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Replacing rope on wood burning stoves

Replacing rope on wood burning stoves

Discover everything you need to know about replacing rope on woodburner doors to keep your stove working efficiently.

Wood burning stove rope

Stove rope is an inexpensive but important part of any wood-burning stove. The rope inside your stove plays a crucial role in keeping your stove operating at maximum efficiency — and in keeping you safe. Let’s take a look at why it's so important, the role it plays and how to replace your stove rope.

In this article

What is stove rope?

Stove rope is the rope you’ll find on the inside of the door and stove glass of any woodburner. You’ll usually find a length of rope running around the edge of the door to form a seal against the stove body. You should see another length of rope around the glass to create a seal there, too.

Why do I need to replace my wood burning stove rope?

Wood burning stove rope plays an important role in sealing your stove so that it can operate safely and efficiently. Its position on the inside of the door means the stove rope often bears the brunt of intense heat and flames.

Although the rope is made to withstand these conditions, it is a consumable part and will deteriorate over time. Your stove rope could become squashed, frayed or completely broken. When this happens, the stove rope is no longer performing its function correctly.

This causes two main problems for your woodburner.

Too much air causing inefficient burns

If stove rope isn’t forming a tight seal around the door, excess air will be able to get into your stove. This will make your stove less efficient and cause you to burn through fuel faster.

It can also lead to your stove overfiring — operating at too high a temperature and potentially causing damage to your stove.

Smoke seeping out into the room

As well as too much air getting into the stove, there is also an increased risk of smoke escaping in the opposite direction.

The seal formed by the stove rope helps to keep smoke and gases inside the stove. If the rope is squashed or broken, woodburner smoke can get into your room. When there’s a risk of that happening it’s time to replace your stove rope.

Replacing rope on woodburner doors helps to prevent smoke getting into your room and keeps your stove operating efficiently.

How often should I replace wood burning stove rope?

How often you need to replace your wood burning stove rope will depend on how frequently it is broken. You can minimise this by operating your stove efficiently and within the recommended temperatures (a stove pipe thermometer can help you to do this). Keeping the door closed when the stove is in use will also help with this.

There’s a very easy method for checking whether you need to replace your stove rope. Simply trap a sheet of paper in the stove door. If you can easily remove the paper from the closed door without it ripping, the seal isn’t tight enough and the stove rope needs to be replaced.

How to replace wood burning stove rope

Replacing wood burning stove rope is very easy. Following these very easy steps, you can quickly fit new rope to your woodburner.

1. Remove the stove door

While this is optional, it's easier to work on replacing stove rope with the door on a flat surface. Removing the stove door is normally just a case of lifting it off its hinges or removing a couple of pins. Check your stove manual to see how to remove the door from your appliance.

2. Remove worn or frayed rope

Pull out any sections of rope that are still in place. You'll be starting afresh with a complete run of rope to form a working seal.

3. Remove any glue residue

Take away any remnants of the glue that was holding the old rope in place. You'll need to remove any glue that's stuck to the stove to ensure the new glue takes correctly.

4. Run a length of stove rope in position

Taking your replacement stove rope, place it in position and cut it to the correct length. (Alternatively, use the old rope as a guide, if it's intact.) Remove it from position and set it to one side.

5. Apply new stove glue

Squeeze specialist stove rope glue into the channel where the stove rope will sit.

6. Fix the replacement stove rope

Place the new stove rope in position and gently push it into the channel containing the stove rope glue. 

7. Wait for the stove glue to dry

Ensure the glue is fully set before using your woodburner again.

Finding the right stove rope for your woodburner

Replacement stove rope comes in a variety of different sizes. It's important to choose stove rope of the correct thickness to ensure it fits your appliance and forms an effective seal around the door.

What size wood burning stove rope do I need?

Wood burning stove rope comes in different thicknesses. This is usually 6mm, 8mm. 10mm, 12mm or 20mm. You can consult your stove manual or check with your stove manufacturer to see the correct size of rope for your stove.

You then just need to choose the correct length of stove rope, which you can easily work out with a tape measure:

Replacement log burner rope by brand

Simply choose your stove from the list below to get the right replacement wood burning stove rope from the list below. If your stove isn’t included in the list, give us a call on 0121 271 0221 and we’ll do our best to get it for you.

Arada Stove Rope

Evergreen Stove Rope

Mazona Stove Rope

10mm door rope and 6mm glass rope are recommended for all Mazona Stoves.

Arizona Stove Rope

Stratford Stove Rope

Villager Stove Rope

Invicta Stove Rope

Dimplex Stove Rope

Thorma Stove Rope

Buy your replacement wood burning stove rope

If you’re ready to buy replacement stove rope, you’ll find various thicknesses available by the metre in our stove.

Buy Stove Rope
Filed in: Category_Stove Information, stoves-advice-info
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