Aw man, I learned something new today!

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
I serviced a customer today, they had a Lennox Whitfield P30 insert. Said it wasn't working. We had been to the stove in December last year for its winter cleaning so it wasn't that bad. I pulled it out, disconnected the vent, removed the burn grate, stuck my vac in the exhaust collar and fired her up. Combustion and convection blower can on full then idled down, pellets fed so I opened the door and put my hand in front of the igniter to see if it was warm. So here was the thing I had never noticed before. There was hot air blowing out of the igniter tube. Never realized it, not sure if all Whitfields with ignition are like this but the weep holes for the igniter are inside the convection blower wall. Awesome awesome awesome! Keeps the ash out of the tube AND provides pressurized ignition as well as equalateral cooling of the igniter. Many stoves draw air across the cartridge but rely on the stove to make a vacuum seal and it sucks it across. Work as long as there is enough air flow, dirty stove may equal no ignition or worse, premature igniter failure. Wicked cool to find something new with such an old unit. Very excited.always wondered why Whitfields had the convection blower running at start up, makes sense now.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: John Ackerly
Apparently the old Whits were pretty well engineered. Nice to see a machine that works like that.
 
And they have trashed every stove company they have bought.
 
I'm new at this, so please excuse.
The auger can't move the fines to the burnpot?

Nope. The ones with the drop feed system won't even feed pellets if there are too many fines.
The pellets just kinda sit on the fines & as the auger turns the fines just slide in the auger.
They don't go up or down.
They just stay in place.
 
Interesting. Thanks.

Depends on the stove. My drop feed easily carries fines with it, never had a jam in 30 tons give or take. I have even put previously wet pellets that were now sawdust through without issue.

When I empty my hopper between brands I scrap all of the fines to the auger and watch them get used up before I add the New pellets . No hopper switch on my stove.
 
If one reads the manual, god forbid we do that:), most manufactures recommend to run the hopper out every so often to help remove any pellet fine accumulations.
 
Convection fan on start up, so blows cold air?
 
My pellet stove preheats the air before convection fan on, also my oil fired furnace. My overhead fan cools me off when it's 90 F room temp.
 
IHATEPROPANE, What model unit do you own ?
 
My Cumberland 3650 has an air pump that blows air over the ignitor to keep it from getting too hot.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.