Vogelzang VG-5790

Kurlus said:

Thanks to you too then Clad!

Click to expand...

Any new info to pass on ?

Nice flame. 2.5 bags is about 850K BTU input so roughly 700K on the output side.

Edit: Engineering puts the eff. ratings at 95% on combustion and 86% on heat transfer.

Kurlus said:

That was yesterday after installing the plate and running with a clean burn pot. I took one today after cleaning the glass and stirring the burnpot, had about a 1/4-1/2 in of residue in the bottom. Running like that it's got a bigger flame. Going to post another video.

Click to expand...

How well does your burn pot sit in its cradle? That ash build up sounds like you may have some air bypassing the pot.

With the restrictor are you still running the damper low (more closed)? Glass looks a little dirtier as well.

IHP has something there as well to check air getting around the burnpot

Looking at the last video, it seems that you are not letting enough air in, the glass should not be black, it should have a grey / white ash buildup.

As for the burn pot, there is no way to seal it, there is no rope gasket around these pots to stop air leaking past the pot.

Kurlus said:

Burnpot is sitting flush, that's all it can be LOL.

@owen: I'm experimenting with it now. I've run it full open, half closed, full closed and several variants in between. It's running a little under half open right now, but in both those vids I believe it was closed.

Click to expand...

I don 't want to get in here too much but IHP would probably like to see a picture of your burn pot and he is familiar with several locations that can be prone to causing bypasses.

The first place to start with the consumption issue is to verify the proper parts are on the stove and if they have configuration jumpers that they are indeed set correctly.

An incorrect auger motor speed can cause all kinds of fun things to occur.

I had a control board that was set for the wrong firing rate (same board used in three different stoves just change the jumper). Clocking the auger on off times led to finding that little nasty.

SmokeyTheBear said:

I don 't want to get in here too much but IHP would probably like to see a picture of your burn pot and he is familiar with several locations that can be prone to causing bypasses.

The first place to start with the consumption issue is to verify the proper parts are on the stove and if they have configuration jumpers that they are indeed set correctly.

An incorrect auger motor speed can cause all kinds of fun things to occur.

I had a control board that was set for the wrong firing rate (same board used in three different stoves just change the jumper). Clocking the auger on off times led to finding that little nasty.

Click to expand...

Smokey, this stove uses the same control board as the newer US 5660 / Ashley 5660 stoves, it's all done via software in the eprom that's on the control board, there are no jumpers to set as I've looked at this myself with my stove.

There are two boards, the second board is the power board that sends 110v to all the stoves motors via the control board shown below. (Power board not shown here)

Kurlus said:

I can confirm that it's EPROM controlled, no jumpers

Click to expand...

You still need to time that flipping auger and check the rotational rpms.

Then you need to verify that the EPROM actually has the correct parameters in its tables. A 5 second on time is no good if it is supposed to be 2.5 seconds.

Anyone want to discuss programming with a 40+ years of programming type of critter. The jumpers usually just tell a burn program in a PROM what table to select.

SmokeyTheBear said:

You still need to time that flipping auger and check the rotational rpms.

Then you need to verify that the EPROM actually has the correct parameters in its tables. A 5 second on time is no good if it is supposed to be 2.5 seconds.

Anyone want to discuss programming with a 40+ years of programming type of critter. The jumpers usually just tell a burn program in a PROM what table to select.

Click to expand...

There are no jumpers to set.

Kurlus said:

Burnpot is sitting flush, that's all it can be LOL.

@owen: I'm experimenting with it now. I've run it full open, half closed, full closed and several variants in between. It's running a little under half open right now, but in both those vids I believe it was closed.

Click to expand...

Does flush mean there is no space around the pot and it's cradle? Because if this space exists, more and more air goes through this space as pellets start dropping, as the air will seek the path of least resistance. The pot build up will be slow and unnoticeable at first but will pick up speed quickly. I have fought this battle with a different, but amazingly similar stove.
I am familiar with how your burn pot sits, and the ones I have seen in stores all have a gap around them. I would think of a way to close that gap if yours has one, which I suspect it does.

If you watch the first video in this thread, you can see how this pot sits in it's cradle, you will also see the very small gap around the burn pot and the cradle, this is where air will leak by.

CladMaster said:

If you watch the first video in this thread, you can see how this pot sits in it's cradle, you will also see the very small gap around the burn pot and the cradle, this is where air will leak by.

Click to expand...

Exactly, and as long as that exists, burn quality will suffer and build up will exist.

Kurlus said:

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with you or your 40+ years of programming knowledge, there just isn't any jumpers. I can't set something that isn't there.

Click to expand...

Remember the PC Cladmaster.

Yes that is wonderful that there are no jumpers (one less place for the plant on Friday at quitting time -10 minutes to get messed up while thinking of what brew to order), that still leaves the damn parameters in the eprom that matter, it is possible that the controller is the wrong one or has the wrong eprom, etc...

There is still the question of the auger motor rate, if it is a different rpm than what it is supposed to be the feed will be different from what you expect.

Since the stove actually feeds by volume it is also possible that the loading space on the auger is involved.

That is why the timing information is needed.

SmokeyTheBear said:

Remember the PC Cladmaster.

Click to expand...

Eh ? Remember the PC ?

Not with you Smokey ....

Kurlus said:

Ok running on Manual 2, seems to be where I get the best flame, there's a 78 second rotation. There's a small gap around the burnpot that's a little less than 1 scrapper blade width in the front and a little over 1 width on the side. I've got the damper just a little over half open, seems to be on the edge of running a little dirty and blowtorching. It'll have a nice flame for about 5mins, blowtorch for a min or two, then run nice again. Has just a little black soot on the glass but the may have been from before I found the sweet spot.

Click to expand...

That gap is going to be an issue.

Well that is part of it.

How long does it take to make one revolution with the auger motor motor out of circuit and hard wired. In other words what is the true auger motor rpm.

Auger systems are timed feed systems, we are tring to find out if the auger on/off times match a table that the stove maker should have and then to verify that the auger motor is turning at the correct speed.

A system that has a on time twice as long as it should be for a particular heat level but has the correct cycle time will feed twice the pellets that it should. If the controller is producing the correct on/off time and has an auger motor attached to it that is twice the speed it should be it will also feed twice the pellets that it should.

Common auger speeds are 1, 2, 4, and 6 RPM. Your stove IIRC is supposed to use a 1.5 RPM . So if the guys at the plant had access to a 2 RPM motor and the correct timing it would feed 1 and a third times what it should.