US STOVE 5500M

Fire God
Yes, I do tweak the local yokels who quietly assert I am a radical and heretic who blaspheems against the Lords of the Electrical and Gas Companies; thereby being labeled unclean and untouchable. Insofar as being aware of tolerances. Understanding tolerances is how I repair exceedingly expensive toys and sometimes even get paid, though less and less in this economy. Not even many pellets or Chinese grown chickens traded in kind lately either. Must be a shortage and I'm going to die because I did not join the Oink-Oink club earlier while there were still seats on the board of directors. Sigh Will buy a bottle of that cider when you acquire more glass containers. Why not just employ mason jars like my former door gunners from the Ozarks used. Worked for them but, what they threw back wasn't carbonated either. Burned with pretty blue flames though. Must count for something?
Seriously, however, if it is in my nature to accomplish that state of composure in the slim amount of characters provided. Every new venture in life brings on its' own set of dialogue and if you have the time and listen, you pick it up a bit at a time. The middle of Winter, however, is not the time to be timid. Ergo, until you just explained the term used for misdirected or leaking airflow, I had not a clue what to look for. The roof of enlightenment then opened and the sun of the Gods illuminated my dimmed wit. I now have a startling picture of what to look for. And, for that I thank you most heartily. I assume when you wrote about entering the fire pot, you meant that the bulk OA inlet should breath through the burning pellets from an upward angle through the lower pot vents? That being said I performed dye and high temp inlet airflow tests this afternoon. Prior to that the pot itself was etched in very mild acid then polished so the dye would flow easily. Also, I previously mentioned expanding the drilled pot holes .005.
The first firing this afternoon saw minimal die draw, even from the minute spacing along the open pot edges which were not fully welded shut. The flame was tall, aggressive and hot on setting "1" of the 5500M. An hour later after a shut-down, inspection revealed a full 1.5mm of ash dusting the pot floor. The area, inclusive of the expanded holes were not fully immune from that ash layer? Beneath the ash where the pot has been acid etched, then polished and annealed, as I would expect, There was a thin burned on layer of pellet particulates. Analysis of all available visible evidence held the preponderance of though that all of the burn holes were breathing as needed and expected yet the ash problem still remains??? This is my quandry and quest to remedy, hest I begin training for the Gnome Olympics from standing in the frost two or more times a day, scraping. OOOORRRRR? Maybe I should just pop the 6K for a Harmann. If it plays music and I can row it out on the river in the spring, it might be worth the investment? . . . NAW!

Anyways, thanks for living with the dribble!
Doug

I don't mind dribble, but it appears you still haven't located the source of the issue, there are plenty of places to look and those that have USSC stoves have found many places that allowed air in where it shouldn't come in.

It is also possible that there is even some leakage in the exhaust portion of the stove prior to the combustion blower this would be a firebox bypass yes?

Funny thing about air it can go through the smallest of openings that shouldn't be there. Also combustion blowers have been known to not always hit their proper speeds and thus air flow.

Many things to check and not always enough time.

The 6K for a Harman can also get you some issues as well. Just like my stove. Just wait until you try burning some dirt in a bag.

Perhaps you have an air sucker inside your home that isn't helping matters.

ETA: Time to shut down the computer and get a snack.

I too have this same stove. Here is what I have found that might come in handy. When I got the stove the burn pot would fill up after around 24 hours and start to spill pellets into the sides and I would also have a fire down there. I have a 2,000 sq ft home and it was keeping the house at around 75 degrees. I then had to turn the draft fan up to 6 max is 9 on a heat setting of one. This finnaly alowed the stove to run for 3 days before it had to be cleaned. I was also going through 2 bags a day. I did not think this was right so after looking on the internet for hours I stumbled across this fourm, If you search for king 5000 you can find the posts about this. the 5000 is practicaly the same stove as the 5500m. Well long story short I have now turned all of my settings back to the auto mode. Yes you can click on the auto mode all day long and does not do anything but if you click the (say draft fan button) down twice you can then scroll down to lower the draft fan were you want it. I found on this site that if you push the aux down and heat range down at the same time you can slow the auger down, and also the same on the aux up and heat range up . you have two settings auger lower and auger higher. the controll board then takes these two numbers to figure out how fast to turn the auger for heat settings 2-4. heat setting 1 is the lower and heat setting 5 is the higher. I am running AWF pellets and have mine set to 1.4 for lower and 2.5 for higher. the orriginal for lower was 1.75. since lowering this the house went down to 64 degrees in the low setting. I dont know why the manual does not explaine this. It makes people think these stoves are cheap. Since I found this out I love my stove more then ever. I got mine for $600 brand new from TSC, it was on sale for $900 and then $300 back on taxes cant go wrong.

