Englander 55-SHPEP performace?

bogamilsan · Feb 22, 2011

Hi, I'm new to pellet stoves and I just installed a Summers Heat 55-SHPEP which I got from lowes.

The flame is blazing, yet I don't think I'm getting the heat output I should be. I'm having troubles keeping a ~200 sqft room near 70 degrees let alone the adjacent rooms.
Even on 9-9 it seems that the only thing that gets warm is the small room its in, and at that point, the blaze scares me to keep it on.

The latest adjustments 4-4-1 seem to give off some decent heat when standing in front of the unit. The stove is very hot to the touch too. The fan (120cfm) seems to be blowing right at high setting, although I have nothing to compare it to. (It seems like this unit could move more hot air with a bigger cfm fan)

Could my room/house be leaking heat that bad?

I contacted Englander several times with no definitive answer. And I've also read some posts where people seem to just have bought a defective unit.

My question to other 55-SHPEP, 25-EP owners:

How hot is your stove and how much sqft can you heat? I know all setups and houses are different, I'm just looking for a comparison as to what I should expect from this stove.

Thanks!

pauly2110 · Feb 23, 2011

i have the 25-ep and i love it so far, yes it has its bad points but overall im heating a 2000 sq ft colonial my house was built in 2007 so im guessing its pretty tight, on 20 TO 30 degree day i keep it on setting 2 on both and living level stays at 67-73 and upstairs 65-70. When days get in single digits i run it on 3 and i get 70 throughout house.....so far im very happy with it and i have been burning green teams and cant complain either, just hate when i open the stove the ash gets on the floor bc the ash piles up on glass on top of door gasket thats my biggest pet peeve thus far...

imacman · Feb 23, 2011

bogamilsan, welcome to the forum.

As for your stove, there are many factors to why certain stove/house combo's heat better, but your 200 sq. ft room should be like a furnace on 9-9.....having to run on 9-9 doesn't sound right at all. I have an Englander 10-cpm and even with temps this winter down to -5, I have never had my stove above 7-9, and I live in a leaky log home.

What pellets are you burning?

Is the 4-4-1 setting the way it came from the factory?

How old is the house?

Have you tried unplugging the power leads to the blower, and running a 120 volt power "test" cord directly to the convection fan ( I made one from an old lamp cord), to make sure it's running at full speed? (make sure unit is off & unplugged if trying this).

bogamilsan · Feb 23, 2011

I should mention that I converted this to a insert with the kit. I live in a split level/ raised ranch. The stove is on the level below grade. That room w/o heat is 55 degrees. I left the stove on 4-4-1 and 5-9 all day and the 200 sqft room reaches like 71. I leave the door open to the staircase for the hot air to rise to the upper floor with the help of a fan.

pauly -- those numbers sound promising. My house was built in 1972, perhaps average insulation is a good guess. total its 2400 sqft with cathedral ceilings, so far i can heat one room well :/. Do you have to run a bunch of fans to distribute the air? How long does it take for your top floor to reach steady state temps? When you run your stove is it like blazing? I'm guessing on 2 or 3 it isn't. Also, how many bags per day are you using?

imacman -- 4-4-1 is what i dialed in after one tech told me to change the numbers to see what happens. for me, 4 or 5 for low feed seems like a sweet spot for the flame. I got the stove on 4-3-1 with the same flame, any thing lower seems to make a half height flame. The blower idea seems like a good idea, i too wondered if it was blowing at top speed. I would estimate the air flow output is less than that of a public bathroom hand dryer although the distribution across the several tubes might be skewing the perception. Anyone with streamers and a vid cam? I'm on my 3rd type of pellet, fireside, clearchoice, maines choice (how many "choices" are there?).

btw, Mike H. talked to me over the phone to help diagnose, so I'm trying some things out. I'm posting here for comparison and inspiration

pauly2110 · Feb 23, 2011

bogamilsan said:
I should mention that I converted this to a insert with the kit. I live in a split level/ raised ranch. The stove is on the level below grade. That room w/o heat is 55 degrees. I left the stove on 4-4-1 and 5-9 all day and the 200 sqft room reaches like 71. I leave the door open to the staircase for the hot air to rise to the upper floor with the help of a fan.

pauly -- those numbers sound promising. My house was built in 1972, perhaps average insulation is a good guess. total its 2400 sqft with cathedral ceilings, so far i can heat one room well :/. Do you have to run a bunch of fans to distribute the air? How long does it take for your top floor to reach steady state temps? When you run your stove is it like blazing? I'm guessing on 2 or 3 it isn't. Also, how many bags per day are you using?

