Hearth.com

Harman PF100 Combustion Fan

2012-02-12T09:44:40-05:00

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….

2012-02-11T16:51:05-05:00

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

2012-02-12T21:59:32-05:00

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

2012-02-12T23:16:12-05:00

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

2012-02-12T07:47:25-05:00

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

US PELLET STOVE 5500 READ THIS IF U HAVE ONE

2012-02-12T20:17:05-05:00

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.

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

2012-02-10T12:35:38-05:00

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!!

Breckwell P22 Gaskets & Glass Airwash Bead

2012-02-12T23:45:51-05:00

Hey All,

So I had a power outage earlier today due to the high winds and had some smoke pour out of the glass. Upon further inspection I noticed that what appears to be a bead of silicone though I am not 100 percent sure that its silicone, seems to be crumbling. Not sure if this can be sealed with high temp silicone or not, I do believe that this is the airwash. I also performed a dollar bill test and both the top and bottom of the door failed the area by the door handle passed. With the assistance of a fellow forum member I found the part number for the door gaskets. I guess my question is can that glass bead be replaced with silicone or something else or is that just crud accumulated over the years? I placed a call to Breckwell tech support and left a message as its the weekend.

Thanks All

Franklin

3 Degrees Outside

2012-02-12T21:13:19-05:00

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

Pellets available in Southeastern PA?

2012-02-08T13:38:20-05:00

I have found Hamers, Lignetics, Grean supreme’s, Pennington, O’Malley’s.
Is there any others around, and where?