The only thing I cant figure out is were the jumper is for the thermostat. I think it is the little thing right behind the two blade terminals but am unsure. It also has TSTAT for were the thermostate goes but does not say in the manual anything about a Thermostat.

Dear Frizman;
You know, I played with those controls for a time before I burned out the electronic brain the first time. Haven't played with it much since. You might have a point on your end if all things USS are now working as you like. HooRA! As for me, I think the new electronic keypad they sent did a nice job through the heat ranges. It seemed to find the sweet spot where the flame almost runs dry and then dumps just enough pellets for a sustained burn. Seems it would be folly for me to mess with that which is working well, save for the ash build up, and it is ash. Dropped it on low last night and mildly and, manually agitated the pot. Ashes fell right through into the holding tray without a whole lot of hoop la or chiseling soot. This 5500 series seems lost without the mechanical agitator found in other models. I guess I become the agitator from time to time. Sure beats breaking the stove down two to three times a day for baked on scraping of fired on ash. Fire God contends it is mis-directed airflow which is causing the ash build-up. Could be part of the problem but I've been inside the stove all day long as was the installer who set the original flow rate with a meter for the pellets I burn. I know the stove is supposed to accomplish this automatically but it never hurts to have a man with all things pellet stove in his truck and an extra ten minutes to spare.
You mentioned the thermostat and somewhere I was sent a detailed schematic of the entire electrical system including the main board, down to the last capacitor. A lot of the reviews I read on this stove were livid with customer service as USS and I can't say enough good about the service. The stove itself is a steel stamping with pop metal plates and tin pan inserts; motors are Chinese in origin like everything else these days, but I've talked nice to the girls in the office instead of fist waving and they've sent me everything but hot coffee. Give me until tomorrow and I'll tell you which jumper to pull for the stat. Thanks much for the input and your efforts!
Back to Fire God. I tried tightening bolts, gluing more seams and only bent the sheet metal innards with too much stress on light steel. This stove was never build for torque of any kind. The installer ran the flow rates on the motors while he was here the last time and concluded they were all working to spec. Next, the only thing that was gulping too much air with no real return was my daughter here on vacation who went back to work in Europe last week. The dog doesn't breathe much or too loudly in fears of being tied to my sled for mountain mushing so, except for my windbag self, there is nothing else in the surrounding area of the stove. However, while I did believe the builder did a bang up job on this model home, the architect who drew the plans should be taken out back and . . . .. Fifty percent of the home is in 16' vaulted ceilings with 8' flat bedrooms spread out thirty feet away. I mounted a 4' ceiling fan just so the heat wasn't trapped in living/dining/kitchen on the ceiling and push it down the hallway to the bedrooms with box fans. Between some oddly placed and massive window areas, there was only one viable corner to set the stove and there it sits. Still reaches eighty or better on the stove lo setting in the back bedrooms at 20 degrees outside but what I save in pellets, the electric company gobbles up another chunk of what could be a real coup against the gas company. Sighhhh Bummer. If you have the time, let's talk pellets. I don't really believe I can make the ash problem go away with air that seems to be properly directed. The spent ash just doesn't fall through the pot holes without agitation. Unfortunately, I haven't seen an option for this problem other than me. Swished it several times today and it fall right through. Complete burn with no clinkers of measurable size so it appears as a design flaw in trapped fine ash. Tap the pellet chute with a long screwdriver and it looks like the fourth of July with all the pellet dust dropping down. I realize there is a certain amount of dust per bag from packaging, trucking unloading, loading, stacking and restacking but this debris seems excessive to me


