"Altered Pellet Stove"

Nope not me! Mine is 100% stock. Shhh!

Lots of things have been changed or talked about do a search on turbulators, hot water, or duct work, etc using the advanced search and just in this forum.

Only mods on my unit are from the factory, so far.

Everything stock on my end of things! And I plan on keeping it that way. In my opinion, Altering / modifying the pellet stove is definately a can of worms you do not want to open. You would run the risk of breaking the machine beyond repair, voiding your warranty, and if a dealer saw something like that they would most likely refuse to touch it. Keep it stock my friend.

Thinking of adding a beer making device that turns the ash into a nice cold one. Just a thought.

Eric

Nice! The dealers would be lineing up at the door to work on that stove!!

Forget about voiding the warranty on the stove. How about voiding your homeowners insurance?

It would be nice id somebody came up with an idea for hot water tank

They kinda already did. Harman offers 2 different pellet boilers. The Hydroflex 60 which is the small version, and the PB105. The PB105 is made to do radiant hot water and can also be used for domestic hot water with the optional water coil.

Hello

I did try one modification to the air plenum that brings in the fresh air to the burn pot with the OAK inside at the bottom of the pellet stove. There is a approx 1" square hole on the left side of the air plenum to bring in inside heated air. (Heated by the warmth of the pellet stove) I blocked this hole with aluminum and the house felt warmer and the pellets stove warmed up the house quicker when started. However in the shoulder seasons the full amount of cool damp air coming in from the OAK caused more caked ash in the burnpot so I removed the aluminum cover.

Also I did install 2 floor registers in the 1st floor of the split to bring up heated air directly from the heat exchanger's hot air tubes with 6" ductwork and a vent fan inside the ductwork connected to a speed control and Honeywell SPDT Line voltage thermostat's cooling contacts so when the air above the stove rises to above 74 degrees the fan turns on a pulls 120 degrees of heated air with the stove on feed rate 2 and 150 degrees of heated air with the stove on Feed Rate 3 into both the Kitchen and Living Room! P.S ductwork does not void any warranties!

kinsman stoves said:

Thinking of adding a beer making device that turns the ash into a nice cold one. Just a thought.

Eric

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Eric, I think you need to contact Pook to get that idea going. ;-P

For an unfinished basement stove, things can be done to extract more heat from the exhaust venting, such as small fans blowing against the hot metal, and or...using heavy old cast iron sewer pipe for the vent pipe, with added lengths of metal water pipes inside. Boy does it ever soak-up the heat and keep it from going out the vent to the outside.

arnash said:

For an unfinished basement stove, things can be done to extract more heat from the exhaust venting, such as small fans blowing against the hot metal, and or...using heavy old cast iron sewer pipe for the vent pipe, with added lengths of metal water pipes inside. Boy does it ever soak-up the heat and keep it from going out the vent to the outside.

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Nice!

The amount of heat these stoves waste is unacceptable.

I always measure the success of the burn by how well my home is heated. I know it seems wasteful to have heat go out the exhaust, but without that heated draft, the by products of the combustion will accumulate and obstruct the air flow to the point that the stove may not function. The manufacturer's of these stoves are very specific about what type of venting material and circumstances for installation are needed for proper functioning. I'm all for innovation. Until someone can come up with a way to clean the exhaust air, the best way to maintain your stove and heat your home is not to obstruct it.

There is a reason that you need heat in the exhaust. If the temp drop below 200 degrees it will condensate causing creosote to form. It is not wasting heat it HAS to be there and they do consider people going over the EVL of their system. The temp needs to be up there.

Eric

pelletizer said:

I know it goes against warranty and product safety and I do not recommend it but all that aside has anyone altered, modified, experimented with set ups, burn pots, fuels, venting, extracting extra heat, adding a hot water coil, etc etc on a pellet stove?

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I've heard of all of the4 above being done, including removing part of the top of the stove so a fella could cook eggs on the heat exchanger.

arnash said:

For an unfinished basement stove, things can be done to extract more heat from the exhaust venting, such as small fans blowing against the hot metal, and or...using heavy old cast iron sewer pipe for the vent pipe, with added lengths of metal water pipes inside. Boy does it ever soak-up the heat and keep it from going out the vent to the outside.

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This looks like the makings of a still. lol

kinsman stoves said:

There is a reason that you need heat in the exhaust. If the temp drop below 200 degrees it will condensate causing creosote to form. It is not wasting heat it HAS to be there and they do consider people going over the EVL of their system. The temp needs to be up there.

Eric

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Very true, even a oil fired furnace needs high vent temperatures. If not, it's called a sick flue, water running out the clean out.

j-takeman said:

Nope not me! Mine is 100% stock. Shhh!

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Ya right, yours is about as stock as mine, souped up.

Other than painting the firebrick in my Advance, both my stoves are "stock".

slls said:

j-takeman said:

Nope not me! Mine is 100% stock. Shhh!

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Ya right, yours is about as stock as mine, souped up.

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What mods have you done to the 1200? I seen some of J-takeman's. Always looking to Tinker with mine. PM me if you don't wanna post it. Inquiring minds want to know. At least me anyways. My stove is an 08 also. Not that it matters. I did some "minor" work to mine. Nothing Major.

The one mod on my Castile I have considered (but not attempted) would be to modify the heat settings switch to give another option so that when the thermostat stops calling for heat could either have the stove shut off (default) or drop back to low. In the colder winter times I run the stove on med or high and would prefer to cycle down to low rather than to off....I know there are other stoves out there that can do this!!

peirhead said:

The one mod on my Castile I have considered (but not attempted) would be to modify the heat settings switch to give another option so that when the thermostat stops calling for heat could either have the stove shut off (default) or drop back to low. In the colder winter times I run the stove on med or high and would prefer to cycle down to low rather than to off....I know there are other stoves out there that can do this!!

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X2 I really want that feature. I have a digital control board so Travis Ind could program it in and make an updated board. How do we get them to do it??

Hello peirhead

Well I just sent this email off to Travis now it is your turn to send one off to Castile!

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: [email protected]
To: "Sean Hanley" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 4:32:56 PM
Subject: Updated Travis Ind Digital Pellet stove control board with Hi/Lo feature for Thermostat??

He Sean

When is Travis going to update their digital control board for Avalon and Lopi Pellet Stove to add a Hi/Lo feature in addition to the Auto/On off.

Experts on http:/www.hearth.com say the Auto/On-Off feature is good for fall and spring but Hi/Lo is really needed for the Cold Winter Months.

Please let me know what your Engineers think.