Enviro Mini auger.....

[hoverfly]

This is consistent with trying out four brand of pellets some worse than others though. Any Mini owners have had any issues with pellets not falling into the pot consistently. The auger turns, little or no pellets come down then all of a sudden a large amount falls in and get a big flare up on all heat settings. This makes it difficult in adjusting the air, also on low settings the fire will go out or takes it time to relight, smolders before catching on fire on low settings. I have played with the timer for the auger, but the pot has a tendency to over flow after a while on the higher 4 second setting. Maybe if the pellets fell out more consistently it would not be so much an issue. Ideas any one?

 

[Pat Shuff]

Our Mini experience is the same as yours, 4th heating season and about 10 tons run through it. Frequent smoldering before reigniting
or extinguishing. Auger trim is set at factory midpoint (2sec), manual controls (no thermostat.) In a small home on the mild OR coast it
is only on some hours of some months so its flawed performance isn't terribly irritating. It also fails to initially ignite occasionally despite good
quality pellets (Goldenfire.) These problems only occur on the lowest heat setting which is where ours runs 90% of the time. I find a thorough
cleaning after each ton helps and improves heat output despite the manual saying after 3 tons, especially the cleanouts in the ash pan area, I find
them packed solid with fly ash long before build-up behind the firebox panels. We also use the leaf blower trick learned from this forum, after a thorough
vacuuming it still sucks out clouds of soot. We've also had a terrible binding noise from the auger several times, lasting about as long as it takes a bit of
pellet caught between the auger screw and its tube wall to make its way through, apparently no harm done. I've come to notice a smoldering, smoky exhaust
out the window or dark stove glass and squirt some starter gel and toss in a match which reignites it before extinguishing if the burnpot hasn't nearly filled to
overflowing. All in all we like the thing, it's right sized and cheaply efficient for our needs or maybe just don't know any better, no experience with an alternate
pellet stove that has no deficiencies. It's certainly light-years beyond the finicky Whitfield Advantage insert we had twenty years ago, particularly the evenly controlled output.

I never adjust the damper, its about two finger widths open, when the flame gets lazy a cleaning restores a hot, bright flame.

The squirrel cage convection fan developed a constant annoying rattle last season. Taking off the side panels to check for bent fins
and careful, thorough cleaning of accumulated debris didn't seem to help much. Now this year its quiet again, well, as quiet as new.

I figure the small auger, tiny burnpot result in these lowest heat setting issues which engineering left unaddressed and just live with it. It's our prime heat source but only
occasional use because of mild climate. In a bigger house in a colder climate requiring 24/7 heat for months and constant feeding we'd be much less satisfied.

In summary, it goes out about a once a week, usually running 4-6 hours a day during heating season except during cold snaps when it is on a higher setting for longer hours.

 

[hoverfly]

I figured since I live in a small Mobile home I will be using the lower setting most of the time, but it's not the best insulated so I am thiking as the weather get colder here in New Hampshire I will be at a higher setting most of the time.

Right now I am burning Okanagan pellets and the average pellet length is much shorter than others I have tried in the last two weeks. The auger feed is much better on the low heat settings, so much better I had to reduce the feed time from 3 sec to 2 sec do to the pot over filled last night and opened the air up a little bit more. The other pellet brands I have tried all ready, Dragon fire, feed ok, ok ash level, lights up fast burns clean. NWEP undecided but not impressed ok on ash, takes a bit to light up, so so on feed. Maine Wood Pellet Co, the worst of the bunch is out the door lots of ash, lots of air and dirty burn, poor feed. One other I forgot the name but had the lowest ash content so far, feed ok, burned clean, put out lots of heat, but not as good as the Okanagan on feeding. The last bag I have are the Rocky Mountains and the average pellet size similar to the Okanagans as far as I can tell right now.