Thanks to All,
Doug

frizman86 said:

I too have this same stove. Here is what I have found that might come in handy. When I got the stove the burn pot would fill up after around 24 hours and start to spill pellets into the sides and I would also have a fire down there. I have a 2,000 sq ft home and it was keeping the house at around 75 degrees. I then had to turn the draft fan up to 6 max is 9 on a heat setting of one. This finnaly alowed the stove to run for 3 days before it had to be cleaned. I was also going through 2 bags a day. I did not think this was right so after looking on the internet for hours I stumbled across this fourm, If you search for king 5000 you can find the posts about this. the 5000 is practicaly the same stove as the 5500m. Well long story short I have now turned all of my settings back to the auto mode. Yes you can click on the auto mode all day long and does not do anything but if you click the (say draft fan button) down twice you can then scroll down to lower the draft fan were you want it. I found on this site that if you push the aux down and heat range down at the same time you can slow the auger down, and also the same on the aux up and heat range up . you have two settings auger lower and auger higher. the controll board then takes these two numbers to figure out how fast to turn the auger for heat settings 2-4. heat setting 1 is the lower and heat setting 5 is the higher. I am running AWF pellets and have mine set to 1.4 for lower and 2.5 for higher. the orriginal for lower was 1.75. since lowering this the house went down to 64 degrees in the low setting. I dont know why the manual does not explaine this. It makes people think these stoves are cheap. Since I found this out I love my stove more then ever. I got mine for $600 brand new from TSC, it was on sale for $900 and then $300 back on taxes cant go wrong.

The only thing I cant figure out is were the jumper is for the thermostat. I think it is the little thing right behind the two blade terminals but am unsure. It also has TSTAT for were the thermostate goes but does not say in the manual anything about a Thermostat.

Click to expand...

Call the folks at USSC.

Yes if you have the correct controller you can muck with everything to do with the burn except parts out of tolerance.

The manual doesn't explain the operation of that aspect of the controller because they don't want you playing with it.

Post a picture of the that area you suspect is the t-stat connection on the control board.

Doug,

USSC had more than a few issues in the customer service department, lately they appear to be doing a much better job.

You shouldn't need to use a lot of torque, sealants and flat gaskets do a good job. You just have to pay attention to the temperature ratings needed for the location.

These stoves operate properly right on the edge. It doesn't take much to have all kinds of burn issues, one of the more common ones is to do an out of specification vent installation.

Carry on.

I have a 5500M in my pole barn/shop. When Im working it runs on HR 3 or 4. Overnight I turn it down to HR1. Although there seems to be alot of ash generated...the burn post is almost always clean. Not sure why? It would be a much nicer design if they made ash removal easier. With no ash pan its a PITA.

mikkeeh said:

I have a 5500M in my pole barn/shop. When Im working it runs on HR 3 or 4. Overnight I turn it down to HR1. Although there seems to be alot of ash generated...the burn post is almost always clean. Not sure why? It would be a much nicer design if they made ash removal easier. With no ash pan its a PITA.

Click to expand...

If the air flow is correct the ash gets ejected from the burn pot and very little makes it under the burn pot. It is all in the air flow. Top feeders are 100% dependent on proper air flow to keep both the burn pot and the area below it clean. Most bottom feeders push most of the ash out of the way, some stoves that are top feed and have agitators also push the ash out of the burn pot.

I have read a lot about the 5100 that has the removable ash pan, and made my desision on the 5500m. From what other people were saying about the 5100 is they would rtv the ash pan shut. I dont mind not having a removable ash pan since I just vac it out any ways. I will post a picture of the board on a different thread. I just wanted to give the orriginal poster Cuznvin some pointers on what I have found with mine, so he can help out his inlaws over the phone.

