enviro meridian temps down

[corkman]

hi all.i'm a little baffled here.i started out the season using premier hardwood from tsc,good heat and medium ash.i 've burned about 60 bags so far and just cleaned the stove last week after the 1st ton.i have taken the brick panels out probably 5 times already this year,so trust me when i tell ya,the stove is clean,stack was disconnected and brushed,exhaust blower removed and cleaned,3ft horizontal from stove to outside T brushed and cleaned,and all interior of stove was clean as a whistle.stove burned real well up to this cleaning.

on starting the stove up after doing all of the above i started feeding her some okies and got a temp avg of 238.(i took the temp from all 14 tubes ,add them up and divided by 14).heating house easily.
ever since then the temp is way down.i took avg temps again tonight and its only 220 avg.
the only thing that was not removed and cleaned was the convection blower because i could see the blower from the other side of the stove and it looked good.
i had removed the rubber hose connected to the vac switch while removing the exhaust blower.when i put it all back togrther,i mistakenly connected the tube to the lower port on the vac switch instead of the top port.i only realised this after i startd the stove and got a flasging #2 light.i waited for stove to shut off and then moved the tube up to the top port.

this is the 1st season with the stove,bought new and self installed

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You didn't by any chance switch the convection blower into high speed did you?

That would lower your temps out the front.

Any chance you didn't get things properly seated in the exhaust system when you closed it up?

If the stove has a damper did you by any chance hit it causing it to pull more air in and up the flue?

How is the burn itself?

 

[jtakeman]

Does this board have the trim adjustments on the combustion blower? When you hit the 2 light and held the start button in to reset the board. You also reset the trim settings to factory default. Even if you un plug the board they will default to the same factory defaults. Sounds like the damper is now open to far.

I always suggest to set the stoves damper on the factory default settings. Specially if you don't tune with a magnahelic gauge. So instead of trimming the combustion blower, Use the damper to adjust the draft. This way if you do power down. You don't get a over draft condition. If you do set the damper to a trimmed setting. Make sure you note it. So you can reset after power down or error states.

 

[corkman]

exhaust went back in without a hitch and the damper is in exact same location.i did mistakenly push the fan button which shut the fan off so i pushed it once more to restart

 

[corkman]

no combustion trim on the board.just auger trim

 

[jtakeman]

The flame looks good and not to brisk?

It could also be some variance in pellet size. When you dumped the bag in there could have been some smaller pellets that hit the bottom of the hopper, Once you got rolling the middle of the bag may have some longer pellets. This well effect the fuel charge and less heat out the vent. I am sure there are other scenario's that might cause this!

 

[corkman]

i think i got it squared away.had to leave the house tonight for a while to go pick the little screechers up at church.i had left the left side door open as i was watching the exhaust motor running.i noticed there is some play in the manual draft rod.i can wiggle it some from front to back.when i pushed it towards the back of the stove the flame changed slightly and after a while the temps started to come up.if i pushed it forward towards the front of the stove the flame would change again and if i leave it there the temps would drop.i think i have it going good now .side door is still ajar so i'll try to get a better look at the damper tomorrow.when the left side door is screwed in place with the draft knob protruding,. the door panel is putting pressure on the draft rod.i may have to make that hole a little bigger.will let you guys know if this is the issue

 

[corkman]

still no improvement here on stove temps.after spending so much time on this for the past couple weeks and double checking everything, i had just about resided to calling someone in to look at the stove.i have gone to check out some stoves and the flame charachteristics seem so different to mine.this being a new stove i never would have imagined ther would be an issue with the door gasket but that does appear to be the case.felt a slight warm breeze by the door latch last night before hitting the sack at 11 bells.well now my curiousity was peaked so i out came the dollar bill to do the test on the door seal.i seem to have a leak on the hinge side and the latch sides of the door.i was able to pull the dollar bill out without ripping it.i pushed in on the door on the latch side and i can hear the vacuum change in the stove and the flame is more vigorous.

does anyone know what size gasket goes on the door of the enviro meridian

 

[jtakeman]

corkman,

If the dollar bill slips out easily with the door latched tight. Then its time for new seals. Here is a neat vid on changing the door seals. Dave makes it look to easy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_YykBbOTDg&feature=player_embedded

