Mike (or others that might be able to help),
I bought a 25-PDVC at Lowes about 7 years ago, it was manufactured 10/2000. It was a scratch and dent model and didn’t come with a manual. I set it up in my basement and it seem to run well at higher feed settings, but at the lower settings in never ran correctly or efficiently as there would be a lot of buildup in the chamber and soot build up on the glass. Talking to the folks at Lowes never did resolve my issues and since I couldn’t afford to run it at the higher settings (where it liked to run) it untimately went unused for the last 5 or 6 years… I think I ran 1 ton through it before it went into hibernation. Now that oil has gone through the roof, I’ve decided I’m going to bring it upstairs into the main living area for next winter and hopefully finally get it running correctly so I can put it into actual use. I probably wont do this until next fall, but I’d like to start planing now.
First off, what settings should I be running at? The mid and upper rate settings seemed fine, but 1 & 2 clearly needed some tuning. Now that I think about it, I think it ate pellets faster on “1” than it should have based on some of the consumtion rates I’ve heard mentioned on this site…
Since this is probably what you’d now consider an old model, are there any modifications I could or should make to it? I noticed newer models have holes on the sides of the burner chamber, should I drill a hole in the side(s) of mine?
Is there any possibility of hooking up a battery backup to this stove? If so, can you please give me details on what I’d need to do?
When I move the stove upstairs, what’s the minimum vertical flue requirement and should it be inside or outside the house? Where it exits the house, how far must it protrude outside the side of my house (the house is sided in old cedar shakes).
My stove is looking a little rusty from sitting in the basement all these years, any paint recommendations (that will actually last) so I can at least make it a little more aesthetically pleasing?
Lastly, since I never did get a manual, would you guys still by chance have a copy kicking around that you’d be willing to part with?
TIA!