Other places I have heard these things leaking air (other then the ones with removable ash pan) is the hopper, and the ignitor socket. Looking at mine, the back wall of the fire box has about a 1/16th inch gap on the sides. But there is a plate behind that and it is welded to the sides of the fire box. Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks to me that the draft fan pushing the air into the exhaust pipe is sucking air through the whole fire box, through the burn pot, through the pipe in the back of the burn pot holder and out to the exterier of the stove (were you would put a OAK if you need to pull air from the outside). You can take this with a grain of salt, but what I would do is find some baby powder. And fire up the stove with the side covers off. and see if you can shoot some of the powerd in the air where it could possibly leak. Then use an ash vac to clean up the powder. It was just an idea.

Frizman;
Said I would get back to you today after looking at schematics and just sat down from work. From all I can read the 5110 board (automatic) was quietly incorporated with the 5500 series to keep heavy customer fingers from causing warranty issues. This was accomplished under the guise of faulty control boards but will be the standard from this point on. Now, you have one type (manual mode enabled) old style or, you have the manual mode disabled (latest board). Hooking up the thermostat which, I must add has to be in the millivolt category. 15-90 bucks between low and high end models. The digital programmables are not that pricey and let you run on low all night and the stats internal alarm clock which you set, kicks up the heat to warm your shop before you get blasted with cold air in the morning. The cheap ones only rock the stove between the high and lo settings to maintain the low temp you set it at when finished for the night.
Installation is pretty straight forward. Remove the back panel, remove the two screws holding the control board for easy access. You will immediately see two spade connectors on the upper left corner of the board back which should now be facing you. Drill a 3/8 hole through the back panel near the control board for the stat wires to run through and finish this with a rubber grommet to keep the stat wires from shorting. Nice finishing touches are always a plus. Slip the two wires with appropriately crimped and/or soldered female ends over the two spade connectors on either side of the circuit marked TSTAT. There is the only glitch I could find. Between these two male spades on the board there is a jumper block with two vertical pins. On the old style boards remove the jumper (overlook the jumper block and pins) or the board will ignore the connections you've just made. If you have the newer style board, the jumper block and pins remain but the jumper itself has already become history so you do nothing but test your stat. It should be working right off the bat with this jumper removed so button it up and breathe on your hands for warmth until the stove fires. The downside is that the stat will not shut your stove off. It will continue to rock between Lo and Hi until you shut it down manually or you run out of fuel. Insofar as the stat itself, you have a choice between the direct wire and batteries. I have the battery model for my cooler and two "AA" alkaline batteries last more than a year before getting weak. I chose the battery model to keep from tearing up walls just to run two blinking wires and play poke and peek to find where any blitzed electrician hid the wiring in my shop. The choice is yours to make. I certainly hope this helped. If you still have questions, ask away.

Good Luck,
Doug :ahhh:

Thank you very much Doug,

This is how I have mine so far. I got a $30 milivolt thermostat from Ebay and it also states on the package it is good for pellet stoves. and I am sure it will just toggle between high and low. It is made by Honeywell not quite sure the model, but anyways. This past weekend I shut the stove off to clean it and in doing so (while waiting for the stove to cool down), I ran the wireing out the side through a hole i drilled ( I am glad you pointed out the rubber gromit), up the wall, through the ceiling (i have a drop down ceiling in my walk out basement, so not to bad), then down the other wall aprox 30 feet away, to the thermostat. Mine is a two AAA model. When I connected the spade connectors I noticed a very small black thing about 1/16th inch wide and about 1/8th inch tall. I was not sure if this was something very important so I did not want to go pulling on it. I fix machines for a living and I have to remove jumpers all the time but they are usualy to connect the wires directly to the pins the jumper came off of, so I thought it would be over the spade conectors. But anyway I have everything wired it is just my thermostat does nothing on the stove. I personaly dont care about haveing one, my wife just likes to complain that she has to hit the heat range button up and down a few times a day. So it is for her when I am gone. And the toggleing between 1 and 5 is not a problem. I have the new board, the stove is a 2011 model.

