Pellets not burning completely, LACK OF AIR?

I need help troubleshooting my new Jamestown J2000 pellet stove. I've tried everything I know of short of installing an OAK, which I don't even know if that will help my problem. It's gotten really cold in MA and I don't think my stove is burning as efficiently as everyone else's stove just based on reading discussion threads. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

It's a very basic install about 4 feet rise straight out the wall (I'll attach pics when I can figure it out) but no OAK. Dealer was really against it and insisted I didn't need it. Stove is new with preburn with the dealer installed end of November. It's a very basic stove which was what I wanted so none of the fancy settings like in the Harmans or Quadra Fire or Enviro. Starts up very quickly every time and burns very well or at least that's what I used to think. The flame is always a nice healthy white to yellow flame with bluish tinge in the center but can get very high when I move to higher heat setting. I've been experimenting with the draft control based on pellets. It is a new toy so excuse me with all the touching and exploring. I'm trying to find her, Betsy (yes I named my stove! Don't judge!) sweet spot and hope she'll produce the most heat for me! Haven't quite achieve that yet but with this forum and all your advice, I better be able to figure her out before the really cold weather gets here!

House:

2800+ sq ft colonial built in 2002, has good insulation and windows, fairly tight. Stove is in the livingroom on the first floor directly facing out to the front foyer and stairs. I'm not expecting to heat up my entire hourse but more as supplemental heat for the downstairs so my expectations for heating the upstairs bedrooms are pretty low.

Here's my observations about the stove/burning:

-Flame is healthy about half way up the stove on heat settings 1 and 2 with draft at 2 and auger feed at 1 (slowest I can make it). Seems to run best on setting 2 but 2 is not going to cut it when temps get down to the teens in MA. Once I push the stove to heat setting 3+, the flame gets really big, as high as the heat exchanger tubes. I don't think the flame should be that big, right?
-I've been using only "Premium" pellets. The brand used the most so far Spruce Pointes and tried out Barefoots this weekend and Okies this week due to low overnight temps. Having more difficulty burning hardwood pellets. They just do not burn very well/completely but does produce a ton of heat even when not burning completely. Pellets start to build up in burnpot within 12 hours of starting the stove on heat setting 2 to 3 and fan blowing high, auger feed rate 1.
-I've also noticed that when I push the heat setting to a 4 or 5, even with auger feed at a 1, the pellets are coming out a little faster compared to when I have the heat setting down in the 1/2 range. I'm assuming its trying to keep up with producing the higher heat so more pellets are required but I've noticed the pellets in the burnpot are not completely burned and new pellets would fall on top which starts to block up the air holes in the burnpot.
-Depending on the pellets, I have to play around with the draft setting ( A LOT!) to get the pellets to burn completely in the burnpot. I have yet to achieve complete burns with hardwood pellets. Majority of the time, I have to shut the stove down to empty out the burnpot all withing 24 hours of using the stove. Even my "completely" is no where near the burns of the Fire Gods on this forum which leads me to believe I'm not achieving maximum heat output. I would also like to burn more then 2 bags of pellets before shutting down and cleaning.
-Damper/Draft control options are 1-6. At low heat setting of 1-2, the draft is at about a 1-2 and maintains a very healthy flame. I watch the flame to make sure I'm feeding it enough air for a good burn. I usually open up the draft by increments based on the amount of buildup I see in the burnpot, usually open wide if I notice pellets starting to buildup or flame gets lazy. This strategy works with the softwoods but not so good with the hardwoods. Last night with Barefoots, had to open draft to a 6 and still pellet buildup and slow/incomplete burn which causes more pellets to build up and block the holes in the burnpot and its all downhill from there.
-ash is not ashy grey like everyone talks about, it's thicker and chunkier but I guess that happens with Softwood but doesn't explain why I don't have any grey fly ash in the stove especially when burning hardwood pellets.
-pretty much every time I stop the stove to clean/scrape the burnpot, I've vacuumed the inside,clean the glass and empty out the ash pan. This has been averaging almost once a day. The longest time I went without cleaning/vacumming was 2.5 days using Spruce Pointes with a lot of manual draft adjustment even using the same pellet. All the other times its been about 12-24 hours of usage before shutdown to clean. I'm ready and willing to clean my stove but just thought it could burn a little longer then 12-24 hours before each cleaning.



I read on this forum that people are burning 7-10 bags before they even consider cleaning, and in some cases even longer! I'm doing something very wrong if I'm cleaning almost every day and still have pellet build up due to slow burn! Is not having an OAK the issue? I'm thinking I might have an air flow issue if my pellets are not burning completely. I've opened up the draft completely and that's helped some but I have no where to go from a 6! What else should I be doing? I'm burning the best pellets I can find and still not having half the results. What do you guys think? Air flow? Crappy stove? Crappy install? Bad pellets? It's NOT dirty! I'm nuts over keeping a clean stove! All ideas/suggestions are welcomed! Just don't be too harsh! I'm trying to learn! THANKS!

Hi SmokeyTheBear, what does the dollar bill test suppose to do? If I can pull the dollar out, then all my gasket is bad? Or I just need to tighten the door somehow? I just spent an hour cleaning the stove again so everything looks great, all doors closed nice and tight but apparently not tight enough since I was able to pull the dollar out with some resistance in three different locations. The gasket is new so maybe tightening the door will help?

I've been playing around with the damper settings trying to get the perfect balance. Usually when I see pellets burning slow or flame getting lazy, I give it a little more air. Should I not be doing that? The adjustment usually works with the softwood pellets I burn but no matter what I do with the hardwood pellets, I expect to get major pellet pile up within 12 hours. Even before the pile up, I notice the hardwoods are burning very slowly and black but flame looks okay, just lazier.

