CD 1200, Big flame, low feed rate. and starting issue.

[dweston]

Greetings all, long time lurker, decided to join after days of searching and reading.

Purchased a classic Bay 1200 last fall, installed it and it worked great. This year I've cleaned it all out (in august) done all the maintenance stuff to do, clean the blowers, ect....

Here's my issue, I'm using a new brand of pellets for this stove. (golden fire) I've used this brand in an older englander stove and not had an issue. This year, for some weird reason, I can't get the flame to balance out. I've adjusted my feed rate (turned it down because the flame is to tall) but it is so low, that the unit has issues starting. If I turn the feed up a 1/4 inch, it will start just fine. Trouble is, then my flame is to big, with the stove on medium settings the flame dances to the top, kind of a lazy-ish flame. It will burn down low, but then it shoots back up with the majority of the time the flame reaching the full heighth of the stove. I'm wondering if I missed something when I did my yearly cleaning. One thing I know I did not do, was to remove the fire pot, I just looked in it really well and brushed it out in place. (is it possible not pulling it out to clean it would cause this?) I had started to remove it to clean it out, but can't remember why I didn't now. Is it possilbe I disturbed a gasket?

What I did for my yearly cleaning was cleaned the exhaust, the air intake, the ash collector, the fans, exchanger tubes.

after countless hours of reading up, i'm not sure what to look for, I've gone around and made sure all the latches are secure and tight, even tightened them a little bit to make sure I wasn't getting any air leaks. I even have the tech service manual and i'm not finding ideas in it.

The stove also seems like it's not putting out as much heat as last year. Ideas?

Thanks.
dave

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

pm me your email adress, i'll forward you a copy of the factory svc book

 

[peirhead]

Is it just me or do we have at least 3 threads going with CB1200s that all appear to have the same problems after a cleaning.....is there a likely common solution? could dirt in the vacuum line cause intermittant problems like these? we seem to be all out of ideas!

 

[jtakeman]

Is it just me or do we have at least 3 threads going with CB1200s that all appear to have the same problems after a cleaning.....is there a likely common solution? could dirt in the vacuum line cause intermittant problems like these? we seem to be all out of ideas!

Well, #1 turned out to be pellet related and was adjusted with increasing the control to the 10 more setting. #2 didn't have the setting adjustment on the control and is using the same exact pellet as #1.

To the OP, I have found the fuel gate adjustment pretty sensitive if the pellets are short lengthed. I had to move the gate in 1/16 increments. 1/4 inch was rather large if the pellets were small. Your stove might be on the 10% over setting. Could you check the setting for us?

 

[dweston]

First I want to thank everyone for the quick replies!

I feel kind of dumb, but I got it fixed. I figured the first step for me was to go back through my cleaning process to see if it was something I missed. Sure enough, I pulled off the front plate to see under the firepot area, and there was my problem, While I didn’t recognize it, but at the time, when I cleaned my firepot, I removed the screws that hold it in place, but then decided against removing it to clean it. So I just returned the screws and didn’t give it anymore thought.

What I did when I moved the firepot, was move the front firepot cleanout arm from the lower cleanout plate. This plate was then stuck in the open position. Giving me a weird burn. After taking some time and connecting that back together, and then cleaning the stove thoroughly, yet again, it is currently running beautifully again.
Hopefully my stupid mistake will save someone some time.

Now, however I need a new firepot gasket, anyone know where I can pick one up? I was able to get the old one to seal and work well for the time being, but it is in bad shape and needs to be replaced.

Thanks again for all the quick replies.

Dave