Thanks again for the help if I am still lost when I get home friday night. I will post a picture of the board.

To Fire God;
Sorry that I forgot to reply. Have a mound of paperwork from the office and got distracted. By any kind of torque I meant snug and should have stated it as such. Sorry! Torque in sheet metal is usually in low nm range which is the reason we use thumb screws in aircraft. They twist in with minimal pressure and lock securely with an extended lifetime of continuous use. Sheet metal screws have an exceedingly short life expectancy, even in occasional use. As an example of torque, swapping a common house fly is the equivalent of 5 pounds of torque. That type of torque will shred sheet metal in a single pass. Snug is a good word.
Also, I still fail to understand the mechanics of how the ash escapes the overburden of fresh pellets falling into the pot without some type of mechanical agitation. Adding more air to me is synonymous with gas welding. The more air/oxygen you add the hotter the flame and, consequently, the more fuel is consumed at a faster rate? It's basic physics. At the moment the fire goes from barely visible to tall and aggressive with new fuel dropping in. How does ash escape from beneath overburden caused by an influx of heavier solids? As I told Frizman last night, my stove appears to be at a sweet spot where the consumed fuel is almost pure ash before it is replenished and burns hot again. Adding more draft would surely leave me on the ragged edge of waiting for fire between pellet drop cycles while the fresh drop ignites over a period of minutes, which then requires cutting back the feed rate so that the previous fresh drop is not smothered, thereby causing a shut down over time? Hmmmmm?
Large people like myself with small minds are a beeatch. Will still buy a bottle of that cider though. Have a collection of machine grade glass coke bottles from WWII.
:cheese:

Thanks,
Doug

Frizman;
Before pulling any hair, make certain the Honeywell you bought works in the millivolt range. Even the battery types can be tied to the old 24V transformers in older stats for older equipment. The batteries in those only keep the time and date. If it is in the mil range we can keep going, other than that you may have been Ebayed. Also check the output terminals with a voltmeter set on ohms to see if there is closure when the device clicks on and off.
Other than that, I keep forgetting to hand out kudos for your deal on the stove. Likely it was the green eyed monster in me which does wish they had sales like that out here. When I lived in Michigan, TSC was a big deal and anything for home and ranch, that was the place to go. Out here, there carry only minimal stock and there are few, if ever sales of equipment the average Joe might make use of. Actually, if I had not been specifically looking for three point parts to move aircraft around with the power cart, I never would have been in the store to see the price on the stove which sold me over Home Depot. But, that's about me. You cut one elluva deal. Congrats!

Gotta Scoot,
Doug

jaywalker said:

To Fire God;
Sorry that I forgot to reply. Have a mound of paperwork from the office and got distracted. By any kind of torque I meant snug and should have stated it as such. Sorry! Torque in sheet metal is usually in low nm range which is the reason we use thumb screws in aircraft. They twist in with minimal pressure and lock securely with an extended lifetime of continuous use. Sheet metal screws have an exceedingly short life expectancy, even in occasional use. As an example of torque, swapping a common house fly is the equivalent of 5 pounds of torque. That type of torque will shred sheet metal in a single pass. Snug is a good word.
Also, I still fail to understand the mechanics of how the ash escapes the overburden of fresh pellets falling into the pot without some type of mechanical agitation. Adding more air to me is synonymous with gas welding. The more air/oxygen you add the hotter the flame and, consequently, the more fuel is consumed at a faster rate? It's basic physics. At the moment the fire goes from barely visible to tall and aggressive with new fuel dropping in. How does ash escape from beneath overburden caused by an influx of heavier solids? As I told Frizman last night, my stove appears to be at a sweet spot where the consumed fuel is almost pure ash before it is replenished and burns hot again. Adding more draft would surely leave me on the ragged edge of waiting for fire between pellet drop cycles while the fresh drop ignites over a period of minutes, which then requires cutting back the feed rate so that the previous fresh drop is not smothered, thereby causing a shut down over time? Hmmmmm?
Large people like myself with small minds are a beeatch. Will still buy a bottle of that cider though. Have a collection of machine grade glass coke bottles from WWII.
:cheese:

Thanks,
Doug

Click to expand...

