feed rate of us stove 5500m

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john sawyer

New Member
Oct 31, 2013
18
maine
Hello;
I bought a the 5500m after doing some research but obviously not here as I should have. I also made the mistake of buying 3 tons of pellets with only reviews available online (second mistake).

Right from the start I was surprised by the fluctuating draft fan. The pellet I bought was fireside ultra.

With factory settings the pot burned out the available pellets in a short amount of time (15 min.) I could see I was in trouble.

I started timing the auger as I was getting a cycle type of pellet drop.
1st dribble, 2nd dribble and the third big amount. This cycle was and still is consistent.

I then went and bought some premium 100% hardwood pellets. It burned a bit better but still had the feeding cycle remain the same.

The flame corresponded to this feeding cycle .... low, a little higher then over the top(orange, tall and dirty, then the flame almost goes out before any more pellets drop.

Another fruitless call before I realized I was on my own.

I spent the next 2 months married to the stove and finally finding about 4 separate individual settings that could not be transposed to any other heat range settings requiring the typical marriage maintenance schedule of lots of hand holding and interrupted sleep patterns.

USS then said I was entitled to have a tech come out to look at it and had an allowed billing rate of 30.00 per hour. I called 4, none of who would bill USS directly and as I don't trust USS any more than they do No one is coming.

My next days off I will be taking the auger out and performing the test although my timing of the on and off cycle on HR 5 feed rate 5.00 of 4 seconds on and 4 seconds off should be enough to extrapolate RPMs unless there is a hitch in its gitty-up.

I'm thinking it is a miss timed control board or a consistently faulty auger or motor or both.

Has anyone else experienced a feeding cycle like this in a 5500m stove. Sorry for the long windedness but more info is better then not enough.

Thanks in advance for wading through this lengthy question.
 
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hey i'm sorry that i don't have an answer for you but i couldn't even finish reading your post . it's like one big run on sentence .

if you want help , try breaking it up into sentences and paragraphs . sorry not intending to be the internet police but .....
 
Thanks woody I've cut it back, limiting hyperbolae and stating only the very important stuff.
Not internet police at all, just down right helpful.
 
did they tell you how to turn the air down? I had same problem when I bought mine in dec. I turned feed rate to 2.25 and 4.50 I also run the draft fan in manual mode. for example if I have stove on hr 3 I have draft fan on 1 some pellets 2 or the longer I burn I might have to turn it one notch because of the ash build up in pot.
 
No, I had to learn about that myself. That is what I spent the 2 months doing and the result was 4 separate independent settings for different conditions. These settings again are independent and you can't take one and use it on any other HR setting. It makes being able to use a t-stat impossible. Right now I'm concentrating on 2 settings HR1 and HR4 as to use the Hi/Lo t-stat. Limited success.
Thanks for your response.
 
sorry I don't have a t-state right now.
 
I will offer any advice I can. I have played with many of the settings and now have my stove where it runs for a week solid just add pellets. Then I vacuum out the ashes once every 3-4 weeks.
As usual your questions will be answered by more questions. What are the settings of you High/low feed rate and your high/low draft setting? This can be done by;
high feed rate: press AUX UP and Heat Range Up together a value will be displaced on the screen. Write it down then press on.
Low feed: AUX DOWN and Heat Range Down.
High Draft: AUX UP and Draft fan UP.
Low Draft AUX Down and Draft fan Down.

Your evaluation of the auger can be done simply. Take the back panel off and mark the shaft of the auger with a small dab of white out. In your manual it outlines a "test" setting on page 13. Get to testing the auger this will run the auger at max RPM's. The stove is rated for not more than 1 RPM just watch it for a minute.
I'll be here to help once you can get me these values.

Your not so official online 5500' service guy lol
 
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