We just purchased a used Napoleon free standing pellet stove ( 3months old) and no matter what we do we just don't seem to be able to get it to burn hot. We have installed outside air, changed pellet brands, played with the air intake etc....... The air coming out of the stove is lukewarm most of the time. If we turn the pellets all the way up we get build -up in the burn chamber. Even if the stove is running well when we go to bed, we wake up to a lazy flame and unburned pellets in the pot, this is with premium pellets. The unit has a rod on the side for controlling air intake and we have tried every setting there is. We have many friends with pellets and all of theirs run hotter than our. We are also having to clean the inside of the stove every 2 days due to build up of ash. Does anyone have any ideas? We contacted Napoleon and they were no help.
Napoleon not Burning hot enough
- Thread starter sailbird
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it could be the pellets. also, what size fresh air intake did you install? when i run my stove i pull the air inlet rod all thew way out.
sorry to say youre not going to find to much info on this stove here. did you do a really good cleaning on it when you got it?do you have the manual? if not you can download one on there site. i have this stove and it took me a while to get it running halfway descent. how do you have it vented? i pretty much always run mine on high. it will go for a good 4 or 5 hours before the burnpot starts to fill up. i did go through 3 or 4 diffrent brands of pellets before i found a good brand yhay wood burn good though.
sorry to say youre not going to find to much info on this stove here. did you do a really good cleaning on it when you got it?do you have the manual? if not you can download one on there site. i have this stove and it took me a while to get it running halfway descent. how do you have it vented? i pretty much always run mine on high. it will go for a good 4 or 5 hours before the burnpot starts to fill up. i did go through 3 or 4 diffrent brands of pellets before i found a good brand yhay wood burn good though.
Thanks, we have a 2" outside air through the wall to the outside. It runs about 20". The stove had only burned 10 bags of pellets when we bought it. We seem to need to run it on about 4 1/2 to get it hot. Today we disconnected the outside air and it seems to run hotter. We have the manual and have tried everything it says. We are on pellet brand #2 and maybe we need to try another brand. Do you use soft or hardwood pellets?
right now im burning green team pellets which are premium grade.if your stove is running hoter with the fresh air intake dissconnected i would leave it that way.
webbie
Seasoned Moderator
First question - how long does a bag last you?
Second, where is the stove located in the house - cold room? Open to many areas?
That brand of pellet stove is not very well known and appears to be sold mostly by onlne discounters. That does not mean it does not work well, but the possibility certainly exists. Do your friends have the same brand of stove and similar houses?
Second, where is the stove located in the house - cold room? Open to many areas?
That brand of pellet stove is not very well known and appears to be sold mostly by onlne discounters. That does not mean it does not work well, but the possibility certainly exists. Do your friends have the same brand of stove and similar houses?
When it is really cold we go through about a bag and a half a day. The stove is located in the center of the house. It is an old victorian so yes it is open to a few rooms. The house is small however. Our friends all have different brands. It is the actual air coming out of the stove that does not get really hot unless we run the stove at pretty close to maximum and with the damper all the way open. It does seem to be running better with the outside air disconnected. We did check the flexible hose and outside intake and their are no obsructions.
webbie
Seasoned Moderator
My theory is that outside air may make some stoves burn worse...a theory only. After all, you are adding vastly colder air to the fire.....I was taught that cold air added to a fire makes the combustion worse. Since your house does not sound "tight", you may be better without it.
Before we go too far, understand this:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/You_and_a_BTU/
and also read this:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/14806/
Notice my post says "Also, keep in mind that the temperature of the output air depends on the temp of the incoming air! I have a Pellet stove in my shop - which gets very cold, and therefore the air coming out is usually not very hot! That is because the stove is pulling in cold air…
In other words, the key is the temperature RISE of the air coming through it."
So if the house is relatively cold and drafty, the air coming out of the stove may seem cold. It might be 95 degrees or even 100 degrees, but a shower or bath at 100 degrees will not seem hot either.
So what I am saying is that it might be normal......not stating that as fact, but as one possibility.
Before we go too far, understand this:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/You_and_a_BTU/
and also read this:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/14806/
Notice my post says "Also, keep in mind that the temperature of the output air depends on the temp of the incoming air! I have a Pellet stove in my shop - which gets very cold, and therefore the air coming out is usually not very hot! That is because the stove is pulling in cold air…
In other words, the key is the temperature RISE of the air coming through it."
So if the house is relatively cold and drafty, the air coming out of the stove may seem cold. It might be 95 degrees or even 100 degrees, but a shower or bath at 100 degrees will not seem hot either.
So what I am saying is that it might be normal......not stating that as fact, but as one possibility.
when you have the stove running at setting 4 how does the flame look then? just for sh!ts and giggles check the vacuum line going to the vacuum switch. if your looking at the front of the stove ,its on the left side. you have to take the cover off but its only 4 screws. it does sound like its running right though. i honestly think that the only way to get descent heat out of this stove is to run the hell out of it on high. i have mine in my basement and i run it between 5 and 6 for the most part and that heats the basement big time and heats the first floor at around 70 which i guess is pretty good.
We kept it burning hot all night. Seems as if we really need to set pellet on maximum and air all the way open. It is burning much better with the outside air disconnected. I guess we will just have to accept the fact that the stove is going to burn a lot of pellets. The house is 71 which is the warmest it has been since we got the stove. It was a very cold night so we are doing well.
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