When the air flow is correct the pellets (as they burn) will start to ride the air currents in the burn pot this makes them first wiggle and wobble, then stand up and dance, letting the airflow (your agitator) do a better job of removing the ash. It is a very delicate balancing act, you will know things are correct when the dance takes place.

I have no legal means to ship said beverage nor am I allowed to sell it to you. No license to make and sell alcoholic beverages. You can do a batch on your own, it is quite simple to make, the wait is a different matter. $108.00 or so at makebeer.net for a simple all inclusive brewing system for extract based brewing, it even includes the ingredients for your first batch of brew.

I understand the limits of certain fasteners when used to join things made of sheet metal. I also prefer another method. But we don't get to chose in a lot of cases. Such as life.

"When the air flow is correct the pellets (as they burn) will start to ride the air currents in the burn pot this makes them first wiggle and wobble, then stand up and dance, letting the airflow (your agitator) do a better job of removing the ash.  It is a very delicate balancing act, you will know things are correct when the dance takes place. "

Smokey,
I see the dance with a clean stove. With non-top shelf Pellets, (stove chow) after 160 - 200 lbs burned, the space below the burnpot fills up with ash to the point of restricting airflow in my us 5660. Does this sound like a pellet issue or a bypass issue? ( or a bit of both) there is only about a half inch between the burnpot and the air chamber floor. I was thinking of taping off some of the airwash first and then looking at the burnpot holes.

pell it,

Well you could try a bit of plug up and play.

You should note that it will take quite a bit of air to completely keep stuff out of the air chamber below the burn pot and that you also need to keep the good sized burning pellet pieces from being ejected.

It is a balancing act and you can push it too far. I can easily go 14 bags before cleaning the burn pot during the prime burning season but my problem isn't the air chamber getting plugged it is the carbon deposit that sticks to the burn pot. I have plans for an experiment on that situation.

I've been down the ash build up and such it wasn't any fun. If I run on the lowest setting on the stove I've gone over 23 bags before I hit the button for a cleaning. I also suspect that if I was to run the stove in on/off mode on a t-stat I could go even longer because of the multiple purge cycles at shutdown. I haven't tried that and I'm happy going a week between cleanings during burn time.

There is always something to think about and damn that's a big honking burn pot on some of those stoves.

Dear Smokey;
Was pulling your chain about the cider. Was a pilot in a war in another century and haven't had a fermented or distilled beverage since arriving back on US soil. The reason being is that I do have a sweet tooth and would rather drink a quart of my own label maple syrup than a pint of alcohol. Before that, however, steady hands are happy hands when on target and we hid our still behind the maintenance hanger. Daily temps off the asphalt reached 160 degrees and, where all things sugar were diverted for reasons other than my sweet tooth, if you know what I mean.
Secondly, Yes! There are numerous types of lasting fasteners, locking aircraft twists were just referenced because I see them daily. As I wrote much earlier, the 5500 is no more than a thicker cold rolled and stamped steel housing than the tin pan innards. The thickest steel in the entire stove is the fire pot which can be purchased from USS for a piddling two hundred bucks? Wow! It's probably the reason they only guarantee the stove box itself for five years. Now the Pacific Energy I have in my second house here has quarter inch plate top to bottom and is guaranteed forever. The only ban they have is certain types of wood such as Manzanita which burns hot as a cutting torch and can actually buckle reinforced quarter inch plate.
I think I know what you're trying to say but, have a chimney to clean first and a new draft fan arriving soon to replace the one that's faltering at the moment so all wimpering about ash build-up will be put on hold until next week. I did, however see some daylight around the igniter so will replace a few gaskets while installing the new draft fan.


