pc-45 problem pictures at last

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weezel8666

New Member
Feb 16, 2010
60
Phila,Pa
Finally able to get the pictures of the stove and it's exhaust.The stove is filthy after only 6 days.I do scrape the burnpot everyday,but the soot is unbelievable.Got a 6 blink again today,had to run the gas furnace to get some heat. Dealer says going to try to come out tomorrow....
 

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On the first picture it looks like the retainer clip on the right front of the burnpot is not firmly seated down. Ensure the front cover plate and retainer clip are tight against the burnpot-otherwise combustion air will blow out the front-not the holes. Its difficult at times but I do it when I switch from corn to pellets. Had to file my retainer clip and front piece so it was tight against front. There should be no gap on front. See the manual (fig 28) for pictures of retainer clip position. Interior will definitely be dirty after 6 days. Looks ok to me-just like mine.
 
If that's 6 days of burning, that stove is not what I would call filthy. I clean my stove once a week, and what your showing me is not any worse than mine. I hope your dealer didn't give you the old "put some pellets in it and forget about it" speach.
 
So the thick black soot all over is normal for the pc45? When I went to dealers showroom,they hadn't cleaned their stove YET and tops there was some grey ash on the brick in the back of the stove...well i'm glad my stove is normal.
The black soot in the exhaust is also normal? Had this thing a month and the whole thing is black straight to the top....
 
A well set-up and properly running pellet stove ash should be a medium or light grey in color. The only time that may not be the case is when you run the stove on a low heat setting for extended periods of time. Most pellet stoves do not burn well at low settings.

The color of the ash in your first set of pics doesn't look too bad, but that back wall of the firebox seems very dark (black). If you've been firing on low for a long time, try raising the heat setting to high for a couple of hours....you should see that black start to "burn off".
 
I have been running my stove at between 70-72 feed rate of 4 and medium distribution blower. The whole exhaust is black,strait to the top.I can see ablack ring at the top. My dealer seems to think this is normal.My draft reading as of 11/17 was high 60 and low 50.I was also informed this is normal. The joints of the stove are not sealed with silicone (which is specified in the manual) and he said they don't need to be.I was never given a pellet burnpot,only a new front end gate and the dipswitches were adjusted after a month of my insisting there are adjustments to be made when burning pellets. He said there were no adjustments to be made until I emailed him the page from the Harman manual....I have had status 6 blinks and he is yet to come out AGAIN to see if he can figure out what the problem is...My little white set screw is ALL the way clockwise...I really don't think these guys know what they are doing,so it is the blind leading the blind.....
 
What pellet brand are you burning?(sorry if I missed it)

Also feedrate 4 might be high. my buddy lousyweather swears by feedrate 3 1/2. Try turning it down to clean up the burn.
 
rufusmom said:
So the thick black soot all over is normal for the pc45? When I went to dealers showroom,they hadn't cleaned their stove YET and tops there was some grey ash on the brick in the back of the stove...well i'm glad my stove is normal.
The black soot in the exhaust is also normal? Had this thing a month and the whole thing is black straight to the top....

looks like fairly normal ash buildup for a week of burning... that stuff will settle on every flat surface in the stove... If it irritates you that bad, then brush it down into the ashpan w/ your scraper tool once in a while.
Black soot in the exhaust normal? Yes, you are burning solid fuel. It should not be staining up the side of the house, but some stuff in the pipe happens when you burn wood products.
The stove at the dealers shop is probably like the ones at our shop: Run hard 24/7... everyone that comes in wants to see what they'll do, so they tend to run hot most of the time, cranked up in stove temp mode. That in itself helps keep a cleaner stove. Might I reccommend trying stove temp mode once in a while: sounds like this thing is just idling along in room temp alot, thus the reason for the 6 blink status light... where is the room sensor tip located? if it is just hanging right next to the stove, then this thing is never gonna get outta first gear for you. Tell the dealer to bring out the DDM and plug into the board to get you some black and white numbers on what is actually going on inside the stove.
 
You have some good pointers and questions here, and yes, a pic of the stove while burning might help. As Jay asked, what kind of pellets being burned?

Last year, in the P68, when I switched from Greene Team (hardwood) with a feed rate of 4-4.5 to Okies (softwood) I got the same black soot all over the walls and everything inside firebox. Green Teams did not do that but the Okies did at the higher feed. Lowered the feed rate to 3-3.5 and ran it full bore for half an hour, it cleaned right up and stayed clean. BUT, I did not get a 6 blink status.

