Hi, all. I'm pretty new to these forums but have read a lot of threads including several on the Accentra 52i.
I have a 2,400-square-foot Colonial-style house that I bought not quite 2 years ago. My first year I went through probably 800 gallons of oil (ugh). I'd had a Harman pellet furnace at my last house (which I still own but rent out) and was familiar with pellets, so I decided to get an insert in my fireplace (which I had never used since it was so inefficient). My Accentra 52i was installed on 10/28/13 and 99% of the time I love it.
This is one of the 1% times, alas. As of a few days ago, after I'd burned just under 3 tons of pellets (145 bags, to be exact -- I keep very detailed records on these things), after a few hours of normal operation the flame got really small and the heat output was minimal. I turned it off, did some "routine" cleaning (the kind I do every couple of days -- scrape the burn pot, empty the ash pan, vacuum the insides) but that made no difference. I decided to do a more thorough cleaning, during which I take off the bottom plate (behind the ash pan), the medallion, the cast rear covers, etc. -- I did that today. The area behind the burn pot was full of ashes, but the rest of the inside that I checked wasn't bad at all. (Note, about 6 weeks after I got the unit, the dealer had come and done a full cleaning of everything EXCEPT that which you have to pull the unit out to do -- he showed me how to do what he did, and that's what I did today. The unit started up fine after the cleaning today, but the flame was again very small even when I turned the thermostat to its max. Then even the tiny flame started to go out, so I just shut it off entirely.)
Some other info you might need:
- There is no smoke smell or anything like that -- just a tiny flame and very low heat output.
- When I am home, I normally run the unit on room temp with a very high setting (75+) -- this keeps it going as the house temp gets higher and higher (measured by my oil thermostat in the room across the hall). If I don't want the fire to go out, I switch to manual after the fire starts. Usually about an hour before I am going to go to bed, I turn the insert's thermostat down to ~53 (I know that sounds low, but it's actually more like a room temp of 58, and that's my usual setting when I go to bed -- I like a cold house overnight!), then an hour later just before going to bed I do some scraping/etc. since the insert is cool by then. Then I go upstairs to bed, and some time overnight the insert will normally start itself -- I think it typically takes several hours unless we are in the single digits or negative numbers, but I've never run out of pellets overnight.
I guess my biggest question is, any idea what could be causing the very low heat output? Is there more cleaning I should be doing? My dealer said I wouldn't have to do the pull-out-the-unit cleaning except for once a year, and I was going to have them do it the first time, but I am wondering if I need that now.
I have to say I have been very happy with the insert, generally speaking -- until a couple of days ago I had used maybe 100 gallons of oil (I use it only on nights when temps are going to be in the negative numbers, or when I am gone for a few days) and less than 3 tons of pellets, so I figured I would likely save close to $1,000 on my heating costs this winter. But having to have the dealer come out and do another cleaning (they charged me half price, $80, the first time as a "courtesy," but that is still high!) is really going to take away from the savings.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance! (And BTW here's a photo of my kitties enjoying the insert right after I got it!)
I have a 2,400-square-foot Colonial-style house that I bought not quite 2 years ago. My first year I went through probably 800 gallons of oil (ugh). I'd had a Harman pellet furnace at my last house (which I still own but rent out) and was familiar with pellets, so I decided to get an insert in my fireplace (which I had never used since it was so inefficient). My Accentra 52i was installed on 10/28/13 and 99% of the time I love it.
This is one of the 1% times, alas. As of a few days ago, after I'd burned just under 3 tons of pellets (145 bags, to be exact -- I keep very detailed records on these things), after a few hours of normal operation the flame got really small and the heat output was minimal. I turned it off, did some "routine" cleaning (the kind I do every couple of days -- scrape the burn pot, empty the ash pan, vacuum the insides) but that made no difference. I decided to do a more thorough cleaning, during which I take off the bottom plate (behind the ash pan), the medallion, the cast rear covers, etc. -- I did that today. The area behind the burn pot was full of ashes, but the rest of the inside that I checked wasn't bad at all. (Note, about 6 weeks after I got the unit, the dealer had come and done a full cleaning of everything EXCEPT that which you have to pull the unit out to do -- he showed me how to do what he did, and that's what I did today. The unit started up fine after the cleaning today, but the flame was again very small even when I turned the thermostat to its max. Then even the tiny flame started to go out, so I just shut it off entirely.)
Some other info you might need:
- There is no smoke smell or anything like that -- just a tiny flame and very low heat output.
- When I am home, I normally run the unit on room temp with a very high setting (75+) -- this keeps it going as the house temp gets higher and higher (measured by my oil thermostat in the room across the hall). If I don't want the fire to go out, I switch to manual after the fire starts. Usually about an hour before I am going to go to bed, I turn the insert's thermostat down to ~53 (I know that sounds low, but it's actually more like a room temp of 58, and that's my usual setting when I go to bed -- I like a cold house overnight!), then an hour later just before going to bed I do some scraping/etc. since the insert is cool by then. Then I go upstairs to bed, and some time overnight the insert will normally start itself -- I think it typically takes several hours unless we are in the single digits or negative numbers, but I've never run out of pellets overnight.
I guess my biggest question is, any idea what could be causing the very low heat output? Is there more cleaning I should be doing? My dealer said I wouldn't have to do the pull-out-the-unit cleaning except for once a year, and I was going to have them do it the first time, but I am wondering if I need that now.
I have to say I have been very happy with the insert, generally speaking -- until a couple of days ago I had used maybe 100 gallons of oil (I use it only on nights when temps are going to be in the negative numbers, or when I am gone for a few days) and less than 3 tons of pellets, so I figured I would likely save close to $1,000 on my heating costs this winter. But having to have the dealer come out and do another cleaning (they charged me half price, $80, the first time as a "courtesy," but that is still high!) is really going to take away from the savings.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance! (And BTW here's a photo of my kitties enjoying the insert right after I got it!)
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