Thanks Smokey, till after later,
Doug

Dear Smokey;
Said I would get back to you after repairs. Cleaned chimney again, two times this month. New draft fan arrived and installed w/new gaskets. Plugged a couple of leaky gaskets and could find no other air spots that could pass through. For the first few days I actually did see the dance you talked about and the pot would almost make a full day without cleaning. That lasted about a week and I'm right back to chisel, scrape and dump every twelve hours. Any other ideas? I do plan on rolling this stove out the door on a quick sale on Craigs after the heating season and buy something a big more. . .ahem, a little better put together if such a stove exists. Have a lot of reading to do before laying down cold cash again.

Thanks in advance,
Doug

Hi Doug,

You'd love the hard cider then, it would keep your sweet tooth happy. Might cause other issues though.

Well if you got the dance to start you are headed in the correct direction.

As far as I can tell bypasses are quite common even after you remove the built in air wash, the poor assembly and sloppy manufacturing does not help in the least. It really pays to go over any stove you plan on buying with a fine toothed comb. Inside stuff stays on the inside and outside stuff on the outside and the only place there should be a meeting to "air" their differences is under and through the pile of pellets in the burn pot.

On the particular stove you have you also have to pay attention to the EVL of the vent (this can reduce air flow if it is out of specification for the stove) and USSC seems to generally have a lower limit before requiring 4" pipe.

I don't know how you did your cleaning of the vent etc... but I'd use something like a leaf blower in vacuum mode attached to the end of the vent (make sure you get the termination cap clean as well). Ash is very good at hiding where you can't see it.

Cheers,
Smokey

Dear Smokey;
I see you have one miscreant hen. Mom used to call that dinner for four. . .with dumplings and gravy. Yummy and Drool! Anyways, probably would have other issues with the cider. Did before I came home when I clipped the tail rotor off a chopper that was landing in front of me. No one harmed but swore off the hard stuff until I got home and then just never developed a taste for it again. Can be dangerous down the gullet of the feeble minded like myself.
But, before we, or more precisely "I" get banned for being too far off topic for too long. Since I work in the back of the home and rarely see the stove in action, the other night I pulled up my easy chair near the tin can, put the TV on a cart so I didn't go completely daft and watched the workings through dinner and a couple hours of commercials afterwards which pass themselves off as prime time entertainment these days.
To make a very long story short. I think I'm scruuued? The chimney was clean. I had to re-drill the firebox vent holes which had glazed over and were half plugged. It finally dawned on me what the problem was and I do not believe it can be resolved to any great extent. I usually run the 5500M on low. That keeps the entire house at just above 80 at 30 outside. Higher than the low setting and everyone suffers heat rash, even in the back bedrooms. But, I started out on setting 4 of 5. The dance was perfect for an hour with all the windows open. I dropped it to four, then three or about one setting per hour. No ash build up until it hit 2. On that setting the glaze started forming and a mild coat of ash covered only the outside of the box furthest from the drop chute. Cleaned the box thoroughly and ran it on low "1" for two hours. I got a good dance for a few minutes at the outset then I noticed the drop chute was piling pellets primarily against the outside of the pot. Very few drops hit the center of the pot. Gave up the good fight and went to bed. Results for the next few nights were the same. After eight hours on low the outside of the pot is 3/4" deep in ash which spreads rear on a decline in depth towards the chute until it chokes off all but a few bottom vent holes. Glazing on the far outside of that square pot is thick and black.
I suppose one could grind back the overhang on the drop chute and into the factory weld but that sounds as dangerous as lighting a match to see how much gas you have left in the lawn mower can. :ahhh: It just doesn't seem right that the stove won't idle with any degree of proficiency. After all, it is an engine, just like an auto or a lawn mower. But, just the aforementioned with a defective carburetor, this thing spills raw fuel into one spot which goes only partially burned while the thing loads up with ash and soot? All comments are welcomed albeit I just thought I would introject this little bit of insight into the group. Buy American, we're fun to watch!
Anyone own a Regency?

