Learning curve on Lopi Leyden

What I have learned in the last 6 weeks..
1) Never (I mean NEVER) change your mind and turn off the stove after you have begun the manual start up, you will fill your house up with smoke quickly as for some reason the exhaust fan shuts off immediately as well. Furthermore don't decide to walk the dog immediately after doing such a thing, to kill time waiting for the cool down to clean the stove. Especially if you expect your wife to get home during that time period. She evidently is not a fan of a house filled with smoke. Go figure... Furthermore make sure that she knows where you are walking the dog or that you have your cell phone with you as she will become VERY agitated.

2) Filling the hopper up directly from the bag is fine on the two lowest (Green) heat settings, but if you try to do so at medium (Yellow) the cast iron gets hot enough to melt plastic, this leads to a "Fine" mess. Pellets, fines scattered throughout the dining room.... Sorry again honey!

3) Take the damn fuel gate off imediately

Other than that all is well running on manual mode with now 2 1/2 tons of Energex in the garage. Oh yeah I also learned that burning Energex creates a lot of ash, but I still have no idea why some people have to scrape their burn pots daily??? I haven't seen a clinker yet....

I almost forgot the most important thing that I learned...if you purchase a pellet stove simply as a money saving measure you will be very disappointed. Your ROI will be many years out Though money savings can be part of the equation, reducing your fossil fuel dependency, increasing your heating options to include biomass fuels should be a larger part of your decision. And the ever popular don't put it in your UNFINISHED basement!

Utilitrack said:

Though money savings can be part of the equation, reducing your fossil fuel dependency, increasing your heating options to include biomass fuels should be a larger part of your decision.

Click to expand...

Exactly! Got mine as a supplement to save a bit on oil and also so I wouldn't have to use and maintain my inefficient prefab fireplace anymore. After 10 years the refractory panels were crumbling and it sucked more heat out of the house than putting it in.

Mines sort of a heat supplement, fireplace replacement. I know it'll take some years for it to pay back, but it's paid for and I like it, and I don't use much oil anymore, that's nice.

Since it replaced my fireplace, what I really like is turning it on and getting a flame in a matter of minutes and no more chopping & carrying dirty wood--No buyer's remorse here.

Oh, My Lopi Leyden.

Ok, just got the update from the distributor on the need to remove my feed plate. How does one do this? They said to pull the interior brick off the back, but access from there seems limited to 4 screws near the feed slot. Did I not go far enough in my disassembly? or do you have to access the flap from the feed hopper? I didnt want to start prying on my stove guts with a screwdriver.

I am having a heck of a time with cleaning on this unit, it seems like it needs it after 3-4 bags of hardwood pellets, is this what you are seeing as far as ash in the upper chamber?

I am also having an issue with pellet feeding, the pellets wont cascade into the auger without a bump/shove and a reload of pellets. I understand that removing that gate may reduce this problem, but then does it chance burning into the auger, and then up into the hopper? And, does any of this void factory warranties?

Other than that, heats pretty well, 1800 sf colonial, thermo on 70, furthest room upstairs gets to 67 with no fans other than stove blower on.

I never had any "clinkers" with my Leyden either until recently. The dealer replaced my broken ceramic refractory panel with steel ones. They look much nicer and I don't think I'll break them, but am wondering if this resulted in my clinkers. When the stove is off and I'm cleaning it, I can sometimes feel a cold draft coming in from what I imagine is the chimney (I have a direct vent out the side of the house). I'm thinking the steel is interacting with the cold and creating more condensation, resulting in my clinkers. In any event, I love the stove and I didn't think any heat could beat hot water heat but I'm enjoying the warmth I'm getting from the stove. I don't care if it takes me years to recoup the investment.

BlackDog-
1) Fuel gate removal is done from the top of the chute in the main chamber-one phillips head screw to remove.
2) I am cleaning the stove top to bottom twice a week due to ashes, 15 minutes each time. I have to sweep out ash from bottom of chamber into the holes provided on either side of the burn pot almost daily due to ash build up, I think it is more the pellets then the stove's performance.

Again with that said I am pleasantly surprised by heat output, keeps main floor at 71-72 degrees and second floor at 68-69 in our 1800' sf cape with no fans etc. Not sure that the 3 tons I started out with six weeks ago will be enough as I have already gone through 1/2 a ton.

Thanks, cant wait to get home and get putr to work on it.

Yes BlackDog, remove the fuel gate, and don't worry about fire going up the chute. I think you'll find the stove runs much nicer afterward, and will pretty much eliminate any pellet jams in the chute.

As for cleaning the ashes out, I've let the ashes build up until they were almost even w/ the top of the burn pot, and found no change in how the stove ran at all.

I agree with macman...but I've also found that amount of air can have a dramatic effect on the amount of ash. I was shooting for a pretty angry flame before, and would adjust air to the point that pellets were ALMOST hopping out of the pot, but not quite. My ash buildup was pretty high. I cut the air back a bit, not to where it's "lazy"...but back down a bit from where I had it, and I get a lot less ash. I think in my case, I was blowing the mostly burned pellets out before they completely burned, hence more ash.

Pellet gate is one screw on my Yankee, right on top of the feed chute that feeds pellets to the pot.

The next experiment I'm going to run is with my electronic intant read thermometer, I'm going to measure actual air temperature coming out of the tubes while changing air settings. I'm curious to see where the optimum heat/air setting is.

Jim