Hearth.com

US PELLET STOVE 5500 READ THIS IF U HAVE ONE

2012-02-12T20:17:05Z

I have read alot of posts about the crappy burn this stove has and I had purchased one of these stoves last fall. I too agree that this POS does burn crappy and is noisy. however, I have been trying to make the best of it and this is what i have done to improve things so far. I have only been using pellet stoves for a few years so correct me anyone or add any opinon please.
first problem was the door gasket was crappy and it seemed when the stove was good and hot, the metal bent and made gap even larger at the top of the door. I fixed this by adding rope to the top of the door only as the rest of the seal seemed fine.
second I drilled about 50% of the holes in the burn pot bigger for more air to get thru and burn the pellest better.
I sealed the holes in the ash pit in the corners. I am not sure if they were a problem with air leaking but to be sure I sealed them.
and just recently I have been tinkering with the feed rate and draft rate. this is what i have found to work best. I put the draft rate on 9. this is the highest setting but since I have done this the glass has stayed cleaner WAY longer. the glass would be dirty within a few hours if I left the draft on auto, or pretty much any other setting.
also I had the problem that many others had with the pellets filling the pot and spilling all over and the pot would be one solid clinker ect. well now i have feed rate set at 4.5 and (max) and keep draft on 9 all the time, min feed rate set at 1.7. it has been hovering around zero here last few days and seems to be working fine.
also I have tstat hooked up and set at 70 and has kept it 70 in liv room with no prob.

I hope this info helps someone because I have been tinkering with draft rate and feed rate ect for quite awhile now and this seems to be working well. my only question is having the draft fan set so high, is it putting more of the heat out my exhuast instead of in my house? at any rate it seems to be working well. please chime in with any comments. tks.

3 Degrees Outside

2012-02-12T21:13:19Z

3 outside with gusty winds, toasty 72 inside. The P61 is throwing some heat!

SOOO disapointed with pellet quality this year

2012-02-12T14:23:49Z

How come we can get someone to ship some quality pellets down south? I know shipping cost play a large factor but aybe put em on a barg down the Mississippi or something for cheaper shipping.
This years pellets are not woth using at all…no heat from them and lots of ash, LOTS. Pennington, for the last 8 years was about as good as it got and this year Pennington has changed their recipe and are blending pine in with the oak and i think also some oak bark and other trash They put out very little heat and i have had to use my propane furnace more this year. Its not even that cold this year - very mild compared to last year. I then tried HEAT LLC and they were crap also. Then found some SUTTONS and they are only marginally better and smell of pine as well.
I basically wasted my money using the pellet stove this year.
There is definately a market for quality pellets in OK and my Hearth store would gladly work a deal I am sure if someone could figure out a way to get em here.
Something has to change for next season. I would love to see some BAREFOOTs next year even if i had to pay a little more.

Quadrafire CB1200 burns out

2012-02-08T15:31:48Z

Hi. I’m new to the forum and just bought a used cb 1200 that needs some work. I have to say first that I’m a huge fan of the site and have read a bunch of posts that I think are pointing me in the right direction to solve my problem. I still can use some specific help though. So when I got the stove the auger chute was completely jammed with pellets that had soaked up some moisture and formed a cake. The first thing I did was clean that out but now the fire in the pot is always very low and the burned pellets seem to fly all over the place making a sustained fire almost impossible. I can’t figure out whether this is a feed rate issue or an air flow issue or both. One thing I did notice is that the burn pot had a pretty significant gap in between the clean out plate and the pot. I tried to shim the plate at first to get a better seal and it did seem to help a little bit although the seal still wasn’t great. Yesterday I took the burn pot out and really scraped and cleaned it up so that the seal is tight. Now I’m waiting to get a new burn pot gasket so that I can test it out again. In the meantime I was just wondering if anyone thinks this is going to solve my problem or if it sounds like something different. The auger seems to be running right although I’m not really sure how many pellets it is supposed to dump. It will run for the minute or so upon start up and then will turn about 6 times a minute to feed the fire dropping maybe an average of 5 pellets or so per time. I have the feed rate adjuster all the way open. The thermocouple seems to be working fine and turns the green and red light on as expected as well. If anyone has some advice on what my next steps should be I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Harman PF100 Combustion Fan

2012-02-12T09:44:40Z

Heard a chirping noise coming from my combustion fan motor and I pulled off the outside cage that protects the fan on the outside of the motor. When I did, the fan disk came flying off. The stinking set screw came loose.