Luck to All, :cheese:
Doug

jaywalker said:

Dear Smokey;
I see you have one miscreant hen. Mom used to call that dinner for four. . .with dumplings and gravy. Yummy and Drool! Anyways, probably would have other issues with the cider. Did before I came home when I clipped the tail rotor off a chopper that was landing in front of me. No one harmed but swore off the hard stuff until I got home and then just never developed a taste for it again. Can be dangerous down the gullet of the feeble minded like myself.
But, before we, or more precisely "I" get banned for being too far off topic for too long. Since I work in the back of the home and rarely see the stove in action, the other night I pulled up my easy chair near the tin can, put the TV on a cart so I didn't go completely daft and watched the workings through dinner and a couple hours of commercials afterwards which pass themselves off as prime time entertainment these days.
To make a very long story short. I think I'm scruuued? The chimney was clean. I had to re-drill the firebox vent holes which had glazed over and were half plugged. It finally dawned on me what the problem was and I do not believe it can be resolved to any great extent. I usually run the 5500M on low. That keeps the entire house at just above 80 at 30 outside. Higher than the low setting and everyone suffers heat rash, even in the back bedrooms. But, I started out on setting 4 of 5. The dance was perfect for an hour with all the windows open. I dropped it to four, then three or about one setting per hour. No ash build up until it hit 2. On that setting the glaze started forming and a mild coat of ash covered only the outside of the box furthest from the drop chute. Cleaned the box thoroughly and ran it on low "1" for two hours. I got a good dance for a few minutes at the outset then I noticed the drop chute was piling pellets primarily against the outside of the pot. Very few drops hit the center of the pot. Gave up the good fight and went to bed. Results for the next few nights were the same. After eight hours on low the outside of the pot is 3/4" deep in ash which spreads rear on a decline in depth towards the chute until it chokes off all but a few bottom vent holes. Glazing on the far outside of that square pot is thick and black.
I suppose one could grind back the overhang on the drop chute and into the factory weld but that sounds as dangerous as lighting a match to see how much gas you have left in the lawn mower can. :ahhh: It just doesn't seem right that the stove won't idle with any degree of proficiency. After all, it is an engine, just like an auto or a lawn mower. But, just the aforementioned with a defective carburetor, this thing spills raw fuel into one spot which goes only partially burned while the thing loads up with ash and soot? All comments are welcomed albeit I just thought I would introject this little bit of insight into the group. Buy American, we're fun to watch!
Anyone own a Regency?

Luck to All, :cheese:
Doug

Click to expand...

Doug OAK that sucker if you haven't already!

Then check the fuel feed rate the controller has (there are instructions on here somewhere provided by Polish Princess for the programmable USSC controllers).

ETA: In fact I had already posted it earlier in this thread https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/924520/

As for Buttons the miscreant one I'll keep her. She's cheap summer television.

Dear Smokey;
OAK was installed with the stove. Am currently trying to drop the feed rate but am not sure if the auto mode will accomplish to any great degree. Currently have the feed rate on Lo down to 1.50lbs. hr.. ? No smoked up glass yet. Flame looks a bit retarded but time will tell. No dance in the pot either. Sigh! Still eighty-six in my office. The only way to cool my computers down was to open the garage entrance door into the house. Garage is nice and toasty at 65.

Anybody own a Regency?

Luck,
Doug

Just was digging and thinking about the 5500 stove and came to this thread. Burn pot seems to be fine so far but like everything else am always looking ahead for possible issues and fixes.

I have not kept a close eye on it but it burns strong for awhile, then slows down and acts like a fireworks display, then burns strong again etc. Is this fireworks display the ash ejection? To my knowledge it is working well still. She runs it in the day to get the house into the 70s, then turns down the thermostat and at least right now it doesn't start kicking back on till after bed. Heat range is 1 with the stock feed rate.

For anyone with an issue with ash sticking, I wonder if fabricating a stainless steel burn pot might help? Since I have seen burn pot mods mentioned, next time I am there I will probably just take careful measurements of the burn pot, then duplicate it where I work, and tinker with various things since the burn pot is just a loose drop in anyway.

The fireworks display is indeed the ash ejection, for some reason USSC uses a pulsed combustion blower program (not so sure that is a good thing) but that is another topic for another time.