Pellets not burning completley

How long have you had this stove?

I bought a Englander Summers Heat from Lowe's and it wouldn't heat. I went though all the heat setting and was also burning Pennington pellets and still had no heat coming from the stove. I couldn't figure it out, such a basic system and it would throw heat.

Finally, I contacted Lowe's and they said they would exchange it for another. I wasn't to keen on a switch, but went for it anyway. The new stove is working fine. Still don't know what the issue was with the first one and never pursued it.

BTW Pennington pellets will not burn with out clinkers in my Englander. I mix them with Spruce Point to get rid of them.

Talk about windows we have 28 single pain windows with sash weights, that will tell you how old they are.

Try closing the doors nearest to the stove and crank it up, knowing pellet stoves take a while to heat up. If the area still doesn't get hot, buy a digital temp. probe and take a reading were the air exits the stove. Mine will go over 250 degrees when it is cranked. With the old one, you could stick your fingers in the outlet holes and it would only be warm.

What are Engenders techs saying?

Chris04626 said:

Havent talked to the techs

All doors are closed, all windows in the hosue is closed. i just cleaned it a few days ago, so nothing she be dirty.

Also any tips on how to clean the piping

I have my stove kiddie cornered with a 90 degree pipe connecting to a straight pipe through the wall tto the outside then my tee then a straight pipe going up. Do you have disconnect the piping from the back of the stove to be able to clean this thing good?

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if the fuel is not burning completely you arent getting the benefit of the stored heat within them , the stove should be able to burn this fuel down to ash provided the pellets themselves are not compremised by moisture or somthing. you should ge up with my tech staff and work with us to find your solution so you dont end up wasting fuel, or wasting time if the fuel is the issue , call my shop, be advised though be patient as its been busy lately with the weather as bad as its been lately. number is 800-245-6489, or Pm or e mail me a daytime phone number and i'll have you contacted

OAK is not the problem have you taken any temps as the hest exits the stove on high???. If not then start there if it is under 230 degrees on high you have a stove/pellet issue. If it is over 230 then you have an insulation problem and need to adress it soon.

Chris04626 said:

how do i take the temperature of the stove?

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shove a thermometer...... just kidding

actually i think he is referring to output temps , check at the room air outlets above the door. as for the square footage ratings these are "best case" states "up to" 2200 sq ft. many variables can affect this , degree of insulation for one , how drafty is the home, not having an OAK installed means for every cubic foot of air the stove pulls through it to heat the house, the same amount has to come back in , this is going to be through the OAK and back out , or without the OAK, through any leaks and drafts the house already has, so the leakiness of the house is magnified by the pull from the vacuum effect put on the house by drawing so much air out of it

Go to the hardware store and get a probe type thermometer that goes over 300 degrees on the read out. As Mike said place the probe in the heat outlet holes just above the door and take a reading after the stove has been running for a couple of hours. It should read over 200 degrees if you'll expect to heat 2000 sq. ft.

Also, I'd get an OAK installed. It will eliminate the outside air coming in from all the cracks to replace the low air pressure created by the stove exhaust. You can also use the thermometer to find air leaks by running it around suspected areas and watch for a temperature drop. This will identify areas that will need to be sealed.

To make things really simple a BTU is the same no matter what produces it. Now your house will require x BTU's an hour to maintain a fixed inside temperature at a fixed outside temperature if your stove pumps out 30,000 BTUs an hour and the inside temperature is x and the wifes stove puts out 5,000 BTUs (and they easily can if the oven is on high) then both together will maintain a temperature of roughly (stove only inside temperature - outside temperature) times ((30,000 + 5,000)/30,000) + outside temperature or (stove only inside temperature - outside temperature) times (35,000/30,000) + outside temperature or (stove only inside temperature - outside temperature) times 7/6 + outside temperature or 7/6 (stove only inside temperature) - 7/6 (outside temperature) + outside temperature or 7/6 (stove only inside temperature) -1/6 outside temperature so if the old stove inside temperature was 68 at 10 outside the new inside would be 7/6(68) - 1/6(10) or 79.3 - 1.7 or 77.6 degrees.

Please note two things your wife's oven isn't doing the entire heating job both stoves are adding their heat outputs to do the job and the above formula isn't one hundred percent correct as the heat loss will also increase as the temperature inside the house increases.

In order to properly size a heating system one must do a fairly detailed heat loss calculation, there are several calculators on the internet it is very instructive to use one as often where you think the largest heat loss is, frequently isn't really where it is.

It is very likely that the heat loss of your house at 70 exceeds the raw BTUs your stove is capable of producing burning the fuel it is burning.

smokey that was confusing!

Nobody ever said that showing all steps used made things easy to understand and one really needs to do a proper sizing of a heating system before buying one. If the system is undersized then it simply won't handle the job.

Then the need to retrofit or find a replacement comes into play.

What is even worse is that once you've done the sizing you have to remember that pellet stoves are rated by input not output.

To make matters worse still is that every single brand of pellet has a different heat content and that is the reason for all of those astericks in the manuals.

If you want even more fun consider that the installation of a pellet stove can increase the heat loss of your building.

Chris04626,

Here is a link to a heat loss calculator http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/HeatLoss/HeatLoss.htm , try it and let me know what it says. If you have any questions feel free to PM me with the questions and with a phone number if you want to talk. I have unlimited wide area telephone service so it won't cost me to call you.

The Englander stove owners manual states that the OAK is "mandatory." It also says that the stove will not function as efficiently with-out it. From what you describe, sounds like that your stove is not getting enough air for combustion. Just my two cents, but I'd add the OAK. I noticed that you are from Maine. If your attic isn't insulated to at least R-50, then all the heat your stove is putting out is going up through the roof.

doghouse,

I agree on the OAK for another reason than Englander requiring it. The amount of air infiltration is increased because of the combustion blower if there is no OAK.

Heat loss can come from many places and I'm not going to say that all of the heat is going through the roof in this case. Some will be because of air infiltration, some will be because of wall area, some from window area, some from the cap area, there may be slab and or floor loss as well.