I’ve turned off the thermostat to get the furnace shut down and as soon as the fire is out, I will kill the power and put the fan back on.

Which way does the flange that has the set screw in it face? Does it face the motor or does it face outward? Obviously will make a difference with air flow.

20 bags +1kid….

2012-02-11T16:51:05Z

Makes for a full Subaru Impreza sedan. Plus my trunk only had room for 3 bags due to winter emergency gear.I had already unloaded a few before I decided to take a pic. :(

Barefoot Pellets & my Harman XXV

2012-02-12T21:59:32Z

I just bought a ton of Barefoots. By far the most heat my stove has thrown out since purchasing it in Oct. my question is it possible to burn too hot can you do any damage. I have the dials turned to Room temp fan on high & set at 80 with feed rate at 3 1/2
It’s 10 degrees tonight. Gave the the stove a good cleaning today. My thermo readings are 86 in the room with stove( that thermometer is placed on an upper shelf about 7ft high my thermostat in the next room reads 72 and my upstairs reads 70
The top and sides of the stove are real hot to touch

Wood pellets…pellet size matters

2012-02-12T23:16:12Z

So I’ve been burning pellets for over a year now in my Fahrenheit Endurance 50 furnace (sorry, haven’t posted in here in awhile, been real busy), and over that year I wanted to share an observation of mine that may be redundant information that most everyone already knows (I apologize if this is the case). I searched the forum a few times and couldn’t find too many topics dedicated to wood pellet length (other than long pellets causing augers to jam up), so I thought I’d post my own thoughts on the subject here and find out what others think about the conclusions that I am drawing here on pellet size (length)...

By “short” length pellets, I’m referring to bags that contain pellets that are on average shorter than 1” long (avg. seems to be 1/2”). Long pellets generally consist of pellets that avg. 1” or longer in length in a bag/batch.

* Longer pellets produce less heat than shorter pellets - I’m no combustion expert, but the reason for this likely relates to surface area and how the auger moves pellets to the burn pot. Smaller pellets provide more surface area exposed for burning, therefore they seem to burn with more intensity than longer pellets, hence producing more heat in a shorter time span.

* Longer pellets feed more slowly than shorter pellets - at the same burn level (my furnace has levels 1-5, with the “levels” generally referring to lbs/hr burned), longer pellets seem to feed more slowly than shorter length pellets. It seems that I’m refilling the hopper more frequently when my hopper is loaded with short-length pellets. This is another reason why shorter pellets likely produce more heat than longer pellets, they are feeding more quickly at the same burn level (more slip into the burn pot when the auger turns). One thing remains consistent however, longer pellets result in a cooler burn.

* Longer pellets produce different ash characteristics - ash from short-length pellets (at least in my Fahrenheit unit) is almost as white as snow. Longer-length pellets produce darker colored ash. However, ash characteristics still vary widely based on pellet manufacturer and batch. I’ve had hot-burning batches produce darker ash while cooler burning batches produce a gray/white ash.

