St. Croix Lancaster conversion

Can you explain what you mean by they don't burn very good? Is the flame lazy, don they create a lot of ash or soot? Does the fire go out unexpectedly? I don't have experience with the corn to pellet conversion, but I imagine more info would help anyone else who has done so to understand your issues.

Auger timing is a good start ... Does the Lancaster have an outside air kit besides the damper? What kind of pellets - soft or hard wood?

Lazy flame or pellets piling up in a St Croix usually means it's plugged up in exhaust path. Bottle brush up through ash traps to clean back wall, compressed air or choke cable hooked to drill through small holes on sides of fire pot, leaf blower trick, etc. All of these cleaning tricks can be found by searching threads.

I have a '09 Lancaster and currently burn corn pellet mix. I have both burn pots and do not bother switching out if burning 100% pellets. I would agree, clean first.

St croix stoves usually have.2 pin jumpers that can be moved on the back of the control board to adjust the auger duty cycle. Thus allows for flexibility with fast or slow burning fuels.

My stove control boards have 4 pins in a horizontal plane. With the jumper on the left 2 pins cycle time is 10 seconds, center is 11.5 sec, right is 8.5 sec. So assuming yours is the same moving from left to right two would increase your feedrate.

For reference, my Prescott factory #5 feed rate is 5.75 seconds auger on with cycle time of 11.5 seconds (50% duty cycle). Never plan on changing it as its usually run on 3 or 4max.

My Lancaster on runs 3.5 seconds with a 10 second cycle time (35% duty cycle), thus one of the reasons it generates less heat on pellets compared to Prescott. However, if i moved jumper pins to right two pins the duty cycle would be 41%. Not quite 50% but an improvement.

One would have to keep an eye on firepot burn levels to avoid burn backs into the hopper obviously.

I'll see if i can find older board pin configurations.

Older board instructions aren't real clear: The 11.5 sec cycle can be changed to 10 seconds by removing the jumper cap from the bottom pin on the J2 jumper and placing it in the bottom 2 pins of the jumper.

It sounds like you already have the cycle time setup for 10 seconds though.

One thing you could do is clock your existing auger on time for each heat setting against the cycle time. (On Time) /(Cycle Time) = duty cycle.

To match the pellet stove factory feed rate it needs to be 50%.

Before doing anything do the leaf blower, It my solve all you problems. That is the ONLY way to get the entire exhaust path clean. Choke cable ect does not do near as good. The one that made me a believer was a Lancaster that would not burn right ect. (like yours). I spent a hour cleaning,pulling fan and cleaning some more running a brush up thru ash traps ect. Before starting I only had about .1 iwc, after cleaning I had about .15 iwc. Still not burning right so I hooked up leafblower for about 15 sec. and WOW! a .3 iwc and stove burned great. From the St. Croix installs that I have cleaned and serviced it seems that a .3 iwc has been what I am coming up with for a clean stove. First thing I do Is pull hose off of vac switch and hook up vac guage. This tells me if my cleaning is doing any good. 3 iwc when the fan starts on high when stove is initially turned on.
I burn pellets or corn in my Lancaster without switcing anything. Originally it came w/ a shallow pellet grate. Then St. Croix came out w/ a pot that looked just like corn pot but had side extensions. I just use my corn pot and run it just like corn, when ash gets up to cutter I throw pellets in on top and cut it just like a corn clinker and continue on.

Double checked my shop Lancaster yesterday, 3.5 seconds on out of 11.5 second period, or 30% duty cycle. Weak compared to 50% Prescott pellet default max setting.

I could change it to 41% if needed vua jumpers but its a small shop and not needed.

With your board you may have to add corn to increase BTU output if duty cycle can't be increased.