You mentioned too much air can be bad too, how can I tell if I opened the damper to wide? I was just hoping to give the pellets more air to help it burn faster to avoid build up in the burnpot. I have access to both the damper setting and auger trim. The auger trim I have set on the lowest level and still have some issues with pile up of pellet with the hardwoods. I can't imagine if I increase the speed of feed much more then a one, how long the stove will burn before having to shut it down to clean the burnpot.

My installation was pretty straight forward. Up about 4 feet and straight out the wall. Nothing fancy. I'll try to post some pics so everyone can see and give me advice. Maybe it was a bad install but I can't imagine. The dealer was in and out with my install. I probably could have done it but decided to leave it to the experts.

Okay, so the stove did pass the dollar bill test. I can pull the bill out but definitely with some resistance. I'll open the windows in the livingroom to give it more air to see if that helps. I really do think its an air flow issue. I cleaned the stove again this morning and fired her up using Barefoot pellets. She usually burns great for a couple of airs but as time goes by I see the flame getting lazier and lazier. It's still a strong flame but definitely not as robust as when it first started. I've adjusted the damper by one level at a time and let her burn. Seems to help a little but it starts slowing again until I open the damper a little more. Pretty soon I'll be completely open and by tomorrow am, the pot will be pretty full with overflow.

As for the "lazy installer", he was a really nice older gentleman with an assistant. They were both adamantly against the OAK. Actually two other dealers I went to see were not very keen on installing an oak with pretty much all the same reasoning. They also said that if I really felt like I needed one, then its easy enough to install it versus installing one and finding out I didn't need it. I still don't know for sure if I need it but there's definitely a problem with my stove, lazy flame and incomplete burning of pellets. I don't know why all these installers are so against an OAK but all the ones I've come across do not recommend it unless it's required by the stove.

So, in order to get more combustion air in the stove I would have to introduce another air source? I can't just get a fan to blow more air at it? I assume that wouldn't work since it's the same air circulating around the house?

Sorry for all the stupid questions or sounding ignorant. I'm just trying to achieve a good burn but somehow completely missing the mark. I'm realizing now that pellet stoving is like a fine art! There's really no half-assing this! Thanks everyone for sharing all your wisdom with a newbie! I really appreciate it.

Dexterday and j-takeman just taught me how to post pics on this forum. Below are some images of the install and stove. I had the building inspector through and he said everything looks fine. No issues and no OAK needed. He said where I have the stove installed I shouldn't have too much trouble with air flow.

I opened the window nearest the stove last night for 15 minutes. I didn't see a noticeable difference with the flame. Maybe I should have it open longer? I did play with the damper adjustment per Smokey's suggestion and waiting much longer this time in between changes. I ran the stove since 12 pm yesterday and its still running now and so far not too much buildup using Barefoots, which I thought my stove couldn't handle but I guess I'm wrong again. The flame doesn't look lazy like it did last night. I have it set on heat level 2 out of 5, damper at 5 out of 6, and auger trim and blower set at lowest setting. The burnpot looks pretty clean so I don't know what the deal is with the stove. It's probably not the stove but more user issues!

We have the oil furnace in the basement set on tstat at 66 but the pellet stove kept the house at above 68 degrees last night so it didn't fire. There are 3 ceiling fans up in the bedrooms but usually only one is on in the master bedroom at night.
Below are some pictures:

The first pic is the stove burning this morning. I think the flame looks fine.
The second picture is the piping. It's shorter then I thought for some reason but is 3" piping.
The third is the outside portion of the pipe. It's making my siding dirty. Is that normal or indicative of more issues if its making the siding dirty like that?

I forgot to mention I'm on a hill and it gets windy up here. Not sure if I should take wind factor into account. Does it affect the performance of the stove if it's windy out? Okay, I'm done with stupid questions. Thanks for all the help!

I had a feeling you were going to say that about the wind. Do you have a "design plan" for a wind shield? That might be the easiest and quickest fix right now. The vent is in the direction of the wind and we don't have a lot of protection (trees or other buildings) around our house. I noticed it was very windy last night and the flame was a lot lazier. This morning no wind and the flame is nice and healthy and not floppy looking even at the lowest setting. I don't know if changing the vent direction will make a difference since that side of the house is completely open to the wind and we can't move the stove to the other side of the house. The location where it's at is the best to help heat the house and the heat goes out to the front foyer and straight up to the stairs to the bedroom so it's been keeping the upstairs warm as well. So a wind shield is a good bet for now, just need some directions on how to build one.

So, just trying to understand the biggest reason that I might have an air flow issue could be caused by the wind and the lack of an OAK? How does the wind act to deter the performance of the stove? The OAK (when its installed) will act as a consistent combustion air supply for the stove which will make it perform better or not be so starved for air? Is that how it works? I just shut the stove off for another cleaning and do the leaf blower on the outside vent. I haven't been burning for that long so the dirtiness of the siding is all caused by poor damper setting on the stove which could be caused by venting into the wind? Sorry, I guess the stupid questions keep flowing out. Thanks Smokey for all the help. Might have to send you some thank you pellets when this is done! By the way, Barefoot pellets are AWESOME I thought Spruce Pointes were great but these Barefoots are amazing!

So how much am I looking at to add an OAK to my stove? I did bring it up with my installer but everyone I spoke to, including two other dealers and another installer said no to OAK. I figured since they were the "experts" I should just rely on their advice in this case. I've noticed today without the wind the flame is healthier, not as lazy as yesterday so I would venture to say that air flow is the main cause for my lazy flame. I'll call the installer tomorrow and see what he has to say. Is installing an OAK difficult?