New CAB50 - Problems

Hello all. New member, and new to pellet stoves for that matter. I have a shop building where I installed a new Heatilator Cab50. The building is 22 x58 and uninsulated. I know, it is asking a lot to heat that space, but I thought if I could raise the temp a bit it would be nice.

Shopped several dealers of the high end stoves before buying the CAB50 from the farm store. Main reason was because the high end dealer told me that it had the same components as their expensive stove, and the bottom line to me was more reasonable. Stove is raised up on an iron stand 13" and I am running ICC pipe. From the connecter T it is 4" running straight up about 12' to a 2' long 45 degree section then through the ridge for a total run of about 18 feet. The stove was manufactured summer of 2013, so most current changes I would assume.

First time installed it readily fired up. All seemed well at first. But then I recognized that it wasn't throwing much heat. Convection fan came on briefly after being run for a half hour or so, then stopped, and came on again briefly when I shut the unit down. Flame was inconsistent and almost died several times during the hour or so it was running. Shut down operated as it should, as far as I know, pellets stopped dropping, flame dies, blower fan ran for a while before shutting off.

Read the manual for trouble shooting (a pretty good manual, I'd say). Checked the hopper feed adjustment - all the way open. Discovered the unit was shipped with control dial set to "1", and reset to "4" per the manual. Hoped that would fix issues.

Next burn - flames better but still inconsistent. Still not throwing heat. Called customer service and discussed the convection blower not working. Understood that should be on when the temp came up (red light in control on). Bypassed snap disc #1 and fan came on, so assumed snap disc bad.

New snap disc arrived and installed. Convection blower does not come on.

What is my next step? Farm store where purchased has no service, but I am pretty capable of doing most of the work if I can get it diagnosed. I'm thinking control box bad?

Another thing - It has been cold in the shop. Although uninsulated the building is dug into a hillside so only the front and roof are above ground. Rarely (or should I say most years) does it get below freezing in the building. I realize that I am blowing cold air past a short flame path, but the highest air temp at the stove output has been 110 degrees. I think it should be higher that that.....

A long post, I understand, but I think I have all the details. I appreciate any help - lets see what we can do to get things right! Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. Just about gone thru the first bag of pellets - Kirtland brand. Been running on high. At times the flame is burning right - 10" tall or so, but far too often flames just at the top of the burn pot. Would like to have a more consistant high flame if possible. Hopper feed gate open all the way.

I just figured this would throw more heat. As I mentioned, the highest temp in the air path 1" from the stove has been 110 degrees - seems like it should be more than that. I realize that the location is not ideal, being in the cold and all, but I think that it should have better output.

Turning up the dial on the control increases the pellet flow? I should try going from 4 to a higher number?

Played with the stove for an hour or so yesterday while in the shop working. It was about 32 degrees inside. It took about 40 min for the convection fan to come on and it only came on for about 4 minutes or so. Looking at the design of the stove, snap disc #1 is installed on a sheet metal panel that is about 3/4" from the fire box. As the stove warms up the sheet metal "oil cans" and puts it further away from the heat source. Held the panel in towards the fire box and the fan came on again but only briefly.

Thought about that design. Snap disc too far from heat source to work consistantly. Moved snap disc to the exhaust blower tube and the convection blower worked. As the exhaust blower tube conducts heat from the fire pot it seems like a better place from which to control the convection blower. Then the blower would come on close to the green light/red light parameters of the control box. So.... I may wire the snap disc to the tube and see how it affects performance.

Just want more output, guys. Seems like in one thread reports of 200 degree at the stove in the blower airstream were common. I think I need that. Any ideas are appreciated.

I'll check the control box # when I get home tonight. Damper - I don't recall seeing anything of the damper in the instruction manual. Where is this damper of which you speak?

Contol Box is #7058-188. Changed the dial to the correct #, which is #2, as verified by the tech I spoke with at HHT. Interesting that units made in different years have different control boxes.

Sealed up the shipping bolt holes and the slots in the back panel per the tech bulletin that was in another CAB50 thread here.

Burned the last of the load of the Kirtland pellets, and replaced with another brand. Having a brain flush and can't remember the brand name. We'll see how it goes with those........

Well, kinda back to the start. Moving the control to "2" didn't seem to improve the burn. Will barely stay fired on low, hardly better on medium. Only looks good on high and that is only if there is about a quarter bag of pellets or more in the hopper - when it is low they just don't want to feed.

Had an interesting discussion with a tech at HHT. Sounds like I should not have considered a pellet stove for my application. According to the tech it won't do what I ask it to do. My desire was to come home, start the stove, go have dinner, and come back to a warm shop. The tech said that as most shops have high ceilings and poor insulation, a pellet stove has to be burning all the time to try and keep a shop warm - and will never get as hot and radiate heat as a wood stove will. I have been in plenty of shops that used a wood stove and I expected the pellet stove to heat as well as a wood burner. The previous owner of my shop had an old wood fired range in there and claimed it heated it up well.