 

[corkman]

.a quick update.after replacing the door gasket unfortunately their is no improvement with the stove temps.
cleaned it from top to bottom again this past weekend.disconnected all pipe and cleaned,removed both blowers and cleaned,cleaned blower cavity from back of stove and put all back together.
front of stove,burn pot + liner,heat tubes,removed brick backing and cleaned everything back there.

cant seem to get a vigorous flame without realy opening the damper way up which is letting all the heat out of the stove.when i push it in i get the tall lazy.
flame appears to be drawn back towards the drop shoot and pulled hard to the left and ash build up is also favoring that side.
all the pellets i have used since this started have been softwood.Okies ran at 266 for a max temp and now i cant get above 235 and that is with the damper pushed way in and also leaving me with a clinker and a dirty stove.dragon mountain 225,vermonts 220 and lg's a whopping 195.this is on heat setting #3 out of 5.

i want to test both blowers to see if they are working to the max and could use everyones help on that.on this stove,the heat level that you select controls the convection blower and the exhaust blower along with the pellet feed so if i am in heat level 3 and want to go to #4 the blowers increase accordingly.ther is an auger trim but that only affects the low burn feed rate.convection and blower settings cannot be adjusted manually.
for fellow meridian owners,does anyone have a hopper gasket on their stove,cause mine doesn't and was wondering if that could cause the fire to be drawn back towards the drop shoot.

i didn't change the exhaust gasket as it was in good shape.i would realy be surprised if that is the cause of the drop in heat output but if i can get my hands on one soon i will change it out.
thanks to all and would realt appreciate the help.

 

[flynfrfun]

Didn't you say you switched pellet brands in your original post? If so, then that could be the reason.

 

[corkman]

i was using the premiers which are a shoulder pellet.cleaned the stove from head to toe and then fed the stove some Okies.burned great and was getting temps of 260-266.i am still burning okies and only getting temps of 230.
i have tried a bunch of different pellets to see if anything might burn better but no improvement.

 

[imacman]

Corkman, I may be missing something here, but didn't i see you say this above: "this being a new stove i never would have imagined ther would be an issue with the door gasket".

If this a new stove, why aren't you having the dealer come find out what's wrong?

On a side note, since you DID replace the door gasket, did you do the dollar bill test again on the new one? And the dollar doesn't have to rip....it just has to have a good amount of resistance to being pulled out.

 

[imacman]

Also, since you have an exterior T on the piping, have you considered using a leaf blower to really get all the ash out of the stove?

 

[corkman]

leaf blower is the plan for this weekend.
dollar bill test is good and when i bought the stove the stove shop were going out of businness so i new i would be on my own with this stuff.
have Scott Williamson lined up to come check it out for me soon unless i get it squared away in the meantime.
my gues is a leak somewhere because on the heat settings of 1,2 or 3 i dont seem to have enough air passing thru the burnpot.on setting 4 it doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

[corkman]

its been over a month now and no improvement on the stove.did the leaf blower twice since my last post and everything is still the same.also replaced the combustion blower gasket
i'm getting a lot of ash build up in the pot and can go 2 days max before i have to shut her down to get ash out of the pot.thats 4 bags and probably 1" of ash in the pot.glass is ashed up pretty good too.
the hardwoods seem to do better than the soft.the okies i have to clean out after 2 bags.
with these lower temps weve been seeing for the past month the stove just couldnt heat the house.i had her running on heat level 4 and avg temp was only 255-260.more pellets=lot more ash in the pot.

how do i clean the vac switch without damaging it.never done this before.
how do i test my combustion blower to make sure its running up to par.i just picked up a multimeter but have no idea what to do.

something that has always bothered me about this stove.on the hinged side of the door i can feel a warm breeze.held a tissue there and yes it does blow the tissue away from the stove.this is why i replaced the gasket on the door.but it is still the same way.any thoughts on that.

i'm sooooooo frustrated with this thing.thanks again guys.Rodney

 

[brrgrr]

