slow? We don't want the glass to crack again.... £35 a time lol!

 

Cheers for any help, we've looked on youtube but I can't find anything really relevant unless I'm looking for the wrong things ? :)

 

 

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Is there a way of building a stove fire that needs to be built up slow?

 

Yes. do not put a lot of fuel on.

 

Fire lighters or paper, a bit of kindling (few sticks of wood), a bit of coal (smokeless).

 

When coal is glowing, then add a few more lumps, two or three at a time and so on.

 

 

We think there was an air lock and that caused some pressure which managed to crack the glass in the front of the stove.

 

Cannot quite see how an air lock and pressure would crack the glass.

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Thanks Keith.....will give this a go. We're not really sure but just seemed odd that the glass was cracked after the little "explosion" so we just put two and two together. It wasn't cracked before that sooooooo......

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My squirrel stove door glass cracked last week too, and I don't even have a back boiler...

 

MtB


P.S. Does anybody know what sort of glass it is? Seems to me like bog standard ordinary glass from the way it has cracked, and I'm wondering whether to get a new piece cut in a glass merchant. If this is ok it should cost about a fiver!


P.P.S. Sorry, I meant to answer your question too. My point was, I've never ever bothered with trying to light my stove 'slowly' in order to save the glass from cracking. It makes no difference in my experience how quick you get it going. I never hold back and this is the first glass I've ever had crack, and it happened as the stove was cooling down after going out!

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My squirrel stove door glass cracked last week too, and I don't even have a back boiler...

 

MtB

P.S. Does anybody know what sort of glass it is? Seems to me like bog standard ordinary glass from the way it has cracked, and I'm wondering whether to get a new piece cut in a glass merchant. If this is ok it should cost about a fiver!

P.P.S. Sorry, I meant to answer your question too. My point was, I've never ever bothered with trying to light my stove 'slowly' in order to save the glass from cracking. It makes no difference in my experience how quick you get it going. I never hold back and this is the first glass I've ever had crack, and it happened as the stove was cooling down after going out!

Yes Mike, it should be tempered glass like an oven door ....normal glass would just break with any heat. We got ours cut from a Morso supplier (Dinghams in Salisbury) .....we will live and learn with this I guess :)

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My squirrel stove door glass cracked last week too, and I don't even have a back boiler...

 

MtB

P.S. Does anybody know what sort of glass it is? Seems to me like bog standard ordinary glass from the way it has cracked, and I'm wondering whether to get a new piece cut in a glass merchant. If this is ok it should cost about a fiver!

P.P.S. Sorry, I meant to answer your question too. My point was, I've never ever bothered with trying to light my stove 'slowly' in order to save the glass from cracking. It makes no difference in my experience how quick you get it going. I never hold back and this is the first glass I've ever had crack, and it happened as the stove was cooling down after going out!

Stoves need a highly tempered glass - I bought mine on Ebay (for my Squirrel) for £22 including delivery

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We have been lucky with stove glass and since 1991 have only broke one pane on a villager medium stove. My Grandparents got a log for the fire and dropped it against the glass. It broke like ordinary glass and it certainly isn't toughened/tempered as once toughened/tempered it can't be cut and would shatter into little cubes. Stove glass is special heat resistant glass but still breaks like ordinary glass.

 

Now I'll probably break my woodwarm stove glass at £35 a sheet!

 

Jamescheers.gif

Edited by canals are us?
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So now we have new glass, Dean has sheared the old screws off and ready to drill new holes for the screws and new rope etc

 

 

For future reference, the easiest way of getting the old glass out is not to try to undo the screws, but to use a pair of pliers to swivel the little clips out of the way. Then you just swivel them back again over the new glass. Saves a lot of time and effort.

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For future reference, the easiest way of getting the old glass out is not to try to undo the screws, but to use a pair of pliers to swivel the little clips out of the way. Then you just swivel them back again over the new glass. Saves a lot of time and effort.

 

That's exactly what I did!

 

Had to bend the clips up slightly to accommodate the slightly thicker glass, but worked fine.

 

MtB

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My Morso Squirrel glass cracked last winter when the fire was not lit for several weeks! Tempered glass ovenware (e.g. Pyrex) can spontaneously shatter. I saw a demo many years ago where the stress patterns in glass were shown by polarized light - pressure from the point of a cheap ball-point pen at the confluence of the stress lines cracked the glass.

 

I hope my and your new glass is better tempered than the old one :(

 

Alan

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I'm sure I've seen somewhere that you only need clips at the bottom of the glass....we have 1 in each corner on ours....bit confused....should there be 4 or 2 in total to hold the glass in place?

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the back boiler expansion tank over blew and ended up having to fill up again with water. Now we have new glass and realise that we didn't need to top up the expansion tank because that's why we ended up with water all over the back cabin floor!

 

 

 

Do you mind if I have a little chuckle? Only reason being is that I did exactly the same thing 2 wweks ago and also had a blue explosion all over my engine room.

I didn't realise the science behind and expansion tank and thought I should keep it topped up. OOOPS!

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