Also, I dont think the pipe being sealed is necessary all the time if it has internal seals and was properly installed. If it doesnt leak smoke you should be OK there.

Edit: as summit mentioned, the ash looks ok, the black soot may be darker than I would personally like to see in my stove. But that's just me being picky.
Also, this years Greene Team are burning much darker ash than last year. Very fluffy, but darker. Not giving the black soot though. Feed rate this year is about 3.5-4 on Green Team for me.
 
What is a ddm? Sorry VERY new to burning pellets,only been TRYing to burn for about a month and all kinds of things have been going wron...from smoke everywhere...to teakettle squeeling ....to wrong burn pot ....and status 6 blinks,witha short burn time.
Ran at stove mode medium last week,almost empied half the hopper in a few hours...
 
rufusmom said:
What is a ddm? Sorry VERY new to burning pellets,only been TRYing to burn for about a month and all kinds of things have been going wron...from smoke everywhere...to teakettle squeeling ....to wrong burn pot ....and status 6 blinks,witha short burn time.
Ran at stove mode medium last week,almost empied half the hopper in a few hours...

The ddm is Harman's Digital Diagnostic Module (something like that) that they use to retrieve burn information that the controller uses to make real time adjustments to the fire.
 
Is there a 45 degree bend at the rear of the stove before the exhaust vent exits the house? And is the venting 3" or 4" and how tall is the vertical section and are there any other jogs in the venting?
 
Smokey is right! I get 12.5 EVL just with the elbows and tee. Not including pipe which looks to be 3". EVL is to high IMHO for 3".
 
ok..45 coming off the stove into 12" lenght of 3" pipe.exit thru wall into t. 4" pipe from there. about 20 feet straight up after the bends pictured..all 4" pipe.
 
I'd be tempted to make certain that your OAK had no dip followed by a rise and that any curves are gradual and don't form any true bends. From the pictures it looks like it might be going down and then coming back up and also have a bend.

I'd also would have had that T do double duty by having it turned to enable the sloping pipe to only require one 45 degree bend.

I would also have made the 4" transition at the stove.

The first item you should be able to do yourself without incurring any additional costs.

I have problems keeping my stove from getting black on the sides of the rear wall in a low fire situation, when the stove is fired higher the black becomes replaced by gray and then almost white.

Sometimes it just takes a minor change to go from black to gray, even changing to a different pellet can do it, so can taking extra care in seeing that the burn pot is well brushed and scraped and that all of the holes in it are clear and original size.



Jay the last time I checked 45 degree bends carry an EVL of 3 so the three bends, T, horizontal to the outside came to 15 + 20 feet of vertical makes 25 + the slope. Was out of 3" land almost at the start.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Jay the last time I checked 45 degree bends carry an EVL of 3 so the three bends, T, horizontal to the outside came to 15 + 20 feet of vertical makes 25 + the slope. Was out of 3" land almost at the start.

Bear, PVP has the EVL for 45 at 2.5. My math was based on that. That danged 3" to 4" increaser tee and the gas vent had me fooled into 3 inch all the way. A picture says a 1K words, but are they right?
 
rufusmom said:
Burning barefoot pellets..
I can't offer any thing constructive about your venting setup, but I can tell you the feed rate can make a big difference in the black soot factor. When I tried the Okies last year, I had the feed rate up about 3 1/2 and there was black soot all over. I lowered it to 2 this year when I tried, and any black that appeared quickly disappeared. It's worth a shot, but my guess is there's more going on than that.
 
Took stove apart to clean today,someone asked what color was the esp probe wire,it is black.Cleaned fines,all inside the firebox area,the burn pot ,vacuumed out any fuz bunnies...put room probe along the base board instead of behind the stove. Found out service guy siliconed the oak to the stove,now what cant get it off without breaking it....
 
You shouldn't need to remove the oak to make the changes I mentioned as the tubing is flexible.

The OAK should be sealed, however usually a metal strap clamp with a worm gear screw does the trick quite well at the stove end. Not sure about the attachment requirements on your stove.

Was it me who asked about the color of the ESP probe? If it was the reason was to make sure it was clean, it is metal and needs to be periodically cleaned, where it lives is kinda messy.
 
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