imacman -- 4-4-1 is what i dialed in after one tech told me to change the numbers to see what happens. for me, 4 or 5 for low feed seems like a sweet spot for the flame. I got the stove on 4-3-1 with the same flame, any thing lower seems to make a half height flame. The blower idea seems like a good idea, i too wondered if it was blowing at top speed. I would estimate the air flow output is less than that of a public bathroom hand dryer although the distribution across the several tubes might be skewing the perception. Anyone with streamers and a vid cam? I'm on my 3rd type of pellet, fireside, clearchoice, maines choice (how many "choices" are there?).

btw, Mike H. talked to me over the phone to help diagnose, so I'm trying some things out. I'm posting here for comparison and inspiration

i dont run any fans at all, it takes about 1-2 hour hrs depending on outside temps to see temps rise in the upstairs level after i shut it down for cleaning. well when i ru my stove on 2 the fan never comes on full blast to cool the unti down, but when i run it on 3 the fan goes on max for a couple mintes then back down to the 3 level once the stove is cooled of im guessing. IM using about 1 bag per 18-20 hours on level 2 and on level 3 i go through a bag about 12-15 hrs im guessing... the only 2 bad things this far is again the ash that sits on teh door gasket when i open it to clean it falls to the floor before i get a chance to vacumm it, and the pellets when i dont check the hopper for more than like 10 hours the pellets get stuck on the sides of hopper, but other that those things i think so far this stove is a steal, IM about to do my monthly cleaning today concisiting of taking out the 2 ash traps and cleaning, brushing then wiping the heat exchange tubes clean, taking out the baffle to clean it , vacumm ash, then go outside and get a long pole so after i take off my clean out tee i put the pole up the vertical pipe and move it around to get all the ash out then vacumm the best i can with my vacumm, then at the end of the season in early april i will try the leaf blower trick on my last cleaning of the year.

bogamilsan · Feb 23, 2011

pauly -- thanks for the reply. interesting... The ash on the floor is a nuisance, agreed.

I'm trying to move air out of the 200 sqft room with a fan to get to the other places. I had the stove on all day (at higher settings than you) and it seems like it that room gets to 70, warms up the stair well a little bit, and thats it. I have the blower on full blast always too. I went through about 1.5 bags yesterday. I have the doors shut off to most places in the house to see if i can get a subsection warm to start with. Perhaps all the heat is going out the sliding door in the room. Who knows. I stuck a meat thermometer in the middle heat exchanger tube it read near 180. The exhaust/liner read about 155. Very scientific...

Not sure where to go from here.

imacman · Feb 23, 2011

Keep talking to Mike H.......he is the man when it comes to getting the most out of your Englander.

Now that I know that you were hoping to heat more than just the downstairs, and leave the door to the upstairs open, I can understand your "issue".

Just remember, pellet stoves are considered to be "room heaters", and were never designed to heat a whole house from the basement. That said, there ARE some people who manage to get it done, either with floor vents, fans, doors open, and/or a combo of all of those. But many times it just won't work.

BTW, I'm assuming the downstairs where the stove is is finished & insulated, but houses from the 70's are not known for great insulation. Much of your heat may just be going outdoors. And the cathedral ceilings aren't helping any either. Do you have ceiling fans?

bogamilsan · Feb 23, 2011

The downstairs is 100% finished. I do have a ceiling fan running, and also a fan at the bottom of the door pointing in. I hear you about "some people who manage to get it done" -- like I said, I realize that everyones configuration/house is different. It'd be nice to hear other people not being able to heat their whole home -- misery loves company

Right now I closed the doors to the other rooms to channel the heat and reduce the total sqft so that its basically 1000+. The closed off rooms are a constant 55 downstairs so not much leakage into them. For a 2000 sqft stove, I would think to see more of an effect. So you could be right, the heat may just leaving the house before it gets anywhere else.

SmokeyTheBear · Feb 24, 2011

Well since you are now talking about general heating issues I'll stick my 2 cents (or more in).

There is a site http://www.builditsolar.com/ that has a pretty good heat loss calculator on it I'd suggest gathering up the information needed to fill in the blanks for your house.

Guaranteed it will be an eye opener. Especially when you estimate the number of air exchanges that your house undergoes.

Search

Search

Englander 55-SHPEP performace?

bogamilsan

New Member

pauly2110

Member

imacman

Guest

bogamilsan

New Member

pauly2110

Member

bogamilsan

New Member

imacman

Guest

bogamilsan

New Member

SmokeyTheBear

Minister of Fire

Similar threads