We are both having the same issues, lots of ash buildup and I think a weak flame. I'm convinced the airflow is the problem, however I am puzzled as to how the stove maintains a vacuum when the pellets have to come through an opening and obviously air enters there as well.
Aside from gaskets on the blowers, door gaskets, where else should one look for air leaks that would reduce the air flow over the burn pot? Can someone list every area to check, as I've cleaned this thing every which way but loose and still get buildup after 1/2 bag. Tried different pellets and the same issue, so my focus is on the airflow intensity.
All suggestions welcome...
I'm assuming the combustion fan is still working at the same level as it should...is there a way to check if it might have lost some performance?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

We are both having the same issues, lots of ash buildup and I think a weak flame. I'm convinced the airflow is the problem, however I am puzzled as to how the stove maintains a vacuum when the pellets have to come through an opening and obviously air enters there as well.
Aside from gaskets on the blowers, door gaskets, where else should one look for air leaks that would reduce the air flow over the burn pot? Can someone list every area to check, as I've cleaned this thing every which way but loose and still get buildup after 1/2 bag. Tried different pellets and the same issue, so my focus is on the airflow intensity.
All suggestions welcome...
I'm assuming the combustion fan is still working at the same level as it should...is there a way to check if it might have lost some performance?

A hint, it doesn't maintain a vacuum just a pressure differential, and that differential is a very small one .

The air that makes it through the burn pot is the only air that counts in terms of the burn, however since the air that is pulled through the entire system is controlled by the combustion fan, if there are other paths (such as through the hopper and burn chute) for air to enter the amount of air through the burn pot will go down as the other sources of air increase (such as what happens if the volume of pellets in the hopper decrease).

 

[brrgrr]

Is there some way to determine if the combustion fan is pulling the required amount or air ? I assume I have a leak somewhere, or the fan is not moving the volume of air i is designed to do.
Would there be a voltage that it should draw that might indicate it is working as designed?
This stove was purchased used 3 years ago, and worked well up until this winter, so it must be an air flow issue, but damned if I can figure it out.
Thanks,

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Is there some way to determine if the combustion fan is pulling the required amount or air ? I assume I have a leak somewhere, or the fan is not moving the volume of air i is designed to do.
Would there be a voltage that it should draw that might indicate it is working as designed?
This stove was purchased used 3 years ago, and worked well up until this winter, so it must be an air flow issue, but damned if I can figure it out.
Thanks,

How did you go about cleaning your stove?

If you have access to a service manual for the stove there should be information about setting up the draft, any fine tuning knobs on the stove, and what should be what for various controller outputs going to the blowers.

Something as simple as the holes in your burn pot not being to original size, ash stuck between the impeller of the combustion fan and its mounting plate, or ash in the ash traps can have a negative impact on your burn.

Bad gaskets also produce the same effects.

 

[corkman]

thought i would update you all on the problem i was having with my meridian.after 2 months of frustration with a bad burn that i just could not figure out all seems to be good now.
after a few conversations with scott williamson he pointed me in the direction of Russo products who are a main distributor in the area.
after numerous conversations with them,they offered to take my stove to their warehouse and test the stove for themselves.
a week later they see no problem with the stove so i head over to pick it up.stove is running when i get there with an awsome flame and kicking heat like i never saw before.
turns out that while waiting for me to arrive the guy was playing with the stove and noticed the ash bin looked warped slightly.he tried to straighten it but that had no effect on burn.
so he added a second gasket to the ash bin itself which now buts up against the gasket that was already on the stove and he said it totally changed the burn.
now i'm grinning from ear to ear,load her up and take her home.its been up and running over 2 weeks now and all seems well.

things ive noticed since hooking the stove back up.they reported all diognostics on the stove checked out fine.however there is a new control board in my stove.also a couple of the gaskets were replaced.
none of this was done under a warranty claim so as mentioned above,corkman is a happy camper again and thank you all for bearing with me thru this.

 

[smwilliamson]

Hey...alright! Yeah, the day I was down there and saw you...you must have been just dropping the stove off. Glad to hear it worked out and that Russo took care of you. They are good people as they have helped me out a bunch.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Cork,

See....I knew it was a simple fix!

Damn......

Actually after looking at your stove and it's burn I would never have suspected any problem with the ash pan gasket.

Thanks for letting us know. I learn more each day.

Glad you got 'er running.

Just in time for BBQ season

---Nailer---