Now, this may just be a characteristic (aka feature) of my particular Fahrenheit furnace, but I definitely seek out wood pellets that are shorter in length as they consistently seem to produce more heat than pellets that avg. 1” or larger in size in a bag or batch, but at the cost of more being consumed per hour to achieve that additional heat output. In fact, I’ve found that longer length pellets produce roughly the same amount of heat on level 4 that short length pellets produce at level 2. If I crank my furnace to Level 4 while burning shorter-length pellets, my entire 2500 sq. ft. home roasts (downstairs climbs to 78°F+). My observations of pellet length spans at least 6 or 7 differing pellet brands (AWF, Wood Fibers Inc., Fireside Ultra, Stove Chow, Lignetics, Pennington, just to name some that I’ve burned, at least 10-15 bags or more).

It may seem that the hotter burn characteristics of shorter pellets boils down to shorter pellets seemingly feeding at a faster rate. However, on really cold days, I’ve noticed that my furnace produces much more heat when burning “short” pellets at a lower burn level, allowing me to lower that burn rate, ultimately using less pellets in a day than I would use burning longer-length pellets at twice the feed rate. I also thought I read somewhere that pellet grades (i.e. premium , etc.) are supposed to include length specification. Perhaps this observation of mine is old news…

My pellet furnace is an epic failure

2012-02-12T07:47:25Z

Thought I would give it a try…..and I am now convinced it did not work…. Here is sequence of events, costs, and “savings”....

1.) Purchased SCF-050 - $1,000 used
2.) Installation - $1,000
3.) Cost per ton - $200
4.) Electric bill on Heat Pump during a cold month $400
5.) Electric bill on Pellet Furnace during a cold month $200
6.) Difference - $200
7.) Consumption of fuel = 1 ton, $200
8.) Savings not factoring purchase or install cost = $0

Aside from that, this is what I deal with on a daily basis with my POS pellet furnace:

1.) Constant burn quality problems - SOOOOT, SOOOT SOOOOT, did I mention SOOT?
2.) SOOT
3.) CLINKERS the size of cinder blocks EVERY DAY
4.) Now my entire HVAC system is dirty. Filters are BLACK in 2 days
5.) System too small (my fault) - doesn’t keep good temp when really cold out….and I am talking about when it actually burns for a day w/o major intervention, shut down for clean, etc.
6.) Getting FILTHY trying to clean out burn pot to keep burning
7.) House smells like a bon fire
8.) Fire alarm has gone off many times when I have the door open trying to extract a burn-pot molded clinker, waking family

So, zero cost savings and the complete utter inconvenience of dealing with trying to keep a junk furnace burning.

My install is correct. I have an OAK. I recently changed my rope gaskets. I cannot get this stupid $#()*@$# to work proplerly…. I dont have the proper setup to do the leaf blower deal…nor do I have an electric leaf blower…. I don’t want to spend any more on this as it will keep putting he project into the red… Factoring in the initial costs, it seems that the savings do not allow the cost to even pay for themselves…piss poor investment IMO

If I even did get the thing working 100% pristine, I will never see a savings….basically $2k in the hole, and need to stop the bleeding now.

So - I am pulling the plug on this one…..it is going to sit and I am going to enjoy the CLEAN heat from my HEAT PUMP. I absolutely hate my SCF-050.

___________

Fast forward to my next project - when we purchase my mothers farm house my brand new Tarm HS 4.0 will be going in…. Now THAT will be a different story

Snow and Bone Chilling -4 Deg F Artic Air coming this weekend - Will u need Backup heat? What Kind? Will u just use wood pellets? See latest Poll Char

2012-02-10T12:35:38Z

Hello

Please take the poll up top. Click Cast Your Vote if you have not done so.

I would really like to see how many people can rely on just wood pellets in this situation.

This Monday early morning forecast for sNH is for -4 degrees F !! See chart below.

I have my wood pellet stove in the basement and in this weather I open the door to the garage. So all the pipes will have heat from the wood pellet stove and I do not have to worry about freezing pipes or anything!

Since it will be below zero I will probably need to turn the stove’s heat setting up to 5 or 6. 6 is the highest. (About 600 Deg F out of the heat exchanger tubes!)

These high settings will keep the house cozy and absolutely NO NEED for Fossil Fuels or Electric heat!!