I talked with a couple of dealers about my pellet stove wants, and none of them said one wouldn't suit my needs. I even had pictures to show them what the shop looks like. They were more than happy to sell and install a pellet stove to the tune of $4k or so, and did not try to steer me to a wood burner. One of the dealers said he would throw in a couple of ceiling fans if I bought from him - yeah, he understood I have a tall ceiling.

Looking like an expensive education, albeit I did it myself at half the cost of the dealers. Live and learn. Now the question is - cut the loss or start lowering the ceiling and insulating........

The HHT rep did say that increasing the pellet output by turning the control to "3" will increase the feed by 10 percent. Burned for about two hours on high today. Fifty degrees outside, 34 in the shop. Temp didn't rise much after the two hour burn, but the flame seemed to be more steady.

Stay tuned.......

Thanks for the replies. Been away for a week so haven't anything to add. Will see what happens in the next several weeks as it may heat up outside. Probably will not consider a wood stove in the future as a replacement. As I only work in the shop a couple of hours per night a few times a week it just does not seem practicable to use a wood stove, as I wouldn't feel comfortable letting it burn out when I wasn't around.

Maybe that is because I am not familiarized with wood burners in general. There is always the option of adding a cheap? woodstove to use in the front part of the shop by the big garage door. The building has a block chimney; the prior stove had a 6" pipe inserted into the chimney. Don't new stoves have 8" pipe, and you need to run a liner up the chimney?

What a coincidence - just re-installed the stove yesterday and fired it up. I added some insulation to the garage and wanted to see how she would work. Fired it up, watched it for about 20 minutes and went to dinner. When I got back about an hour later, the stove was out. Couldn't get it to work again. Dead cold.

This morning I got it to fire again, but just can't get a high burn. Flames (if it is usually just flying embers) rarely above the burn pot. Pulled out the pellets and noticed that the feed auger didn't seem to work, but the motor was turning. Shut down, and pulled the motor and auger. The tube was full of pellets, but they were apparently bridging the opening for the chute to the burn pot. Cleaned out, re-installed and fired up again.

It just does not want to burn high. I think that pellets aren't dropping fast enough. Feed gate has been from shut down to fully open, and the only way to get it produce flames is to continually push the reset button. Something is not working........ Reading the troubleshooting guide and watching the video leads me nowhere. Can't think of any thing else to try.

Maybe the magnetic switch is bad. I will try jumping that, but don't think that will do anything.

Calling the MFG tomorrow for more help. Thinking I have a lemon, and have wasted my bucks. Hope not.

SmokeyTheBear said:

I have a suggestion, if the convection blower isn't coming on and staying on for the purposes of properly adjusting the burn so that at least the flame is set correctly per the manual I'd jump that snap disc. This will allow the stove to be adjusted and while doing that the convection fan can be monitored to make certain it (the convection blower) isn't shutting itself down (they can do that all on their lone). That way you can set the burn and monitor the convection blower. With out the burn set correctly all temperature measurements are for naught.

The stove's controller should be in default mode for the stove you have. The adjustment is made in high fire mode, and the damper may be needed.

There are several things that might be going on, the candle in a tent is one of them as far as heat goes but first we have to produce the heat and not send it out the flue. Then the heat must transfer to the convection air side of the stove, then and only then can it actually come out of the stove.

Click to expand...

Last year, thinking the snap disc for the convection blower was bad, I got another. I wired it to the metal box that the exhaust blower is on - so now the convection blower works when the exhaust temp is up - essentially the same as jumping the disc would do.

Controller in Default mode? You mean the Blue light flashing/ numbered dial setting? I had set it at three last year per HHT conversation.

Yeah, I agree that have to find a way to heat it up. It does seem like the exhaust pipe is way hotter than the airstream when the convection blower is on.

Went out to the garage late this afternoon to work on the stove again. Did three things. Jumped the magnetic switch leads. Closed the damper plate to about half. Moved the snap disc back to the orig. location on the inside panel.

Started it up, and got it working pretty well. What I think is that when I had the snap disc on the exhaust blower housing (which got the convection blower running sooner) it not only kept the firebox cool, but there must be something in the control that reads the temps from that snap disc, and having placed it in a hotter location than which it was designed for, it slowed the pellet feed. Moving the snap disc back to the factory location got the pellet feed right, the box temp up, and it burned with a much more steady flame. The warmer (hot) cabinet actually allowed it to actually blow (almost) hot air when the convection fan eventually came on.

So I may have been the cause of my own problems, but when I originally installed the stove the blower would rarely come on and stay on. Maybe because it was much colder in the garage. When I figured out how to make the blower work, it might have been the start of the poor operation.

So I have some more tuning to do. Reset the control, and play with the damper. Funny thing - the manual says nothing about the damper. How is it supposed to work - closing it down should make the burn hotter?

Not going to call it right yet - but it looks like we're getting somewhere